News from Google this week, that they are looking to update the way thier search engine operates and produces results. A test version is now available at http://www2.sandbox.google.com/
What will this change mean for businesses that operate online? What will it mean for your current ranking? The sandbox test allows you to have some indication of the effect these changes are likely to have. Should change scare you? No.
If your website is listed in Google and you are not doing anything underhanded to get that ranking, you only really have something to gain from this new update to their search engine. It would be detrimental to Google to upset it’s users, this change is because they want to increase the relevance and speed of the results they produce, so I personally do not think this will change the game drastically.
I am certain that Google will stick to these simple rules, when it comes to SEO and your website:
1. Your website should have quality content that is unique
The content on your website should not be copied and pasted from somewhere else, it should really be your own content. Why would I as a user visit a site about a site on SEO in Ringwood, when I could go to the direct and original source? Same question Google asks when deciding on where to place you in the search engine result pages.
2. Google bases it’s search engine results on trust
Show Google you are trustworthy. Your site should have quality sites linking to it, links that accumulate over a natural time frame (not 10oo’s of new links in a day if you are a small and new site). You want Google to trust you? Provide quality content that visitors enjoy / find informative, that they want to share, by linking their own website to you, or bookmarking you etc.
Why is Google going Caffeine?
It could be because the guys working on this new project are working way to many hours and need a lot of coffee?
There is speculation across the internet as to why the sudden decision to release a new way of Google searching, however it would be reasonable to assume the recent combining of Microsoft and Yahoo in an effort to become a healthy competitor with Google would have something to do with it.
Rumours of a launch and of course a launch will give Google some great publicity to squash the recent activity around the ‘other two’ players in search. However, Matt Cutts, a respected member of the Google team says on his blog “I think the best way for Google to do well in search is to continue what we’ve done for the last decade or so: focus relentlessly on pushing our search quality forward. Nobody cares more about search than Google, and I don’t think we’ll ever stop trying to improve.”
http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/caffeine-update/
