Many of you may have seen your site’s ranking on Google Search Results (SR’S) fluctuate and you have wondered why. Recently, one of our subscribers asked me the same question and I thought it would be beneficial to post an answer for everyone.

I have personally seen Google search results fluctuations since I started my SEO career. For one thing, if it wasn’t for Google changing the search results pages, none of our clients would have had top of Google rankings, right?

But what we mean here is gaining and losing first page or top positions in cycles. Normally, this doesn’t happen for very competitive keywords, as top players always have SEO experts on their sides. But for less competitive keywords, this is a common phenomenon.

Here are some reasons that you see your site’s rankings fluctuate on Google:

1- Posting fresh content: Google values fresh content on sites. Adding a new story to your blog, posting a new article on your site or simply rewriting your site’s homepage could trigger Google bots to move you up the scales a few notch. Same could go for your competitors. However, the improvements in rankings don’t last that often unless you keep on updating your site’s content.

2- Optimization Removal: if our SEO team has optimized your site and you have over-written the optimization work by uploading your old files to the server, you have caused your site’s rankings to be dropped. In this case, you can ask our team to re-upload the files.

3- Different Google bots: each Google bot (spider) uses a slightly different algorithm; so, theoretically, when different spiders visit your site, they would rank your site according to their algorithm.

4- Duplicate content: this is also more likely a theory as I have not seen the proof of it, but I was just reading Google Webmaster Help and someone had claimed if your site’s content is copied by someone else, it could fluctuate your rankings. However, what I’ve seen with duplicate content is that rankings will drop to 10+ pages of Google SR’s.

We appreciate your comments/questions.

On May 10th, we went live with our re-designed Web site and already the site is paying dividends. The “Top of Google Guaranteed” deal has been receiving far more inquiries than previously. Four to five new businesses a day are now seeking our help with marketing their Web sites. Compared to the previous Web site, this is about a 100% improvement.

“I am very excited about all the attention the new site is generating,” said Master Google President Ali Husayni. “It is attracting people who are looking for our services and now they can contact us more easily. Our SEO services business has gotten a real boost from the new Web site.”

The “Top of Google Guaranteed” package promises that we will get a client’s Web site among the top five sites when searching on that business’s main keyword. If we cannot get the site within the top five after a few months, the client’s fees will be refunded 100%.

Simpler to use, our new Web site is also more technologically advanced than the earlier version. Designed with Web 2.0 standards in mind, it is more interactive, making the Web site user the center of the experience. Each part of each Web page is designed to give visitors superior performance.

With a contact form that is simpler to fill out, the site also loads more quickly. Visitors can navigate the Web site more quickly and locate the information they are looking for. The site also includes a new video explaining how our SEO Web marketing services are unique.

Although we can help most of the prospective clients who reach us through the Web site, we must turn away companies that do not qualify for Top of Google placement (most often because of their market’s extreme competiveness) or that cannot devote enough funding to their Google SEO marketing efforts.
“Our plan for placing each site at the Top of Google is individualized for each client because each market is different,” said Husayni. “But, clients do need to understand the realities of the market when they select a budget.”

With greater competition in national and international markets, businesses at that level need to designate at least $20,000 – $50,000 to their annual SEO marketing budget – if they want to be successful. Although some kinds of local business are more competitive than others, most local businesses need to allocate at least $10,000 annually.

“I personally give each qualified prospect their proposal for Top of Google rankings,” explained Husayni.

Since launching the company in the summer of 2009, our profile in the SEO world has been rising. Recently our Google Page Rank went from a 4 to a 6 and we released our e-book, Google Secrets Revealed, in March 2010.

Google rankings of many Web sites suffer greatly because of a phenomenon called “duplicate content.” One of our clients, cryoserver.com was penalized (red-flagged) for this particular reason prior to signing up with us. The site was ranked on page 13 of Google SERP’s for one of their main keywords.

Duplicate content refers to “substantive blocks of content” that match or are similar to “content within or across domains”, according to Google webmaster central. Google simply reduces the ranking of both pages/Web sites if it notices similar content being posted.

Here are some examples of duplicate content and tips on how to resolve them:

Mirrored Sites
Having mirrored sites refers to the same Web site being hosted on two or more different domains. This was basically what cryoserver.com had done. They had their site hosted on cryoserver.com as well as forensiccs.com.

Use a domain-level redirect from one domain to the other to resolve the mirrored sites issue. Also, use 301 redirects for any linked-to Web pages within the redirected domain.

We asked cryoserver.com to redirect the mirrored domain to the main one. After only one week, Google removed the red-flag and now their site ranks on the 3rd page (still some SEO work is needed to get them to the first page).

