Websites, blog posts, articles, and web pages are published every day.
To keep up with the ever-increasing amount of internet content, Google is constantly updating and adding new search results.
And these updates result in the Google Dance: a term most commonly used by web developers and digital marketers.
In a nutshell, Google Dance is the name given to the periodic changes that Google makes to its search engine results pages (SERPs). This change can cause fluctuations in rankings for websites.
The Google Dance usually occurs every month or two, and typically lasts for a few days.
In this blog, we will explain what the Google Dance is, how often it happens, why it matters and its relation to SEO.
What is The Google Dance?
The Google Dance is a term used to describe the practice of web pages jumping ranks when Google alters its rankings and re-examines websites; sometimes referred to as the “random ranking factor”.
When you modify or add to a website, you should anticipate changes in Google’s SERPs. The Google Dance, on the other hand, causes fluctuations even when nothing has been changed.
To put it differently, when a page is deemed to be no longer relevant, it will be demoted in Google’s search results.
The algorithm is always changing the position of pages on their site; as new web pages are created and old ones removed or become obsolete, Google adjusts its findings.
And Google is constantly scanning websites, looking for updates and assessing their value and relevance. This naturally produces fluctuations and changes in how search engine results are ordered.
How Often Does The Google Dance Happen?
The Google Dance was a major ranking change for roughly once a month when Google’s previous algorithm was in effect. Because the website is always updating and analysing online content, the changes are less significant than they used to be with Google’s present algorithm.
The Google Dance still affects rankings, and you should anticipate some fluctuation anytime you update your website.
The Initial Role of Google Dance
For a while, Google Dance was referred to as a procedure in which different search results for the same keywords were shown.
The causes of these variations were data centre outages that prevented information from being updated; data updates vary in time and frequency.
As a result, users may obtain different search results by using the same keywords, even on the same device, within a short period of time.
However because different sorts of crawlers have been updating the site on an ongoing basis since 2003, the phrase Google Dance has gotten outdated.
At the moment, Google’s robots are indexing new material on websites much more rapidly, so rankings adjustments can be noticed on a daily basis.
The Importance of The Google Dance
The Google Dance is significant because it may have an impact on how your website ranks in search engines, resulting in more or less traffic to your page.
The takeaway from the Google Dance is that most of the adjustments are only temporary: while Google re-reads and re-ranks websites, your website’s Google search ranks may fluctuate.
Minor Google Dance changes are typical and should not be cause for alarm. If you try to modify your website right away because of a minor Google Dance variation, it might make things worse and damage your Google ranking.
The Google Dance and SEO
Google will always notice when changes are being made, and there have been instances when Google detects SEO practices that it temporarily ranks your website lower in the SERPs.
The Google algorithm, according to the firm’s patent, “may decrease the rank of a document in response to a positive change in its link-based information. After a period of time, the document’s rank may rise back to its new steady state (target) value.”
The secret is patience: if you allow Google time, it will reward superior white hat SEO practices slowly.
If you overreact to a sudden increase in your Google search engine results, Google may consider your action suspect because you are attempting to deceive the system in order to reach page one.
As you know, good SEO takes time. So don’t allow the Google Dance to undermine your SEO techniques.
Rather, take all fluctuations in your stride and keep implementing SEO best practices to see your rankings rise in time.
In the meantime, take a look at our SEO services here.