Google Dance - Frequently Asked Questions

[Kappa]

I have a question. If I write a new article for my blog, and decide that I want to use backlinking on the inner page, does that usually cause the top level website to go through the "google dance" phenomenon?

[tjcocker]

I have not experienced this, no.

All pages go through the dance at different times without warning.

[HCLee]

I can relate my experience which may answer your question. I have a niche site with about 4 pages. The main page was on #1 and the sub page was on Google page 2. I wanted to improve the SERP for my page 2 keyword so I did lots of backlinking. It turned out, the Google dance struck and both home page and sub page disappeared in Google. Both got the Google dance. They came back 3 weeks later only to disappear again 2 days later as I did further backlinking. I guess this happens for new sites.

[Kappa]

Thanks, oh, I still don't know what to do.. my gut says the entire blog will go through Google dance which I wanted to avoid, but my traffic has been pretty horrible anyway so we'll see...

[dburk]

Hi Kappa,

The "Google Dance" is a term that refers to Google doing an algorithm update or a data refresh. It has nothing to do with what you are doing to your website, you have no control over it, there is nothing you can do to cause it or to prevent it. It's useful to be aware of it simply to prevent unnecessary worry or reaction.

[kkchoon]

Originally Posted by dburk

Hi Kappa,

The "Google Dance" is a term that refers to Google doing an algorithm update or a data refresh. It has nothing to do with what you are doing to your website, you have no control over it, there is nothing you can do to cause it or to prevent it. It's useful to be aware of it simply to prevent unnecessary worry or reaction.

From my own experience, Google dance happens when you don't build your link consistently...

Is either Google see a spike of links in today, and the next day zero, it might trigger a dance! However, this doesn't mean it is a bad thing, because when your page is back, it will rank a lot higher than before - thanks to all kinds of authority backlinks!

I had a rule myself, I don't do any on page optimization when my site ranking drop, because I did it few times my sites were filtered for a whole month!

[dburk]

Originally Posted by kkchoon

From my own experience, Google dance happens when you don't build your link consistently...

Is either Google see a spike of links in today, and the next day zero, it might trigger a dance! However, this doesn't mean it is a bad thing, because when your page is back, it will rank a lot higher than before - thanks to all kinds of authority backlinks!

I had a rule myself, I don't do any on page optimization when my site ranking drop, because I did it few times my sites were filtered for a whole month!

Hi kkchoon,

So you think that an individual webmaster creating backlinks for his website will trigger an algorithm update or datacenter data refresh? That seems highly unlikely. Google Dances happen, I just don't think they could be triggered by the actions of an individual webmaster, that boggles the mind to even consider it. That creates a visual in my mind of a quick response team of engineers standing by rewrite the algorithm every time I get a handful of backlinks.

A more likely explanation would be the normal effects of QDF or Trustrank factors that are sometimes referred to as the sandbox effect. New pages and backlinks haven't been around long enough to have earned trust so they don't rank high. If you're spamming links all over the place you will have most of them removed after a short period of time. That would have a significant negative effect on your rankings.

Again, this activity is not going to trigger a major algorithm update or disrupt then regularly scheduled data refreshes. That just seems like a silly notion.

[kkchoon]

Originally Posted by dburk

Hi kkchoon,

So you think that an individual webmaster creating backlinks for his website will trigger an algorithm update or datacenter data refresh? That seems highly unlikely. Google Dances happen, I just don't think they could be triggered by the actions of an individual webmaster, that boggles the mind to even consider it. That creates a visual in my mind of a quick response team of engineers standing by rewrite the algorithm every time I get a handful of backlinks.

Hey Don, Great to see you here again! We have some debate here...

I don't think, I did experienced this -

Whenever I build tons of backlinks to my site suddenly, say 400 backlinks at once! In few days, my site / page would drop many positions, although this is not always happening, but 7 / 10!

If my site is well established, this don't happen with little links, I need thousands of links in a day to temporary dance my page.

I am sure spike of backlinks would cause Google dance because the statistic speak for itself... this is from my own experience.

That's why I ask other Warriors not to freak out because the page dropped!

