Don’t mistake the Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace streams that have begun to rear their heads on Google’s search engine result pages (SERPs) for a forthcoming lull from the search giant. The company has been quietly working on their new, faster search index algorithm (internally referred to as “Caffeine”), and have been preparing for its launch on all platforms. Although talk from people involved in search engine optimization has suggested that Caffeine has already gone live, Google itself has yet to confirm whether or not this is true.
Regardless, with the effects of Caffeine on Google’s results equipped to rear its metaphorical head soon, if it hasn’t already, it’s more important than ever to acquaint oneself with what this means for search engine optimization.
While the appearance and feel of the results page aren’t set to change any more than they have already with realtime search, expect to see a noticeable increase in how quickly results are presented, particularly with media like pictures and videos. Additionally, there are reports from the search engine optimization firm, Summit Media, that for generic keywords, the new Caffeine algorithm will place more of an emphasis on delivering results related to current news and social media. And, perhaps most important for search engine optimization, sites that rely on old content will perhaps be more prone to seeing their rankings drop on Google’s SERPs.
In large part, however, the Summit Media study found that there was little significant difference between the kinds of sites preferred by Caffeine compared with Google’s current algorithm. Aside from a slight few percentage changes, various categories of sites (classified, information, manufacturer, etc.) will appear with the same relative frequency as it did under the old search.
Written by Kenny K.