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Rankings Down 3rd Week of 2013?

by skiing
24 replies
  • SEO
    • |
Hello all.

I noticed my most significant drop in rankings in 9 years this morning (was ok last night). Loosing up to 10 places for main keywords.

I'm not doing much more different in SEO apart from getting many more authority links from a major UK newspaper website and much more social media interaction. I have also added a blog which until today got a page 1 for nearly every article I wrote on it.

Anyone else seen rankings fluctuate today? Or know why I have experienced a sudden drop? Website is powderwhite dot com
#2013 #3rd #rankings #week
  • Profile picture of the author ianbirch
    Same here.was on page 1 lastnight and now dropped to page 3.
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    • Profile picture of the author trustumar
      Yes, i am also noticing a lot of fluctuations. My sites are ranking lower now.
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  • Profile picture of the author nicksahil
    For me everything is perfect, no increase no decrease
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    • Profile picture of the author skiing
      I have seen on another forum many others also reporting increases or decreases since this morning, a Google change could be afoot? I'm in UK by the way, have heard reports from Canada also. Any other locations?
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  • Profile picture of the author kaytav
    I guess I'm lucky that I haven't had any major drops. It's been 5-6 positions drop only for some keywords, but also I have got improvement in the ranking.
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  • Profile picture of the author yukon
    Banned
    The SERPs aren't static, SERPs have been fluctuating every single day since the late 1990's.
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    • Profile picture of the author skiing
      Originally Posted by yukon View Post

      The SERPs aren't static, SERPs have been fluctuating every single day since the late 1990's.
      You are right Yukon, however its when you see a large number of keywords change overnight that moves more places than weekly differences that you start to ask the question if something has changed, thats all I am wondering which could help determine if I have done something wrong, especially if rankings have been stable over a period time. In addition when I do search for those keywords, the whole page is returning different results from last night... so it just makes you wonder... what has changed?
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  • Profile picture of the author marketinguk
    Originally Posted by skiing View Post

    Hello all.

    I noticed my most significant drop in rankings in 9 years this morning (was ok last night). Loosing up to 10 places for main keywords.

    I'm not doing much more different in SEO apart from getting many more authority links from a major UK newspaper website and much more social media interaction. I have also added a blog which until today got a page 1 for nearly every article I wrote on it.

    Anyone else seen rankings fluctuate today? Or know why I have experienced a sudden drop? Website is powderwhite dot com
    I have checked out the site and have to say you've got a seriously nice site both in terms of design and content, one of the best i've seen in a while.

    From the little I have checked in seomoz, afrefs etc. there seems to be no reason at all why you should have anything to be concerned about here. On site and off site look solid so I would say just wait to see how this pans out and keep doing what you've been doing successfully till now.

    It's probably just another algorithm change and you site will hopefully eventually settle down when the dust settles. I of couse appreciate how concerning it can be to lose rankings and traffic like that though after so much stability over the preceding years. Are you mainly relaint on Google for your traffic by the way?
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    • Profile picture of the author skiing
      Thanks for your kind words Joel Ross.

      You are right in that we should wait to see what happens. I did explain to the site owner that when changes do occur it takes time for rankings to settle down and rankings can return once the dust settles.

      The drop in rankings was un-nerving, & yes, the site is somewhat reliant on Google traffic but have been working to water down that reliance. Am checking rank on 140 keywords, will post results once finished.
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      • Profile picture of the author marketinguk
        Originally Posted by skiing View Post

        Thanks for your kind words Joel Ross.

        You are right in that we should wait to see what happens. I did explain to the site owner that when changes do occur it takes time for rankings to settle down and rankings can return once the dust settles.

        The drop in rankings was un-nerving, & yes, the site is somewhat reliant on Google traffic but have been working to water down that reliance. Am checking rank on 140 keywords, will post results once finished.
        Gotcha. I have noticed for one of my uk sites that the rankings have recently skyrocketed for no particular reason that I can see. Therefore it's very possible that my site will lose its rankings when things settle down. You have to remember that when one site loses rankings others gain lol, but it is often a temporary change in your kind of case.

        From looking at your site i'm also sure people would spend a decent amount of time on it and/or interact so that's another thing (although not really important as I don't think bounce rate is a massive factor in SEO). Like I said above overall you have a great site onsite and offsite IMO and hopefully it will return to where it was or even better. Like Yukon said though, maybe bulking the content side could make a difference.

        Finally, it's a good move to diversify traffic sources to not be totelly reliant on Google which to be fair you say you're doing anyway but many people don't.

        EDIT: I've seen Yukon's post but like he points out, it is unlikely that this would have such a dramatic effect on your rankings overall, although it's worth making his suggested changes.
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  • Profile picture of the author yukon
    Banned
    Looking at one of your internal pages your missing out on a lot of content that could be used for on-page SEO. I'm not saying this is your current SERP problem.

    All these listings don't even show up in Google Cache (text version).

    1) hxxp://www dot powder white dot com/apartments/mottaret/

    2) hxxp://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:www dot powder white dot com/apartments/mottaret/&hl=en&tbo=d&strip=1

    (edit the URLs)
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    • Profile picture of the author skiing
      Originally Posted by yukon View Post

      Looking at one of your internal pages your missing out on a lot of content that could be used for on-page SEO. I'm not saying this is your current SERP problem.

