I was on first page for 4 of my keywords then all of a sudden last month they got dropped back a few pages. Yesterday i got back to the first page for them and suddenly see today I get dropped back again! This is so annoying, seems like it is happening on purpose even tho their is nothing wrong with my site (i.e any reason to be penalized)! Very very annoying.
I experience the same back and forth movement. I don't know the reason for it but I do seem to keep coming back shortly after a fall back. Just keep doing the right things.
I have seen many clients sites experiencing the same problem. Google is either undergoing some algorithm changes, or PageRank update. Nothing to worry about, it will bounce back.
It's been going back and forth on my site for a while too! Probably just google updating something as I seem to have been pretty constant with the other engines. Give it a few weeks and it should be business as usual!
I have only experienced a back movement when I have not been actively link building. Make sure not to pay for any form of link building. That would be my biggest advice.
It's completely normal and should be expected. And it doesn't just happen to new or low-PR sites. Mine is a 4-year-old, PR5 home-page site. I regularly add backlinks and do all white-hat SEO. But I still experience those frequent SERPs swings that you are speaking of. You just ride them out; they average out over the course of time. #4 today, maybe #7 tomorrow, #3 next week, then an unexpected drop to #22 for a few days, then back to #4, etc. It is quite normal and is not generally to be understood as a Google criticism of your website.
If you are a new site you just need to wait longer and make sure you are constantly adding links with the keyword theme as the anchor text. You need to become a Trusted site to STAY in the top 10. Make sure everything is original and you title tags are clear. This has a lot to do with relevance. Good luck
My site is 3 years old, I was on page one for my keywords for about a year until about 2 weeks before the last pr update. I got them abck to the first page the other day, well a couple of them and straight away ALL my keywords got pushed back 3 pages again. Seems like some sort of punishment to me.
This is also happening with my website. The site was in top 10 for 10-15 keywords but suddenly dropped onto second page. Now what happend i dn't know. There is a proper linkbuilding is being done for the site and the links are of proper theme and PR.