Does Google Caffeine Mean Doom For Internet Marketers?

If you are one of the few who hasn't heard... Google Caffeine is the name given to Google's next generation search engine. It is said that it will be used to rank and index all the pages on the Matrix... OOOPPSSS! I meant the world wide web.

Do not get this confused with just another one of Google's so-called updates... This baby is a complete overhaul of its index and algorithm.

Matt Cutts one of Google's Spokespersons told fellow bloggers that Google already has one database online, but the full blown version won't be released until after the Holidays. This came as good news to most online business owners. In the past Google would make their changes right before the Holidays which caused a huge ruckus as you could probably guess.

All though no one from the search engine company has made an official statement, it would sure appear that they have had a change of heart recently. It appears as if the company has been a little more forthcoming with their information regarding how they index web pages. Even more shocking they allowed a selected few to beta test an early version of Caffeine. I am proud to say that I was invited to be a part of the beta testing process.

I owed it to those on my list to test, test, test. I was constantly checking my positions, trying to see what was working and what wasn't working. WARNING!!! I am only sharing my educated opinions based on my personal testings. I also compared notes with a few other Veteran Internet Marketers. AGAIN DO NOT take my word as gospel. You should do your own testing...

Now that I have put my little disclaimer out there on the table, let's move on shall we? Here is a little scoop straight from the mouth of Google if you will. They are throwing a new criteria in the mix. With there new search engine face lift, "Site Speed," or how fast your site loads will now play a factor. My test results also show that Caffeine will be penalizing websites for broken links.

Although the quality of your website is already taken into consideration it has gotten a promotion and plays a bigger role in your rankings. Take a quick second and put yourself in Google's shoes. After all they are no different than any other company that is putting out a product or service. If there product is of poor quality it reflects badly on everyone involved. Keep in mind that the key to Google's success is their SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages) this is their source for their online revenue. As a business it is Google's job to do whatever they have to - to keep their search results fast, relevant, current and above all it must be of the highest quality.

According to my findings I feel confident in saying that OnPage factors will play a greater role in Google Caffeine. Unique content will carry more weight, page design, good navigation, title, meta tags, description, keyword density, alt tags, page views, bounce rate, traffic numbers, time spent on page, and the number of social bookmarks may play an increased role in achieving higher rankings. To most Internet Marketers this information comes as no surprise.

Even if Google changes the entire game plan, the one thing that I am still confident in is this... Social Bookmarking will play a huge factor in their new algorithm. I am willing to bet the house on that. Before my email is bombarded asking me I will just put it out there now. YES... Twitter and the amount of retweets your site receives will play a major role in your rankings. If you don't currently have a twitter account I highly recommend that you get one right now.

Hold on before you start getting all nervous. I can just imagine all of the Internet Marketers reading this clinching their *** and yelling towards the sky, "DAMN IT GOOGLE YOU HAVE SCREWED ME ONCE AGAIN!!!!" Well before you take it that far let me tell you something... This may very well be the best thing that has ever happen for the small online entrepreneurs. If Caffeine is anything close to what the beta version was like, it would appear that Google is trying to level the playing field by doing a way with the unfair practices of link buying. We all know that if you have enough money you can buy your way to the top of the search engine results. All indications show that Google is attempting to do away with this problem.

While beta testing the Caffeine search engine I couldn't determine if backlinking was going to play more of a role or not. However it still looks like keyworded domains and on site content along with other optimization factors did out weigh backlinking in the majority of my test results.

Here's another key factor that I haven't seen anyone else reporting and GOOGLE IS ACTUALLY DOING THIS NOW!!!! Your not going to believe what I am about to tell you. Google has been experimenting around with indexing video. I have noticed whenever I mention my keyword phrase at the beginning of the video I receive a much higher ranking then when I don't use it at all. I'm not 100% sure how they are doing it but all of my testings show they are indeed favoring video.