Equivalent kw phrases, wildly different rankings - why?

[Billyonemate]

I have a situation on a 3-word query on G where my site ranks in #3 for 2 variations of the term, but is in #35 for the third variation, but all three terms are equivalent, and ironically the title tag of my page is the exactly matches the query in #35. The backlink profile of the page has roughly an equivalent number of anchortext links for all 3 terms. My question is two-fold, Firstly how can I move the term in #35 up the SERPS?

Secondly, I feel that G falls down here, as it is very obvious that all three terms are equivalent in their content and intent (is this not what G LSE technology is supposed to figure out). So if G is trying to server the most relevant results, then why are the SERPS so wildly different for each phrase?

The phrase are below, they are not the exact ones but very similar.
e.g.
jamaica luxury vacation = #3
luxury jamaica vacation = #35
luxury vacation jamaica = #3

[tedster]

Hello Billyonemate, and welcome to the forums.

I've also seen this mystery in many keyword areas and I really don't have an explanation for it - the best I can say is that Google has entered into a new era of search results and it sure doesn't line up with any expectations we have based on past experience.

We've got a number of threads here that are poking around the edges of the change, but symptoms such as the one you called out are still not easily accounted for.

Maybe someone else has an insight to share.

[networkliquidators]

is your site airjamaicavacations dot com?

[networkliquidators]

I may suggest that "interest levels" come in to play based on the query and one's location. Not to mention your own browsing history. Try using a proxy service using different IPs from different locations around the world to test your phrases.

I use hidemyass dot com

As example your domain, if it is the one i listed above, is coming up #35 for you, it is #3 for me. I'm in Tampa, Fl where I may be likely to take a cruise if the search demand is there. Plus, your domain has some trust with most of the keywords in the domain.

[Billyonemate]

thanks for the responses:
my site is not the one you mention, i am beginning to think that the reason for this is because the phrases that i rank well for (#3) both contain "luxury vacations", whereas the one i don't rank well for (#35) that phrase is split by the third word. I think this may be especially relevant because the theme of my site if anything is "Luxury Vacations" and that is a phrase that i do rank well for.
Answering my own question here i know, but my conclusion would be that it is easier to rank for a long-tail phrase that contains a head-phrase that you already rank well for.
So i need to push equivalently more linkbuilding effort into "luxury jamaica vacation" to get it to rank the same as "luxury vacation jamaica".
No great revelation here i guess, just G isn't as intelligent as it we would like it to be for matching the equality of phrases. And we have to drive linkbuilding effort accordingly.

[htdawg]

out of curiosity which phrase gets the most hits? I have found a program that supposedly tells you which keyword phrase order is the most correct but i am not sure its 100% accurate.

[Billyonemate]

"luxury jamaica vacations" gets about 20% more hits than the other two.

[aakk9999]

I thought we are not allowed to post URLs or actual keywords that would identify our sites. Has this changed recently (if so, I might have missed info on this change)

[Billyonemate]

these are not the actual keywords, similar, but not the actual ones.

[aakk9999]

Thanks, my mistake, I missed this from your OP

[Billyonemate]

this gets more weird by the minute, now i have noticed that if use the "site" command on G my pages rank differently than without it.

e.g.
site:mysite.com luxury jamaica vacation
my jamaica page comes up as #1 and the homepage as #2.

same search without the "site" part. my homepage comes up in #35 and my jamaica page is nowhere to be seen! (in top 200)

Any ideas, does this sound like a penalty?

[htdawg]

hey billy i check your keyword "luxury jamaica vacations" with that program and according to it you shouldn't be getting any traffic for it
I think whoever made it should have another look at it ha ha but what do you expect for $99.95