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If you are among the ones who have been following Google Caffeine, the new search architecture, then you must know what to expect when it is eventually rolled into the main search. Some of us have not seen anything new, while others have witnessed big changes. According to the reports, the folks at 360i have done a bunch of heavy lifting and have released a report comparing Caffeine to the old Google ,that has been nicknamed as Decaf. 360i analyzed 40 retail keywords are as under:

• 10 retail long-tail phrases (four-word phrases)
• 10 major retail brand names (keywords)
• 10 retail head terms (single keywords)
• 10 retail torso terms (two-word phrases)

The above keywords come with these conclusions:

• Domains and rankings will fluctuate.
• The index size of single keyword search relevance will increase.
• Long-tail becomes more relevant.
• Caffeine is faster to get results (SERPs) in half the time, on average.
• Increase in Universal (aka Blended) results
• There will be an increase in social media listings, primarily due to a lift in YouTube listings.

With just 40 keywords, this report is not at all comprehensive, but it is really an interesting story about the profile of Google Caffeine. For some people the experience has been almost exact opposite from Google Caffeine. Their experience has been less universal, not much fluctuation on rankings and smaller index. However, people are suggested to do their homework, study their keywords and get ready for the implementation of Google Caffeine.

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360i Report Outlines Difference Between The Google Caffeine and Old Google

A couple of days ago we reported the launch of Google Caffeine sandbox and about Google urging webmasters and power searchers to give their feedback on their new test index. The good news is that Matt McGee of Search Engine Land lets us know about two tools that allow webmasters or searchers compare results between the regular Google index and Google Caffeine.

Here are the two tools:

• Facesaerch Caffeine Compare: This tool from the makers of the facesaerch image search engine allows you to see both “old Google” results and Caffeine results side-by-side in frames. Below is a screenshot:
• The tool is easy to use as you do not require to click back and forth between two browser tabs or windows!
• Google Caffeine Bookmarklet: This is a browser bookmarklet, released yesterday only on The Google Tutor blog . It works as: do a search on Google.com, then click the Google Caffeine bookmarklet in your browser and it will automatically run the same search in the Caffeine sandbox!

With these available tools, Google seems to get much reviews on its new search index or what it has been hoping for!

A Google expert team has been working on a secret project of “next generation architecture" for Google's web search (read Caffeine index), which is yet to be finished. According to Google, the new architecture focuses on dimensions like indexing, crawling and ranking changes. Google is not incorporating these changes into their existing infrastructure. The new infrastructure lies underneath Google's search engine.

Google says that most searchers will not notice the difference in search results, however, web developers and power searchers might be able to notice a few changes. Therefore, the search giant has recently opened up a web developer preview of the new Caffeine update and urging web developers and power searchers to try out the new system and give feedback on the differences between Google's current search results and the new system. To give feedback, all you need to do a search at http://www2.sandbox.google.com/. Then look on the search results page for a link at the bottom of the page that says “Dissatisfied? Help us improve.” Just click on that link and type your feedback in the text box. Remember to include the word caffeine somewhere in your feedback.

Matt Cutts of Google recently came up with some more understanding of the Caffeine update. Let's go through the following questions and answers that he has compiled:

Q: How do I check out the Caffeine update?

A: If you search on http://www2.sandbox.google.com you can get a preview of how the search results will change over the next few weeks and months.

Q: It doesn’t look any different to me?

A: The Caffeine update isn't about making some UI changes here or there. Currently, even power users won’t notice much of a difference at all. This update is primarily under the hood: we’re rewriting the foundation of some of our infrastructure. But some of the search results do change, so we wanted to open up a preview so that power searchers and web developers could give us feedback.

Q: Is this Caffeine Update because of Company X or Y is doing Z?

A: Nope. I love competition in search and want lots of it, but this change has been in the works for months. I think the best way for Google to do well in search is to continue what we’ve done for the last decade or so: focus relentlessly on pushing our search quality forward. Nobody cares more about search than Google, and I don’t think we’ll ever stop trying to improve.

Q: The url http://www2.sandbox.google.com doesn’t seem to work for mobile phones? I can only test on google.com, not google.co.uk? A: That’s right. For now this is a only a preview, so we didn’t hook up a mobile version or an international version at this point. You’ll have to search on google.com to see the results right now.

Q: How do I give Google feedback?

A: If you want to give us feedback on how the search results are different, look on the search results page for a link at the bottom of the page that says “Dissatisfied? Help us improve.” Click on that link and type your feedback in the text box. Make sure to include the word caffeine somewhere in the feedback.

Q: Is there a way to give feedback in person?

A: Yes! If you want to give me feedback in person, I’ll be at Search Engine Strategies San Jose this week. I’m doing a site review panel on Thursday, or just walk up and say hello!

To read more about the new search index, visit Techmeme.

Bing has been having problems with its indexing. Just recently Brett Yount, Program Manager of Bing Webmaster Center has responded to some complaints of incidences where MSNbot disregarded specific instructions not to index certain pages.

According to mckenzie MSNbot did not follow the Disallow instruction in his robots.txt file. Another user, jiosis, complained that MSNBot ignored the robots tag where he used the NoIndex/NoFollow attribute.

The good news is that Brett Yount says that they are already working on the problem although as of the moment it will be a good idea for everyone to start checking whether pages you want to stay hidden are being indexed by Bing or not. If you encounter the same problem there is no need to fill out a content removal request since, as Brett Yount says, it is a problem on Bing’s side. All you need to do is email Brett Yount at bwmc@microsoft.com with your domain name and “MSNBot ignoring robots tags” in the subject line and send an explanation of your problem and any proof (if any) that MSNBot is indeed the one causing the problem. Note that even without any proof (if understood it correctly) they will still look into your problem, however, for expediency’s sake it would be better to provide them with helpful details such as clips of your log file.

