VIDEO: Googlers Take Us Behind the Scenes of the Google Dance #SMX

Search Marketing Expo (SMX) West 2016 is happening next week, and we’re anticipating the return of the first Google Dance since 2008! SMX West is a digital marketing conference held each year in San Jose, and the dance is a party held on Google’s Mountain View campus for the conference’s attendees.

We invited Google’s Webmaster Trends Analyst Gary Illyes — one of the most-anticipated speakers slated to take the SMX stage — to join us for a special Hangout on Air. Illyes and Search Quality Analyst Nathan Johns were integral in bringing back the Google Dance, and both took a few minutes to tell us what to expect from the fete in a light-hearted Hangout.

Go behind the scenes of the Google Dance!

You might have guessed it, but the name of the event, “Google Dance,” is a play on the old shakeup of search result rankings that occurred whenever Google updated its algorithms. Virginia Nussey and I were hoping to talk to these Googlers about today’s algorithm updates and SEO hot topics like:

• The upcoming Penguin algorithm update
• The impact on organic result CTR when ads on the SERP move from the sidebar to four ads on the top of a results page for commercial queries
• The Google Partner program suggesting SEO providers

But it seems we will have to wait for Illyes to take the SMX stage to get the info on these topics. He’ll be speaking on March 3 at 1 p.m. in “How Google Works: A Google Ranking Engineer’s Story,” along with Google Software Engineer Paul Haahr. We’ll be reporting live from SMX West to bring you coverage of this session and more than 30 others. Check out our liveblog schedule to know what sessions/speakers will be covered March 1-3. Subscribe to the blog so you don’t miss any SMX coverage!

Kristi Kellogg is a journalist, news hound, professional copywriter, and social (media) butterfly. Currently, she is a senior SEO content writer for Conde Nast. Her articles appear in newspapers, magazines, across the Internet and in books such as "Content Marketing Strategies for Professionals" and "The Media Relations Guidebook." Formerly, she was the social media editor at Bruce Clay Inc.

See Kristi's author page for links to connect on social media.