What is Google Dance?
Google Dance refers to the phenomenon where website rankings on Google’s search results pages fluctuate significantly within a short period. This occurs as Google updates its index and re-evaluates page rankings.
These fluctuations are common when new content is added or edited on a site, but they can also happen even when no changes are made, typically due to algorithm adjustments or technical issues.
Search Results Volatility Experienced by New Sites
Google dance is used to refer to changes in rankings observed in sites that are just beginning to rank in search results. This volatility typically occurs within the first few months of publishing content to the site.
At this point, the dance is considered an indicator of Google’s interest in the site. It continues as Google gathers data about the site, assesses its quality, and understands how it ranks against similar content. However, this disappears after a while, and the site doesn’t typically experience such intense volatility anymore.
While this event can be alarming to a new blogger, it is a normal part of the indexing process and is nothing to worry about. You could monitor the fluctuations but do not make hasty changes to your site or content based solely on the drop in rankings.
Why Sites Experience Google Dance
The Google dance was common in the early 2000s when Google released major algorithm updates at once. At the time, Google released the updates monthly, causing sites to rapidly lose and gain traffic within a short period.
Google dances have become rarer as Google now releases multiple algorithm updates daily. Google occasionally releases major updates that cause volatility on the search results pages, but these updates do not cause sites to lose and gain rankings quickly and are not considered Google dances.
Why Sites No Longer Experience the Google Dance
Google dances no longer happen because Google’s indexing process has evolved significantly. Google updated its index once a month at the time when the dances were common.
However, Google’s technology has improved ever since. Google also continuously updates its index and releases multiple updates a day, reducing the possibility of the dramatic fluctuations that characterized the Google dance.
Consequences of the Google Dance
Google dance had consequences for SEOs, bloggers, and even searchers. For one, SEOs and bloggers are always improving their sites and content to get more favorable rankings. Once done with these changes, they would monitor their site to see how the changes impact their rankings.
However, SEOs and bloggers would have experienced some difficulty understanding whether their improvements were responsible for the fall or rise in rankings or whether it was just Google dancing its thing.
In the case of searchers, the Google dance meant that multiple searchers could get different results for similar searches conducted around the same time. This could be confusing, particularly when the searches were done by the same person or people performing a few tasks together.