Rankings up, then nowhere, then up again! what is going on?

[Mark_A]

Rankings:
13/08/2010 blue green widget 10
19/08/2010 blue green widget >100
09/09/2010 blue green widget >100
08/12/2010 blue green widget 13
14/12/2010 blue green widget 14
20/12/2010 blue green widget >100

Seems very odd, bouncing from greater than page 10 to just about on page 1.

Anyone have any ideas what might be going on?

[tedster]

That sounds something like tjhe Traffic Shaping [webmasterworld.com] discussion. Have you checked one of those rankings several times throughout the day?

[Mark_A]

Thanks Tedster, I will take a look at that thread.

As to checking rankings during the day, I usually only check about once a week. I check manually so it is a time consuming process at the best of times.