Google Dance

The past week or so has been my first Google dance. A little over a week ago, activity started to pick up on forums such as Digital Point, Webmaster World and SEO Chat. Everyone was reacting to the bizarre results being served by Google. Google has a number of different datacenters. So, when they roll out a new update, they can test it on one server and then roll it out completely. Last week, SEO professionals were in a frenzy as a check of various datacenters were producing all types of odd results. Webmasters who were in the top 10 for a competitive phrase were completely dropped by Google. The SERP’s were dancing. While I haven’t seen the drastic amount of movement on my sites, I have noticed a 20% decrease in traffic. In a business where the goal is to increase traffic, losing 20% in a week is not very good. This has caused me to join the ranks and obsess over what might come of this latest Google update. The good news, if there is any, is that the latest update is schedule for three phases. With phase one out of the way, it’s expected that we’ll see one early this week and then hopefully a final roll out with occur. I stand among many who believe the initial phase is problematic. I say that not just as a concerned webmaster, but also from the Google side of things. The results being returned for certain queries are questionable at best. Let’s hope the next phase of the Google Dance produces better results for site owners and end users.