I have 2 sites , fairly different but similar (on the same topic) one (website 1) is number one in the uk for the major keywords and number one in google usa and other countries the other site (website 2) has disapeared from google except google usa where it is number 3 - It is the newer site and is not a usa based website (it is hosted in the usa though) we also have country specific domains as well for this Since (website 2) has got to number 3 on google usa the traffic has gone up whereas the traffic on (website 1) has gone down so i am really confused!!!! - website 2 is not disavowed - the site is still getting traffic from the uk but not showing on the first page for the main keywords - but again, the traffic is growing!! - Any ideas?????
This could be due to the Hummingbird update, but it's hard to tell without looking at the site or knowing your keywords. You are too focused on keywords, while Google can be actually showing your website for some other keywords as well or showing it when it considers your site relevant to the searcher's intent. So, Google keyword ranking as a metric will only decrease in importance and reliability I believe.