Switchfast Blog: The Future of IT
We Ask Again: Will Google’s Caffeine Affect SEO?
Wednesday, June 09, 2010 by Matt Hymel
It seems like Google has upped its coffee intake - or maybe just
updated their web indexing system. A previously discussed topic, Google announced the completion of Caffeine, an
improved web search index that "provides 50% fresher results for
web searches than our last index."
From Google's Official Blog, "content on the web is
blossoming... searchers want to find the latest relevant content
and publishers expect to be found the instant they publish." Google
explains that the "average webpage is richer and more complex," and
"people's expectations for search are higher than they used to be."
With a generation of users constantly updating Facebook and
Tweeting every thought, Google seems to be adjusting to the thirst
for real-time information.
Here is Google's explanation on the differences in the old index
and Caffeine:
"Our old index had several layers, some of which were refreshed
at a faster rate than others; the main layer would update every
couple of weeks. To refresh a layer of the old index, we would
analyze the entire web, which meant there was a significant delay
between when we found a page and made it available to you.
With Caffeine, we analyze the web in small portions and update
our search index on a continuous basis, globally. As we find new
pages, or new information on existing pages, we can add these
straight to the index. That means you can find fresher information
than ever before-no matter when or where it was published."
As Charles Arthur, a writer at Guardian.co.uk, points out, "the key difference is that the
web index is now not stratified." Google has transitioned to
updating chunks of the web at a time on a continuous basis, in fact
adding "new information at a rate of hundreds of thousands of
gigabytes per day."
The speed at which Google displays search information has
changed - but will this affect SEO? Mr. Arthur points to two
sources with opposing views. In an article from Mashable, Caffeine was found to be "much more
SEO-heavy," with the article claiming that the algorithm "has more
reliance on keyword strings to produce better results."
However, a writer from SearchEngineLand.com explains what
Google has explained: "The introduction of Caffeine simply means
that once those pages are crawled, they are made available to
searchers much more quickly."
For the moment, we will have to wait and monitor the effects of
caffeine on website page rank and crawl rate. Whenever an
adjustment is made that scrambles a tiered index, there are bound
to be learning opportunities in the not-too-distant future for SEO
specialists working hard at pushing their respective pages to
the top of Google's search.
Until Next Time -
Matthew Hymel
Switchfast Technologies
Chicago IT Support &
Consulting
Rochester
IT Support & Consulting
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