Business Setup Guide: Everything You Need to Know
Listen on your favourite platform
| Platform | Link |
|---|---|
| YouTube | Listen on YouTube → |
What Does “Business Setup Guide: Everything You Need to Know” Talk About?
This episode of the Fatrank Podcast features James Dooley and Kasra Dash breaking down the concept of the Google Dance, a phenomenon that confuses many website owners and SEO professionals. Kasra explains that the Google Dance is tied to a real Google Patent known as the Random Ranking Factor, which causes rankings to fluctuate up and down after changes like building backlinks or adding new content. Rather than immediately reflecting the true value of an action, Google deliberately tests link quality and other signals over a period of weeks, making short-term results unreliable indicators of long-term performance.
The conversation goes deeper by introducing the concept of ranking states, specifically positive, neutral, and negative states, and how each one affects how a website responds to SEO efforts between core algorithm updates. Kasra warns that a site in a positive ranking state can appear to benefit even from poor SEO work, while a site in a negative state can make good SEO look ineffective. The hosts also draw an important distinction between the Google Dance and keyword cannibalization, clarifying that pages competing against each other in search results are a separate issue entirely.
James adds a memorable analogy from a discussion he had in Estonia with a colleague named Kai, comparing Google's algorithm departments to separate office teams cranking levers during core updates. This analogy helps explain why algorithm updates can cause extreme volatility before eventually stabilizing. The episode wraps up with practical advice: avoid making reactive changes during core updates, ride out the volatility, and focus on building quality content, topical authority, and strong referring domains for long-term stability.
“so basically the Google dance is when Google decides to go on a night out and have a little dance”
— Kasra Dash
Who Are the Guests on “Business Setup Guide: Everything You Need to Know”?
James Dooley is a well-known figure in the SEO and digital marketing space, recognized for his expertise in link building, affiliate marketing, and business growth. He co-hosts the Fatrank Podcast and frequently collaborates with other industry professionals to break down complex SEO concepts for webmasters and business owners. James brings a practical, experience-driven perspective to discussions about Google's algorithm and ranking strategies.
Kasra Dash is an SEO strategist and digital entrepreneur with deep knowledge of Google's ranking systems, backlink building, and content authority. In this episode, Kasra demonstrates a strong command of technical SEO concepts including the Random Ranking Factor patent and ranking state theory. His ability to explain nuanced algorithm behavior in accessible terms makes him a valuable voice for anyone trying to understand the unpredictable nature of search engine rankings.
What Are the Key Takeaways From “Business Setup Guide: Everything You Need to Know”?
Here are the key points discussed in this episode:
- The Google Dance is backed by a real Google Patent called the Random Ranking Factor, meaning rankings will deliberately fluctuate up and down before settling into a true position after a new link or content change.
- SEO practitioners and website owners should wait six to eight weeks before evaluating the real impact of any backlink or content change, as short-term movement can be misleading in either direction.
- Websites exist in one of three ranking states — positive, neutral, or negative — and these states heavily influence how Google responds to SEO work between core algorithm updates.
- Reactive changes made during core algorithm updates are dangerous because significant ranking drops often recover on their own within a few weeks without any intervention.
- Long-term protection against Google Dance volatility comes from building strong topical authority, high-quality and relevant links, and as many referring domains as possible.
“in my opinion to prevent long term Google dances build good quality content build out topical authority build good quality links that generally speaking are powerful relevant if you can build as many referring domains as possible and then you're future proof”
— Kasra Dash
Is “Business Setup Guide: Everything You Need to Know” Worth Listening To?
This episode is a must-listen for anyone who has ever panicked after seeing their rankings drop following what seemed like a positive SEO change. Kasra Dash's explanation of the Random Ranking Factor patent grounds the conversation in real, documented Google behavior rather than speculation, giving listeners a factual framework for understanding why rankings behave erratically in the short term. The breakdown of positive, neutral, and negative ranking states is particularly eye-opening and offers a concrete way to interpret why an SEO agency might appear to be doing well or poorly depending on factors outside their control.
