Search Engine Ranking Optimization Articles

The Google Dance

The Google Dance is a phenomenon that happens when Google is rebuilding its index (rankings). During this period results can differ wildly.

Google has 8 main servers. These are

www-ex.google.com or www.google.com
www-sj.google.com or www2.google.com
www-va.google.com or www3.google.com
www-zu.google.com
www-ab.google.com
www-cw.google.com
www-dc.google.com
www-in.google.com

During the update the servers are updated individually from one to another. The indexs are not updated in one go but gradually. This prevents downtime. If you check the results from one server to another during the update they will differ, and it changes as each server is updated, hence the term, Google Dance.

So why are we interested in the dance?

The reason people are interested in the dance is you can get a peep at the future by checking the other servers as they are updated before the main server google.com.

If you have introduced new pages and want to know if they have been indexed, checking Google2 and Google3 during the dance will tell you.

Of course you could just be patient and wait for the update to finish.

You can easily check if Google is dancing by doing a search with a phrase on Google.com and the same search on the others servers. Check the blue bar at the top. It will say something like "Results 1 - 10 of about 60,100.000." If the other servers are different, Google is dancing.

Quite often during the dance people worry because their rankings suddenly drop. If it has happened to you and the dance is still on, you will have to wait until it is over and the index settles.