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“Google Dance”
This phrase struck fear into the minds and hearts
of webmasters and SEO firms around the world for years. It was the time
of the month when Google would perform a major index update.
It was the time of the month when coffee sales
would skyrocket in delis closest to the web firm’s offices. And
thankfully it’s a time long past.
But that doesn’t mean that Google has stopped
updating; Far from it, in fact. It just means that the updates are
smaller and less noticeable.
And it’s been that way for about a year and a half
now - the smaller but more frequent updates noticed at Google. There
haven’t really been the major shakeups we were used to seeing - at least
until now.
That’s because a new system that Google has been
testing is starting to rear its head in the regular index.
The new system - codenamed Big Daddy - was
first mentioned in Matt Cutts’ blog as a follow up to a post which
was made. He then went into more detail in a
following blog entry. Essentially the new system is not an
algorithm update but an infrastructure change which will allow Google to
improve in the coming years.
I guess it’s similar to this: The Google updates
we’re used to seeing are akin to adding a new car stereo to your
vehicle. It’s not a major change, just an improvement. Subsequent
changes would be similar to a wax job or new tires.
Big Daddy is similar to putting a new motor under
the hood of your vehicle - it will give you more power and better fuel
efficiency.
There aren’t too many details about Big Daddy yet,
but we did write an article about it a few weeks ago.
You can find that article here.
Even though this isn’t an algorithm change like we
are used to, the same rules apply. That is, when (and likely if) you
see your site getting hit with less indexed pages and a drop in rankings
don’t panic. Just give it a few days to level out.
I know that’s hard to do - especially if your
bottom line is dependant on those rankings - but you have to.
This is because at this early stage we don’t know
what will or won’t affect your rankings, or even if it will.
Remember that Google is a moving target. It
doesn’t update the index wholesale. It does it in increments which
means while it may have applied the new rules to your site, it may not
have affected other sites that compete with you. Therefore if you react
too soon you could cause more problems than you solve.
Also remember that the results you may be seeing
haven’t yet spread across all the Google datacenters. That means while
you may have seen a drop, what you are seeing could be limited to your
geographic area. In other words, the change may not yet have affected
the other datacenters.
I guess what I’m saying is that Big Daddy is here
to stay. If you haven’t felt its effects yet, just wait because you
will. And a new infrastructure like this doesn’t always mean bad
things. It’s true that some sites are taking a hit, but there are also
some that are gaining at this time. |
SEO