What We Talk About When We Talk About an Update

When is a Google Update NOT a Google Update?

[martinibuster]

Since the advent of the rolling update there has been confusion with the weekly knob-turning and fresh-bot activities, with some folks mistakenly hailing them as an update.

Are we talking about the same thing? Is my definition of an update different than yours? Perhaps Google has redefined what an update really is...

I associate an update with PR fluctuations, sometimes accompanied with a change in traffic patterns.

When YOU say update, what do you mean? What do we talk about when we talk about a Google update?

[rfgdxm1]

PR fluctation makes little difference. There is a current thread that people are noticing recently updated PR. However, the SERPs have been solid for certain non-competitive, non-commercial ones I monitor, so the only thing that has changed is the amount of green in people's toolbars. Google is definitely in a "continuous update" mode. However, every now and then, and much less frequency than monthly as before, they seem to do a major update. My theory is that the way Google has implemented the "continous update", to keep things running properly every now and then they have to do a full scale update, comparable to monthly Google Dances of old.

[John_Caius]

As far as I can see, what used to be one big thing with PR, backlink and SERP update now gets split into distinct phases. Last week there was a big rollout of new PR and backlinks. I'm seeing recently updated caches turning up in searches that they didn't before, due to additional content on those pages. However, no sign yet of the major change in SERPs and traffic that I'm pacing up and down for. My 400 deep pages went from PR0 to PR4-7 so that should generate some kind of blip in the radar when it rolls through to SERP position. No major blips spotted yet.

So my summary answer is - what used to be the ***Update*** is now a *PRupdate*, a *Backlinkupdate* or a *SERPupdate*, though I haven't seen much of the last one for a while.

[Stefan]

Good topic.

The way I think of it... there were no old-style updates between Esmaralda and Florida, just PR updates etc. Even Florida wasn't an old-style googledance update, really. I wouldn't have known that anything had changed if I hadn't seen the reports on WW. Our site carried on exactly the same, albeit with a reduction in deepfreshbot visits over an apx 10 day period.

The massive algo update that was Florida might not happen again for months.

I'd break things down into:

Algo Update, (eg. Florida)

Page Rank/Backlink Update, (eg. recent one that kicked some of our inner pages up to PR6, give thanks, and before that Dec 6)

Rolling Update, (eg. the constant addition of deepfreshbot serps with freshtags etc)

? Update - There is also another effect that I see. I have two pages, news and weather, that are changed daily. Google will put fresh results in for a few days, then revert to an older cache for a few days, then fresh again, and so on. The older cache that is the default serp gets updated about every 4 weeks. I don't know what to call that one...

[dazzlindonna]

How about calling it a Default Cache Update?

[Stefan]

Good one, Donna.

I've seen it in effect for several months now. It's easy to spot in my case because the two pages have the day's date on them, changed daily. The default cache was something like Sept 9, Oct 16, Nov 11, Dec 16 (current cache, was freshtagged yesterday at Dec 30, now reverted again).

Default Cache Update it is.

[martinibuster]

Do you think there's more than ONE update going on?

[percentages]

martinibuster, this is a great topic!

In the old days (pre Dominic) I guess the definition was a change in the backlinks to a few major sites such as Yahoo.com or CNN.com.

Now, in todays environment, how are we to define a Google update?

A change in PR as reported by the Toolbar is not an indication of an update.....the toolbar lags by such a large amount of time that it is simply not accurate.

A change in backlinks is no longer an indication as many things can cause this that are not a general update.

A change in SERP's at Google.com is not an indication of an update IMHO unless the results are refected equally across all DC's....which they typically are not.

A change in Algo could be called an update....but what happens if that is not reflected across all DC's and later abondoned as we have seen recently?

For me Google now updates so often that the subject of an update becomes irrelevant....it simply can't be measured.

Updates exist, but they roll into each other at such a rapid pace that separating one from the next is an impossible task.

[martinibuster]

I like the way Stefan breaks it down. Makes sense with what we've been seeing.

Broken down in that manner, Update Florida might have been better named as Algo-Update Florida.

[dirkz]

The only thing now you can measure that's really making a difference is an algo update. This is also the only occasion of fundamental changes (like old-fashioned Google dances).

[Stefan]

Yeah, Dirkz, agreed on that. One has to wonder how long it will be until the next algo-update... we were close to six months last time, (Esm to Florida).

Just curious, does anyone else notice a Default Cache Update, and if so, does it happen around the same time for everyone? I have the last occurence as Dec 16 for our site. You might not see it for high PR /index pages, or more generally, PR5+ pages that get freshed almost constantly.

Respect, Martinibuster.