Why do rankings come and go?

Discussion in 'Search Engine Optimization' started by Jboo, Jul 31, 2007.

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  1. #1
    Hi,

    This is something I've wondered for a while. One of my sites has been averaging a fairly good number of visitors per day from Google (around 2500-3000/day). For the last couple of weeks my traffic has been as follows:

    18 Jul 2007 2254
    19 Jul 2007 1067
    20 Jul 2007 2190
    21 Jul 2007 1798
    22 Jul 2007 2074
    23 Jul 2007 3328
    24 Jul 2007 3354
    25 Jul 2007 3109
    26 Jul 2007 2860
    27 Jul 2007 2363
    28 Jul 2007 1625
    29 Jul 2007 1633
    30 Jul 2007 1641

    Rankings seemed to dissappear for a lot of my pages on the 19th, but then returned the next day. This has happened a few times. This time though it's been down for a few days as can be seen on the 28th, 29th, and 30th.

    My question is what explains this? Is it anything to worry about? Should the pages and traffic return? Seems strange why traffic fluctuates so much and rankings appear and dissappear so suddenly for a lot of pages.

    Any info about this would be great.

    Thanks.
     
    Jboo, Jul 31, 2007 IP
  2. w3bmaster

    w3bmaster Notable Member

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    #2
    It's called the google dance

    Anyway whe the site is established and old rankings don't dance so mutch ...
     
    w3bmaster, Jul 31, 2007 IP
  3. Jboo

    Jboo Active Member

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    #3
    Thanks w3bmaster,

    Does this sometimes happen for a few days at a time? Does the site age affect the google dance or the page age itself? My site is a couple of years old, but i add new pages everyday.

    Thanks again.
     
    Jboo, Jul 31, 2007 IP
  4. oseymour

    oseymour Well-Known Member

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    #4
    it sometimes happens for weeks at a time...I've had sites rankings disappear for as much as 3 weeks before returning...
     
    oseymour, Jul 31, 2007 IP
  5. sweetie_12

    sweetie_12 Peon

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    #5
    And probably because Your competitors are doing there best to outrank you so definitely there will be changes with your rankings...
     
    sweetie_12, Jul 31, 2007 IP
  6. ablaye

    ablaye Well-Known Member

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    #6
    Bingo. There are always new competitors that will outrank you if you do not persist in your SEO efforts.
     
    ablaye, Jul 31, 2007 IP
  7. princess.donna

    princess.donna Peon

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    #7
    Two factors, Google Dance and a lot of new competitors
     
    princess.donna, Jul 31, 2007 IP
  8. trichnosis

    trichnosis Prominent Member

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    #8
    and i want to ask you that what is your site age?
     
    trichnosis, Aug 1, 2007 IP
  9. Jboo

    Jboo Active Member

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    #9
    It's about 2 years old. The thing i noticed though is that pages that were ranking in the top 5 of google disappear from the first few hundred results for pretty easy keywords to rank for. This is surely not down to competitors as i'd understand if my pages slipped down the rankings a bit but were still visible somewhere, but they're not. It seems as though pages disappear from the index rather than just move up and down in rankings.

    seo ranter - thanks, that's put my mind at ease a bit, hopefully the pages and rankings will reappear soon.

    Thanks again for everyone's feedback.
     
    Jboo, Aug 1, 2007 IP