James Dooley: so today I'm joining with kasra Dash
Kasra Dash: hello and today's video is about the Google dance
James Dooley: so kasra can you talk a little bit about what is the Google dance and can you prevent it from happening
Kasra Dash: so basically the Google dance is when Google decides to go on a night out and have a little dance
Kasra Dash: no so basically what the Google dance is is sometimes you might build a backlink to your website and instead of it actually doing a positive impact it might actually go down then it might go back up and then it might go down
Kasra Dash: so it basically is kind of like a random factor for your website on the Google dance which is very important for people to know
Kasra Dash: there is actually a Google Patent out there called the random ranking factor RF and that's exactly what it is
Kasra Dash: so there's times where you could go and build a great link and if your rankings are here instead of that great link just going boom and rankings jump up it can end up having a drop for a couple of weeks before then it goes up
Kasra Dash: so it is very random but what you've got to do you've got to kind of wait it out
Kasra Dash: that's where normally some people say when building backlinks or making changes to content you got to give it anything from six to eight weeks
Kasra Dash: because during those six to eight weeks where what you've done is good or bad it can be going like this
Kasra Dash: there's times you can go and build a bad link and you can see a jump slightly if again oh my God that link's amazing and then it drops
Kasra Dash: and Google have done it to make it that it's hard to game their algorithms and their systems
Kasra Dash: long term you get the true power or the true toxicity that comes through
Kasra Dash: but the Google dance is here it always has been here it's very important for webmasters to understand that the Google dance is also known there to be the random ranking factor
Kasra Dash: so this is where I was doing the dance where it can go up it can go down it can go up
Kasra Dash: and it's here to stay
Kasra Dash: they're trying to randomise it as best they can
James Dooley: so one thing that I've got a question on because I've always heard about the Google dance or the Google random ranking factor as being links based but can it also be topical authority based
James Dooley: so if you are building more articles on your website could you see a potential increase or a decrease
Kasra Dash: so yes is the answer
Kasra Dash: and yes what can end up happening is but then there's lots of different caveats to this question because you have different ranking states
Kasra Dash: so you've got a negative ranking state a neutral ranking state and a positive ranking state
Kasra Dash: now if you're in a positive ranking state pretty much everything you do during that time until the next core algorithm update you can start seeing growth even if your content isn't that good
Kasra Dash: you can start seeing growth
Kasra Dash: what can quickly start to happen is as you keep building pages that are not very good on the next core algorithm update it can end up neutralising which then means pretty much during that time anything you do is not showing anything up or down
Kasra Dash: and when you're in a negative ranking state it's very hard to get yourself back out of it realistically until the next core algorithm update
Kasra Dash: so the hard part to this is an SEO could be doing some great work on your site but if you're in a negative ranking state it's going to look like they're not helping the site at all
Kasra Dash: and it could take six months before they could kick it out
Kasra Dash: contrary to that you could have someone that looks like they're doing amazing work on a positive ranking state website and they could be doing bad things or building toxic links or the content's not good or they've gone too wide on the content and actually be harming the site
Kasra Dash: but short term it looks like they're doing well and that's why it's very difficult for webmasters and business owners to know whether the SEO agency that they're employing is doing well or doing bad
Kasra Dash: because someone could be doing bad but look like they're doing well during that positive ranking state which is pretty scary
Kasra Dash: but the Google dance generally is short term certain aspects of what you're doing on a page level it's jumping up and down
Kasra Dash: but also there's one other caveat to bring up on this
Kasra Dash: the Google dance is not keyword cannibalisation
Kasra Dash: because another thing that can cause jumping up and down for the SERPs to be dancing about is that one page is cannibalising against another and Google doesn't know which one they want to put in there
Kasra Dash: so what they're doing is they're testing that page looking at the behaviour signals and then they're going oh is this page better and then they're testing that page then they're testing this one then they're testing that one
Kasra Dash: so that is different to the Google dance
Kasra Dash: but we hope you understand a little bit more of what the Google dance is and the random ranking factor
Kasra Dash: and don't make any instant changes especially on core algorithm updates
Kasra Dash: don't make any instant changes you've got to ride it out
Kasra Dash: people say ride the wave sit back and wait for that Google core algorithm update to properly roll out and still give it a few weeks
Kasra Dash: because what you end up finding in core algorithm updates as well is that's the worst time for the Google dance
Kasra Dash: because what ends up happening is some people get absolutely decimated and by the end of it and four weeks after it they've actually recovered and they've not done anything
Kasra Dash: so don't make any rash decisions on deleting lots of content and doing ridiculous things like changing so much content until you've ridden the wave
Kasra Dash: what's your thoughts to add on that and not rushing
James Dooley: so we actually had a discussion about this in Estonia and basically it was myself and Kai and Kai was saying sometimes it's as if Google has multiple departments
James Dooley: so they've got an on page SEO department and then they might have an off page SEO department and then they might have a topical authority department
James Dooley: and sometimes during core algorithm updates it's almost as if the off page SEO department have cranked a lever and said right 100 percent power goes to the links
James Dooley: and then the on page SEO guys are just looking across the office
James Dooley: so sometimes during a core algorithm update they crank a lever and then realise it's messed things up and then they slowly bring it back
James Dooley: so that's probably the best way to describe it
Kasra Dash: and that's what it seems like
Kasra Dash: when they dial it up something changes
Kasra Dash: it can mean power is more important than relevance or relevance is more important than power or traffic is more important or topical SEO is more important
Kasra Dash: so they dial things up and down
Kasra Dash: one algorithm update on page people say you don't need links you just need good quality content
Kasra Dash: then the next algorithm update comes and all the no link builders get hit
Kasra Dash: so it changes all the time
Kasra Dash: in my opinion to prevent long term Google dances build good quality content
Kasra Dash: build out topical authority
Kasra Dash: build good quality links that generally speaking are powerful relevant if you can
Kasra Dash: build as many referring domains as possible
Kasra Dash: and then you're future proof
James Dooley: definitely
James Dooley: that probably covers the Google dance
James Dooley: so that has been the video on the Google dance if you have any questions drop them down below and we'll answer in a follow up video