You may run an E-Commerce store or a travel blog. In both cases, search rankings are likely your top priority. People spend much time and effort to optimize websites for rankings in popular search engines like Google. Still, why search rankings can be so volatile? Rankings directly impact how visible your website or web page is on the SERP for a particular query. Obviously, it can be painful to see a Google update make rankings drop after you put in all that effort. This blog explores what search engine rankings are and why they can seem so volatile.
Table of Contents
Why Search Rankings Can Be So Volatile?
Like any search engine, Google aims to offer the best and most relevant results for each search query. There are more and more internet users than ever before, thanks to affordable and reliable services availability. This means Google sees millions of search queries every single day. To do that, Google needs an extraordinarily refined and fluid mechanism to rank and display results for a search query. This is where the ranking system comes in. This blog explores:
- Understanding Search Rankings
- How Google’s Algorithm Updates Affect Rankings
- Content Updates and Their Impact on Rankings
- Other Factors That Influence Search Rankings
- Conclusion
Explore more.
Understanding Search Rankings
Why are search rankings so volatile and fluid? Understanding that first requires that we look at how search rankings are calculated in the first place. Google starts by indexing all the websites and webpages that are available across the internet.
Think of Google’s index as an organized library for all the books ever written in the world. The index allows Google to find the best possible results for a given search query with relative ease.
To find the best results for the SERP, Google looks at both contextual relevances and website authority or trustworthiness. Contextual relevance examines the type of content and its relation to the query in question.
At the same time, Google wants to display results from reliable resources or websites with higher domain authority. This is why so much importance is placed on earning high-quality links from other high-ranking websites to improve your ranking.
Now that we understand how search rankings are determined, we can move onto the factors that impact them.
How Google’s Algorithm Updates Affect Rankings
Updates to Google’s proprietary algorithm often affect search engine rankings. That is another reason why search rankings can be so volatile. You have to remember that the algorithm is not a monolith of code.
Google periodically updates it, so the algorithm is continuously evolving. In the first decade of its existence, Google had to make massive changes to prevent webmasters from abusing its algorithm. With refined parameters, blackhat techniques like link-spamming went out of the window. In fact, if you try these techniques, Google will likely penalize you and lower your rank.
In the years that followed, Google has continued to improve and modify its algorithm. The Panda and Penguin updates improved standards even further. Google also frequently releases smaller updates during a year.
Of course, the internet giant is very secretive about its update. After all, it is what makes Google what it is. These updates can have a range of impact on your search engine rankings making them so volatile. They can deal with content evaluation, evaluating backlink quality, or even how user queries are interpreted.
Nearly every update has some effect on search rankings. But they usually target specific types of websites or industries. So it’s rarely across the board.
Content Updates and Their Impact on Rankings
Content on the web is in a constant state of flux. New content is added on the internet every day. Remember that you aren’t the only one continually improving your website with optimized content. Many other people are doing so as well.
Often, new content from a competitor can help it rank higher than you in the SERP. Conversely, new content on your website might push up your ranking for a specific query.
Other Factors that Influence Search Rankings
Several other factors influence search rankings for websites and make them volatile. Google’s attention to personalizing search results for individuals is something to consider. To put things in context, two people entering the same search query will see different results. They do so at different times and places. Of course, that’s not the only factor.
RankBrain is a Google tool. It uses machine learning to understand search context better. In other words, it tries to understand what people want beyond the search query’s words. That means rankings always change as RankBrain learns more.
Google also frequently introduces new features that impact the SERP layout that makes search rankings more volatile. For example, the featured snippet section aims to show a snippet of the most relevant search result.
Getting a content snippet featured on the SERP could improve your rankings considerably. Of course, Google also continuously indexes new content on the website. Often, it can take time for your website to be indexed appropriately before it can be ranked.
Conclusion
The internet is a vast tapestry of information. Search engines like Google help us find the information we need. They make it easy and quick. To do this, Google has a proprietary rankings system to organize the results on the SERP. However, search rankings can often seem volatile because a lot of factors come into play. But don’t worry about why search rankings can be so volatile. Google will always show the best results when you search for, say, Cox Customer Support or a local eatery. That is why it remains a dominant force in the search engine industry.
FAQ
Why Search Rankings Can Be So Volatile in different industries?
Search rankings can experience volatility due to varying competition levels, changes in user intent, and algorithm updates that favor specific content types relevant to particular industries.
Why Search Rankings Can Be So Volatile after algorithm updates?
Algorithm updates aim to improve search quality, which can lead to dramatic shifts in rankings as websites may be penalized or rewarded based on adherence to new guidelines.
Why Search Rankings Can Be So Volatile for seasonal content?
Seasonal content often sees fluctuations in search rankings because user interest peaks and wanes throughout the year, impacting the visibility of related web pages in search results.
Why Search Rankings Can Be So Volatile due to backlinks?
The quality and quantity of backlinks can significantly affect rankings; new backlink strategies or the loss of high-value links can lead to rapid changes in a site’s authority and visibility.
Why Search Rankings Can Be So Volatile for local searches?
Local search rankings can fluctuate due to factors such as changes in local business listings, reviews, and the dynamic nature of local competition, which can all impact how search engines rank results.