Google announced another update to their search algorithm that will be affecting many results. They are reporting that the theory behind this update is to provide relevant information pertaining to most recent updates / events. Using their example, if you search then it is possible you are interested in the upcoming 2012 event versus the 1980 events.
Google said:
"We completed our Caffeine web indexing system last year, which allows us to crawl and index the web for fresh content quickly on an enormous scale. Building upon the momentum from Caffeine, today we’re making a significant improvement to our ranking algorithm that impacts roughly 35 percent of searches and better determines when to give you more up-to-date relevant results for these varying degrees of freshness."
What does this mean for Search Engine Optimization (SEO)?
In many ways, this change will benefit many websites and create a better overall user experience. The downside is that for businesses that deal in specific products & services will need to produce consistently fresh information on their website. This goes back to having a blog or article format of some sort built into your business website.
As with any update, it can take 3 - 6 months to really notice a significant impact on website ranking. The world is moving at such a fast pace it is getting difficult for businesses to maintain their success and maintain their current customer base let alone expose themselves to new faces.
Some brief suggestions to combat these new updates
If you do not have a blog or article section on your website, plan on building one. Along with building one, come up with a marketing plan that has a purpose. Educating consumers is a great way to get found on Google and gives customers an opportunity to interact with your company.
Make sure your website is performing at it's absolute best. Don't just trust analytics to tell you numbers and keywords. Add heatmaps, run seperate campaigns and focus on the conversion of each visitor to the website.