Someone just has to suggest the possibility of an algorithmic adjustment of some sort and a great many online marketers from around the world panic. Avid Internet marketers know only too well what may happen when the great guru Google decides to change its tactics and move the proverbial goalposts to one side. Websites that may have ranked highly prior to that may suddenly move down the list, to the next page or even disappear altogether.
Google, like the other search engines, employs a complex and proprietary system of ranking every single website in the known universe according to its relevance and authority. In depth research has been done in an attempt to decipher the reasoning that goes into Google’s proprietary systems, and to try to discern the specific algorithms used. To this day, no one outside of corporate HQ is 100% certain how the system works but we have a fairly good idea about the fundamentals.
It’s common knowledge that Google intends to ensure that when it has a request to search for information about specific keywords through its search engine interface, it returns the most useful and relevant information in the form of a list of the most appropriate websites. Don’t forget, that as Google makes so much money out of its Adwords initiative, it is in their best interest to select the most relevant information to ensure that they earn the most money from those ubiquitous pay-per-click ads.
When Google said recently that they were rolling out what they called “under the hood” revisions to their search technology, many people stood up and took notice. Code-named “Caffeine,” Google simply refers to it as next-generation. “It’s the first step in the process that will let us push the envelope on size, indexing speed, accuracy, comprehensiveness and other dimensions…. most users won’t notice a difference in search results.”
It is too early to say whether the proposed changes will have any significant effect on positioning or whether, as some fear, wholesale changes to the science of search engine optimization or content creation may be necessary once again. Early results appear to show a change in the way that different media are represented within a typical search results page. For example, video and news story items may now appear towards the center of the page instead of towards the top.
As Google has become very adept at what they do, it seems unlikely that there are any wholesale changes to come and that “Caffeine” may not make you feel jittery after all.
Adam Toren, Co-Founder of Young Entrepreneur, specializes in developing the profitability of struggling businesses with a specialised and ‘bottom line’ approach. Adam, along with his brother, have created, purchased and sold a variety of companies over the years. At the moment, they own and manage a highly successful publishing company and several dedicated online enterprises.