If you spend any time in the forums related to SEO you will note that one of the most frequent cries for help centers around a page’s drop in the search results. You will see many of these cries each and every day. In fact, if you follow the threads they can make for amusing conversations.

Let me start by making one thing clear – search results are extremely fluid! You could rank number one today and find yourself at number three tomorrow. To compound your confusion, two or three hours later you are back at number one.

Just to confuse you even more, your page may appear at number one when you do a search, however it may appear at number 10 (or worse) when I do a search. This is more a Google idiosyncrasy at present and the explanation lies in our surfing habits – or at least in what sort of searching we have been doing. Google is trying to match surf results to what it thinks I am looking for.

An example of this could be a search for ‘red widgets’. If my prior searching has used terms like ’small business red widgets’ or ‘red widgets for small business’ and my final search term is for ‘red widgets’. Google will try and provide results related to small business – even with the final search term. It is a rough analogy, but you can see how a user’s search patterns may be used by Google to try and narrow the search results.

Where you appear in the results at any given moment will depend largely on that moment. Fresh content, particularly from blogs, can often be found close to the top of the search results. Over 6-24 hours, that fresh content will slowly slip down the rankings until it finds it rightful place.

There is a simple philosophy that you can take when it comes to your position in the search results. First, undertake a strong SEO program for all the keywords that will help you meet your aims. You should then take note of your page’s position in the search results. If you do suddenly slip, check the page and be sure that everything is working. This includes links, both internal and external.

You should also check your site using Google Webmaster Tools. If there have been any serious issues, they will be flagged – fix them and with luck your page(s) will return to their rightful place(s).

All things being equal, if there are no issues with your pages and you are running tight SEO programs then you shouldn’t be worried too much by a drop in the rankings. What you are looking for is a long-term trend. If that trend shows you are generally moving up in the rankings, or, if you’re on the front pages, reasonably stable, then don’t worry about one off drops. Check back a few hours later, or even a day or two later and chances are, you’re back to your original ranking – that is one of the vagaries of SEO – rankings that never stand still.

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This entry was posted on Sunday, July 5th, 2009 at 8:55 pm and is filed under SEO. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.