Originally Posted by NinjaSteve

Here's my theory.

You're aiming for a keyword or keyphrase however Google might think your content is spot on but it's about the end user too so it considers your inbound links, the visitor bounce rate from searches, and the impressions/clicks from searches and decides that your site isn't good enough quality. But once people start searching in Google, then clicking your link on page 3 or 10 or whatever, then if visitors start to stay on your site longer they decide your site is more relevant so they move you higher up. Once they do this... it's like a rinse and repeat because unless your site is awesome and users stay around longer and more relevant sites link to you.