{"id":112786,"date":"2017-07-12T16:57:00","date_gmt":"2017-07-12T21:57:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dacgroup.com\/googles-arty-experiments-with-keyword-rankings\/"},"modified":"2025-01-03T05:10:41","modified_gmt":"2025-01-03T10:10:41","slug":"googles-arty-experiments-with-keyword-rankings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dacgroup.com\/en-gb\/insights\/blog\/search-optimization\/googles-arty-experiments-with-keyword-rankings\/","title":{"rendered":"Google\u2019s \u201cArty\u201d Experiments with Keyword Rankings"},"content":{"rendered":"

Keyword rankings change all the time. It makes sense most<\/em> of the time. Consistently producing engaging, relevant content? Your keyword rankings should exceed your competitors\u2019. A competitor finally sorted out their categories? Their keyword rankings will probably rise, too. But what about when the fluctuations seem to occur out of nowhere? Following some original research, we\u2019ve concluded that Google has more going on in the background than most people realise. Read on to look at our findings and discover the real reason why your keyword rankings may be changing.<\/p>\n

Keyword Rankings: A Work of Art?<\/h3>\n

You\u2019ve probably heard more than one SEO claim that what they do is an art. We\u2019re certain most artists would disagree, but in this case, what you\u2019re going to see actually does<\/em> look like art. It all started when we were tracking the keyword visibility of several different brands using the Authoritas keyword tracker<\/a><\/span>. The keywords we\u2019re measuring are all non-branded terms, and the graph below is a SERP Market Visibility Share chart. They say \u201cdata is beautiful,\u201d but take a look at this: \"Keyword-Rankings-Graph\"<\/p>\n

(Data from Authoritas)<\/em><\/p>\n

As you can see, there are two big players in this space which outrank all the others. The keyword visibility for Brand A (the red line) and the keyword visibility for Brand B (the blue line) fluctuate in direct correlation with one another. Where one brand’s market visibility share rises 10%, their competitor’s falls 10%. Where one brand’s market visibility share falls 5%, their competitor’s rises 5%. If you didn\u2019t know better, you might think you were viewing a work of mirror art, not keyword data. Coincidence? Maybe if it were a one-off. But the data above spans from January 2017 to July 2017. That\u2019s six months of direct correlation. According to the rules of SEO, this shouldn\u2019t happen. Based on this data, we can conclude that Google is running A\/B tests on specific competitor sites in order to see which performs better and delivers the superior user experience. Clickthrough rates, bounce rates, number of purchases . . . Google could be measuring any number of metrics between these two sites. It will be interesting to see if the test is still running in another six months \u2013 or if Google will have finally selected the better-performing site to rule the SERPs.<\/p>\n

How Should SEOs Respond?<\/h3>\n

\"Keyword-Rankings-Image\" <\/p>\n

\n \n
\n
\n

\n Stay Forward <\/h2>\n

\n Get exclusive insights into digital
media's top-trending topics delivered
directly to your inbox. <\/p>\n <\/div>\n\n

\n
\n
\n
\n \n