One Keyword Rank Inexplicably Blasted Into Oblivion
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Here's an update. These serps are 1 or two days apart: 11 75 63 33 So, it may have swung around past the dark side of the Moon and be on a trajectory to re-enter Earth's orbit.
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Yay! Let's hope it keeps going!
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That would seem like the thought process... but dropping it from 11 to 13 would still give them a comparison. But hey, we are playing in their sandbox so they make the rules.
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I've heard some compare this scenario as the pendulum swing. You give it a little push in one direction and it will push back the other a bit. The bigger the swing back the bigger the jump forward. Like a pendulum the point is to find the balanced center.
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I'm loving the optimism! I'll continue to post rank, in case anybody's interested in the experiment results.
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So here's the update I promised. The rank continues to jump around like crazy. I think it's been on every one of the first 10 pages in the last two weeks. This morning it was at page 1, #3. At this moment it's nowhere to be found! Isn't that strange? Best....Michael
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Okay based on that pattern, I've seen similar volatility with some phrases but not others for a client in a highly competitive market, with the volatility lasting years. From what I have been able to ascertain, in this case it was due to the fierce nature of competitive activity for those phrases - literally where X number of competitors have been fighting it out. In that time-span we've bounced back to the top a number of times, only to have those phrases drop again, then rebound.
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Thanks Alan,
Hey, just got done reading your excellent piece on SEO audits.A super interesting point in that piece about link ratios.
I get what you're saying about competition. Using SEOMoz's handy difficulty tool, this phrase is a 38% difficulty. It doesn't seem like it should be this hard. If you want, drop me an email and I'll share some other details with you. Thanks! Best...Michael
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If I had the time, I'd like to learn more specifics. Unfortunately I struggle to eek out enough time to just participate here in the Q&A system as it is...
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I understand. This thing is more strange than mission critical. Best...Michael
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Yes... It's not just what you are doing but what your competitors are doing. It's an on going war out there. Bunker down boys.
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'Google Shuffle' Give it a couple of weeks and it should come back. Check the usual culprits (Dupe Content) and go over all the changes implimented before it occured.
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Hi,
Thanks for the message. Good points.
At this juncture on this term (thankfully not all keywords), it doesn't even seem like Google has a system. It can be #5 or #75 or #23... whatever.
Like, if this was a piece of equipment, like radar in a plane, one minute it shows no planes and an available runway and the next minute lotsa planes and no airport. If it were a piece of equipment, you'd chuck it! Helluva way to run an airline!
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Steve,
Give me an example and I will be happily accepting what you say here. That never happens. Even in most of the polluted niches like Web Design or online pills, backlink anchor text semantics seem to be working pretty fine. There are so many factors at play that it is easy to confuse it with semnatics of anchor text, but really doesn't works that way.
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Did you check if the same page ranks at 11 and 73 or 75? I want to bring forth the classical page vs site discussion and it is not clear if it is an internal page that showing at the lower positions or is it the same page (home page may be).
If the home page was ranking and it has dropped, try and do a site search on Google with that keyword and link from the 2nd most important page to the home page using the same anchor. Of course, if some other page is ranking, this won't be a ranking penalty but some other thing at play which has to do with your webpage.
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I can give you tonnes of examples, I have some affiliate sites I test things with, and we've taken over client sites who had previously had that kind of SEO... It definitely works that way.
Also, we've made the mistake on our own clients.
Buy the new Link Love Videos from Distilled and you'll see that Wil Reynolds goes over it being an issue in his "Pitfalls and Mistakes" video: http://www.distilled.net/store/linklove2011-pitfalls/
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Hi,
I only check the highest instance of it. Today, it was at #17, which is where it's been for a while.
To answer your question, it's an interior page, not the home page.
Thanks!
