On 8 June, Google announced the completion of its new search engine indexing system called Google Caffeine. Over the past 2 weeks, I have been doing all kinds of research and site analysis, to find out what is the SEO impact of this new Google Caffeine, what does it mean to internet marketers like us and how it affects our search engine rankings.
It turns out that the impact is HUGE, but it’s within my expectation.
First, let’s look at what Google says:
“Caffeine provides 50 percent fresher results for web searches than our last index, and it’s the largest collection of web content we’ve offered.”
Hm…. 50% fresher results!!! That means before Google Caffeine, tons of webpages were not indexed by Google. If you still think Google will index all your webpages, think again.
With 50% more results, what do you think will happen?
Yes, more competition!
But that’s not all. (More bad news coming…..)
After all the analyses, I only have one conclusion about the new Google Caffeine system. That is, Google Caffeine gives A LOT more weight to Site Authority!!!
Let’s do a case study to show you what I mean. In March, I showed you a screenshot of how I dominated Google’s first page with 9 out of 10 results. To refresh your memory, check out this screenshot again: http://www.leadsleap.com/blog/dominating-googles-first-page-see-what-i-mean-here/
Let’s do a search for the same keyword and see what is happening now (see screenshot below):
The first result belongs to a member of our link building system, who submitted articles to our network to get hundreds of backlinks to his webpage. And that gets him to the first position.
The 2nd and 3rd results are the articles this member has submitted and published. (In March, his article dominated 9 results out of 10, but now, only 2 results left.)
So what happened to the rest of the results? Who has replaced them?
As I said, in the new Google Caffeine system, Site Authority plays a VERY important part. The rest of the results are taken by Big Boys like Amazon.com, About.com, Ezinearticles.com and Investopedia.com.Something worth noting is these big boys manage to grab the first page even though the title of their webpages do not match the search term fully. This shows how much extra weight Google Caffeine is giving to Site Authority.
In fact, this is what I generally notice for those search terms that I’ve lost. They are now dominated by authority sites, even though the webpage itself has no backlink at all.
Some of you may ask, “So, what makes an authority site?” Well, no one has a definite answer. But what we do know is it has all kinds of backlinks pointing to different pages of the site, especially the homepage (hence a high homepage PR), and has lots of fresh contents (no need to be all unique) and last but not least, it is old.
In my next blog post, I will show you one ‘junk’ authority site that does well under the new Google Caffeine. Through that study, you will have a better idea of how you can create the legendary authority site! Stay tuned…
Hi Ken, good article.
Faster updating of the index means relevant content gets displayed quicker. However, this is mostly apparent via Twitter updates, like if you watched the world cup, you’d see a scrolling list of comments from Twitter on a conversation going on about said topic.
Caffeine was supposed to put more of an inbound link importance(SEO weight) on entities such as Facebook and Twitter, too which we’re starting to see now…with Facebook Fan pages claiming top spots in the SERPs.
Another thing that Caffeine was supposed to do is place more of a “prejudice” towards sites that load quickly. Most people think this means a slow loading site will drop in rankings, but what it REALLY means is that if a site loads slowly compared to other similar sites in same geographic region, then some sort of penalty via lower rankings will ensue.
We should remember that Google is a business that wants to keep its users happy so slow loading sites will cause user dissatisfaction, but not necessarily going to hurt them, it will just make them a “lesser” option to display in the results page.
Thanks,
Dan
Thanks for sharing this case study about Google Caffeine Kenneth. Looking forward to your next post on how to create an authority site especially with newly setup WP blogs.
Thanks for the great info (as always) Kenneth!
Steve Hawk
Thanks for sharing this information, I have been wonder what is Google Caffeine in Google, after the explanation, I know already, will keep update this blog :)
This information is fascinating yet frightening for little guys like me. Is this just a way for Google to help out the Big Boys and hurt us little guys?
Great Post.. Waiting for the next post. Please tell us more about authority sites in that post and how we can achieve it. Thanks
This is all a part of Google understanding the great impact of social media as well. There are still more things in the works that Google will be coming out with soon as the search engines continue to evolve and meet the demands of the searchers.
Organic internet marketing continues to change, but we as online marketers need to stay abreast to the changes if we are going to be profitable.
Cheers,
Jimmy R Williams
The Methodical Marketer
Success starts within
I’ve heard about the Google Caffeine update but has no idea what it is all about. Thanks for giving an insight which is very useful. Looking forward to your next tips about how to get around with it. Good job!
Excellent post and thanks for sharing the results!
I have to say it should be disturbing though: it means that Google is giving less and less chance to smaller players, and gives a greater room – or at least, new opportunities – for abuse.
Since it is conceivable that the number of authority sites will continue to grow in the next few years (even if slowly), and the number of positions in the first page will not, I wonder how this will affect SEO in the long run.
I bet they are doing that to get more people to use pay per click….
Thanks Kenneth – seems like a world wide trend to support the big fish at the expense of the small fry. The Corporatocracy have their tentacles firmly around all the power control levers, and with a complicit judiciary and political system, will ensure that the little guys will be feeding on mere tid bits forever more.
@Tim, I totally agreed with your comment. This world has never being a level playing field right from the beginning. It’s always the bullies who win. It really sucks.
Hey Kenneth
I had noticed different results coming up in google over the past couple of weeks and now I know why.
Great article, looking forward to the next one!
Hi,
To be honest, I don’t think it matters. The rules have always been changing and Google has a vested interest in making sure that SEO cannot win on a long term basis (Google protecting their PPC revenues). It’s fine. Just figure out the new playing field and find the way around it. Same old. Same old. All the very best, Allen
Great info Ken, I knew GC was coming but forgot all about it.
I look forward to your next test results, and thank you for the memory jogger.
And so…. the old good seo is not effective anymore ?
How can we beat the big boys with our little web site.
Regards.
Thanks Ken for sharing this nice information on Google Caffeine. I had heard about it but somehow just let it slip through the radar and forgot all about it.
Maybe you can accuse me of kidding and I would just agree. How could I ignore anything announced by Google?
Anyway keep up with the good work
Thanks for that. I never heard of GC. Lets see how it works.
Interesting! Gives me lots to think about! I learn something (usually more than one) new every day here! Ask Question
Yeah your right google’s new indexing system brings apon a huge impact on the web. I read an article that describes how it will have a big change on online marketing as well
I guess we will see what kind of impact GC has on searchers. Will long tail keywords start to get more traffic because of the suggestions? I guess we shall see. It’s never dull with the big G.
To beat the big boys with a little site is and always will be difficult, but any company who wants an online authority can compete, normally this means hiring an expert
I suppose we will see what sort of influence GC has on searchers. Will lengthy tail key phrases start to get more site visitors due to the ideas? I suppose we will see. It’s by no means dull with the large G.
Waiting for influence on SERP too
I think high authority sites are those who are popular and got tons of backlinks.
Thank you for sharing this great information.
Excellent post.I am very glad to see this post.Actually i have been searching for such kind of post.Thanks for giving this post.
Google’s most recent panda update has caused a lot of so called authority sites to lose their rankings.
Has anyone noticed the negative impact?
Thanks, the article updated me about caffeine, planning to spent more time on this to understand its SEO effects.