The other day I was trying to describe why Google and search engines have delays before changes show up.
The problem I was having is the sheer amount of technical jargon and insider knowledge required to explain even an overview of it.
Then I had a flash of inspiration...
Don't worry, I remembered to put on my sunglasses
Anyways.
If you can remember CARS, you can remember the whole process.
- Crawl Collects the data,
- the data is Analyzed by the Algorithm,
- the Rankings are Replaced (updated),
- and the Searcher Sees the results
C.A.R.S.
Like the vehicle or the band.
So if you're ever wondering why you haven't seen a change in rankings, content, or wonder why everyone says "SEO takes a long time"... remember CARS. Your change is probably still in a earlier step so the Searcher (you) can't see it yet.
Google Search has a lot of resources it can pour into this process and the more popular your store is, the more resources you get. That's how some stores can have what looks like instantly updating search results while others are showing weeks old results.
Google's Rich Snippet system has even less resources which is why it can take 8-13 weeks before you notice anything ("Searcher Sees"). I've been measuring JSON-LD for SEO Plus+ customers and they've been seeing improved results in about 5 weeks on average (~37 days). It's probably because of the highly optimized JSON-LD snippet plus the set of optimization advice I offer when they first install.
Eric Davis