Google Caffeine is Coming Soon!

Sometime in the next few days, Google Caffeine, their newest search engine algorithm, is going to be fully operational.

Google is always improving user experience, but this is their first major algorithm change in quite a while. Caffeine will significantly speed up Google’s results and will give more weight to website-specific keywords. Sites with content that has “aged” are likely to get penalized. Sites that have fresh, relevant content and that are linked to other sites with related content are going to continue to do well in the search rankings. Here’s a few things to consider for your website.

Does your content match your website’s message?

We’ve seen plenty of businesses that have “pretty” websites, but the content doesn’t lead the web visitor to take action.  Well written content engages the reader, encouraging them to take the next step in their relationship with you, and increases search engine rankings. Content should be relevant to your business and your website’s message. This not only serves your reader, but also helps the search engines rank you website more accurately and allows the search engines to present more accurate searches to your target market.

Is your content updated regularly?

To increase your ranking in the search engines, you need fresh content. This also helps your readers know that you are still taking care of your business. If you add content weekly, the search engines will begin to scan your website more often, looking for this new content. Right now, I’m getting new pages posted in Google within 15 minutes! You can do this, too.

Do you have high-quality outbound links?

An important change anticipated in Caffeine is the it will place increased importance on high-quality OUTBOUND links. These outbound links should point to websites that contain information relevant to your site.

For example, if you want to read more about Google Caffeine, click on over to TechCrunch.

Are you leveraging Google Local?

Google will continue to list local businesses that match your search query at the top of the page. So if you are marketing to a local audience, you really need to be listed in Google Local. We just became a “Google Local Favorite“, so talk to us about how to leverage this important resource.

Be Sure your web site is up-to-speed

To rank well on Google (with 64% of all U.S. searches), you need to revisit you website and make sure you have your content in order. At minimum, check for the following:

• Meta title and description for each page (unique for each page)
• Headers and subheads on each page use appropriate keywords
• Initial paragraph on each page uses appropriate keywords
• All outbound links (links to other sites) are relevant to your website content
• Website content is fresh and updated (regularly!).
• You have a Google sitemap on your site.

As Caffeine rolls out, look for a faster search with Google and more relevant results.