Google Jumping?

[phuggett]

Hey All,

On the 13th December 04, for the search term 'maternity wear' on Google UK,

- We were listed on page 10 of SERP's
- Our main competitors were listed in Page 1 of the SERP's near the top, and have been for like 6 months
- The search result total was 207,000.
- Google's cached date were both v.recent for us and main competitor.

I did the same search on 17th December 04.
- We were still on page 10, but up a few places
- Our competitors had dropped to page 2 of SERP's in the middle of the page
- The search result total was 240,000.
- Googles cached date for us both had updated to a more recent date, and the cache for our competitors had all their images not working.

Lastly, both our recorded BL had increased by at least 100 each.

My question is really...what the hell???? Why the dramtic shift in our competitors rankings when they had been on page 1 of SERP's forever. Why the sudden increase in BL and yet no movement really for our own listing.

Am I looking at a different set of results from a different set of Google servers than usual???

HELP!!!

Thanks
Paul

[awall19]

they change their algorithms all the time. wide shifts in rankings are not uncommon.

[mazsola]

I am positive that there is something going on. So far the move is upward for us :-)

[younghistorians]

Originally Posted by mazsola

I am positive that there is something going on. So far the move is upward for us :-)

Something as in what? Like Aaron said, Google is constantly changing.

[thebassman]

There are huge changes in the serps going on right now... sites are dropping like flies, while others are jumping to the top...

[Dave Hawley]

Hi phuggett

As has been said, Google SERP's often change like this. Some terms sometimes are dramatic, while some terms sometimes are not dramatic.

Not sure how you are checking your backlinks, but Google will only show a sample of links by design.

All-in-all, what you describe doesn't sound that dramatic. But probably is to those effected. Many of our pages moved up the SERP's last week (some also fell but a lot less). This was do a jig time for us and "dramatic", but for the rest of the world it's just another day

Keep in mind that, for every page that falls another rises and vice versa.