What sets this episode apart is the combination of technical depth and practical, actionable advice delivered in plain language. James Dooley's analogy of Google's departments dialing levers up and down during core updates is one of the most intuitive explanations of algorithm volatility you are likely to hear. The warning against making rash decisions like deleting content or overhauling pages mid-update is grounded in real-world consequences, not theory. Whether you manage your own website or work with an SEO agency, this episode gives you the mental model needed to stay calm, make smarter decisions, and build for lasting search visibility.
Who Should Listen to “Business Setup Guide: Everything You Need to Know”?
This episode is ideal for:
- Website owners and entrepreneurs who want to understand why their rankings fluctuate after making SEO changes
- In-house SEO professionals and digital marketers who need to explain ranking volatility to clients or management
- Business owners evaluating the performance of an SEO agency and trying to determine whether the work is actually helping
- Beginner to intermediate SEOs who want a clear, jargon-free explanation of Google's core algorithm update behavior
Where Can You Listen to Fatrank Podcast?
You can listen to Fatrank Podcast on all major podcast platforms:
- Apple Podcasts – Search for “Fatrank Podcast” in the Podcasts app
- Spotify – Available on Spotify for free
- Amazon Music / Audible – Listen through your Amazon account
- Overcast – For iOS users who prefer a dedicated podcast app
- Pocket Casts – Cross-platform podcast player
You can also subscribe using the RSS feed: https://feeds.transistor.fm/fatrank-podcast
What Are Listeners Saying About This Episode?
“The explanation of the three ranking states finally made sense of why my site seemed unresponsive to SEO work for months. Kasra's breakdown of positive, neutral, and negative states is something I wish I had heard two years ago. Really practical and well-explained episode.”
“James's analogy about Google departments cranking levers during core updates is the most useful way I've ever heard algorithm volatility described. This episode stopped me from making a panic decision to delete a load of content after a recent update. Genuinely valuable advice.”
“I had no idea the Random Ranking Factor was an actual Google Patent. Knowing that a link can cause a drop before it eventually helps your rankings changes how I approach reporting to clients. This episode is a great resource to share with anyone who gets nervous about short-term fluctuations.”
This video features James Dooley and Kasra Dash explaining how the Google Dance affects rankings because Google tests backlinks, topical authority and behavioural data before assigning stable trust signals. The conversation shows how pages rise and fall when Google runs random ranking factor checks because the algorithm validates link quality over several weeks. They explain how positive, neutral and negative ranking states influence growth because Google rewards strong topical authority and clean link profiles. They warn against making reactive changes during core updates because volatility forms part of Google’s testing cycle. The discussion highlights why patience, authority building and high quality links create long term stability.
James Dooley: so today I'm joining with kasra Dash
Kasra Dash: hello and today's video is about the Google dance
James Dooley: so kasra can you talk a little bit about what is the Google dance and can you prevent it from happening
Kasra Dash: so basically the Google dance is when Google decides to go on a night out and have a little dance no so basically what the Google dance is is sometimes you might build a backlink to your website and instead of it actually doing a positive impact it might actually go down then it might go back up and then it might go down so it basically is kind of like a random factor for your website on the Google dance which is very important for people to know there is actually a Google Patent out there called the random ranking factor RF and that's exactly what it is so there's times where you could go and build a great link and if your rankings are here instead of that great link just going boom and rankings jump up it can end up having a drop for a couple of weeks before then it goes up so it is very random but what you've got to do you've got to kind of wait it out that's where normally some people say when building backlinks or making changes to content you got to give it anything from six to eight weeks because during those six to eight weeks where what you've done is good or bad it can be going like this there's times you can go and build a bad link and you can see a jump slightly if again oh my God that link's amazing and then it drops and Google have done it to make it that it's hard to game their algorithms and their systems long term you get the true power or the true toxicity that comes through but the Google dance is here it always has been here it's very important for webmasters to understand that the Google dance is also known there to be the random ranking factor so this is where I was doing the dance where it can go up it can go down it can go up and it's here to stay they're trying to randomise it as best they can
