First, I must start this post off by saying that “Google’s Random Rankings” probably isn’t the best title for this series, because the results aren’t random by no means. They are strategically positioned so we the users will always have the best search experience using Google Search.
So according to my last post Google’s Random Rankings Pt. 1, in this post I’m going to cover Multi-Data Center Indexing and Caching, which includes;
- Google has data centers
nationwide/worldwide - We get results from different data centers
- Some data centers are used for testing
- Which data centers do tools & API use?
So let’s get started… I’d like to use SEO Rank Checker for FireFox by SEObook for the example of this post. If you check your positions via this tool (and almost any other tools) you’ll get results based on your location.
If you close Rank Checker, change your location, and re-check your keywords, you’ll notice that some of the results are different. That is because your results are based on your location in relationship to the closest Google data center. The data center could be in the boonies of you local town or a couple states away (who knows, it’s kinda top secret).
But, Not Always from Local Data Center
But sometimes Google will provide results based on other data center’s results, aside or on top of your local data center’s results.
Some data centers have specific responsibilities or are used for strict purposes like testing. Some are made to have bigger indexes/hardrive space, while some could be used for users of certain profiles (sign in or out too). Some are made to index a-m, while others index n-z, or it could be grouped by niches. Some data centers are made for tools and backend software. Some are used to rank newer sites to test before ranking everywhere. Some data centers are used just for scoring. Some data centers are about caching and crawling more often, while others will wait for more SEO factors to come into place. Some are used for future Google initiatives, while some are still using Google’s most basic.
We don’t really know or will ever know which data center provides or does what or even where it’s located. What we do know is we get different results, there’s multiple data centers, and the results Google provides though different, are accurate to what we want.
Just a little something to consider post. :) Solid positions don’t come until you’ve won on all data centers ;)