ken_b - 1:18 pm on May 21, 2005 (gmt 0)

Relax.

First, there's nothing you can do about the update while it's going on, except get needlessly depressed or angry if your down at the moment, only to bounce back when things settle down, or set yourself up for a big disappointment if you're up at the moment and fall again befeore it ends.

Second, whether you are seeing better or worse results on various data centers, they are pretty much meaningless untill the whole mess settles and the final results roll out across the board.

Third, it's way too tempting to start trying to decide what changes need to be made to your site, let alone actually start messing with it. You can't make valid decisions like that until you have the final deal. ANYTHING you do, or decide to do, to your site before an update ends, based on what you see "during" an update, is as likely to hurt you as it is to help you.

Fourth, there may well be a bunch of other webmasters making all the wrong choices because of what they saw during the update. You might as well sit back and wait to get the advantage of these folks mistakes.

Fith, there may not be much you can, or need to, do anyhow. Even after an update ends, and whether it looks like you got hurt or helped, the time to act may well be AFTER the NEXT update.

Why?

Because some of the sites that get a bump up often seem to get over confident and overdo whatever it was that got them that upward bump. More is not always better. Another group of sites will get overly worked up about losing rankings and do all kinds of screwy things to try and correct the situation. Both of those situations may well work to your advantage in the long run.

In the end...

I know it can be hard to take a long term view during an update, but it's a heck of a lot easier on your nerves, and better for your site, in the long run.