Y’all have heard me bang the SEO drum as it relates to PR and social media.
Today, I bring you a guest post from my dear friend and one of the leading voices in SEO today, Elliott Augustine of WebXperts.
This afternoon Elliott called and excitedly asked that I Google a few words to test the new Google Caffeine Search features. As we discussed the results, I asked him to tell y’all what this means for SEO. So, ladies and gents, I give you, Elliott Augustine.
While researching some information for a client this weekend, I noticed some new icons on Google listings. I am sure most of you Google fans have heard about the new Google Caffeine search engine launch but to actually see it implemented was rather interesting.
When you are logged into Google, you now have the option to vote and comment on links. Where you once had to go to page 3 or 4 to find a specific company, you can now click the up arrow icon and move it to the first listing on the first page. If you are not logged in, you will see listings as you have always seen them.
What I found really interesting is that Google is also associating the keywords that you are searching for with future searches.
For example, my company has several services that are not easily related to the non-technical minded; a few of my company’s offerings include building custom intranets, performing search engine optimization for clients, and developing large scale custom websites. When I searched for the key word “web design” we came up #1, when I searched for “intranets” we also came up number one, even though I did not vote for my company with that keyword.
This is definitely a game changer in the search engine optimization arena. Does this mean that standard SEO practices are no longer valid? Absolutely not. If you are not logged in then SEO rules still apply. But it will be interesting to see if, with these votes, you get to move your listing to the top spot and how that will affect overall SEO.
– Elliott Augustine, WebXperts, Inc.
It’s already been said that the goal behind Google Caffeine and these real-time search features is to “combine the science of SEO with the art of social media.” Not only will Caffeine return faster downloads and results, the comments will certainly add that personal touch when researching new products and companies. I look forward to seeing what will come next. Thanks, Elliott, for taking the time to post!