Eric Gehler SEO Richmond Virginia

About

Eric Gehler egehler@gmail.com

As an SEO I track keyword data and Search Engine Results on a daily basis. I track Rankings, the Google Data centers across many client keyword terms.

For the past couple of weeks the Live Google results have all reported from the same data center across the country.  Rarely is this the case.  Google has over 100 data centers (probably more) that serve up your keyword results based on your geographical location.   Results from someone on the west coast can be significantly different than results on the east coast based on the data center reporting.  This is also even more significant if you are requesting results that are being pulled from your Cache, Ip Address, Web history, or even logged into a Google Gmail account.

For the Past two weeks instead of the comfortable local data center I am used too, I have been served up results from 74.125.45.132   How do I know you ask?  For any Google search you can simple mouse over the word Cached and see the URL that is displaying information in the bottom left corner of your browser. It will start out with an IP address rather than the words Google.com.

I was tired of 74.125.45.132 and made an assumption. Google must be up to something.  After checking with friends on Twitter.com I discovered they too were seeing the dreaded 74.125.45.132 data center.  This was in Boston, Delaware, California, Alabama and in Richmond Virgina.  Normally that wide area and cross section of the country we would have see at minimum 3-4 different Data center IP addresses.

To make matters worse, as I was looking up SERPS (search engine ranking results) I was seeing some very strange numbers.  I had a case of Deja vu for certain keywords.  The  74…. was giving me results or SERPS based upon data it had reported the First week of November around 11-5-08.  I quickly checked my spread sheets across different domains and sure enough, Deja vu  all the SERPS for the keywords match result I had recorded in November 2008.  It was not my error.  Results don’t go from front page to page 5 in a day and are consistent with 30 other plus keyword results.

I figured Google was just making a cross check of an upcoming Algorithm change and things would be back to normal quickly.  Low and behold today 1-9-08, all my keyword terms are now representing the 3rd week in November around  11-20-08.

So Google is definitely up to something. An Google Update is afoot, but most importantly, your LIVE search results at least for the meantime are not live, just a quick step back into the past.

Anyone with accurate data able to see the same thing?

What data center are you seeing and where are you located. ( mouse over the word Cached from any Google search and look at the URL in the bottom Left Corner of your browser)

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