Google caffeine update – is it time to freak out?



Marty Martin | 2010/06/10  | 16 Comments

If you haven’t heard all the buzz, Google recently launched an update to its systems dubbed “Caffeine” (testing started in 2009).  The big question though is what the heck was it and do you need to worry about your website losing its rankings?

Situation Normal

hurricane katrina nasa Google caffeine update   is it time to freak out?

Image courtesy of NASA (public domain)

Google updated it’s algorithms 350 to 400 times in 2009.  Surprised?  They actually make changes to their algorithms on average, once per day.

It’s obviously a fairly common practice at Google, but what causes people to freak out, is when Google actually names and blogs about an update.  It’s a lot like storms.  You really don’t pay any attention to them until meteorologists give them a name.

Nuts and Bolts

Google has acknowledged that the Caffeine update is primarily an infrastructure update-

“We’ve built Caffeine with the future in mind. Not only is it fresher, it’s a robust foundation that makes it possible for us to build an even faster and comprehensive search engine that scales with the growth of information online, and delivers even more relevant search results to you.”
-Carrie Grimes, Google Software Engineer

David Harry of the SEO Dojo puts it best when he answers what the Caffeine update means to most marketers-

“…not much really. Much like the storm that wasn’t [...] there isn’t a lot to dwell on. To my thinking this is far more about the future than it is today. It is about enabling deeper processing (including ranking signals) and managing an ever growing web.”

Executive Takeaway

You should be more worried about the MayDay update.


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This article published on Thursday, June 10th, 2010 at 3:09 pm | Contact the editor

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About this Columnist (Full Profile)

Marty Martin is an accomplished SEM/SEO anti-consultant with a broad range of experience working for a wide variety of clientele including colleges and universities, regional and state tourism, government and business.

An advocate for business, Marty works hard to share accurate information in a world suddenly overrun with “social media consultants.”

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  1. Joe Loomer says:

    Guess I won’t freak out then, just sounds like might involve more hyper-localism in the future – as that seems to be where real estate on the web is heading anyway.

    Navy Chief, Navy Pride

  2. No reason to freak out. Keep on top of your social media game and focus on long tail. I personally like the changes Google has made…

    Good luck!

  3. Joe says:

    Whadaya mean it’s time to freak out. It’s always time to freak out! :)

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