Originally Posted by dburk

A more likely explanation would be the normal effects of QDF or Trustrank factors that are sometimes referred to as the sandbox effect. New pages and backlinks haven't been around long enough to have earned trust so they don't rank high. If you're spamming links all over the place you will have most of them removed after a short period of time. That would have a significant negative effect on your rankings.

Again, this activity is not going to trigger a major algorithm update or disrupt then regularly scheduled data refreshes. That just seems like a silly notion.

Yes, I do admit trust rank does affect the ranking, because Google Dance mostly happen to new site, and most of the time during backlink building.

For QDF, I don't think my site ranking would drop so much, and many of the keywords I've is not trendy type of keywords, I think QDF doesn't affect my site ranking much.

I agree that using XRumer to gain tons of spam links, and got removed in short period of time would trigger Google Filter, it's call link velocity - the rate you gain links and lost it!

It depends on how we do the "spam", if all links stay long, you won't trigger the filter, but still dancing around... because I did checked my links, they are there !

I don't like the idea of mass spamming that don't stick, but I would do proper link building (A.K.A spam!) carefully...! More legitimate way of link building for me:

1. Article
2. Press Release
3. Web Directory
4. Link Bait page
5. Video
6. Podcast
7. Proper forum / blog comments

What I consider spammy link building:

1. Bookmarking
2. software directories
3. One way profile backlinks
4. General spam message on forum / blog

There are gray area with using XRumer... If you find niche related forums, and post Q&A style of comments, you can greatly increase your stick rate and many forum owners will welcome you!

Having said that, automated software still not as good as human work, but they save you a lot of time.

Kok Choon

[marc05]

I to agree google isn't updating it's alg. but instead just automatically recalculating placement in the serps for the site. This usually only happens when I ping a bunch of links instead of letting google find them on its own.

Originally Posted by dburk

Hi kkchoon,

So you think that an individual webmaster creating backlinks for his website will trigger an algorithm update or datacenter data refresh? That seems highly unlikely. Google Dances happen, I just don't think they could be triggered by the actions of an individual webmaster, that boggles the mind to even consider it. That creates a visual in my mind of a quick response team of engineers standing by rewrite the algorithm every time I get a handful of backlinks.

A more likely explanation would be the normal effects of QDF or Trustrank factors that are sometimes referred to as the sandbox effect. New pages and backlinks haven't been around long enough to have earned trust so they don't rank high. If you're spamming links all over the place you will have most of them removed after a short period of time. That would have a significant negative effect on your rankings.

Again, this activity is not going to trigger a major algorithm update or disrupt then regularly scheduled data refreshes. That just seems like a silly notion.

[Adie]

It's been a month that I am monitoring one of my sites ranking while continuously building links and I can't really figure out why this is happening..

My site's ranking are:

12th
92 after 3 days
back to 45 after 3 days
103 after 4 days
37 after 3 days
9 after 4 days
75 after 3 days
18 after 3 days
82 after 3 days

the highest is 6 and after 3 days it's back again to 46
so on and so forth...

any recommendation to make it steady at least to a higher position is highly appreciated...

Thanks,
adie

[Gary Gomez]

Its simply dancing because you have been "continuously building links"

It will settle out eventually but keep the same link velocity up as you are doing now else it will look suspicious.

A google dance can take 3 or 4 months to settle out so dont worry just yet.

[affilorama-portal]

This is a common occurrence when sites are relatively new. You'll see it ranking highly for awhile then drop away for a few months then go up again. Google is re-evaluating your site to see if it should remain in their index and what keywords it should rank for.

Just make sure your site is properly optimized. Keep building quality backlinks and add good content to your site regularly to provide a positive experience to your visitors.

[aygabtu]

Doing my periodic checks for keywords for one of my sites, and found several terms dropped like a rock while others went up. Examples:

Drop from 87 to 257
Drop from 212 to 374

Up from 71 to 50
Up from 33 to 29

All these moves were from yesterday to today. The key difference is the ones that had the big drops were new terms on my site from mid/late last week. The ones that went up were established terms from several weeks ago.

Clearly google still loves to dance.

