Sometimes, I just don’t understand Google. I mean, I understand them, but it’s their algo that just baffles me sometimes. We all know that yes, your high traffic targets are always going to be tricky and the pointless keywords are always bringing you traffic that has no business being there. But in this case, I just don’t get WTF is going on here.
The Google Dance Slamdance
With my last Google SOAP API, I was able to get a digitalpoint Keyword Tracker account working before the big G pulled the plug on their API.. leaving everyone in the dark. I really do love the service from digitalpoint because if I wanted to micro-manage my keyword rankings every stinking day of the week (see boiling pot and watching it), I can do this and curse at my rankings or dance like a little fat kid in a candy shop. All depends on what psychotic mode Google is in for the day.
Back to my point, in my digitalpoint KT service, I’ve been watching the same high ranking keywords hit in the top 10 of the SERP’s, then violently drop past the 200th position every couple of days or sometimes within 24 hours of my last check. Now I know that these are high rankers, and that competition is constant for stealing my spot… but what exactly is causing almost daily jumps is beyond me. Have a look at this.. I highlighted some of the slamdancing I see going on.
The 5 columns where those numbers are are from left to right; SERP position, daily change, weekly change, monthly change, and date last checked . Now what I’m not able to show you is that since I do check this everyday (cuz my client is a spazz), I see daily jumps like those 9000 numbers on ONLY the high ranking keywords at least 90% of the time. The rest of the keywords as you can see, are like the unpopular kids at the prom… just sittin there watching the action go by.
Things I have considered
I know that this service tends to pull from different datacenters, so perhaps that can account for differences in rank. But differences this big, every day sometimes, is a bit unnerving. Also, any changes I make under the hood to the site, or any new links indexed that I might have gotten up for them can affect my rankings as well. But in this case, no site changes or new links have been generated for months now. So what’s the deal??
Conclusion
If anyone has a clue to this, please fill me in on it. Also, if anyone knows of a good web service that can track multiple keyword rankings at once (without the SOAP API), please let me know.. need to find a replacement for digitalpoint.
