If you’re in the online marketing industry, be prepared for some big changes. Google recently announced their latest project – Google Caffeine, which is set to change the search world. In essence, Google is rewriting the way they index sites and for the first time, we have a sneak preview of how this will affect our rankings.
For those that think this wont be a big change, think again. Matt Cutts has mentioned that this could compare to the Big Daddy update in late 2005. If you’re wondering how this is going to affect you, take a look at this comparative tool from Sembience which checks your current ranking of a keyword vs the Google Caffeine rank.
Here is a simple example of how rankings are already changing:
Google vs Google Caffeine
One of the most talked about changes with Google Caffeine is the way that Google gives preference to real time events and news and a lot of people are wondering if this is going to sacrifice the relevancy of the results. I’m not convinced about this. I believe that these change are needed to filter out all the irrelevant information that has built up along the years within the Google index. From now on, a lot more work will be needed to maintain your current rankings, meaning that all those untouched, forgotten websites with useless information will be thrown to the bottom of the ranks if it hasn’t been done so already.
In order to maintain a good ranking and keep your business alive you will now have to put as much time into your business online as you are offline.
Visit the Google Caffeine site and start getting prepared for what’s going to be a big change in the online marketing world.
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Leave the country for a week and Google changes everything, it is going to be an interesting update for the better I think. Should get rid of all the junk and create more need for an SEO company to keep sites updated to maintain ranking. Great post Nick.
Google is leaning towards more social media. Look at the “Social Voting” they have been testing.
Google caffeine as said is a breakthrough and is a signal for SEO’s, Webmasters & Marketers. Google would want to get rid of KEYWORD SPAM, LINK SPAM so its like looking ahead to figure out relevant content. I would suggest that websites should tend to focus more on User based content than search engines. SOCIAL Marketing and SOCIAL Videos are a place to get much more attention.
So its wakeup time for SEO’s
Hello, does someone know when google caffeine will officially start? Beta?
@Federico it is scheduled to launch this month actually, but there has been no official word from Google yet.
I think that there will certainly be some listing changes to those old ‘authority’ sites that has hogged the top for so long. Also for ‘heavy’ pages that are full of naff flash intros. IMHO I just wish they would fully release it and let us see where they are going.
All the best when it happens
Col