As for getting Bing to not index pages using the hash #, I have yet to find a complaint.

And if you are having the opposite problem, which is puzzling over why your site isn’t being indexed by Bing, don’t worry because you are definitely not alone. Bing also has some kinks to iron out in that regard. Head to the Bing community forum to read the numerous complaints and solutions on the indexing issue.

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Bing Ignoring Instructions Not to Index Pages

In the present times, we can rightly say that the business world is dominated by the internet. Various reports suggest that most of the users resort to search engines for help when searching for some information. Therefore, it is important that your website is in a good position in the search engine result page (SERP).

Here’s a list of common SEO errors that most businesses make during the website designing phase:

1. Keyword StuffingIt was first reported in the early 1990s that it helped achieve number one spot in Google. However Keyword stuffing your metadata is not only against Google’s guidelines but also increases unnecessary traffic flow to your website. Therefore, when you decide keyword, make sure they are relevant to your website’s content. It is essential that the content is written based on the readers and not the search engines. You will be penalized if your website is found over optimized.
2. Splash PagesIt is the first page that a user views when he/she logs onto your website. These pages are normally Flash object with a “click here to skip” button or a large static graphic that occupies most of the screen’s space with a “continue” button. One of the reasons why these pages don’t work is because they are not optimized for search engines to crawl. It contains little content for search engines to index, so it’s considered of little interest and ranked highly.

   Therefore, if you need a splash page for your website make sure they are optimized correctly with text and graphics for the search engines to read and index.

3. ALT tagThis tag was designed specifically as an alternative to an image. This helps with usability especially for the visually impaired. You can also use this tag to index your pictures correctly. Most of the search engines provide an “image” search facility, which acts as an important source of traffic to sites. Keep in mind that if your products have been indexed and tagged properly then image search could act as another source of revenue for your site.
4. Flash WebsitesThese websites have a great look, with moving images, sliding navigation and sleek designs. However, most search engines don’t prefer them, as they can’t view the text given within a Flash object and so can’t index your content. In order to make Flash objects more search engine friendly, Adobe, Google and Yahoo have recently introduced “SEO Technology Center for Flash” to improve search engine ranking for Flash based websites. Adobe still recommends an HTML version for websites.
5. Duplicate ContentIf the content in your website is duplicate then you can be heavily penalized by Google. E-commerce sites generally have duplicate content, as a store selling the same products may have similar content. These sites have access to product feeds to such websites, which they will either upload or copy & paste from other websites. In order that the search engines have fresh and unique content to index ensure to write original content.
6. Purchase of SEO ProgrammesMost SEO websites promise to offer number one position to your site in Google. Since their main aim is to get your URL and a small amount of money. But it is impossible and have a negative impact on your site as many of the techniques applied could be ‘Black Hat’. Applying such techniques on your website could get you blacklisted by Google.
7. Competitors LinksWith so many websites around and proving to your customers that you have the best products, you may be tempted to link to your competitor’s products or website to get a “vote,” which Google views as a recommendation. Remember, if your website haS high quality relevant links, the more of a trusted source you become which will improve your search engine rankings.
8. Link Farming/Link SpammingYou may have come across many advertisements, which offer the option to submit your website to hundreds of directories. One of the major threats of link farm websites is that they have content of low quality and treated as spam by Google.
9. Non-utilization of Meta
   
   Every page in a website has three main areas were you can include content to, such as the TITLE tag, DESCRIPTION tag and the KEYWORDS tag. To ensure that your site is search engine friendly it is important to write each tag correctly. However, your site can be punished if found with tags stuffed with keywords that are irrelevant to your website.
10. Never Avoid Google GuidelinesFinally, be aware of any changes made to the Google Webmaster Guidelines.Google constantly changes its search engine algorithm and any failure to these guidelines will affect your website’s rankings.

Heads up SEOs. If you haven’t been factoring in Twitter in your client’s SEO campaign now is the time to stop and seriously consider upping your social media efforts.

Twitter has announced that it will be expanding its Twitter Search to include not only the text found in tweets in its index, which is what it currently does, but to crawl the links found in tweets and index the crawled pages. We all know how big Twitter is and how fast it’s getting even bigger so this is not the time to ignore this opportunity. You want your sites to be indexed in Twitter Search just as much as it is in Google right now. Of course this doesn’t mean that Twitter will be replacing Google anytime soon but Twitter Search’s power lies in having a real-time search engine that people CONSTANTLY use.

The only negative aspect I can see here is that we can expect spam to start flooding Twitter pretty soon, but then again that is inevitable and it’s Twitter’s problem. They’ll just have to find a way to minimise the noise. As for those who want to make the most of Twitter Search but don’t have any plans of spamming what you can do will be to:

• Start building your rep on Twitter – This is also very important because Twitter is planning on having a ranking system based on reputation soon.
• Widening your network – Of course this goes with building your rep.
• Link dropping – The key here as usual is to do it appropriately. Don’t spam! So start tweeting people and somehow steering the topic so you or they can drop desired link.
• Be current – Have something new on your site more regularly that is tweet worthy. You can link drop all you want but people won’t pass it on if there’s nothing new and noteworthy to pass on. Remember Twitter is all about the now.

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SEO for Twitter Search