Google Dance: SEO Web Marketing

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is important to consider when trying to get a website noticed, and it can help drive traffic and potential clients to your site. Understanding how search engines work is a crucial part of explaining your website’s web rankings and position on the search results page. The Google Dance is one of those terms that keep popping up, but what is it, and is it still relevant?

At the beginning of the noughties, Google would update its algorithm once a month, in one hit. This would impact the websites featured on the search results page, as each update assessed websites in its own way and gave them different rankings. This change in rankings was dubbed the Google Dance. Once an aspect of SEO that had to be considered and accounted for, the Google dance started going unnoticed from 2002, as Google implemented rolling updates. Instead of changing the entire recipe, ingredients were constantly tweaked and corrected without changing the full flavour of the dish.

With only parts of the Google algorithm altered, and these updates occurring constantly, the changes in rankings were no longer as abrupt as they used to be, and the search results page became less tumultuous. The Google Dance became something only SEO professionals remembered fondly – or with frustration. For years it was considered an outdated term, and something no one should concern themselves with any more.

However, there is some evidence towards the idea that the Google Dance may be making a comeback although the extent to which this is true and the scale of the dance is not yet known. Fluctuations in rankings have been observed in internet marketing communities, where concerns have been raised about the Panda Update and its impact on search results.

The Panda Update acts like a filter aiming to catch low quality content and keep it away from the front pages, but it is only introduced periodically and thus its results are far more noticeable than the other Google updates rolled out constantly. Moreover, it is unpredictable and websites that get caught by the Panda filter can’t apply to have their rankings restored, meaning they have to wait until the next “dance” and hopefully fall on the right side of the law this time. The Google Dance could well be back, and with Google announcing less and less updates before they are rolled out, it could have more impact than before.