Google algorithm is not cast in concrete. Some of you might have had an anxiety attack in April and May. You might have lost a lot of traffic on some of your websites. Panic-stricken, you may have thought that Google had blacklisted your website… Then you met Google MayDay!

What is Google MayDay?

Google MayDay is the name given to the new important modification of Google algorithm. This modification is not a change in the crawling or indexing system; its aim is to better rank websites with relevant content and penalize abusive practice. The modification is said to concern long tail queries. It affects voluminous websites with lots of pages, having few incoming links. These pages have low traffic and may not have unique content, contrary to e-commerce websites.

According to several webmasters, they have felt the effects of this new algorithm as from April, a few days after Google Dance (Read Article: What is Google Dance ?). Between 10% and 15% of traffic has been lost since then.

What are long tail queries?

They are specific queries using several words. They attract few visitors, but once combined, these queries generate the major part of your traffic.

How to optimize a website after this modification?

Choose a few long tail expressions and run a competitor analysis to know who is positioned first. Check why Google gives more relevance to a competitor’s page rather than yours, check your links and anchor texts aiming these websites. Having the keywords of your query on your website is not enough. Instead, you must have relevant content matching the query. As a consequence, use synonyms, write on similar topics, and change the structure of your keywords. Try not to repeat yourself and be relevant.

Here is a video in English explaining Google MayDay:

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What is Google Dance about?

Google Dance is the name given to GoogleBot dance. Let’s explain it. Google Dance is the name given to the period on which robots are crawling websites.

GoogleBot browses on the Web, looking for incoming links to recalculate the PageRank. Remember that PageRank bases on the principle of democracy on the Web. Each incoming link to your website equals 1 vote. We can thus say that Google Dance is the polling day. In order to better understand this calculation, I suggest you to read an article entitled “Explanations on PageRank algorithm” written by my colleague Marielle Chapuis.

What are the impacts of Google Dance and PageRank in 2010

In 2010, PageRank is more a selling tool than a SEO tool. It is just a calculation among 200 other Google algorithms. Thus, it is no longer a useful tool to SEO but it tends to become a selling point and it reinforces credibility. I suggest you to read my article: “PageRank is useless” in order to better understand changes in the indexing algorithm in search engines.

With a high PageRank, reinforcing Link Building or placing an ad on your website will be easier as people look for links that can optimize they web positioning. And a website with a PageRank of  8/10 says a lot on its seriousness compared to a website with a PageRank of 1/10. So, as I told you, PageRank brings credibility to Internet users but doesn’t have much impact on search engines.

How often Google Dance occurs?

Google Dance occurs 3 to 4 times a year. Given the rapid growth of the Web, it occurs every 3 months. Google crawls the web on the first week and results on SEO can be seen from the second or third week of the month. During the last Google Dance in April 2010, Google introduced a few changes in its algorithm. These changes led to serious repercussions on websites’ traffic. We deal with this topic in: “Google MayDay – fatal traffic loss”.

We currently are experiencing Google Dance. It has started on the first week of July 2010 and soon, you might see a change in the PageRank for some of your web pages.

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As you may have seen on an EGOMEDIA tweet, Google is to compete with Apple’s iTunes. Rumours have been confirmed: Google Music is said to have opened negotiations with record labels. Google Music should be available on Google’s android phones via the Simplify Media application.

As you may know, the number 1 search engine doesn’t want to content itself with music industry. It foresees the launch of Google Music simultaneously with Google TV, for next fall. Now it will be possible to listen and record TV shows and web shows through Google TV, using Google’s android OS 2.1 and its Chrome browser. You will be able to plug your TV via Wifi or an Ethernet connexion. Electric current goes through the Ethernet cable thanks to Ethernet technology. Imagine a future in which we would no longer need to call an electrician for adding receptacles in some rooms. We could plug in our TV wherever we want unless we have an Ethernet cable. This is the same for VOIP phones. To implement Google TV, the firm Mountain View has called for Sony, Logitech and Intel.

Here is a video in English introducing Google TV:

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