Google SERP Yo-Yo Effect

[valex]

I'm really struggling to solve this and because the subject hasn't been discussed recently and I'd like to bring this up again.
I've got a 3 years old site, well linked which is experiencing this effect for the second time this year.
The site used to rank very well for the last couple of years and during January the traffic was better than ever, but on 21st Jan I've lost almost 1000 unique visits per day from G and 90% of my keywords dropped from page 1 to anywhere down to page 18. For the rest 10% the site is steadily on page 1. On 3th Feb the traffic returned and everything was normal for 2 weeks until 27th Feb wen the traffic disappeared again. The site has't recovered yet, but I can not see any sign of a penalty. The same keywords/phrases which left to rank well last time are ranking even better now! Most of them are #1-#3, but if I change slightly the combination my site disappears again.
I would really appreciate if someone shares a similar experience and of course if tells me if there's a reason or a solution for this.

[FlashDriveDT]

< moved from another location >

Google has been acting very strange with my site ever since the February algo upgrade. Has anyone else experienced the following type of behavior with google and can give some insight or suggestions? This is driving me nuts!

Now first of all Ive been ranking in google for almost two years with this site. For two keywords for my homepage and for several keywords for several deeper pages. And each month I add new keywords I do backlink campaigns for. Usually what happens is that once enough backlink juice was created for a keyword I would appear on SERP page one and maybe climp up to the top 3 if I did even more backlinks. Every time I did a new keyword it would not effect any of the other keywords/rankings.

All that seems to have changed since February!? My homepage ranking was completely out of google and didn't get to its old spot until I did more diverse backlinking (more anchor text variety). Ok, fine. But now when I do new keywords with deeper pages and diverse anchor text, my main homepage ranking and other rankings keep getting effected. Like yesterday my homepage was completely out of google again just to reemerge to its old spot today. On the other hand, another keyword ranking for a deeper page has disappeared from google. This one also disappeared for a couple of days over a week ago.

What is going on? Since when does google act like this? These keyword rankings that disappear arent new keyword rankings. I dont understand why it goes out of google completely. Its like since February, google has become extremely sensitive with my site and I cant figure out for the life of me why. Cos from what I understand the algo update mainly concerned scraper sites, duplicate content etc This should actually benefit me. Yet I get these frequent quirks from google that seem methodical.

There's another deeper page ranking that has totally vanished too since February. And doing the same type of diverse backlinking I did for the homepage ranking has not helped so far. It keeps off the radar. (Almost a whole month now).

Is it possible that after a certain amount of keywords that are all in the same niche and from the same website, google puts up a limit? Like a maximum keyword limit? Or in other words your site hits a general plateau? Have you guys ever heard of something like this or had it happen to you? Any help & feedback would be appreciated!

p.s.: Im well aware of the google dance and I had my plenty share of that but this is not the google dance. Before february, at least for me, the google dance would only happen for newer keywords and would not bump me out of google completely for other keywords....

[edited by: tedster at 6:17 pm (utc) on Mar 8, 2011]

[tedster]

We had just a few reports about this kind of behavior since the Caffeine infrastructure went live, but recently there are a lot more.

No one I know is exactly sure what it means about how Google works, but this is a relatively common new behavior - extremely dynamic and shifting.

[FlashDriveDT]

Are you saying this type of behaviour is here to stay? *eek*

Btw, Ive perused some of the other threads here and boy, sure looks like this google thing has gotten a lot of folks this time. I guess it may take a while to really figure this one out!

[tedster]

Yes, I think the potential for this kind of behavior is with us for the foreseeable future. To me it looks like a residue from the kind of machine-learning that is now a major ingredient in how Google ranks and adjusts things.

Many times, the Google machine learns what it needs to know about a URL/query pair and things do stabilize. But our previous mental model for the black box labeled "How Google Works" is not matching today's reality, and it's more than new algorithm factors in play.

[backdraft7]

This is similar to the Zombie traffic patterns I had describe in an earlier post.
After the recent shakeups, my serps are way up, in fact occupying four consecutive positions for some of my major key phrases. I have been comparing notes with a few other WebmasterWorld members and they are seeing identical traffic yo-yo patterns. It's to the point where I can predict a days sales within the first hour or two of the day.

Not sure if it's coincidence and only continued observation will tell, but whenever Google does those goofy logo changes to commemorate some occasion (like today), it seems that day is slow. Why? Who knows. But on slow sales days, my traffic seems to be coming through the "back door". My audio tracking doorbells grow silent and so do sales, yet my apache graphs show and traffic stats indicate normal traffic flow.
I have been noticing this behavior since right after May Day.

My only assumption is that down stream, some site or listing that usually sends traffic through the home page is redirecting traffic through side doors and back doors of the site.

This usually lasts a day or two then BANG traffic starts coming through the front door again.
With the multiple position listings I am seeing for many of my pages, I guess this is understandable.
My site structure is such that no matter what page you enter, you can still access any of the main areas and buy page easily, so that is still odd. It's almost like fishing with great bait on a day when the fish just don't wanna bite. That or maybe the fishin' hole is running dry or being polluted.

Comparing the last few years (pre May Day 2010) steady sales flow with the recent trends, it's definitely a Yo-Yo pattern.
I feel we're gonna see a lot of zero sales days this summer. That's not happened in 10 years, but last summer had many a 2 and 3 sale days.
Can't survive on that for long.

Good luck fishin!

[martinacastro]

I wrote last week this post [webmasterworld.com...] because happens the same to one of my sites, and seems that another one is experiencing something similar...

[valex]

Yes, the situation is quite similar - only that my site is quite older and established. The problem started after ranking on the first page for more than 2 years. This is not some kind of a Google dancing or sand-boxing which many new sites experience (this one as well when it was 2-3 months old). I'm thinking about some kind of a filtering - the site is not completely removed - it's still ranking for some keywords/phrases. For some of them it returns for an hour and than disappears again.

[Ummon]

I have the same thing, I was on page two up until the end of January when they rolled out the first algo change. Dropped to page 45. Then last week I was back on page one, Lasted for about a week and then back down to page 45. I really wish Google would give us some consistancy

[backdraft7]

I think we are seeing two separate issues here:
1. Where a site does not change appreciably in the serps, but traffic yo-yo's regardless.
2. Where a site clearly drops in and out of the serps causing the yo-yo.

Issue 1 has proved nearly impossible to diagnose, but I have my suspects.
Issue 2 is easier to diagnose and fix.

[damojackson]

Hi Backdraft

I have very similar problems to what's mentioned above on a few of my sites.

"Issue 2 is easier to diagnose and fix"

Please could you explain more, as i have tried everything and i don't believe there is a fix for it.