Google Dance, Dance, Dance
“Google Dance” was what we called it-that monthly-ish shuffling of search engine rank based on their every whim. So what I saw this last weekend can only be called the “Google Dance, Dance, Dance.”*
First, some background. I blog and, if you’ve talked to me about your site, you know I think you should, too. One of the things that sparked a blog entry was an error message in the new version of Apple’s iTunes. “iTunes is unable browse album covers on this computer.” It’s a terrible error message. There’s no possible cause and no explanation. So I complained.
And, two days later, my complaint was the number 2 result on Google for that error phrase. So I figured I’d go back, find out what the problem was and fix it. Over the weekend, my various posts when from position 2 to 4 to 6 and then, late Sunday night, to the sweet spot: #1. Hundreds of people are hitting the site. Hopefully the page is useful. No, I’m not making any money off of these visitors. Not yet, anyway.
I found three things about this process really interesting.
First, I found out that I’m just as obsessive about checking my blog stats as my brother in law is checking his fantasy football site. However, unlike fantasy football, some checking of blog stats is useful. When I saw a page that was getting traffic, I added content and then got a lot more traffic.
Second, I found the type of sites that knocked me off interesting. One was a forum (though not the Apple forum which doesn’t seem to be indexed at all) and one was a site that someone had submitted to Digg. The Digg site was interesting - tons of advertising and some pretty good advice. He even added a link to my blog’s post. I don’t know why the page fell out of favor, but it’s pretty much gone from the list.
Third, I found the pace of Google’s updates astonishing. Not to sound too much like an old crazy guy sitting in a rocking chair on the porch of a house somewhere in the Midwest,** but I remember back when I was a kid we’d make a change to a website and it would take 3 months or more for that to be included in any index. Google is updating all day, every day.
Conclusion: if you want visitors to your site, you have to play the game. Right now, the game is all about Google indexing new content, fast, so you need to provide them with new content on a regular basis. When you learn something new or have a thought about something related to your customers or industry, add it to your site. You’ll be glad you did.
2006-09-20 Update: I’m no longer #1. However, a blog aggregation site of mine that includes my blog is still top 10.
*Apologies to Steve Miller.
** Yes, I live in the Midwest and I have a porch. I DO NOT have a rocking chair to go with it.