Site Dropped 70 Positions in One Day - Google Dance?

[bigcat1967]

hey guys:

About six weeks ago I started backlinking w/ a new anchor text and was ranked around #290 in my niche. Well - over the last six weeks I sky-rocketed to #25 and held steady at that position for about two weeks. Then today, I dropped to #95.

I've done other sites before - and I've seen them do the google dance and then settle down. Haven't seen anything like this. What do you guys say? - is this a google dance where my site will bounce back up or maybe I shot up to quickly and it's settling around #95.

(also - I will keep backlinking)

 

[djbaxter]

No. The term "Google Dance" is an old one used to refer to the manner in which Google used to roll out updates in rankings or algorithms across all of their datacenters. If you monitored all the datacenters, you would see PageRank and ranking positions fluctuating across the datacenters, much as the VU meters in a recording studio dance up and down to changing volume levels. Additionally, as the update rolled out, you would often see evidence of Google tweaking it as it went along. At times, this could go on for days or a couple of weeks before it all settled down.

These days, Google has a lot more computing power and generally changes occur on an ongoing basis in a process called "everflux". When they do roll out a major algorithm change, as appears to be the case with Google Caffeine which is set to be launched sometime in January, they generally debug it on a test datacenter first (as is happening now) and then when the roll out happens it is generally a relatively smooth process.

What you are seeing is not a "Google Dance" but rather a pretty normal response to a significant change in a site or the launch of a new site.

 

[bigcat1967]

Thanks for the explanation Minstrel. I appreciate it.

 

[djbaxter]

I just came across this recent article by Barry Schwartz (aka RustyBruck) of Search Engine Land which includes a video by Matt Cutts explaining why they abandoned the old monthly "Google Dance" updates in 2003:

What Happened To The Monthly Google Dance?
by Barry Schwartz
Sep 23, 2009

Back in the ‘old days’ of Google and the SEO industry, “Google Dance” was a term used often in the industry. Back then, a “Google Dance” referred to the about monthly updates Google pushed out to their index. Every month or so, SEOs and Webmasters waited for the “Google Dance” to see if their rankings would increase or decrease – yes, this included PageRank updates. Nowadays, you rarely hear about people talking about a Google Dance because Google releases updates, mostly minor, throughout the day. These include index updates every minute and algorithm updates several times per month, over once a day.

Video by Matt Cutts: YouTube - Will you provide information about algorithm updates?

 

[stevereed1968]

I have dropped 560 places in one day as of yesterday. All I did was add a couple of new content pages to my WP site. It was earning be $5-10 per day from adsense too. Hope it returns quickly

 

[Pamela]

These days, Google has a lot more computing power and generally changes occur on an ongoing basis in a process called "everflux". When they do roll out a major algorithm change, as appears to be the case with Google Caffeine which is set to be launched sometime in January, they generally debug it on a test datacenter first (as is happening now) and then when the roll out happens it is generally a relatively smooth process.

This is a great explanation. I check SERP of few of my sites continuously during 2009. During first 9 months I did not see big and daily changes in my SERP. But last few months changes are huge and daily. It seems to connected to Google Caffeine.

 

[PeterPanMetha]

Yes, me too had got the similar experience, For few weeks, I was on page # 1 and then dropped, even If I kept on getting normal backlinks, I was not up. Later, what I did was, had run some linkwheels, about 5-6 times with unique content, as a result, I have got success and now steady. This may be help you, apart from that, Are you sure that, the ONSITE SEO is fine there?

 

[kosiosl]

hey guys:

About six weeks ago I started backlinking w/ a new anchor text and was ranked around #290 in my niche. Well - over the last six weeks I sky-rocketed to #25 and held steady at that position for about two weeks. Then today, I dropped to #95.

I've done other sites before - and I've seen them do the google dance and then settle down. Haven't seen anything like this. What do you guys say? - is this a google dance where my site will bounce back up or maybe I shot up to quickly and it's settling around #95.

(also - I will keep backlinking)

with what program you watch your position in search engines?

 

[cizzle]

I've had a sight drop around 300 places it was one of those infamous blog updates Google does though.

 

[pengerik]

Actually I've never heard of "Google Dance" as I'm fairly new to SEO - so thanx for explaining it for a freshman like myself

 

[bobwilson37]

It's the effect of Google caffeine. Some data servers already running Google caffeine algorithms. In hours of time you can find change in positions.

 

[FaTaLiT33]

hmm first time hearing about everflux and nice info minstrel

 

[djbaxter]

Matt Cutts: What's an update?
September 8, 2005

What is an update? Google updates its index data, including backlinks and PageRank, continually and continuously. We only export new backlinks, PageRank, or directory data every three months or so though. (We started doing that last year when too many SEOs were suffering from "B.O.", short for backlink obsession.) When new backlinks/PageRank appear, we've already factored that into our rankings quite a while ago. So new backlinks/PageRank are fun to see, but it's not an update; it's just already-factored-in data being exported visibly for the first time in a while.

Google also crawls and updates its index every day, so different or more index data usually isn't an update either. The term 'everflux' is often used to describe the constant state of low-level changes as we crawl the web and rankings consequently change to a minor degree. That's normal, and that's not an update.

Usually, what registers with an update to the webmaster community is when we update an algorithm (or its data), change our scoring algorithms, or switch over to a new piece of infrastructure.

 

[RameshP]

Me too had over come this kind of issue. I had a new site, which was ranked on # 14 after more hard work. I was there and tried to move up with more backlinks, but unfortunatley, I was dropped to #157 and was there about 3-4 weeks. Even backlinks from my regular sources did not help me. Then, I went with backlinks via web properties 2.o sites & applied Angla's method. As a result, I was ranked on #3, Still I am there for serveral weeks. - I hope my experience will help you to overcome your problem