Wake Up to Google’s Caffeine

Last month (August, 2009), Google announced a beta release of its biggest behind-the-scenes update in more than three years, called Caffeine. Apparently, this update is intended to improve the speed of doing searches on Google, and also to enhance the accuracy of searches on Google as well. Although these changes are supposed to apply mainly to search speed and accuracy, some web site owners are concerned that they could see their Google search positions fall as a result of Caffeine. So if your small business currently has a web site listed in Google’s search results, how concerned should you be?

Well, any time that Google makes changes to its search algorithm, there is a possibility it will affect search engine rankings, and this seems to be true for Caffeine. If you have properly optimized your web site, however, you could actually see an improvement in your rankings. For instance, Caffeine may now be giving more weight to content with higher keyword densities than the previous version of Google, and seems to reward sites that can show a solid relationship between keywords/phrases and page content.

The Caffeine Jolt
There also seems to be a consensus that Caffeine is definitely faster, and according to mashable.com “often doubled the speed of the old Google.” Caffeine also seems to give preference to sites with recent content posted on them. So if you do not regularly update the content on your web site, don’t be surprised if your rankings fall below other sites that do provide fresh content that is updated on a regular basis.

Another eye-opener is the emphasis that Caffeine apparently gives to social media, with sites like Facebook and LinkedIn showing up prominently in the top search results. In addition to this, sites that incorporate social media such as blogs, RSS feeds, and social networking profiles/accounts seem to be given more weight in the rankings as well.

A Fresh Cup
Many experts point out that Google may be reacting to the huge popularity of the social networking sites (like Facebook and Twitter) that can provide “real-time” search results, (for example, coverage of news as it is breaking), which Google currently cannot do. This is also another indication of just how much social networking has gained in importance and influence in the online world today.

Whatever the reason for Google’s Caffeine, it looks like it is already being implemented in various Google data centers, and is on track to replace the older version. According to Google’s webmaster blog (the top Google information source for web professionals), most users will not notice much of a difference in the search results. But if your web site’s rankings happen to fall because of Caffeine, that’s something you probably will notice.

The Perfect Grind
Here are some tips you can follow to help preserve your web site’s current rankings in Caffeine, or even help give them a boost:

1. Optimize your web site. Make sure you have correct meta data (like titles and descriptions) in place on every page, and pay attention to the keyword densities in this data.
2. Adjust your page keyword densities, if necessary. It may be too soon to tell if recommended densities have changed (current recommendations are between 2% and 6%), but make sure your densities are at least above 2%.
3. Update your web site on a regular basis. Google (like other search engines) tries to list the best, most relevant results when users perform a search. If your site has old, outdated content, then Google has little (if any) reason to think your site is a good match to a search query. Other sites (including competitors) that have fresher, more recent content will be judged by Google as being as “more relevant”, and will rank ahead of your site in the search results.
4. Get involved with social networking. This not only helps your business in the Google Caffeine search results, it can also help your business in other ways as well. Social marketing is the biggest thing in online marketing today, and getting better search results just adds to the case for implementing a social marketing strategy in your business sooner rather than later.

The Caffeine Jitters
Also remember that as Google moves toward providing more “real-time” search results, the ranking positions for your web site may change and bounce around a bit since new, live-search results are being added to the search database all the time. But if you pay attention and stay current with the changes, your business can survive and even thrive in the online space, giving you an edge over your de-caffeinated competitors.