| "Google
Dance" Causes Widespread Confusion
If
you've been involved in search engine marketing for
long, you may have heard of the phenomenon known as
the "Google Dance." No, this is not a hot
new dance step you'll see at your local nightclub. Instead,
it describes a scenario where Web pages tend to "dance"
up and down in rankings on Google, generally over several
days each month. The technical reasons for the so-called
Google Dance vary. Usually, they coincide with Google's
introduction of a new, fresher index at the end of the
month. At this time they may also introduce a change
in their ranking algorithm, an unintended bug in their
system, or a combination of the two.
Each
time this happens, some people drop in rank and some
rise in rank. Those that dropped in rank or disappeared
entirely often fall into a panic if their business was
receiving significant amounts of traffic from Google
prior to the change. Since Google has become so popular,
even a handful of rankings can net a business thousands
of visitors per month.
If the Webmaster made a change to his or her site when
the dance started, they worry that they did something
to inadvertently spam Google, causing their site or
page to be dropped. This, in turn, leads to countless
rumors on the Web. These rumors can develop a life of
their own until they are considered undisputable fact,
rather than what they normally are -- speculation.
On
the other hand, if the person did nothing to their site
since the last time Google indexed it, the Webmaster
may fall into a state of confusion as to what is going
on. A few weeks ago the number of messages regarding
Google on various discussion forums spiked at an alarming
rate, far more than any recent Google Dance.
Hundreds
of messages were posted in a matter of days indicating
that this was no ordinary dance. This one was "special."
In addition, the instances of pages appearing and disappearing,
and rankings fluctuating wildly have persisted beyond
just a few days at the end of the month, going on for
a full month or more. Many folks contend that things
have still not settled down as of June 5th, while others
feel the worst of it is now over.
Theories
on what has been happening run the gamut. Planet Ocean,
a well-known search engine research firm, speculated
that pages containing the mouse over tag, or links to
major affiliate networks such as Commission Junction
were being penalized. However, they later learned other
pages with these tags and links maintained their rankings.
Therefore, they admitted this may have little or nothing
to do with the wild fluctuations on Google.
One
of the more common theories is that the Google dance
is a combination of factors. While Google has not given
a full explanation for the recent anomalies, based on
comments from their representatives, we know that they
have been in the process of updating their index in
a bigger way than usual. This process has been ongoing,
being executed in phases. For example, there have been
credible reports that Google's index of page content
has not been kept in sync with their link analysis database.
This along with other technical factors have caused
Page Rank scores, link popularity scores, and rankings
to fluctuate wildly, at least for some Web sites, over
the past month. This should calm down as Google puts
everything in sync again.
Other
Web sites have disappeared in the index, only to reappear
days, or even hours later. Many have concluded that
Google's attempt to bring in fresher content along with
other changes in their system did not go as smoothly
as planned. There's also indication that changes are
propagating across Google servers at varying speeds.
That's why you can sometimes see different results on
the same search from your West coast office versus your
East coast office.
According
to a recent Search Engine Watch interview of Google
engineer Matt Cutts, the search engine has been testing
among other things, new spam filters. The article implies
that these tests may explain some of the anomalies that
webmasters are seeing. While Google remains fairly tight-lipped
about the new filters, Cutts admitted that they are
trying to crack down on hidden text and hidden links
on Web sites.
Obviously
not all hidden text is "bad." For example,
meta tags are hidden, but you'll not be penalized for
using them. However, Google does try to penalize pages
that use certain other techniques intended to hide text
or hyperlinks from the end user while making them visible
to the search engine. One common tactic to hide a link
is to use a tiny, 1-pixel image that contains a link.
Considering that Google already has the technology to
index image content, it is a fair bet that you will
be penalized for using such a common technique, or will
be penalized in the very near future.
Rather
than hiding links to pages, consider creating a site
map page that contains links to all your other optimized
pages. You'll need to link to this page from your home
page for Google to consider it as a legitimate sub-page.
In my opinion, you should avoid using any images for
this link that are smaller than what would be considered
a small button on a Web site. So long as the image is
of sufficient size and does not consist solely of transparent
pixels, Google would have great difficulty penalizing
it in any kind of automated process.
Technically,
you could still make any image, or a portion of a larger
image on your site serve as a link to your site map
page. Therefore, a clever Webmaster could still effectively
conceal one or more links from the average human visitor
without being caught by Google's new spam checks. However,
you should be very careful not to simply create GIF
images that contain nothing but transparent pixels.
If you do, you will surely be red-flagged for spamming.
Even if your site is still listed today, now is the
time to make sure it is "clean" before Google
completes all of its new spam tests.
Some
of the clever ways to hide keyword TEXT on a page will
likely be targeted as well, so bear this in mind! The
best thing to do is to design your pages in such a way
that hiding links and keywords becomes unnecessary.
As
for the Google Dance, I'd recommend that you be patient.
Run your pages through the WebPosition Page Critic,
and make sure your pages are free from spam, particularly
hidden text and hidden links. Work on building new incoming
links to your site and then simply wait until things
settle down. Take a deep breath and repeat after me,
"Everything will be fine -- I just need to relax."
This publication
may be freely redistributed if copied in its ENTIRETY.
Portions of this newsletter may be reprinted with permission.
(c) Copyright 2002 FirstPlace Software, Inc.
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