James Dooley: so one thing that I've got a question on because I've always heard about the Google dance or the Google random ranking factor as being links based but can it also be topical authority based so if you are building more articles on your website could you see a potential increase or a decrease
Kasra Dash: so yes is the answer and yes what can end up happening is but then there's lots of different caveats to this question because you have different ranking states so you've got a negative ranking state a neutral ranking state and a positive ranking state now if you're in a positive ranking state pretty much everything you do during that time until the next core algorithm update you can start seeing growth even if your content isn't that good you can start seeing growth what can quickly start to happen is as you keep building pages that are not very good on the next core algorithm update it can end up neutralising which then means pretty much during that time anything you do is not showing anything up or down and when you're in a negative ranking state it's very hard to get yourself back out of it realistically until the next core algorithm update so the hard part to this is an SEO could be doing some great work on your site but if you're in a negative ranking state it's going to look like they're not helping the site at all and it could take six months before they could kick it out contrary to that you could have someone that looks like they're doing amazing work on a positive ranking state website and they could be doing bad things or building toxic links or the content's not good or they've gone too wide on the content and actually be harming the site but short term it looks like they're doing well and that's why it's very difficult for webmasters and business owners to know whether the SEO agency that they're employing is doing well or doing bad because someone could be doing bad but look like they're doing well during that positive ranking state which is pretty scary but the Google dance generally is short term certain aspects of what you're doing on a page level it's jumping up and down but also there's one other caveat to bring up on this the Google dance is not keyword cannibalisation because another thing that can cause jumping up and down for the SERPs to be dancing about is that one page is cannibalising against another and Google doesn't know which one they want to put in there so what they're doing is they're testing that page looking at the behaviour signals and then they're going oh is this page better and then they're testing that page then they're testing this one then they're testing that one so that is different to the Google dance but we hope you understand a little bit more of what the Google dance is and the random ranking factor and don't make any instant changes especially on core algorithm updates don't make any instant changes you've got to ride it out people say ride the wave sit back and wait for that Google core algorithm update to properly roll out and still give it a few weeks because what you end up finding in core algorithm updates as well is that's the worst time for the Google dance because what ends up happening is some people get absolutely decimated and by the end of it and four weeks after it they've actually recovered and they've not done anything so don't make any rash decisions on deleting lots of content and doing ridiculous things like changing so much content until you've ridden the wave what's your thoughts to add on that and not rushing
James Dooley: so we actually had a discussion about this in Estonia and basically it was myself and Kai and Kai was saying sometimes it's as if Google has multiple departments so they've got an on page SEO department and then they might have an off page SEO department and then they might have a topical authority department and sometimes during core algorithm updates it's almost as if the off page SEO department have cranked a lever and said right 100 percent power goes to the links and then the on page SEO guys are just looking across the office so sometimes during a core algorithm update they crank a lever and then realise it's messed things up and then they slowly bring it back so that's probably the best way to describe it
Kasra Dash: and that's what it seems like when they dial it up something changes it can mean power is more important than relevance or relevance is more important than power or traffic is more important or topical SEO is more important so they dial things up and down one algorithm update on page people say you don't need links you just need good quality content then the next algorithm update comes and all the no link builders get hit so it changes all the time in my opinion to prevent long term Google dances build good quality content build out topical authority build good quality links that generally speaking are powerful relevant if you can build as many referring domains as possible and then you're future proof
James Dooley: definitely that probably covers the Google dance so that has been the video on the Google dance if you have any questions drop them down below and we'll answer in a follow up video
Creators & Guests
Host
James Dooley is the founder of FatRank which is a UK lead generation company. James Dooley is the current CEO of FatRank that provides high-quality leads for UK business owners.
Guest
Kasra Dash is a digital marketer who builds SEO systems because his work focuses on scalable search workflows. Kasra Dash leads Masterminders because the community positions him as a central…