How Google Caffeine works and its effects on SEO

To all you coffee junkies out there, you’re gonna love Google’s new search engine. Well you’re gonna love it’s name at least. Google Caffeine has been long awaited by SEO practitioners around the world because of the enormous impact it has on modern Web 2.0 search.

It’s not just another engine. It’s The only engine that functions as it does – getting the best, freshest content out on it’s SERPs as you type. It’s main difference, as Google explained in their blog, is with the layer system. Caffeine provides 50 percent fresher information as results for web searches than their last index. According to Google, it is also the largest collection of web content that they have offered thus far.

It’s a different engine altogether. If it’s true that Caffeine draws out fresher content, then most results, I would think, would come from blogs, forums, or a news story or even a tweet perhaps? The main point of Caffeine is that it brings out results to relevant – yes, relevant content much sooner after it has been published. As a blogger, I am quite thrilled of this change. As an SEO specialist, I am mind-blown on what effects this would have on SEO and on SEO practitioners around the world.

As you will get to read in Google’s blog regarding Caffeine, how you search the web is how Google indexes it. You’re not really searching the web in real-time. You’re just searching the web as to how Google has saved the whole web in its database.

Is there a need for Caffeine?

As I said in my previous post, the internet is a mega-database of information. It is more than colossal, it’s more than a million, it’s more than a billion or trillion or how numbers can describe it. And so now we can see where Google got the origin of its name: Googol. The internet is just limitless in the number of information that it holds.

We as people have search as an everyday part of our lives. Information is a necessity in our world and internet lifestyle nowadays and Google provides just that – but the demand and expectations never stop going up a notch. People’s expectation of search results and relevancy are gradually increasing. And we want information not just here and now but also clear and concise – in other words, we want only the content that we are exactly looking for.

But it doesn’t stop there. While searchers want their information fast and relevant, publishers and producers in the internet want their content instantly searchable and shared. Maybe that’s the reason why Facebook is the best preference for content and information sharing – because they can give it out fast. Now Google wants in.

Yes, the web has layers – Google layers

The way that the old Google engine works is that it indexes web pages and stores them in layers. Some of which are refreshed faster than others. If you’re in the upper layer, lucky you – you get to be indexed more often by Google. Probably because you update content faster and your site authority is higher. Sites on the lower part of the layer – better luck next time. In refreshing a layer of the old index (or old engine) Google needs to analyze the entire web which of course means significant delay between when Google finds a new page or new content and makes it available on its SERP

What Caffeine can do to you

Ever drank coffee? Keeps you going doesn’t it? Google Caffeine analyzes the web by small portions and so they are able to update their search index on a continuous basis. It just keeps on going and going. So every time that Google sees new content, they can instantly add it up to their index. Which consequently means that we become happy searchers because we are now able to find fresher content than ever before!

Search will never be the same

Google has built this engine to cope with the bustling information in the web and with the demand and expectations of searchers and publishers everywhere. But it’s not perfect, no. I don’t think we should expect the best out of it – yet. I assume it will still be in some sort of a mass beta version as I’ve read some people don’t get relevant results with the new engine around. I guess Google has a lot of work to do.

So how will Google’s Caffeine affect SEO?

I guess this is the most awaited part of this entry. How indeed will this new engine affect Google’s new engine? Just a disclaimer, this is my own personal analysis and opinion and not a fact or an oracle of an SEO Nostradamus.

First, I think Social media will want to take advantage of this. Facebook and Twitter can claim the thrones of SERPs through this new engine. People provide fresh new content per second (or half a second?) through Facebook and Twitter globally. If they open those content and information up to Google’s new Engine, then they would no doubt, dominate the SERPs. SEO practitioners will have to find a way to get into social media in manipulating SERPs – so that’s more work for us.

Second, content recursion seems like a good idea. Get your older article, paraphrase it then link all your sites to it and hit the publish button. Who would know, right? Google will pick it up and it might just hit gold. I think this is worth a try.

Third, of course, if content recursion happens (or even if it does not) content might not be that good anymore – especially to bloggers who are looking for search engine hits. We might be trigger-happy on our publish button. And the habit of ‘publish now, edit later’ will spread on the web like wildfire.

Fourth, links, links and more links! Of course, if we have more content, consequently, we will produce more links. My prediction is that Google MIGHT rethink the weight it gives to links – both inbound and outbound since there will be a surplus of links in the days to come.

Fifth, Forum posting and Guerilla blogging would now become the favorites. Of course, if forums and blogs get indexed more often, you’d want to ride their authority and comment and post all you can in different blogs and forums. Of course, try to really comment as a reader in the community and not as a spammer.

And lastly, MORE SEO OPPORTUNITIES FOR US! A change in the search engines can only mean nothing more than money for us SEO practitioners. So celebrate! Thank you Google!

Tips for Keeps: Keep on reading on Google’s blog for updates on Google Caffeine. As an SEO practitioner, you better be updated or it’ll cost you.