As many SEOs predicted when Google’s real time search results went live, the search engine is now officially rolling out an algorithm change that will impact more than 35% of all search results. According to Google, the Caffeine web indexing system initiated last year is now complete, and will affect web searches as follows:
- Recent events or hot topics. For recent events or hot topics that begin trending on the web, you want to find the latest information immediately. Now when you search for current events like [occupy oakland protest], or for the latest news about the [nba lockout], you’ll see more high-quality pages that might only be minutes old.
- Regularly recurring events. Some events take place on a regularly recurring basis, such as annual conferences like [ICALP] or an event like the [presidential election]. Without specifying with your keywords, it’s implied that you expect to see the most recent event, and not one from 50 years ago. There are also things that recur more frequently, so now when you’re searching for the latest [NFL scores], [dancing with the stars] results or [exxon earnings], you’ll see the latest information.
- Frequent updates. There are also searches for information that changes often, but isn’t really a hot topic or a recurring event. For example, if you’re researching the [best slr cameras], or you’re in the market for a new car and want [subaru impreza reviews], you probably want the most up to date information.
Analysts are already speculating that this is just the beginning. Certainly, the changes will affect a massive amount of sites, and we can expect Google to roll out other algorithm updates in the future, to keep up with the constant (and fast) evolution of the way users are consuming web content.
