Let’s shake a Google!

The Google Dance has been named by webmasters after the name of Google to explain a concept associated will all search engines. It is not surprising that Google’s reputation as a search engine reaches all over the world and thus has been minutely scrutinized by other search engines always. When Google shuffles the rankings of websites in its search engine results pages (SERPS), the results of a particular search on Google is very fluctuating. This is simply what is termed as ‘dance’. While the dance is taking place, the results of a particular search on Google varies from minute to minute. This change in the index in terms of outcome is instantly reflected on the SERPS, but the actual process takes over the next few days. It is not feasible for Google to shut down its operations or go offline till the updated index has been completely transferred. Thus, the results for a particular index ‘dance’ till the index update can reach all Google servers and be transferred.

What we need to remember
Google has three main servers which are www.google.com, www2.google.com and www3.google.com. While an index update is taking place, the results that will be visible on the three servers will vary to a large extent. Why is it so? Simple, this is because one server is reflected the updated index while the other is still showing the results of the old index.
Simple ways to know whether ‘the dance is on’ is by first making a search request on www.google.com and observe the blue bar that appears on top of the page. It shows ‘pages 1-12 of about 564,000’. The next step would be to do the same on www2.google.com and www3.google.com. By seeing if the number of total pages differs in each other, one will know if the dance is on. Once the numbers do not vary and the order of the results is the same on all the servers, we know that the ‘dance is over.’

Does the dance still happen?
Experts in the field believe that this does not occur now. However, the monthly update of the index list is a direct result of the deep crawl employed by Google’s spiders to crawl the web. People who regularly search the net strongly believe that the results fluctuate more than just once a month. This happens because Google employs a fresh crawl and continuously carried out to keep the index updated. ‘Everflux’ is a term that describes this frequent fluctuation that emerges in the results of a search. The fresh crawl does not determine whether the dance is on because this does not explain the variation in the total number of search pages. Remember a rule, if the three Google servers show a variation in the number of back links to important sites such as Yahoo or AOL, then just know that the ‘Google dance is on.’

So what does it all mean?
An important aspect to remember is that the monthly update does not lose its significance. Fresh crawls ensure that a continuous search of the web is taking place which causes pages to keep getting included in and excluded out of the result pages on a daily basis. Remember that Google’s ranking of web pages is determined by the deep crawl of the web. Don’t lose heart when your ranking drops suddenly among Google’s rankings. This is temporary and related to the Google dance, after five or six days you will be relieved when you observe that the rankings have stabilized. Do not try to compensate by panicking, keep the content quality high on your website and you will emerge the victor!

Maneet Puri - 10 years of industry experience has made him expert in all aspects of deploying a web based application. It could be web design, web development SEO or SEM. This not just enables him to develop & promote any website rather also enables him to act as a consultant for his clients to convert their requirement into a workable solution. Now he is heading a Web Development company, based in India with roots from the UK.