Word order changes ranking when, and only when, reordering changes the intent or meaning of the query, which is why the answer is conditional rather than a flat yes or no. “Shipping containers” and “container shipping” are not two phrasings of one idea; the first is a product (steel boxes) and the second is a service (moving freight by sea), so they pull up sharply different results and reward different pages. That divergence is not a mechanical keyword-matching rule firing. It is Google reading two genuinely different requests and answering each on its own terms.
Compare that with reorderings that leave intent intact. “Best running shoes” and “running shoes best” mean the same thing to a searcher, and modern search treats them as the same intent, so shuffling those words barely moves results. The pivot, then, is not “did the words change position” but “did the request change.” When the new order describes a different thing, a different need, or a different category, you are effectively targeting a new keyword and you should expect different rankings and a different best-fit page. When it does not, you are looking at trivial variation that search already collapses together.
This cuts against both extremes. It is wrong to say order never matters because Google understands everything, since plenty of reversed pairs split into separate intents that a single page cannot serve well. It is equally wrong to insist you must always match an exact word order, since chasing every permutation as if it were a distinct target wastes effort on phrasings that resolve to the same intent. The useful rule sits in between: order matters as a meaning shift, not as a keyword formula, and you read each pair by its intent rather than its surface.
So before you assume two phrasings are interchangeable, run the simple test: search both and see whether the results, and the dominant intent behind them, actually diverge. If they do, treat them as separate targets that may each deserve their own page or section. If they do not, optimize once for the shared intent and stop fragmenting your content across cosmetic variants. Let intent, not word position, decide whether you are dealing with one keyword or two.