35 replies to this topic

[Jill]

Randy: I didn't list the stuff that I had trouble believing from the webinar :

--- you would really have had a conniption if I had

I just don't understand how they can have the balls to have a webinar on caffeine when it isn't even rolled out yet. That really takes gumption.

[Randy]

Andy if it's any consolation I saw exactly zero detrimental effect on any of my sites as a result of Caffeine. Others were running around with their hair on fire trying to find something to blame for 1) Normal fluctuations; or 2) Real ranking changes due to other algorithmic changes or tests that just happened to have timing that coincided to some degree with Caffeine.

However as Michael and others have stated previously, Caffeine wasn't/isn't about algorithm or ranking changes. I'm more about how their back end data collection and storage happens. With some of this being targeted at having fresher results for those subjects that are more time sensitive. A natural byproduct of these changes has been a positive one for most of my sites, in that they end up getting a few more pages into and holding in the index.

So if Caffeine is now coming to your part of the world I wouldn't worry about it too much. The only exception being that if you run a site where Freshness is important, say in the News sector. If you are in one of those time sensitive sectors you'll simply want to make sure Google is aware of updates and changes. Which can be accomplished by making sure your RSS feeds are getting published and picked up, or possibly by employing an XML Sitemap to give them a heads up.

[Andy_Seo]

Hi Randy,

Sorry I must not have made myself clear before with things. I have not experienced any detrimental/negative changes as a result of this change - i'm just commenting on something that I have noticed (this side of the pond), that is abnormal. This coincides with Mr Cutt's 'off the record' remark that Caffeine would be hitting Europe next. So when I noticed index size getting cut in half (pictures uploaded) and different results being returned for breaking news stories (we've had an Airport closure today due to Volcanic Ash!).

Now this might seem extremely cynical and i'm sure many of you from the US won't be aware of the issues in Google UK since June 6th 2009 when there was an invasion of foreign websites that were not relevant to a UK searchers query (for example the inclusion of a US 'florist' and a page one ranking for a DVD rental firm based in New York - that doesn't deliver to the UK). Now, with this change of course all UK SEOs suffered an uphill struggle as competition had increased greatly. However, I am a firm believer (who put this into practise) that you can utilise this type of change and make an opportunity for yourself. This is another story altogether, however this is one of the reasons as to why I brought up the OZ example in my first post in here. It might be unrelated (and I for one believe it is), however it was merely an observation of some vastly contrasting results (some claimed 'broken SERPs', 'Google favouring US websites in a struggling economy' and an 'early Caffeine testing ground' - all rubbish). If you are interested in this modification you can read a post I did on HR for South Bank Restaurants, I also did a personal blog here and you may want to read a few angry comments here. Now - i'm not saying there is any correlation between this and the testing phase of Google Caffeine in the UK - none at all! To be honest this is a different discussion (and i'm more than happy to discuss this with anyone who is interested), however this is for another thread.

So to conclude:

• I'm seeing 'Results of' being cut in half in some places (which was reminiscent of the sandbox URL and the Caffeine DC in December)
• I'm not seeing any negative changes with any of my websites
• I wasn't claiming that the change was Caffeine - just similar to the results I had recorded (not manually - automated) from tests
• The purpose of my post was to share ideas with other UK SEOs who may have experienced this change

I really would like to state one last time (because it may have got lost in previous posts) - i'm not reporting an algorithm like change. My second paragraph is irrelevant to this discussion, however I just wanted to backup my post that mentioned an OZ website. But if you want to discuss this issue i'm more than happy to do over PM (as I don't want to clog up this thread with it).

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[Michael Martinez]

Well, when Google confirms that what you're seeing is Caffeine, we'll know that they were wrong to say that it would have no effect on search results.

What you and others saw at the Caffeine test data center that was different from other data centers could be due to things other than Caffeine. Several Googlers expressed puzzlement over the alleged discrepancies, insisting those discrepancies were not really due to Caffeine.

There have been radical losses of page counts in the U.S. and many queries are being reported as upside down lately -- all while Caffeine has not, supposedly, been rolled out.

Meanwhile, back at the Googleplex, the constant updating of index data, internal PageRank, and almost daily algorithmic changes has (apparently) continued unabated.

So it would seem far more likely that any differences you're seeing are due not to Caffeine but to Updates/Recrawls/Rebuilds/Refreshes/whatevers.

The SEO community just doesn't know what it's talking about whenever it analyzes Caffeine (and I say that as one of the people who wrote an analysis of Caffeine a couple months ago -- I have egg all over my face like everyone else).

Like the Who said: "Won't get fooled again".

It's not an algorithmic update.
It's not supposed to affect the SERPs.
There's no place like home.

[chrishirst]

CODE

The SEO community just doesn't know what it's talking about whenever it analyzes Caffeine

As opposed to more usual

The SEO community just doesn't know what it's talking about

[Michael Martinez]

touche. I'm a bit razzled over all this Caffeinated analysis.

Yes, I tend to hit hard when I criticize the SEO community. Sometimes (quite often) the SEO community DOES know what it is talking about.