Know-How Exchange : SEO/SEM

There can be a number of reasons but two that come quickly to the top of my mind are:

1. Google makes approximately 100 changes to their search algorithm and systems each year. They do a vast amount of internal testing but they seem to do a lot of live testing as well. In your case they may have implemented a change, found the results to be unsatisfactory and then rolled the query results back to the original state.

2. You could have hit different data centers with your searches. Google serves results from a myriad of datacenters. Differences can exist resulting from algorithm change latency from datacenter to datacenter. One datacenter receives the change and provides different results while another datacenter can provide the original results and is waiting for its upgrade.

(edit: this is actually #3) We have also observed that some new pages will rank high initially due to freshness and then be knocked down only to slowly float to its proper position (good or bad).

If the actual answer is #1 or #2 then the consequences could be signficant or insignificant.

If #1, you probably have nothing to worry about because it appears that they've rolled the change back.

If #2, it could mean that the other datacenters will eventually catch up and position 7 is where you will end up across the board. That shouldn't take months to determine. From my observations they appear to work quickly.

The best thing to do is to wait. If the page is mature and has ranked #1 for its merit it will likely return to its rightful place unless better quality pages come along or your competitors are doing some link building. If you make changes to the page now you may not be able to diagnose this and you'll be chasing your tail.

I'm certain that others will have more info but I hope this start helps.

-Greg

I posted my response before seeing your last entry so I will add that yes, I have seen wild discrepancies between ranking tools and physical searches on G. You have to check them manually on occasion to benchmark the tool your using.

Those tools are also good for giving you an idea of where you are ranking but perhaps not where you actually are ranking. They are also good for tracking large quantities of keywords.

If the number of keywords you are tracking is small then use the tool to monitor your trending graphs and reports but check them manually as well.

Dear Melissa,

Your first ports of call are to talk to your web manager and then,
if you get no joy there, to talk with someone at Google.

Whether your site's administered internally or externally, your web expert may have made other changes that might have impacted your rankings. Either that or they may have noticed other changes in other site rankings at the same time. If it's the latter, the issue is probably with Google.

Temporary blips in site rankings can sometimes be caused by a change Google makes to its search algorithms. Page rankings can go haywire for hours or days at a time and then settle back to where they were as if nothing happened.

I don't know how often this happens, nor do I know why Google doesn't tell people that essential changes may temporarily impact their page rankings. But when it does happen it freaks people out and leaves them wondering what the heck just happened.

Probably the WORST thing any site owner can do when this does happen is to change things on their site to correct the problem.

As to why it happens, well, imagine Google as a cargo ship that's laden with cargo (its algorithms).

If the ship's unloaded very quickly Google's draught (draft) will
change to match. When this happens the relative position of the ship—and everything on it, meaning your site—sits in the water far differently. This means the ship, and everything on it will handle differently.

When the SS Google is slowly reloaded, the change in how it sits in the water and how it handles will also change slowly—and so will everything on the ship. This could explain the sudden dip in your ranking and the slower change back to 7th position.

By the way, 7th position on the first page of Google is pretty darn grand.

To my mind, the first two rules of chaos theory apply in here: "sensitive dependence of initial conditions" (meaning the factors of keyword strength, visitor numbers and so on determining where your rankings were before they fell), and "rapid divergence of nearby trajectories", (meaning where your rankings wound up and where they returned once things had settled down).

Can I prove this? No. I can't. I'm no mathematician but it seems logical to conclude that a sudden chaotic shift in algorithmic structure and load could be enough to drag your rank status in one direction and then push it back in another, thereby explaining the tumble and recovery in your web ranking position.

As with a bank balance, by loading or tinkering with the specific algorithmic balance of ranking calculations the overall position of those numbers and anything connected with them (your site ranking) will shift.

This means there will also be a shift in positional balance for anything connected to those specific algorithms (such as particular keywords), which could then push things out of whack even more.

Your web gurus ought to be able to identify when the shift happened by dates and times. Once you have this information, a simple check with Google to ask if they changed anything on those dates and during those specific times could connect the dots for you.

If you've never seen this change before, and if your ranking is back to where it was, then work by Google could well explain the issue.

As I've said, I'm no mathematician. But the theory outlined above seems plausible.

I hope this helps.

Gary Bloomer
Wilmington, DE, USA

The way I read your question I assumed that no changes to the page were made. As Gary points out if you've made changes the page and your position dropped then obviously you'd want to roll back those changes.

I wouldn't bother Google. They get too many of these questions ("why isn't my site #1"). If they respond (doubtful) you'll likely receive a canned response. If your page/site was dropped down radically (eg site went form #1 to #300) then you may have received a spam penalty then you'd want to fix the site and then contact them (mea culpa) and let them know that you've remedied the situation.

Sounds like a anomoly in someone's tracking software. I wouldn't worry about it unless it happens again...