Whether they are new to SEO,or old hands with years of search engine savvy and experience, this strange affliction strikes them all. There seems to be very few SEO professionals who have any immunity to this disease.
The culprit is the fairly regular, but not ever quite on time, Google backlink and PageRank update.
The symptoms are always the same.
The search engine optimization forums begin to fill with pleading, and almost desperate sounding threads. The posters are usually begging, for even the tiniest scraps of information, about the big event. They want to know when and if the update is happening, and how it’s affecting everyone else.
The disease has struck. It’s the Backlink and PageRank Fever.
The update occurs roughly every three weeks, with times varying from about two weeks to a month. It is not unusual for Google to miss an expected update. The staggering of the update schedule, is probably intentional, on the part of Google.
The inability to accurately forecast the date, is something for which Google probably strives. Of course, Google isn’t confirming or denying that assessment.
The level of uncertainty, regarding the date of the update, is one cause of the illness. Another cause is the complete unpredictability of whether Google will increase a website’s displayed backlinks.
A third cause is the possible gain or loss of a webmaster’s pages of their Google PageRank. The green meter on the Google Toolbar is very hypnotic to many.
Another major symptom of the affliction is frustration. Webmasters are often extremely frustrated and concerned that all of their incoming links are not displayed. Laments are heard that new backlinks have been added, with time frames given, that range into months.
Concerns are voiced about no visible PageRank changes despite the addition of some high PageRank links. Often, there are nightmarish thoughts of drastic link and PageRank drops, for no discernible reason.
The disease is a result of concern and fear of the unknown. A few simple answers, about the nature of the malady, will cause some of those issues disappear. If they don’t go away entirely, at least they can be kept in check.
There is no need to be worried about the Backlink and PageRank Update Fever. It is a false disease. There is no cause for alarm. Here’s why.
The entire disease is based on a misconception about how and when Google calculates PageRank and backlinks. Our first order of business is to examine Google PageRank and backlink calculations, and when they actually take place. The results may surprise you.
Many of the myths about the Google backlink and PageRank updates are a hold over from the days of the true Google dance. In those days, Google would update backlinks, PageRank, and the search engine results pages (SERPs) at the same time.
The Google dance has been replaced by what is referred to as “everflux”, where the SERPs are updated on a continuous basis. They are not “danced” in the traditional sense. That said, there is still a minor dance taking place.
That variation, between the various Google data centers, occurs while new SERPs results are being propagated to all data centers. It is more of a delay between data centers than a dance.
When are backlinks and PageRank really processed?
Whenever your site adds a new incoming link, Google will find it when its spider crawls your site. That link will be calculated at the time of its indexing. The link will provide its link boost to your site, in the search engine rankings, upon its discovery.
What that means, in simple terms, is by the time the actual backlinks are displayed by Google, the links have already had their values included in the search calculations.
When the backlinks are finally displayed, in the backlink update, they are already old news. Often, links will not show up in the backlink results for three to four updates. The average appearance time is usually two backlink updates, but it’s not unusual to see incoming links displayed in only one update.
The incoming links shown are only those of PageRank 4 or higher in the vast majority of cases. There are some rare instances of a high PR3 page being displayed.
What seems to be the case, is that the estimated PageRank is only displayed after the fact. The actual PageRank is ahead of the Google Toolbar display. The PageRank update only gets the Toolbar shown PageRank more in line with the actual PageRank level.
Stop suffering needlessly from the Backlink and PageRank Update Fever.
Worrying over the number of backlinks Google is displaying during the update won’t make any difference in the searches for your most important keyword phrases.
Instead of fretting, and spending sleepless nights, spend your time adding more incoming links. They will add to your link popularity soon after their discovery.
Add more fresh content to get your site freshly crawled by the Googlebot spider. Brand new content may also attract some new incoming links from other websites.
Cure the Backlink and PageRank Update Fever today.
