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.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
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
-
Why does the order of the keywords affect my SERP? And what can I do to improve?
Hi all, So, if you google "london life coach" my site appears #2 (www.nickhatter.com) But if you google "life coach London" my SERP seems to fluctuate between #3 up to #6. If you google "life coach in London" my SERP is a solid #2/3. I don't get it all. Would someone care to explain? Also, if you have any tips on how I might improve the EAT of my website please do feel free to weigh in! Many thanks,
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | NickHatster
Nick0 -
How to be included in related questions (People also ask) in Google SERP?
Just wondered if anyone knows how to be included in SERP if it comes to related questions (People also ask). Do you have to fill some requirements or is it featured snippets kind of thing.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Optimal_Strategies1 -
Meta-description issue in SERPs for different countries
I'm working with a US client on the SEO for their large ecommerce website, I'm working on it from the UK. We've now optimised several of the pages including updating the meta-descriptions etc. The problem is when I search on the keyword iin the UK I see the new updated version of the meta-description in SERPs results. BUT when my client searches on the same keyword in the US they're see the old version of the meta-description. Does any one have any idea why this is happening and how we can resolve it? Thanks Tanya
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | TanyaKorteling0 -
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 -
Homepage only has disappeared from SERPs
I have a website that has been ranking really well with the home page for our most important keywords. 2nd position. A few days ago I noticed the home page was nowhere to be found in the SERPs. Not really knowing what to do I republished my Rapidweaver site and got the message that there were two index files. An index.html and index.php file which could cause problems. The home page has always been a html page so I have no idea how this was created. I deleted the php file from the file directory and resubmitted the homepage in webmaster tools for indexing. Within about half an hour the page was appearing in the SERPs again in my original position for the important keywords. Two days later and it's gone again. I've tried everything I can think of and resubmitted the page to Google for indexing. I can see it is being indexed as it comes up when I type the URL into the search bar but it will not come up in the search results either for my two keywords or the actual name of my business. When I type in business name it brings up lots of other pages from the site but not the home page. I've spoken to 3 SEO companies and nobody knows what is causing it. Please help with any suggestions this will definitely impact our business if we can't figure it out. Has this happened to anyone else? My website is NSFW but is www.aprilnites.com.au
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | GemmaApril0 -
Images not appearing in Google Images SERPS
Hi there We pushed a new version of our website live more than 6 months ago. So far, none of the images that are in the product gallery on this page http://www.ingleandrhode.co.uk/bespoke-rings/inspiration/ are appearing in the Google Images SERPS (I tested this by searching Google Images for "site:www.ingleandrhode.co.uk"). I understand that the gallery uses Javascript, so Googlebot doesn't see the image files in the HTML, but in Webmaster Tools, if I "fetch as Google" with rendering, this suggests that Googlebot does see the gallery images. My website developer tried adding an image sitemap about two weeks ago, which is being indexed, but so far this hasn't made any difference. Any suggestions on what needs to be done for these gallery images to start appearing in Google Images SERPS? Many thanks!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | TimIngle0 -
Google SERPs do not display "cached"
When I am signed in with Google and searching sites, the snippets do not display the "cached" link. Not good since I am trying to see when a particular page was crawled. If I login to another server that I never use to browse and search from there the "cache" link does show up. Assumption: google knows who I am on my machine and is "helping" me.......but is there an easy way to turn this help off?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Eyauuk0 -
Why do SERP Results ( Rankings ) differ from country to country ?
Hi, I have been doing seo for this client based in Sri lanka for almost 8 months now. Since we started SEO we had set up geographic target setting to UK through google webmaster tools. At the moment Site is completely ranking higher on google uk & other countries except Sri Lanka . On Google.lk site doesn't even come within 1st 5 pages for keywords which are ranked on1st page in other countries ? What do you think about this ? How does it happen ?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | pyxle0