[Adie]

Originally Posted by affilorama-portal

This is a common occurrence when sites are relatively new. You'll see it ranking highly for awhile then drop away for a few months then go up again. Google is re-evaluating your site to see if it should remain in their index and what keywords it should rank for.

Just make sure your site is properly optimized. Keep building quality backlinks and add good content to your site regularly to provide a positive experience to your visitors.

My site is not new and was on 3 to 5 spots before google panda was implemented. I've done a major changes on the site to get along with the current google climate and this is the thing I noticed....

[down]

Absolutely yes, and it could happen at any time.

[Lukas]

Wow your site is NOT new? We should send Dexter over there then. It could be some kind of penalty those j&rks never tell you about. I see loss of traffic on a great site that is 10 yrs old too.

[Domsa]

I've pulled out a few websites from the Panda cage for a friend.

I would focus mainly on on-page SEO. Try to properly optimize it, but don't overdo it. Design a good internal linking structure, keep your keyword density around 2% and definitely edit your content to get rid of spelling errors and ''clumsy'' looking sentences. And last but not least, log in your Webmaster Tools and check if your site is being properly crawled etc.

When it comes to off-page SEO, start building quality links. By that I don't mean becoming an editor for CNN and sneaking in links to your site, I mainly mean PR1-PR4 portfolio with a couple of PR5+ links, along with some PR1+ nofollows. Do it steadily and be patient. You can RSS and ping some of them, but I suggest you leave the most for Google to find. If they are good, they will be found sooner or later

If you use any blasting tools that give you 100k PR N/A links, kill them with fire. Good luck!

[Ettienne]

Something I've noticed is that quite often when you go on a backlink-building spree your rankings might drop at first as the backlinks are being indexed, almost like the new backlinks are "confusing" Google. It can take a few days or even a month or so before they start moving up.

One example: I had a keyword ranked in #26 on Google, did a helluva lot of backlinks for that specific keyword over the course of a week, then my site dropped to #42 few days later. 2-3 days after that it went to #241 and the following day it was GONE (#500+).

BUT, 6 days after my site disappeared, it suddenly came back and was in #9, higher than it ever was. Nobody knows for sure how it works, but the key is to be patient and consistent with your backlinks as mentioned above.

[IMSince2003]

Originally Posted by Ettienne

Something I've noticed is that quite often when you go on a backlink-building spree your rankings might drop at first as the backlinks are being indexed, almost like the new backlinks are "confusing" Google. It can take a few days or even a month or so before they start moving up.

One example: I had a keyword ranked in #26 on Google, did a helluva lot of backlinks for that specific keyword over the course of a week, then my site dropped to #42 few days later. 2-3 days after that it went to #241 and the following day it was GONE (#500+).

BUT, 6 days after my site disappeared, it suddenly came back and was in #9, higher than it ever was. Nobody knows for sure how it works, but the key is to be patient and consistent with your backlinks as mentioned above.

My experience mirrors this also. After a link campaign, I've had sites completely disappear from the se results!

[seopratik]

i am also facing that type of google dance problem and i m really frustrate from this problem what is the best solution for that....any idea guys..

[Hossain]

Dont be worried. Its Google dance and we face it each time we start link building campaign.

To stop or reduce dance:-
Build some high PR (URL PR), relevant and dofollow backlinks. You will be fine.

[rafiseo]

Yes Hussain is quite right. Also you can blast some xrumer and senuke blasts to tier 1 backlinks. This will help you too.

[UMS]

Originally Posted by Rf Li

Why is a thread like this stickied?

Because it is a VERY FAQ

[RutledgeGroup]

I've had sites completely disappear from Google for a little while, but then when they come back, they come back stronger.

[commoditytrainer]

To see sites go back and forth like that has to be throwing up a lot of backlinks with software and when you do that some of the backlinks stay and some are dropped out of the link graph which will cause a dance in Google, which why would want to build the links gradually over a period of time. I notice it all the time when I change my links to a different keyword, I know that the keyword will fall back for a period of time, but I keep building links naturally and then the keyword jumps back to where it was, then I use every method to maintain stability of the keyword in the top positions.

[website-design-seo]

Don't worry It's always happens when google is dancing..so keep continue your work you will get again SERP.

