Google Dance Tool

Once a month, Google performs "The Google Dance" using results it obtained from a "deep crawl" of your site. During this update, which usually lasts from 3 to 5 days and starts around the end of the month, Google recalculates your sites PR (PageRank), back links (the number of sites which link to you), and in some cases, recalculates where a given site appears (ranking) in the Search Engine Results Page, AKA "SERP".

Because the Dance is so important, a lot of SEO Analysts and teckie geeks like to know when the Google update starts so they can monitor the results which are dynamic in nature until the update is finished and all the changes appear in www.google.com. Click here to view our Forum thread on the February 2003 dance which started on March 6, 2003.

You can use our Google Dance Tool Form on this page to determine when the Google Dance has started and monitor given terms for your sites. Enter yourdomain.com in the first field and then click the Search All Servers Now button. Please leave the "link:www." in the field. You can tell if the Google Dance has started by looking at the number of "back links" from each of the Google servers. If the numbers are different in www verses www2 or www3 then the dance has started for your site. Click here to see an example screen capture in a new window. If you aren't sure if the Dance has started, use this Yahoo quick check, which opens in a new window.

You can also enter a term in the field and see exactly how your site ranks during the Dance in www2 and www3. Remember, these results may change during the Dance and at the conclusion of the Dance, the final results/data is inserted in www.google.com.

Updated: It's often helpful to know how many pages of your site Google has indexed/listed before the Dance starts and after the Dance has concluded. Use the following string and substitute your own site:

allinurl: www.free-webmaster-tools.com site:www.free-webmaster-tools.com

Updated: Many of you have written us and asked: How do I know when the Google deep crawl has started on my site? Carefully examine this screen capture:

The deep crawl uses an IP range of 216.239.46.x which you can view in the screen capture. The deep crawl normally follows the Google Dance and lasts from 3-10 days each month. Google uses the deep crawl results for the next final update aka Dance. The Fresh Bot aka "freshie" is not unique to the Google Dance and often visits many sites every single day. The Fresh Bot uses an IP range of 64.68.82.x. Examine your logs for the Deep Crawl/Bot IP range of 216.239.46.x. Or use one of the following scripts: Google Trax or GoogleStats. Please note, you can't determine which Google Bot is visiting your site with many stats packages, since they list both Bots as "Googlebot/2.1" in your reports.

Legal Stuff: Google™ is a trademark of Google Technology Inc. geek/talk @ GeekVillage.com and or Free-Webmaster-Tools.com is not associated with Google, has never spoken to them, and has no direct or indirect relationship with Google.