Google Caffeine Becomes Official
According to a recent blog post by Google spokesperson Matt Cutts, the much discussed and recently tested new search algorithm Google Caffeine will soon be implemented worldwide.
This “next generation” algorithm represents a major overhaul of Google’s search technology, and the complex (and secret) formula that Google uses to rank web pages in their search engine results.
After The Holidays
Google hasn’t specified when exactly Caffeine will take over, but they have said that it will be only after the holiday period. Although one of Google’s data centres has already implemented the new algorithm, the big change over is planned for after the holidays, for the simple reason that Google doesn’t want to upset site owners by making a change at such a busy and sensitive time.
In his blog post, Matt Cutts said, “I know that webmasters can get anxious around this time of year, so I wanted to reassure site owners that the full Caffeine roll out will happen after the holidays.” You can read the rest of the post here: Google Caffeine Update
Developer Input
In a move that drew much praise from certain circles, Google gave developers access to a beta version of Caffeine a few months ago, and welcomed comments and input from people wishing to test it. With this announcement however, Google has taken down the beta test version they made available to developers, in preparation for the roll-out.
New Ranking Factors
Although the factors and formulas behind Caffeine are confidential, Google has mentioned a few things that will be important when it comes to ranking with the new algorithm.
Site speed, or how fast your site loads, will apparently be a contributing factor, as will broken links, and linking out to so-called “bad neighbourhoods.”
The ubiquitous and yet vague “overall page quality” will allegedly play a greater role than before, and on-page factors are expected to play a bigger role in Google Caffeine. As always, quality unique content and search engine friendly navigation will play a big part, and it has been suggested that things like page views, bounce rate, time spent on page and even the number of social bookmarks will all be taken into consideration as well.
Last Word
At Net Age, we’re looking forward to the roll-out of Google Caffeine. We’re all in favour of anything that makes search engine results more relevant, and it looks like Google is trying to do just that.
In the end though, as long as you’ve got an intelligent, search engine friendly site design, and provide useful, original and relevant content on a regular basis, you should do just fine. Which is what Google has been saying all along.