[hitslikeYou]

Dont be worried. Personally, i am also facing that type of google dance problem.
keep your Link building at a continue way. you will Get better result very soon.

[David Sneen]

So, ... what we need to remember is, keep the faith and keep at it. Let Google dance, but don't let your blood pressure dance with it!

Yeah, I have seen some pretty strange gyrations myself.

[Robby54]

Yep a few of my sites are going through this now... Its truly frustrating.

[stefijain]

this is same with my website, i do not know what i do and how to fix this problem.

[aygabtu]

Check rankings for several keywords last night and was pleasantly surprised they are still marching up, but did a spot check this morning and those same keywords fell below where they were a week ago!

Why google why!?!?

[samfinance]

it just because og google dancing, make your quality back links .

[howimakemony]

My website rank always fluctuates in its rank ...so frustrating

[davisdavin27]

Don't hate Google dance. Its not a penalty at all..

[doketor]

you have to be patient

[seohacker]

Google dance is temporary. If your on page optimization is well done and you are continuously trying to improve your offsite optimization by building quality links, your rankings should dance a lot less.

[strategic seo services]

Originally Posted by Gary Gomez

Its simply dancing because you have been "continuously building links"

It will settle out eventually but keep the same link velocity up as you are doing now else it will look suspicious.

A google dance can take 3 or 4 months to settle out so dont worry just yet.

I agree. Just keep on building backlinks. Consistency is key.

[cerified]

it's all about relative from Google dance if your site is new it will ranking highly for a while and drop again shortly because Google re-evaluate for your site see if remain index and what keyword should rank

so try to optimize your site properly and generate high authorized back links.

[myshow]

It could take some time while the result stabilizes.

[aygabtu]

So tired of this. Was ranked 14 for a key term 2 days ago, now 55th??? Dropped like a rock on many other terms too! I've been link building, pinging, adding/updating content, etc and terms have not recovered from their massive drops. Do I just need to be more patient?

[drewmcntyre]

Originally Posted by Gary Gomez

Its simply dancing because you have been "continuously building links"

It will settle out eventually but keep the same link velocity up as you are doing now else it will look suspicious.

A google dance can take 3 or 4 months to settle out so dont worry just yet.

Really thanks for telling your good views about Google dancing because I am facing the same problem.

[jessicadavid]

Well there are so many examples of Google dancing that happened to me. Sometimes these are happier ones and most of the times these are breath taking. But we have to stick to these as we have to obey a drunk master "Google" who can do anything any time.

[chrislangley]

You can only do what you are currently doing, and hope it stabilises, some have had good results by simply scaling up their backlinks if it gets too low

[jalicia18]

My site was gone for almost 1 month and thought that it was sandbox. Now, it's back and thought that it's just google dance. The come back of its ranking is now on first page, better than before. They're right, just continue building links and it will relocate to its exact position soon.

[Antiman]

Yes ! I am also facing that type of Google dance problem and i m really upset.

[usaimarketing]

@Adie
Same is the case with one of my website in opposite direction because many keywords of my website have been dramatically improved in search engine rankings of Google.com. After little research, we have decided to review our link building strategy. Now we are focusing on long tail anchor texts to use them in back linking of our website on most relevant pages.

[hossainsrj]

Originally Posted by forest l

Google Dance is something that needs time to settle down. Remember one thing that you must continue with the link building process as stopping can let search engine to think you are a spammer.

You mean the link velocity! Yeah its very important, even for the google Sandbox, we should continue the natural backlinks creation, when it'll return it'll achieve more strong position hopefully.

As lots of people are trying to dominate google ranking and optimization process becoming very complex. Google really doing some fun with the webmasters. But don't worry, keep continue your good work, it might take some time to resolve the issues.

[rptechworld]

Don't worry about it. Its Google dance and we face it each time we start link building campaign.

[amherstsowell]

Do Only White Hat Activity and do all activity not only one. your site will be stable on best position of SERP page after google dancing. google Dancing is an activity its start when Google search engine are being implemented on their algo. don't worry keep it up

[canadaimmigration]

There could be one reason which is Panda Update. Google dance also happens even when Google updates it's data center. Don't worry about it. It will take some time to settle down. You just keep going on.