Very Erratic Ranking

[fraserhannah]

Over the last month our ranking for "Web Design in Cumbria" has fluctuated from position 2 to position 10 a couple of times a week on Google UK.It tends to go to position 10 on a Friday but bounces back to position 2 on the Saturday. Then it goes back to 10 on Monday / Tuesday then back to 2 the next day.

Does anyone have any idea why, cause it is confusing the hell out of us?

Thanks

Fraser

[PeterAlexLeigh]

Fraser, how old is the site and has it undergone any change recently?

There are many reasons a site fluctuates in google. Sometimes is just because it's new and takes a while to settle in the rankings or sometimes there's another reason.

Do you mind sharing the site URL?

[fraserhannah]

Hi,

The website is about 18 months old, and we have been moving up the rankings steadily for a number of terms. The last major change to the website was around 7 months ago. This is the only term that acts in this way.

The URL is www.wombatwebdesign.com

Thanks

Fraser

[magicrob]

I currently see you at position 2.

How are you checking your rankings?

Do other sites on the page change positions often?

[fraserhannah]

WE bounce between that and 8/10. I use rank tracker to keep tabs on it. We appear to be the only ones that move around in this way. Please see the attached image, it has some but not all of the changes.

hOhz3.jpg

[magicrob]

The difference between positions 2 and 8 appear to be combined Organic/Google Places results. Perhaps for stability you should work on your Google Places listing. Google will combine the organic and places results if they see good optimisation of both.

There's a good article on that here - http://www.seomoz.org/blog/how-to-research-local-citations-after-google-removed-them-from-places