This thread was started to answer the many general questions, users have about Google and how it updates its search results, PageRank, and backlink results. This thread also answers general questions about how Google displays backlinks.

Start here before you ask any questions about PageRank updating, backlink updating, or search result updating.

How often does Google update its search results?

Google updates its search results, also known as SERP's, continuously. This means that google changes the result pages as it spiders the web and finds new links and content.

How Often Does Google Update PageRank and Backlinks?

Google updates their Backlink results and PageRank results every 3 – 6 weeks.
The update usually begins on a weekend or a holiday and lasts for 3 – 4 days. It is very common to see different results across the different datacenters during this time. Also, if there are different results across google datacenters when searching for backlink results, this means that an update is in progress.
You can check the search results across google datacenters here.
http://www.void.be/googletool.html

How often does Google dance?

Google does not dance anymore and has not danced for over a year. A google dance is a term referring to the way google used to update their SERP results, every 4 – 6 weeks. There was usually a massive change in the search results and the search results were generally unstable. Now google uses a continuously updating pattern so the results shown by google are much more stable than they once were.

Why doesn't google show all of the links to my site?

Google has always shown only a sample of the links coming into your site. These links are updated in the search results every 3 - 6 weeks. Even though google only shows a small sample, this does not mean that google doesn't count the other backlinks when displaying search results. Google updates its search result pages for standard searches continuously, and these search results take into account all links that google has found.