Anything I can do while waiting for theupdate?

re: google update update

[LostJames]

First, I want to thank everyone who replied to my 1st post with kindness and a lot of good info!

Now, I am lost again here..
When Google dances, it was said "it's time to update like crazy" - So, I was told & read.
What update am I supposed to be doing here when the dance begins?
Assuming that you made all the changes you wanted before-hand. What more and/or what kind of special updates?

Still trying to learn this big world :)

LostJames

[deejay]

Hi LostJames... stickaround and you'll have to change your nick to 'FoundJames' :)

I think that's usually said in reference to those last minute things that we've been meaning to do before the next big crawl and haven't got round to. It's that last ditch effort to spruce up your site before Googlebot hits you for the deep crawl.

Sadly, sometimes we just procrastinate too much and can't get it all done, or even worse, you may find your sites get crawled just before the update and you miss your chance.

If you're all up to date and ready to go, you get to just sit back and watch the chaos.

[annej]

Sometimes the results of the google dance give you ideas about things you want to change to see if it will help you for the next update. Also anything you are planning to do anyway right away is a good time as Google usually does the deep crawl fairly soon after the update.

For example if I want to get more people to link to my sites doing it now will make it more likely the new links will be picked up by the deep crawl.

I hope that made sense.

Anne

[rfgdxm1]

One sort of updating you can do after the dance is check and see what search terms you are doing well on, and which not so well. Obviously it makes the most sense to try and tweak the site to come up better for search terms that it isn't doing well for.

[Chicago]

I seldom burst out laughing on this board, but deejay, that was too funny...FoundJames, here he comes...

My2cents.

1- Pick a time, once a month (if applicable) to update your site with fresh and improved content. Be religious about it, and do it preferrrably at the beginning of each month.

2-Forget about the dance- it will drive you crazy. Once the dance begins and likely for some time before, there is nothing you can do anyway (excluding freshbot considerations). The irony of the google dance is that when google dances, she's on her own with her mind already made up. ALL WE CAN DO IS WATCH HER.........

[decaff]

LostJames,

Glad that your first post was so fruitful...

Regarding whether or not you should be "reactive" to what Google is doing or not doing...forget that..instead...be "proactive" to your visitors on a regular basis by adding new and interesting content to your site and make sure that you always reference these new changes and additions to your site from the index page to the new/changed interior pages...

Because of all the great content you are delivering to your audience, overtime, your inbound links will increase naturally...this is one of the beautifully thoughtout aspects of google's PageRank algo...very organic stuff...

If you do this several times a week with a meaningful intent to deliver real value to your audience google will reward you...

good luck