The Google Honeymoon
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Honeymoon Period
For this week’s Internet business definition I’m going to share a new term that I just learned about.
Google’s Honeymoon Period
I was reading Yaro’s story called The Google Honeymoon Period a couple days ago, and I was shocked to find that I hadn’t heard of this phrase before…guess I don’t know as much as I thought…always a refreshing revelation.
The honeymoon period describes a phenomenon that I am well aware of. It happens on Google and on MSN [I have yet to see it on Yahoo] and to put is simply it is a synthetic boost that a new page will receive when it first comes online.
I’ve seen it many times, and search engine spammers create entire disposable sites based on this “quirk” in the search algorithms.
But I always just assumed it was just that, a quirk, but Yaro’s post tells us that the synthetic boost is actually a really brilliant device that the search engines use to determine the quality of a site:
…I believe the honeymoon period occurs so Google can collect data on how relevant your pages are for those keywords. If during the honeymoon your pages are clicked often and the visitor hangs around for a while (doesn’t click back and choose another option from the search results) then your drop after the honeymoon isn’t significant. The logic being that your page offers a good answer to the question being asked. If your page doesn’t get many clicks or people don’t stay around then after the honeymoon you can expect your page to drop further in the index.
Very cool theory, and it makes complete sense. It is a simple way for the search engine to track how relevant the result is to what the searcher was looking for.
If they spend 2 seconds on a site [Google can track which result was tracked] then the searcher comes straight back to the search results to find a different site, then Google can, if the pattern is repeated over and over, that the site is not a valuable resource for the search term. Meanwhile if they never come back to the search results then, they either found what they were looking for on your site, or exited via a link on your site, which means you provided good resources…which is also a sign of a quality site.
Maybe that’s why all those gurus are saying to add valuable content to your site [no not the gurus trying to sell you crap every week...the real gurus who know how real business works].
Very cool stuff.
Jon Symons
Exploring the “after the honeymoon” period, so you don’t have to.
