Google Dances

Exclusive Interview With Jodi Golisek, Search Engine Marketing Professional

Jennifer: Hello, Jodi. Thank you for joining us today to discuss the changes in search engine results.

Jodi: Hello, Jennifer. Thank you very much for inviting me. I am pleased to be here with you today.

Jennifer: We had quite the time catching up with you to get an interview. I know your time is pressed, so let's get right to the core of the matter. What is going on with Google? Is "Google dancing"?

Jodi: Google is ever changing. Sometimes, those changes are more evident than other times. The phrase "Google is dancing" is greatly misused. Often times, when people use the term, "Google Dance", they mean that all results are changing. For example, a site that previously ranked high is now ranking low, but ten minutes later, it is back up in the top. Hence, the dancing effect. In reality, the term "Google Dance" was born out of the process of index updates. Google maintains many datacenters. Previously, whenever Google conducted an update of the database content, the update began with one datacenter and moved across all datacenters until such time that all datacetners were updated. When all datacenters had been updated, the results would remain more consistent; during the update, the results fluctuated. The reason for the fluxuation was simply a matter of path. That means that the results you saw online were a result of which database your query hit. People often used the term to describe an effect of all results; in reality, the effect was an "everfluxing" outcome of datacenter updates. Google's updates have streamlined over the years. Today, they are much faster. Google still updates its index, and separately performs a content refresh. Google tweaks its algorithm, which causes an effect on results; Google updates its index and refreshes its data, both of which also cause an effect on results. An index update is a type of a data refresh, and in fact, they are basically the same thing... basically so, because most data changes are a result of an index update.

Jennifer: Can't people just copy a success website and gain the same type of results?

Jodi: No, Jennifer, they cannot. In fact, that type of strategy will likely produce a very negative result. It could get a site kicked out of the search results in some situations, such as if one site were to duplicate another site's content. Fortunately, for those who are the victims of another's evil doing, Google has a particular way of assessing what is happening online. So, even large development companies are not "above the law", so to speak. As always, write well and daily, faithfully, optimize for the page, not the search engines, and share. I've always said, "you get back what you put out." That is very true on the net.

Jennifer: What about ranking reports?

Jodi: Ranking is an interesting subject. First, it is almost always subjective. Which terms will you opt to use to determine your ranking position? Your name? Your primary business? Something associated with your primary business? Which term or terms matter? Ranking reports merely tell you one very small piece of the whole puzzle and then only for those words that you inject. Ranking reports assess only that which you ask to have evaluated, you cannot possibly think of all of the numerous combinations that every single human searches, and they are only one tool. You should not consider building a web presence life around one's tools ranking report. On the other hand, if you are referring to Google Page Rank, it is important to keep in mind that page ranking by Google is only one single criteria of a successful online presence; it will not make a break a program. You also should not manage a program for high page rank, rather, manage all programs to 1) give the most and best possible utility to end users, and 2) provide it in an easy format so that people can find it. It really is that simple.

Jennifer: Okay, so why not just optimize your site for those top 50 terms?

Jodi: You don't build a winning website or a successful online presence by optimizing to meet search engine objectives. Those objectives are a moving target; rather, you build a successful online presence by providing quality content and good utility for end users. If you continually seek to meet the primary marketing objective (i.e. to satisfy the needs of the end user), the search engines will either be one step ahead of you or one step behind you - but trust me here, they will catch up quickly.

Jennifer: What about submitting your site automatically?

Jodi: Do you mean with a tool, or a service?

Jennifer: Either one.

Jodi: Personally, I would never recommend any form of automatic site submission to any of the major search engines. Google has a post on their site that says they will reject automatic submissions. As for services, it matters what type of service, how they handle submissions, and what they include in the submission process. For example, if the service uses a tool to handle submissions, you wouldn't want to use them. Submissions should be handled manually where all of the major search engines are concerned. Of course, tools are handy for miscellaneous submissions to a vast number of directories. But then, there is that yo-yo effect you are seeing online right now that tells you that even those types of listings will not be valuable.

Jennifer: What about link popularity tools?

Jodi: Those are the same as automatic submission tools. Sites that supposedly reveal popularity of a website are not always correct. Their information is sometimes incorrect or incomplete.

Jennifer: Thank you for taking the time to talk with us today, Jodi.

Jodi: You are very welcome, Jennifer. I hope it was helpful.