      All these listings don't even show up in Google Cache (text version).

      1) hxxp://www dot powder white dot com/apartments/mottaret/

      2) hxxp://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:www dot powder white dot com/apartments/mottaret/&hl=en&tbo=d&strip=1

      (edit the URLs)
      Yukon you are right here also and something that I flagged a long time ago to site owner as we know shallow content can be penalized. What I did was to add a blog to help meet freshness of content but do you think that fresh & additional content has to be on the pages we are trying to rank?

      I am actually working to develop a new site that allows space to add more content etc.. but the URL you picked was one of the least I have worked on and do not expect too much from that page. A page that took a hit today and really took a lot of work to rank was a page in Chalets > Chalets in Val d'Isere, went from 3 to 9 today. (I guess same content issues remain on this template)?

      Thanks for your help by the way
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      • Profile picture of the author skiing
        Yukon & Joel, Cheers, am taking your comments into consideration, lets see how this goes.

        Just a quick note for all readers. I have a few websites that I have done very little off site SEO on. Recently these have all come up in rankings slightly and has not been affected by what could be going on right now.
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  • Profile picture of the author yukon
    Banned
    Which country SERPs shows the drop to #9?
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  • Profile picture of the author PerformanceMan
    I've seen a sharp increase in traffic in my Penguin and Panda Proof (TM) website today. I mean a really sharp upward swing.
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    • Profile picture of the author marketinguk
      Originally Posted by PerformanceMan View Post

      I've seen a sharp increase in traffic in my Penguin and Panda Proof (TM) website today. I mean a really sharp upward swing.
      Yeah me too for no real reason that I can think of, i'm presuming it's just a temporary change but who knows, time will tell I guess.
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      • Profile picture of the author skiing
        UK so far, also heard Canadians seeing changes
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      • Profile picture of the author PerformanceMan
        Originally Posted by Joel Ross View Post

        Yeah me too for no real reason that I can think of, i'm presuming it's just a temporary change but who knows, time will tell I guess.
        Let's hope it's a permanent change Joel

        I think it could be a 're-weighting' of backlinks.
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        • Profile picture of the author skiing
          Originally Posted by PerformanceMan View Post

          Let's hope it's a permanent change Joel

          I think it could be a 're-weighting' of backlinks.
          The site has been getting a steady increase in backlinks with some good High PR authority links from AOL, National Newspapers & a few foreign sites to add to the diversity. I would expect positive movement if it was backlink related.

          But nothing is guaranteed I guess!
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          • Profile picture of the author PerformanceMan
            Originally Posted by skiing View Post

            The site has been getting a steady increase in backlinks with some good High PR authority links from AOL, National Newspapers & a few foreign sites to add to the diversity. I would expect positive movement if it was backlink related.

            But nothing is guaranteed I guess!
            That is for sure. It should be interesting to see what happens. I also noticed a few EMDs I track have slipped more. I don't know if that's widespread or not. They had a really poor backlink profile so it could just be those links being devalued.
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            • Profile picture of the author skiing
              Originally Posted by PerformanceMan View Post

              That is for sure. It should be interesting to see what happens. I also noticed a few EMDs I track have slipped more. I don't know if that's widespread or not. They had a really poor backlink profile so it could just be those links being devalued.
              I have an EMD sitting at position 4 for the keyword, no change on that and practically built less than 5 backlinks and have a PR of 1.

              I suspect that if there is anything I have been penalized for, it could be over optimisation, e.g. In my footer navigation, instead of using anchor text 'home' I have used a combination of related keywords (total of 3 different keywords). I also think my keyword density can be a bit high on some pages, as much as 7~9%

              However this has been the case over the last 2 years, so unless there is an algo update along those lines, should I be affected by this?
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              • Profile picture of the author PerformanceMan
                Originally Posted by skiing View Post

                I have an EMD sitting at position 4 for the keyword, no change on that and practically built less than 5 backlinks and have a PR of 1.

                I suspect that if there is anything I have been penalized for, it could be over optimisation, e.g. In my footer navigation, instead of using anchor text 'home' I have used a combination of related keywords (total of 3 different keywords). I also think my keyword density can be a bit high on some pages, as much as 7~9%

                However this has been the case over the last 2 years, so unless there is an algo update along those lines, should I be affected by this?
                The keyword density seems pretty high to me. Be wary of this with related keywords in the domain. I think the best bet is to tread lightly since your ranking is number 4. Look for one or two decent links from pages that have PR. Use a LSI variation for the anchors.

                This is what I would do. You really can't 'overreach' with two manual links. Watch the results and I bet you can gain number one.
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  • Profile picture of the author Dokemion
    If there are so many who are experiencing this, probably Google is out to make a new Algorithm change and a PR Update.
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    • Profile picture of the author PerformanceMan
      Originally Posted by Dokemion View Post

      If there are so many who are experiencing this, probably Google is out to make a new Algorithm change and a PR Update.
      Yes. It could be a prelude to a PR and SERP update.
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