Is there any info we can see during the update only?

Only during these days do we have access to the new AND the old databases

[julinho]

The days when Google updates are exciting, but I feel there are information we can get during (and only during) these few days when we have access to the old and the new databases; after www2 moves to www, we will never have access to the old data again.

Does anybody have any suggestion (and is willing to share it) on how to use these days to learn the most about Google?

[caine]

I'm a little lost at what your trying to ask.

If its, that the dance period can teach us about the algo changes, dues the ups and downs in the SERPS then yes.

1. Weightings on algo variables - is one that alot of individuals try to check for changes.
2. Global changes to the algo - this obviously is multiple variable weightings being changed, and of course is the particular flavor of the update, whether it is downplaying incoming links against the themed content, etc.

So yes, there are loads of specifics, and whole intuitions that can be drawn of the Flavor of the dance card, and thats why we all talk about it here to try and ascertain to a good degree which way google is playing its cards.

[klickman]

I've learned from other Webmasters that this is a very important and critical time to observe the algo of Google. I look at my competition both of those who are above my site and below below it.

I keep a daily and weekly track on how the sites appear in the SERP's. I look to see which sites they link to and which sites those sites link to and doing the course of the month before the major crawl I aggressive optimize my pages.

Having a PR6 or higher affords me the opportunity to have a every other day visit by the Googlebot. This helps out trememdously in terms on seeing how changes have been made.

So I would suggest to you that during the dance evaluate your pages and see how they rank against your competition. If for some reason some of your pages did not obtain a good position then NOW is the time to focus on optimizing it for the next major update. If you have a good ranking on a certain keyword(s) then focus on getting another page either to rank higher or right behind it. Focus on adding new vital content. I try to add a minimum of 1 page per week to my site.

There is more to say but I will let other experienced Webmasters and SEOs comment.

[jackofalltrades]

All good Klickman, but i wouldnt say PR affects crawl frequency.

I have a PR5 that gets updated farily regularly.

As long as long frequently update pages, google will also frequently update them.

JOAT

[julinho]

Caine,
Analysis of algo can be done at any time; e.g., you can look at the positions of your pages before and after the dance, and try to understand why they moved up or down.

What klickman suggested is an example of something which can be done only during the dancing period (at least, it is much easier to do that during the dance): compare the SERPs for your keywords, see who moved up/down/in/out, check out the new inbound links of those pages, check out possible changes in the pages, and try to figure out what caused what.

Any more ideas?
Thanks to everyone.

[caine]

Pretty much what i said in the previous post but in a different way.

The before and after events are of course of key concern, this is where you would analyse the differences between. In order to guestimate the global and local changes if any between the two said events, beyond the normal crawl > re-index schedule.

Don't forget that not every month is a major algo shift month, there are also new sites, being crawled, movement of categories across the ODP, sites no longer there, many things play into the SERP changes that you see before and after the dance.

> Only during these days do we have access to the new AND the old databases

This is not neccesarily true, i've seen things regarding SERPs, that i have managed to alter in the dance, as i could see what was been shown on the prospective initial stages of the dance, and alter it so the first stage, did not become the updated index, hence aversion of a possibly huge drop down the SERPS.