5 replies to this topic

[AnnaSEO]

Hi - wondering if anyone has ever seen anything like the example below. I understand rankings are not the be-all end-all and that they fluctuate to a certain extent no matter what. This has some interesting twists though...

I have a client site in a very specific, niche industry. They've consistently ranked on the first page of Google for 20 industry-specific keywords since I started working with them a year ago.

However, at the 27th (approximately) of July, most (but not all) of their keyword rankings disappeared out of the first 100 results. A few other terms lost their #2 position while maintaining their #1 position. (They did not have a loss in indexed pages, toolbar PageRank (for what that is worth) or link counts - there were no major changes to the site, no URL renaming or anything like that. There were no crawling or malware issues listed in WMT.)

Then, on August 12th, the rankings suddenly came back to where they were before they dropped.

I thought G rolled out some algo change and then rolled it back.

However, the same thing happened at the end of August, and the rankings have now come back as of the 12th of September.

Has anyone else seen a massive drop in rankings then a return based on the time of month?

[Michael Martinez]

Google is constantly changing the way it ranks search results. Occasional, even almost regular fluctuations are a normal part of the searchscape.

[AnnaSEO]

Thanks Michael.

I understand that Google is always changing it up. However, I've not seen this large of a fluctuation - from page one to completely out of the top 10 pages on a consistent basis before. That's a pretty major fluctuation that I am not seeing with other sites.

[Michael Martinez]

Thanks Michael.

I understand that Google is always changing it up. However, I've not seen this large of a fluctuation - from page one to completely out of the top 10 pages on a consistent basis before. That's a pretty major fluctuation that I am not seeing with other sites.

I'm afraid I've seen these kinds of changes with Google many times. Based on what little information is available, I see no indication of another major algorithmic shift in that timeframe.

Perhaps you should review your client's linking portfolio with them.

[AnnaSEO]

Perhaps you should review your client's linking portfolio with them.

They have not had any major changes with the links Google WMT shows - either by month or by time of month - it's been very consistent. We also have not done any major link building campaigns in the past 9 months and haven't had a huge increase in links during this time either.

Is there something in reviewing their links that I'm missing?

[Michael Martinez]

They have not had any major changes with the links Google WMT shows - either by month or by time of month - it's been very consistent. We also have not done any major link building campaigns in the past 9 months and haven't had a huge increase in links during this time either.

Is there something in reviewing their links that I'm missing?

Are there any paid links in their profile? How did they get the links? Are they all reciprocal links? Directory links?