Hi you may have heard this before, but I couldn't find a related thread, so, here goes. Newish site - 5 months - after one month of being indexed it drops in and out of serps - from number 6 to page 46 (not number, PAGE 46, i.e. the 'last page in the serps for this term) for a few days, then comes back to position 6 for a couple of days or so, then back out for about 7 days, and it's been doing this for months as have a couple of other sites. All pages still indexed in google - definitely not banned. (Another of my sites is No1 google, and has been doing the same thing for a while - but remains static number 1 in 'results from the uk, whilst nowhere in results from the web (google uk)) Because it/they (6 sites, all under a year old) keep coming back and ranking well I don't think that it is a penalty. Yes they are affiliate sites (links via php file), but, no paid links, all unique content, no 'nasty stuff' going on, not exactly white hat but not far off, I use blog comments, forum sigs etc. I'm tempted to think it is some kind of bot/indexing issue (however my robots.text is not doing any exclusions, and my htaccess is pointing to the no www. domain) I've checked my one site that has webmaster tools account - no messages, html check says no dupe content etc Anyway, my questions are a) has anyone else had this issue, and b) what did they do about it, I'm tempted to just throw links at the sites, and hopefully 'mud will stick', but as I do this in my spare time, I don't want to waste energy link building if I am missing the point somewhere along the line. (I'm pretty sure my onpage SEO is cool, and not 'overdoing it') I have seen a couple of posts that cover this same problem on other forums, but, the nearest to a satisfactory answer I found was "this is quite common in sites under 8 months old" - this may be true, but, I am guessing that there is a way around whatever is going on. People talk about the sandbox, but although I believe that it may exist ( a matter of indexing), I'm pretty sure that there are ways around it - especially if it is an indexing/linking issue. Any help on this will obviously be very appreciated.
Hi GarethW, I'm not sure what (if anything) I can do to help but I thought I'd reply anyway. I came by your post by doing a Google search for "last page of SERPs" because one of my pages has experienced more or less exactly the same thing as yours - it was on page 1 of Google in #4 position. It had even managed to achieve a PR of 4. But then today I checked my rankings and it is in position 650 or so (the very last page of the SERPs for my term) Very discouraging. The page is still in the index (obviously as it's on the last page of SERPs) and like you I haven't done anything "black hat" that would warrant a "we're banishing you to the last page of the SERPs" sort of penalty, if these exist. I build links to this page, but so does (virtually) everyone in SEO. But perhaps I built links in a way that google didn't like? The people I've asked say: "It's probably just the Google dance." I don't find this a satisfactory answer, as I thought a page of PR4 which had finally settled on the first page for a couple of weeks would stay there. Isn't PR meant to be an indication of the authority and trust Google give to your webpages? It worries me that a page can have PR4 and still be subject to massive fluctations. Kinda suggests that age (of domain) may be more important than PR in terms of stable rankings, I don't know. I've also heard that you can sometimes bounce around a bit if you have too many links pointing to your page with the same anchor text. But again, I don't know for sure. I've built a fair few of these (as many SEOS do), so perhaps that triggered the massive rankings drop. In terms of advice I've had, people are saying: "just keep building links and adding content to your site." I'm not thrilled by the prospect of doing this. My site is about 3-4 months old, and I know people say that newer sites are more volatile and subject to ranking fluctuations. But I don't really want to spend weeks and weeks (and months) building links to a page that may or may not ever settle on the first page. Not a great use of my time It's actually got me thinking about buying aged domains instead and seeing what happens. I'm told they don't yo-yo up and down as much in the SERPs, as they're already trusted and established. I'm not sure what to tell you in terms of advice, as I'm seeking it myself. I don't know how to tell if we're suffering from a Google penalty or just the so-called Google dance. And I'm reluctant to say (like others do): "just keep building links" although it seems that's about as much as people (outside Google) can tell us. My own opinion is that nobody (outside Google) really knows for sure what to do in situations like this. We don't know why Google's ranking system does what it does (maybe Matt Cutts has done a video on the "Google dance" - you could try looking for that in webmaster videos) so we're just told (i) add more content, (ii) build more links, (iii) keep going until the page settles. But my site is 4 months old and yours is 5 and our pages are both yo-yoing from first page to last page. So I'm not sure how much longer one can "keep going" without getting sick of it. If mine doesn't settle on page 1 soon I'm probably going to give it up. There's only so long you can work on a page if it keeps going up and down, I guess. Anyway, if it helps - my page and site are doing the same thing as yours. Now if only we could find an answer! Adam
Without seeing either site it is tough to try to trouble shoot, but likely what you are seeing is short term fluctuations. Fluctuations are pretty normal with all sites. With good content and promotion, you should see the fluctuations become less and less severe.
Hi Cgoulart, Thanks for your response. All feedback is very welcome and highly appreciated. Yes, I've been warned about the fluctuations. In both cases, we're talking about sites that are 4-5 months old, so I suppose they should still be considered "new." In my case, I was disappointed to see my #4 ranking turn into a #650 ranking (last page of SERPs) mainly because (a) the page had achieved a PR4, and (b) it seemed to have finally settled on page 1 after 3 months of promotion, updates etc. It was there, I believe, for up to two weeks. I also read things like this: (i) Sometimes a page can undergo fluctuations and "Google dancing" when a whole load of new backlinks to it have been indexed by Google. Apparently, it's like Google are taking a fresh look at the page and processing those backlinks and during this time (again, "apparently") your page can move around a bit - I'm not experienced or knowledgeable enough to know whether this is true Cgoulart - have you experienced this though? (a high-ranking page that's been around for months and finally "settled" on page 1 then being dumped onto the last page of the SERPs for no apparent reason)