Site jumps from #1 to #6 to #1?

[PSM]

Hi everyone,

I have an SEO conundrum, a page on my site was happily ranking at number 1 for a 3 word phrase, even though I was aiming for a 4 word variant of that instead (which was also at number 1). So I fired some more links with the 3 word phrase in the anchor text at it and everything was fine.

Then a few weeks later it jumps from #1 to #6, I waited a week to see if it was doing the Google dance, then fired 30 bookmarks at it and the next day it is back at #1 (I'm not sure if it was the bookmarks which helped it back to #1 or just google shifting the results again).

Then again a few weeks later it has jumped from #1 to #6 - I wouldn't mind if it just went to #2 or 3 as that means my competitors are building links (most likely) and I would just build some more links to compensate, but falling to number 6 each time just feels fishy...

Has anyone experienced this before? Is there a -5 google penalty because I searched around and some people think there is and others say there isn't...

Thanks!

[jasonmorgan]

I've never heard of a -5 penalty.

Might be best to let it sit and not try to force it. I know that sounds odd, but give it a chance to level out and see where it lands. If your sticking to the first page your still in good shape.

Are sites 2 - 5 staying the same and shifing up or are all of the top sites shifting around?

It's hard to give better advice without know the site, the keywords and the competition.

[PSM]

Thanks Jason - the tops ones now are the ones which are always under mine, plus there looks like one new site at #2.

That's a good point about being on the first page, Google still likes my page enough to have it on the front page so I should be grateful for that. I'll leave it for a week then and see if it settles back near the top, then start linking again.