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I'm guessing your domain name was new. It took from November until May for this new website to settle down in 1st. Very common for new websites, in fact it's almost inevitable and can last from 1 week to 6 months:
Check Date Rank URL Found
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Jun 9, 2011
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1
May 20, 2011
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1
May 18, 2011
|
1
May 17, 2011
|
1
May 13, 2011
|
1
May 12, 2011
|
1
May 11, 2011
|
1
May 10, 2011
|
1
May 9, 2011
|
1
May 4, 2011
|
Not in top 100
May 3, 2011
|
Not in top 100
Apr 28, 2011
|
Not in top 100
Apr 20, 2011
|
Not in top 100
Apr 19, 2011
|
Not in top 100
Apr 18, 2011
|
Not in top 100
Apr 15, 2011
|
Not in top 100
Apr 14, 2011
|
Not in top 100
Apr 13, 2011
|
Not in top 100
Apr 12, 2011
|
Not in top 100
Apr 11, 2011
|
Not in top 100
Apr 8, 2011
|
Not in top 100
Apr 7, 2011
|
Not in top 100
Apr 6, 2011
|
Not in top 100
Apr 5, 2011
|
Not in top 100
Apr 4, 2011
|
Not in top 100
Apr 2, 2011
|
Not in top 100
Apr 1, 2011
|
Not in top 100
Mar 31, 2011
|
Not in top 100
Mar 30, 2011
|
Not in top 100
Mar 29, 2011
|
1
Mar 28, 2011
|
1
Mar 27, 2011
|
2
Mar 26, 2011
|
2
Mar 25, 2011
|
Not in top 100
Mar 24, 2011
|
Not in top 100
Mar 23, 2011
|
Not in top 100
Mar 22, 2011
|
Not in top 100
Mar 21, 2011
|
Not in top 100
Mar 18, 2011
|
1
Mar 16, 2011
|
Not in top 100
Mar 15, 2011
|
Not in top 100
Mar 14, 2011
|
Not in top 100
Mar 11, 2011
|
Not in top 100
Mar 9, 2011
|
Not in top 100
Mar 8, 2011
|
Not in top 100
Mar 7, 2011
|
Not in top 100
Mar 4, 2011
|
Not in top 100
Mar 2, 2011
|
Not in top 100
Mar 1, 2011
|
Not in top 100
Feb 28, 2011
|
Not in top 100
Feb 27, 2011
|
Not in top 100
Feb 25, 2011
|
Not in top 100
Feb 24, 2011
|
Not in top 100
Feb 23, 2011
|
Not in top 100
Feb 22, 2011
|
Not in top 100
Feb 21, 2011
|
Not in top 100
Feb 18, 2011
|
95
Feb 17, 2011
|
Not in top 100
Feb 16, 2011
|
89
Feb 15, 2011
|
94
Feb 14, 2011
|
94
Feb 11, 2011
|
Not in top 100
Feb 10, 2011
|
Not in top 100
Feb 9, 2011
|
90
Feb 8, 2011
|
82
Feb 7, 2011
|
Not in top 100
Feb 4, 2011
|
Not in top 100
Feb 3, 2011
|
Not in top 100
Feb 2, 2011
|
99
Jan 31, 2011
|
Not in top 100
Jan 30, 2011
|
Not in top 100
Jan 27, 2011
|
Not in top 100
Jan 26, 2011
|
Not in top 100
Jan 25, 2011
|
98
Jan 24, 2011
|
94
Jan 22, 2011
|
Not in top 100
Jan 21, 2011
|
97
Jan 20, 2011
|
Not in top 100
Jan 19, 2011
|
Not in top 100
Jan 18, 2011
|
Not in top 100
Jan 17, 2011
|
Not in top 100
Jan 14, 2011
|
11
Jan 13, 2011
|
12
Jan 12, 2011
|
11
Jan 11, 2011
|
11
Jan 10, 2011
|
11
Jan 9, 2011
|
12
Jan 7, 2011
|
9
Jan 6, 2011
|
9
Jan 5, 2011
|
9
Jan 4, 2011
|
9
Jan 3, 2011
|
9
Jan 2, 2011
|
10
Dec 31, 2010
|
11
Dec 30, 2010
|
10
Dec 29, 2010
|
1
Dec 28, 2010
|
1
Dec 27, 2010
|
1
Dec 26, 2010
|
Not in top 100
Dec 24, 2010
|
Not in top 100
Dec 23, 2010
|
Not in top 100
Dec 22, 2010
|
Not in top 100
Dec 21, 2010
|
Not in top 100
Dec 20, 2010
|
Not in top 100
Dec 19, 2010
|
Not in top 100
Dec 18, 2010
|
Not in top 100
Dec 17, 2010
|
Not in top 100
Dec 16, 2010
|
Not in top 100
Dec 15, 2010
|
Not in top 100
Dec 14, 2010
|
Not in top 100
Dec 13, 2010
|
Not in top 100
Dec 11, 2010
|
Not in top 100
Dec 10, 2010
|
Not in top 100
Dec 6, 2010
|
1
Nov 29, 2010
|
2
Nov 26, 2010
|
2
Nov 25, 2010
|
Not in top 100
Nov 23, 2010
|
Not in top 100
Nov 16, 2010
|
Not in top 100
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(Apologies for the length! It didn't look this big in the editor!)
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Yes, time counts. The site is six years old. The page is a few months.
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