Fluctuating rank for a single key word

[flexifly]

I’m a small internet business owner and my website is feetrelief (.com) Buy Arch Supports Foot Supports & More . I mainly sell arch supports augmented with some other foot care products. I have been in business for 11 years and have some very strong inbound links. If you go to Google and type in “arch supports” (without the quotations and in plural) I rank number one and have for some time. If you type in “arch support” (singular and again without the quotations) I have typically ranked number four. Recently (the last six to eight weeks…give or take) I have seen my ranking for “arch support” (singular) disappear completely and then reappear 4 to 5 days later while “arch supports” maintains its ranking consistently. Generally the disappearance happens over the weekend and only through the weekend but some times it extends to Monday or Tuesday. Eventually it returns (as it has tonight) but then it disappears again. I have strong ranking for other arch support related key words such as spenco arch supports, superfeet arch supports, Lynco arch supports, Sof Sole arch supports etc… and these rankings never seem to change but “arch support” ranking seems to disappear and reappear. Does anyone have any thoughts on why this happens?

Sincerely and appreciatively,

David

[kgun]

1. Is there a difference in the stability and context of the IBL's with different anchor text?
2. Hint: Post #21 in this Google Algorithm, PR update June/July 2008 thread

[AlexNewell]

David, it looks like kgun may well have diagnosed the issue - the point now is how to support your website in the SERPS ( sorry about the pun). In situations like this you have to choose between watchful waiting and action.

Since one of your keywords needs promotion, you have to follow through with a campaign of link building with the anchor text you want.

How you do this will depend on your own preferences and skills. If you are good at writing then submit articles to the top article directories; if talking then chat into a recorder and upload to iTunes and if you can put a video together then YouTube is waiting.

Many other methods too but do what you can to build links or traffic.

You could wait for ages to Google to setle down and when it does, well, foks it's just gearing up for another dance!

It may be time to do any other website changes you were meaning to do and didn't get round to as well!

All The best

Alex

[microtekblue]

Looks like a google algorithm issue more than anything. It might just end up fixing itself, just give it time.

[myfreeforum]

I see my keyword ranks for certain search terms bounce up right after I do a link campaign for that term, but then sink back down. I just think that is part of Google's mission to deliver updated news, and then "sink" the website if it isn't updated enough, or really doesn't meet the competition in terms of backlinks.

To me, that just means to hit thart search term a bit harder, and eventually you can get it to "stick".

[Terry Van Horne]

Originally Posted by microtekblue

Looks like a google algorithm issue more than anything. It might just end up fixing itself, just give it time.

Yeup if it goes completely act otherwise look for the reason and until you are sure do nothing. Fiddling is tricky bizness. Especially since it's not normal for fluctuations after stability. Drops yes, appear/disappear, IMO, is a Google thing, do nothing. It could just be a different index is used on the weekend by people in your area or the indigestion of a filter/upgrade. Drops and long term disappearance you worry about, the rest is usually going to make you pull a trigger that wasn't need 'n pullin'. I would monitor it daily til I saw stability.

[Terry Van Horne]

Originally Posted by myfreeforum

I see my keyword ranks for certain search terms bounce up right after I do a link campaign for that term, but then sink back down. I just think that is part of Google's mission to deliver updated news, and then "sink" the website if it isn't updated enough, or really doesn't meet the competition in terms of backlinks.

To me, that just means to hit thart search term a bit harder, and eventually you can get it to "stick".

Disagree, every site is different. I can show you sites that haven't been updated for years doing fine. Fresh content is good and is important for a twenty page site. Adding a few pages to a site with 5,000 pages will not do squat unless they drive huge linkage. IMO, the Law of big numbers does appply to SEO.

[billmarshall]

Hi David

Quite a lot of the sites I monitor have both the plural and singular versions of certain keyphrases amongst their targets. The majority of them use the plural forms more often in their content. At one time you could use on or the other and almost automatically rank for both.

However in the last couple of years I've noticed a number of occasions when the singular version has suddenly dropped way down while the plural remains highly ranked. Sometimes it slowly climbs back up again but never quite regains its former positions. It happened again recently - again across a number of different sites for different keywords - and I'm of the opinion that it's a Google algorithm tweak. (Coincidentally I blogged about it this week.)

In my cases we've left it alone as the plural is the form that makes most sense (and generally has the higher search numbers) but I suspect that if we were to target the singular form with enough text content and anchor text we could probably get them back.

Does your content concentrate on one or the other or is it equally spread?

cheers

Bill Marshall

[incrediblehelp]

I see you ranking #3 here fro "arch support". Have you tried to optimize and rank some inner pages better? I see most of the text on the website focuses on "arch supports". Also have you tried to focus IBL building to your inner pages? Doing this will help them rank and also cause more indented results for those types of phrases for you.

[morestar]

well, maybe one of your competitors for those keywords that you're losing in now did something different or new.

did you check out any changes they may have made?

[blogdawg1]

I agree, inbound links to inner pages using the keyword anchor text will help alot. Don't forget to use internal links from page to page using your keywords too.

[Peter (IMC)]

I'm seeing it in position 1. Considering this happens often in the weekends, which is always the time that things change in Google, (probably because they update certain things during weekends usually), I'd wait a bit until things have settled down.

Sudden drops can also be caused by age factors, but that usually means you´re out for pretty much 95% of your keywords. The fact that this happens for just 1 keyword, is an indication of something else and it is the better to wait and let the storm pass first.

[thersey]

Two of my top keywords are doing the same thing. (Projector Lamps and LCD Projectors) They will appear on the first page for several hours and then they will fade back to the second page. I am optomized for those keywords. It looks like it could be that we need some more strong links pointing to our website to create some stability with those keywords.


Projector Discount Store

[m-chapman]

I have seen the same fluctuations in my knife crime blog - Knife Crime blog - making society safer

Every few days it disappears from the ranking only to emerge a day or so later back at the top for search term 'knife crime blog'.

Any ideas why this would be happening?


mark.

[zephyrireland]

I was told before on a similar issue to get some good inbound links with the keyword in the anchor text.
But would this help in this issue?? ... It may.

I have seen some fluctuations recently most noticeably last week when my traffic went all over the place, one site dropped about 10% and another increased by 20%.

Things are somewhat back to normal this week.

[2fk]

Anyone do also experience this having different positioning in SERP for G whenever you'll going to search for your keyword on top 10 result and 100? It gives me different ranking..anyone getting same issue?

[smargenau]

I have also experienced this recently....after 5 years of first page rankings...we disapeared to like page 12 for certain related keywords. (All web design oriented)

This also happnened to earlier to "marketing" related keywords, but resolved by itself a couple weeks later. The GA is very complex and in constant change...i wish i had a better answer.

Jon (on these boards) is very helpfull in explaiing these issues, as are all of the above posters. Best of luck...i feel your pain!

[joe_561]

I have this problem too and it's not about plurals. It's also nothing you are doing wrong and there is no way to correct it that I have found. Adding fresh content everyday will not help either. I experimented with making massive changes daily and doing nothing at all for weeks. I think it is google using different algos. It seems the longer your page has been in existance the less likely this is to happen.

The best way around this is to find another product to sell or even 10 more products to sell. Build 10 different websites selling 10 different things. It's a lot of work initially but the only way to be in this business is to make way more money than you need to pay the bills.

People who earn their living off of internet search engines should be sure to work hard enough to make at least 3 times more money than they need. Bank the rest for the rainy days that are sure to come.