Volatile SERPS?
-
I have a new client whose rank is jumping around a lot. I took over the account 7 weeks ago, but they'd been doing SEO with a decent provider. They switched to me because they thought he wasn't working very hard and he's not very nice.
I just took them on in December and they started out at #18. On Dec 24 they were at 9, Jan 1 at 12, Jan 2 at 14, Jan 3 at 24, Jan 12 at 19, Jan 15 at 28, Jan 16 at 25, Jan 19 at 28 and today at 24.
Some of the really bad black hattish providers have bounced up to the top. Any idea what's going on?
-
It's important to consider that competitors may frequently make changes that impact rankings. Even if the site you're managing has been optimized and remains unchanged, competitors may be implementing various strategies behind the scenes that can affect its ranking position.
-
If the serps are volatile, it's often because of a significant Google algorithm update.
Also, check if your business has incurred a Google manual penalty or not. An SEO agency can check this for you.
-
We're tracking 5 phrases. Two have improved and two are static, but this free-falling one is our most important.
They are very deficient in backlinks. The competition started years ago, and even the previous SEO guy, according to ahrefs, got only 36 links in a whole year. We can't beat the competition on total links, but I can beat them on higher quality. I'm a part of the local blogging community and have done a ton of work with local non-profits.
Even so, it seems more volatile than it should. A competitor jumped 8 positions whose top link is from a parked domain page advertising porn sites. Not a single quality link according to ahrefs.
Then I saw this thread in webmaster world talking about some glitchiness and wondered if anyone else had seen it. https://www.webmasterworld.com/google/4880306.htm
-
Also keep in mind the competition may be changing things frequently. Even if the site you're managing has been optimized and it's just sitting there without additional changes, competitors may be doing all sorts of things in the background, affecting rank.
-
are you tracking one keyword?
if it's a competitive niche, then SERP fluctuations behind the first page are not uncommon.
tbh it looks more like the website is losing positions rather than jumping around.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Determining if video is a option for SERP Results?
Hi Guys, Looking to potentially create youtube videos and rank them on Google Australia for keywords around cosmetic brands. For example ASAP or Napoleon Perdis If you look at the top 10 SERP results example: https://d.pr/i/Tbkb5m for ASAP. There are no videos ranking which I think is strange or a very good opportunity. How would you determine if Google would rank a video on SERP results if there is none already? Cheers.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | kayl870 -
Now that Google will be indexing Twitter, are Twitter backlinks likely to effect website rank in the SERPs?
About a year (or 2) ago, Matt Cutts said that Twitter and FB have no effect on website rank, in part because Google can't get to the content. Now that Google will be indexing Twitter (again), do we expect that links in twitter posts will be useful backlinks for improving SERP rank?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Thriveworks-Counseling1 -
Local Showroom Tel Showing Up in SERP for Branded Term Search?
We encountered an issue: when user search for a branded term in UK on Google UK, one of the showroom got listed in SERP under site links as a location with Location icon and takes over a few lines - their address and phone number are displayed. This caused confusion for user as it's only one of our showrooms and we don't want to direct calls to the showroom this way. I'm suspecting somehow the localization factor came into play but not sure how to remove the showroom phone number from being displayed. Anyone has any insight/experience with this? Thanks
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | b.digi0 -
Improve change my Meta Description shows in SERP
I feel my meta descriptions are descriptive and fairly represent the info on each page of my site. However, Google frequently includes this "20+ items" in front of the snippet. I run a job site and each page list 20 jobs. What if I include a bit of coding in the Meta Description to include "Latest Jobs Posted TODAY's DATE" - since the jobs listed on the page will include a date. On each page there is also option to "Create Email Alert" and "save Jobs" maybe I should include writing about that as well? I have read all Google's documents on the importance of making Meta Des relevant for the page etc, so any good insight how increase my chances of getting the meta des displayed in the SERP would be appreciated. thank you, Kristian
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | knielsen0 -
Serps drop on 21st
Hi, This is my website: http://goo.gl/fl5a5 Earlier i used to be on #1 and #3 page results for most of my results. But after 21st dec, my results went to 10th and 13th page of results. Is it due to latest panda update? http://www.seroundtable.com/google-update-maybe-16121.html If so, can you guys examine my website and provide me your suggestions please... PS: i have followed only genuine kinda link buildings, my content is 100% unique. Will be waiting for your replies.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Vegitt0 -
Breadcrumbs in SERPs
Hi there, Breadcrumbs now showing for my websites in Google.co.uk & Google.ie I have 2 websites .co.uk & .ie both having the same content. There are legalities for having 2 separate domains. Anyway... When I click on one of the breadcrumbs in the SERPs in Google.ie it takes me to the .co.uk website, however the title for that result takes me to the .ie website as it should. I have checked my breadcrumbs on the .ie website and all is fine, however in SERPs it takes me to the .co.uk website, any ideas why this maybe? Kind Regards
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Paul780 -
301 redirect for ip address in SERPs
Hi, I've recently had the misfortune of my site's ip address being crawled and indexed by Google, which is causing some duplicate content issues. Due to the nature of the site we're not able to implement a canonical tag to fix this at present. Would a 301 redirect do the trick, and if so, could someone point me to what I'd need to add to our .htaccess file? Many thanks Chris
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | ChrisHillfd0 -
Does many unique pages mean better SERP position?
My site has about 50 pages. All of them are unique 500-700 word articles. Almost every page is on its keyword at the 4-8 position in google/yahoo/bing. I can add a lot of relative unique pages on my site, about 100-200 word content per page. They all will be unique, with unique description and title. I can make about 1000+ pages. Would you suggest me to do this? Will this action boost my SERP position. Do more pages mean better SERP position?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | nycdwellers1