I have a competitive keyword that keeps appearing on page 1 in the number 3-8 spot for a few random hours a day, then disapearing. What is causing this and how can I keep it on first page?
Often its webpages that have fresh content appear constantly on the page throughout the day. I have a news style site with new headlines all the time, sometimes I can get my keyword in a headline, sometimes I can't. That alters my position sometimes during the day. Hope that makes sense. That's my theory anyway.
Also because is always unstable because of new competition especially if its a new site, give it time and eventually it will stay in one spot
That's pretty normal if we're talking about some brand new site. Just keep building quality links. Don't worry too much
What you are experiencing is the google dance, most of us have had plenty of experience with that. how old are the backlinks to your site?
Not very old, most backlinks are mostly forum posts. Yahoo shows 1068 backlinks while google webmaster tools show 177. I always thought I would have to move up in the serps. It's kinda hard to gauge where I actually stand when I keep appearing on top 8 and disappearing completely out of serps. This morning I was in the #4 position for about 8 hours. This has been going on for 2 weeks now. I sure wish it would stay. I've made $252 because of it jumping on top for a few hours a day.
I've seen this alot with my site, it will become more constant. But I've been told its due to the different google servers having a differnt PR / rank for my site (they dont all update at exactly the same time) So at one time you might search and you will hit one server, and then another time you search you will hit another server. Well, so I've been told, and things seem to have smoothed out for me now
I have been experiencing the same things with some of my keywords.. SERP is a constant battle... Must work hard.