The same for-sale items on e-commerce Web sites
This is very common when it comes to e-commerce sites. Many URL’s are dynamically created and linked to from the home-page or other pages. Or simply, one product is placed within different categories. To resolve this issue, you should avoid dynamically building your pages and use different description even for the same products if they’re placed on different categories (having different url’s).

Copied text to be placed on competitors Web sites
If someone copies your text and place it on their site, your site could be penalized (flagged) by Google spiders for having duplicate content. This doesn’t happen too often, but when it does, it reduces your site’s rank on Google dramatically. To resolve this issue, you should contact the site that copied your text and ask them (by using all means) to remove the stolen text from their site. If they don’t comply, you should just rewrite your own content (painful, but it’s easier and less expensive than hacking the other site and removing your text).

Print-only versions of Web pages
Avoid print-versions if at all possible. If you cannot, use a “no-follow” tag wherever you link to a print-version copy of your Web pages.

Web pages that generate a mobile-friendly version
Similar to above, use “no-follow” tags so Google spiders don’t follow the link.

If you have any other questions, don’t hesitate to ask. We will respond to all questions in a timely manner.

This is a question often asked by many Webmasters who do not see their site on the first page for their keywords. Google bans/flags sites that use spam (black-hat) SEO techniques. Most of these techniques are used when the site is optimized using unacceptable SEO techniques, which are referred to as “black-hat” – thus the Web site owner/Webmaster has full control over the use of such techniques. Unfortunately, Google doesn’t notify Web site owners if their site is flagged, neither places an error in Webmaster Tools. And finding the answer takes a bit of expertise on your part.

To know if your site is banned (red-flagged) by Google, follow the following steps:

1- Copy a portion of your site’s content (at least two sentences) and paste them into Google search within quotes (“your site’s text”). That way you’re asking Google to return only the sites that have that exact content. If you only see your site in the search results, that means everything is fine. If you see other sites listed next to yours, but yours is at the top, that means the other sites have copied your text and that’s not a good thing, but your site is still not flagged. However, if your site is not ranked at the top or is not listed at all, that means either your site is flagged, or you have copied someone else’s text – neither of which are good news.

2- Search Google for some of the keywords within the title tag of your site (the title tag appears within your site’s back-end code as as the text after <title> – also, it shows up at the top of the browser when you load your site. If your site comes up #1, or towards the top of Google search results, then it is not banned.

3- Search for your main keyword (which is also part of your title tag if you’ve optimized it correctly). If your site is within the first 10 pages, then most probably it is not banned. If it is listed after the 10th page, it is most probably flagged. I say “most probably” because this very much depends on many factors such as selecting your main keyword correctly, etc.

And if my site is red-flagged, is there any chance to get it un-flaged?

In most cases, yes; you can get your site un-flagged – and lately Google does this rather quickly. To un-flag your site, follow the following steps:

1- Identify why your site was flagged in the first place. Some of the common reasons are using duplicate content, keyword stuffing, door-way pages, etc. (for a better list, you can read our Google SEO eBook). This is by far the most important step. If you’re unable to identify why Google has flagged your Web site, there is no way for you to help remove it.

2- Remove the “black-hat” SEO technique that got your site flagged. If you used duplicate content, re-write it. If you used keywor-stuffing, remove them, and so forth.

3- Next time Google spiders visit your site, they will notice that you have removed the spam techniques and will slowly give your positions back on the search results. If you want the process to take place faster, get some inbound links for your site.

In general, avoid using questionable SEO techniques on your site – especially do not ever link to sites you do not know their online reputation. Read extensively on the subject before you go for optimization of your site or consult someone who knows the game. There are many gray areas that you could go into and sometimes the lines between white-gray-black are blurred.

Good luck with getting your site ranked at the top of Google.

We are in the process of re-designing our Web site and will launch the new version on May 10th. The new Web site will be more technologically advanced and easier for visitors to use.

The new site has been designed to Web 2.0 standards. It will be beautiful, but simple in its design. In keeping with Web 2.0 principles it will also be more interactive, making the user the center of the site. Every element is engineered to give visitors a better experience.

The new site will also load faster. It will be more intuitive, making it easier for visitors to navigate the site’s pages and find the information they need. The site will include a new video feature that explains why our SEO services are unique. The contact form will also be much easier to fill out.

“I am very pleased with my team’s work to this date in planning, designing, and developing our new site,” says Ali Husayni. “It features some of the most appealing design features with the state-of-the-art Web development technology to create the best user experience on the Web. Truly, it is going to be a work of art. I’m so excited to hear our friends’ feedback.”

Our profile in the SEO world has been rising since Master Google was launched last summer. Our Google Page Rank recently increased from a 4 to a 6 and, in March 2010, we released our e-book Google Secrets Revealed. We also offer free SEO services for small-business Web sites and have optimized the Web sites of over 390 businesses – for free – since launching the offer in August 2009.