The Google Dance – What is it and why? – SEO FAQ

When you are visiting forums and reading articles about SEO or internet marketing, you may hear people referring to “the Google Dance”. Almost every new site or webpage goes through a ranking process in the search engines before they settle into their proper search engine position.

Often a new website, ( if you have done the proper keyword research, on-page SEO and promoting), will appear high in the search engine results right from the moment you get indexed. It may stay there a very short time or for a few weeks, depending on how much promoting you do. It may even stay there a month or more.

That is a very exciting time and you feel much rewarded for all of the hard work you have put into your site. Then one day, all of a sudden, you will do a search and your website will have disappeared off the first page, sometimes disappearing all together or dropping down to page 4 or more in the search engine results.

Believe me, it is not a very good feeling at all. But do not panic. This is normal and almost 100% guaranteed to happen at some point. No one knows exactly why it happens (except the Big G), but it seems like Google has second thoughts about placing a brand new website on the first page even though you have earned the spot.

The good thing is that this Google Dance is generally a temporary thing. If you continue to add more content and build more backlinks to your site instead of just giving up, then almost like magic, it will pop back up into the original placement again or settle into an even higher spot. Google likes to make sure that you didn’t land there by accident or that you are not just a flash in the pan. They want to know that you really deserve to be on the first page.

If your site does not climb back up the SERP within a week or so, it will take a little more work but it eventually will get there again with consistent SEO strategies being implemented. This means adding fresh content regularly, social bookmarking and building back links.

So if you are building a new website be prepared for the Google Dance. Knowing in advance that this is almost certainly going to happen should help take some of the sting out of the slap and not send you into a panic. Just be patient and the dance will end.

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