Why is this website jumping in and out of the top 100?

Hi guys,

I have a problem with a client's website and i need your help, the website keeps jumping in and out of the top 100 results every couple of days, and won't stay on the top 100 for more than a day or two, even then, it would be like at #75-99, and then goes back to anywhere between #110-190, some even go to #290 or out of the top 300, currently most of them are between #102-190.

This happens for all of the 25 keywords that I have been working on, and the only exception is if i search for the exact keywords in the domain name, i.e. if the domain is davidscookingrecipes dot com then it appears at the 5th spot for "davids cooking recipes" but without quotes, as i understand this defies the possibility of the website being penalized, also there are no warnings or penalty messages in the webmaster tools account.

The domain was registered on 2012 so it's not a fresh domain, it's a PR0, PA40 DA29, and I've been working on it for three months now, building web 2.0, guest posts, blog networks, 2nd tiers, etc. but none of the 25 keywords wants to enter and stay on the first 100. The client had two other websites in the same niche, one of them was a PR1 but wasn't performing at all so i advised him to 301 it to the domain I'm working on, waiting to see how it goes.

Forgot to say that the niche I'm targeting is not that difficult, I've managed to get the web 2.0's to the third page with sape, but can't get the website to the top 100, imagine the frustration!

I would understand it if it never touched the top 100 spots, or if it sticks at a certain position, but these hectic jumps back and forth are what i can't understand.

Does anyone have any experience with anything similar? and could this be an algorithmic penalty?

Thanks in advance

I think you need some stable authoritative backlinks, I have had somehing similar going on bu once I got some homepage links, rankings have settled down ever since.

I have the very same problem with my website , I bought an expired domain , I have six keyword five of them is out of the 300 serps, and one of them is bouncing exactly as you stated !
I did a good on page seo , I did not start to building link yet, as I wanna know if there are problems with the domain or something . I hope somebody have a solution for this !

I don't think it has something to do with an internal software problem because I think that he's using WP, at least I'm using wordpress ! I'm sure it has nothing to do with that !

greenerthangreen said:

I think you need some stable authoritative backlinks, I have had somehing similar going on bu once I got some homepage links, rankings have settled down ever since.

Click to expand...

I hope that's the case, still it's strange how the tier 1's manage to get to the third page without passing any authority to the website, they all have like 20-35 citation and 20-30 Trust flows, why isn't any of that authority/trust being passed on to the moneysite?

Also the website we 301'd to this domain was PR1 and used to show up between 8-10th page for the target keywords, and it has been like two weeks now still the domain I'm working on hasn't shown any signs of improvement.

Stefanthekid said:

Maybe it has to do with an internal software problem on the site you are using

Click to expand...

Like mrk89 mentioned, this has nothing to do with any software, the website is on wordpress and all onsite checks out without problems.

are you still building backlinks to it ?
if yes then its absolutely normal that its bouncing up and down the serps as the new backlinks get indexed.
but on the other hand the backlinks you have already built doesn't seem enough to push the money site past the 70 - 100 spot, i would suggest you get some niche related high PR low obl backlinks and give it a rest for few weeks to see where it settles.

edit: i never seen the post where you said your T1 are on page 3 which now makes it sound like you might have an on page seo problem ( over optimization maybe ?)

I wanna ask you something, I have been putting images in my articles with an alt and caption and both of them have my keyword, so would that be over optimization (is this consider repetition for the keyword ) ?

Thank you.

Mr.Fox said:

are you still building backlinks to it ?
if yes then its absolutely normal that its bouncing up and down the serps as the new backlinks get indexed.
but on the other hand the backlinks you have already built doesn't seem enough to push the money site past the 70 - 100 spot, i would suggest you get some niche related high PR low obl backlinks and give it a rest for few weeks to see where it settles.

edit: i never seen the post where you said your T1 are on page 3 which now makes it sound like you might have an on page seo problem ( over optimization maybe ?)

Click to expand...

Yeah, four of them in row on the third page, really frustrating!

Over optimization was one of the first thoughts i had, the highest keyword density on the home page is 5.6% for one single word, however that single word is part of all of the keywords I'm targeting, so if I'm using the same example i used in the first post it would be the word "cooking", the rest are all between 1.5-3%, could that be the issue?

well kw density isn't only about Titles and tags and the kws in content, 5.6% is a little too high if that exact same kw ( cooking) is being repeated over and over again in other pages. also kw density involves the categories names, any kw in the footer anything in the sidebar etc...
so when u look for kw density don't just think content and titles.
try looking at the site from a visitors point of view and see if your kw is being repeated here and there for no clear reason other than kw stuffing.
i personally don't use my kws anymore than 3% all over the site.
( i'm not a guru but i had good success optimizing sites)

Conflicting plugins perhaps?

Well you need high quality backlinks which index on regular basis

Update: Website jumped to the #35 spot for one of the keywords today, and then got slapped hard back to #140, so I'm kind of getting to the conclusion that it's an algorithmic penalty, i already went over all the onsite couple of days ago and tried to lower everything to below 2%.

Suspecting it could be the anchor density, i have one target keyword at around 20%, the links are from a press release that i bought from here a month ago, i thought nofollowed links would not incur over optimization penalties?!