Why Do Search Rankings On Some Keywords Fluctuate So Much?
If you own a business and want to achieve success, one of the best ways is to create an authentic online presence to reach out to your target audience. Use of proper SEO strategies should be done to increase your rankings on search engines. Depending on your content and the user requirement, the rankings may fluctuate.
However, there can be several reasons why search rankings on some keywords fluctuate so much. You may experience the ranking for particular keywords to be 7 in the morning, 10 in the afternoon, or even 16 in the evening. Some of the reasons behind this can be:
Don’t check your rankings every day
- It is not a good method to check your rankings every day. It seems to be counterproductive for you. If you have a habit of checking your rankings multiple times in a day, it is time for you to stop! Seeing your rankings every day will not help you see a clear picture of how you are doing. It does not provide an accurate picture of your growth and progress.
- Moreover, if you keep doing it, you will be affected by the knee-jerk reactions. You may find yourself discouraged at moments and this can destroy your entire SEO strategy. You need to be patient enough in this scenario. SEO agencies should check rankings once a week on an average basis and it will give you an idea about how your efforts are going.
Fluctuation due to competition
- Sometimes, the fluctuation also depends on the type of query. If the search being made is competitive, the site rankings are going to fluctuate for that. In such cases, the search engine crawls through websites that are more relevant to the query.
- Further, those involved in the competition make modifications and update their websites regularly. The frequent changes are also responsible for causing fluctuations. Moreover, if baby algorithms are present, it will affect the rankings for sure.
- However, the rankings will settle down gradually and become consistent. It is only during the updates that the rankings start going up and down. Try to avoid checking the rankings more frequently to get an idea of how you are performing.
Rankings are no results
- You need to understand the fact that the SERP that you see is not necessarily the SERP seen by someone else. An SEO knows very well about how a business progresses and how the rankings are developed. If you have a habit of viewing the rankings regularly, you will be discouraged by one factor or another.
- It is always better to trust your SEO strategist and work according to him. Sometimes, the statistics that you are viewing may not be the things that your prospects want to have a look at when they perform a search. You must know that rankings are an indicator of your success but not the success on their own.
- Success comes through hard work and determination. You must be able to perform well for increasing your sales and leads. You should focus on increasing email sign-ups and look for other metrics as well to grow your business. Keeping a track of these metrics will prove out to be effective for you rather than the rankings.
Sudden Trends
- You never know when a new trend can step in and make everyone go crazy. If you witness a buzz around any topic, be ready to witness the fluctuations as well. the low-volume keywords might appear to be stable but as the traffic increases, the search engine starts looking for more relevant pages.
- The traffic offers new data to Google that is used to know about the preferable websites. Any piece of information becoming important at any point in time will lead to fluctuations. It can be related to any category.
- The trends are always unpredictable and you cannot be prepared for that. The correct way to handle them is to capitalize on them when they happen.
Addition of new content
- The addition of new content is also responsible for causing fluctuations in your rankings sometimes. It can trigger any of the complex machinery to spring into action. The search engines are very advanced today and crawl through the updated and relevant contents.
- The new content is indexed by the search engine and a particular ranking is provided to it. Depending on the keywords and other factors, it affects your overall website ranking as well. Generation of unique and genuine content always makes a place for itself while bad or plagiarized content only leads to bringing the website’s rankings down.
- Your queries are all about the relation between different websites and how the content produced and updated in one niche changes every other site in your niche. You must provide the best quality content to the users so that your reputation in the market is maintained.
Removal of old content
- You will witness a content-focused update on Google live after every few years. This is done to let you know what kind of content is required and will be crawled by the search engine. This is the time when you know what type of content you are required to keep and what things are to be removed by you.
- To keep up with your website, you must know what kind of content is responsible for bringing your viewership down and perform a content audit. Keeping the relevant material will help to work better with the help of other SEO strategies.
- There are plenty of websites that have old work still published on their webpage that may be dragging them down. However, some also think that such content is irrelevant and will not affect their website in any form.
- In some cases, the results can prove out to be negative too. It will cause a lot of fluctuations and may break the trust of the audience as well. well, in other cases, it can cause a sudden shoot in the rankings. The website ultimately achieves a stable position after being repositioned and re-analyzed after the removal of large old contents.
Link Audits
- Links are a crucial element in any Google search. When you focus on SEO, you will see that most of their analysis is based on the relation and network of the link between websites. The link value determines the kind of rankings.
- When a link audit is performed and the links are changed or updated, your website’s position is re-evaluated. Removal of bad quality links can enhance your rankings while the removal of good links can cause a drop in it.
- However, the necessary link audits are important to be addressed and you should never feel discouraged by temporary fluctuations caused in the rankings. You will always end up in a better position than you started.
Changing your URL
- Making a change in the URL causes massive fluctuations in your rankings. It is a dramatic change that will affect the website till the search engine recognizes what is going on.
- When a new URL is introduced, it acts as a new website for Google that is filled with your content. As per Google’s perspective, you did not make any changes to your URL and there is a need to find out if it is an imposter.
- Once you make such major changes, it will take weeks or even months to restore your rankings or reach around them. It will become necessary for you to keep up with your white-hat SEO techniques and wait patiently until your websites achieve a satisfactory position in the market.
Search Penalties
- Your website can fluctuate in rankings due to several negative reasons as well. if the search penalties are applied in manual or automatic forms by the search engine, you will face a difference in rankings for sure.
- You may have not stayed updated with the policies that may cause Google to take action against you. If you see your website fluctuating alone, you must figure out what has happened. To know this, you also need to keep an eye on your competitors.
- To get confirmation, you can check your webmaster console for any kind of manual action or look for reports of Google updates on Moz. Try to find out the reason behind the Google penalty and try correcting it. There could be some changing standards requiring a site audit.
It is a well-known fact that causing changes, either minor or major, will lead to fluctuations. These are very common happening with Google and performing these modifications is always better from a long-term point of view. Any fluctuation for a day or two does not affect the stability of the website. You should pay attention to the trends that keep coming and make your website and content updated according to that.
You should not freak out by observing the fluctuations and should handle the situation calmly. Just keep a track of your SEO strategies and try to perform better every time. You will surely end up doing better as compared to where you were in the beginning.
