Google is getting ready to roll out its biggest update since the “Big Daddy” update which happened back in 2006. They’re calling it the Google Caffeine update and are claiming that this new under-the-hood infrastructure will improve the speed and accuracy with which Google will index web pages.
“For the last several months, a large team of Googlers has been working on a secret project: a next-generation architecture for Google's web search. It's the first step in a process that will let us push the envelope on size, indexing speed, accuracy, comprehensiveness and other dimensions.”- Google Webmaster Central Blog
Matt Cutts, the head of Google’s web spam team, calls the Google Caffine update “A rewrite of our indexing system”.A rewrite is a big thing; it's important to take a look at what exactly this means for businesses running search engine optimisation (SEO) campaigns.
What does the Google Caffeine update mean for businesses relying on Google for traffic, visibility, and conversions?
One probable effect of the Google Caffeine update will be faster indexing times of web pages. It can often take quite some time for new websites to get any of their pages indexed on Google. The Google Caffeine update infrastructure will allow for speedy indexing of new content on the web. Not only is this good for search engine users (to whom fresh, new content is crucial), but this is also a huge plus for businesses who are trying to kick start their SEO efforts.
Google puts a lot of importance on the accuracy of their search results. If users can’t find what they’re looking for, they’ll ditch Google and go somewhere else. The Google Caffeine update will improve Google’s already competent search result accuracy even further. This is great for users and businesses, who no doubt want to rank high for relevant rather than unrelated searches.However, when Google says that it is improving the accuracy of their rankings with the Google Caffeine update they imply that some fundamental changes will need to be made to the way Google ranks websites. While the end result may be subtle to the end user except for more relevant search results, this could change how search engine optimisation works in a big way. Ranking factors will likely need to be re-evaluated. Research will need to be done into how the Google Caffeine update changes the landscape of SEO and how much value it places on well-known ranking factors like page titles.For businesses, this part of the Google Caffeine update could mean some unexpected fluctuation in rankings until SEO companies begin to work out exactly what has changed and how they need to change their clients’ SEO strategies to work with the Google Caffeine update changes.
The Google Caffeine update will allow Google to index more documents and larger documents more successfully. Indexing more documents means the possibility of introducing even more competition to search engine optimisation for businesses in any industry.
Regardless of all of the new changes which the Google Caffeine update will introduce, Google has made it clear that this change is only the beginning of their improvements to the Google infrastructure.
"This build's a very powerful foundation for any changes we want to do in indexing. It gives you a lot more flexibility and power..."- Matt Cutts in an interview with Web Pro News
Some people in the search engine optimisation industry suspect that the Google Caffeine update is in the process of being rolled out now, but nothing official has been said by Google regarding the timing and when exactly the update will go live.With the Yahoo! and Bing deal already causing waves in the search industry, it seems all of the major search engines are rolling out some big updates that could change the landscape of the search industry considerably. SEO companies will need to be especially vigilant to deliver businesses with the best SEO results.
