May 19th, 2010 by Susie

For those who have been watching the world of search engines closely, you will know all about the hype surrounding Google Caffeine. It is one of the many search engine optimisation tools which Google is adding to its string of applications, which will hopefully make search results more accurate. There are various factors within the Google algorithm which determine where a website appears within its results pages, and Caffeine is the next update and instalment on the algorithm to help define search results better.

Google caffeine is launching in several stages and across different servers, and is live already in some areas. Not much is changing from a user’s point of view when they are conducting their search but the results which appear within may be different than in previous searches. Caffeine is designed to measure the relevance and honesty of a website on various levels, some of the old factors will still form part of the decision, however there will be new elements that will have an impact.

Factors that are said to be included in the new Google search are things such as page speed, site navigation and usability and linked sites. All these things currently make up some of your search engine position, however they will now be looked at in more depth and the balance between all the factors will be distributed differently.

In terms of your SEO link building and your strategies behind getting a high rank, it is worth doing a bit of work on your site to enable as smooth a transition as possible. It is highly unlikely that the introduction of Google Caffeine alone is going to take you from page six to page one overnight, but in a world where position is everything, it is always best to be as prepared as possible.

Whilst it is a challenge to optimise your site for something so new, polishing your website and search marketing techniques is not going to do you any harm. Start with the usability of your website and give it a good clearout. Check the effectiveness of internal links and navigation bars and remove any unnecessary items which may be slowing down your page loads.

Also, refine all your content, particularly on any leading pages. Make sure it is concise and there are no irrelevant or dated keywords. Look at competitor content and make sure yours is up to scratch. It is also worth checking all of your external links to ensure the websites they link to still exist or are relevant.

Lastly, watch out for spam. Monitoring this should be part of your ongoing SEO and search marketing anyway but it is always worth checking blog comments and the like to remove any spam links or tags. Whilst it may seem like it, Google caffeine is nothing to panic about – it is there to improve things and once it has been around for a while and we are more familiar with it, we will wonder what all the fuss was about.

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