Google Caffeine; Stronger Emphasis on Fresh Web 2.0 Content

The word directly from Google is:

“Caffeine provides 50 percent fresher results for web searches than our last index, and it’s the largest collection of web content we’ve offered. Whether it’s a news story, a blog or a forum post, you can now find links to relevant content much sooner after it is published than was possible ever before.”

What does this mean? Simply this: freshness of content is greater than ever. According to Matt Cutts, one way to do this is through blogging:

“Blogging is a great way to show people the human side of your company and provide information to customers and visitors. Blogging is also much lighter-weight than a press release. The only time I’d refrain from blogging is if you don’t anticipate updating your blog very often. If you only do a blog post every year or so, it makes your site look more like a ghost town than a vibrant community.”

Keeping content updated is often very difficult for small businesses that do not have a dedicated staff of writers or video producers. These efforts are very important, however, every small business needs to consider the highest and best use of time, energy and money. Is it more cost effective to take time away from important business tasks to blog and build backlinks? Or is it more cost effective and expedient to outsource SEO tasks of all sizes? You do not need to have a full fledged SEO program if your budget cannot handle it; but you need to do something. This is the advantage that flexible and customized SEO programs can offer small businesses with all budget sizes.

There is no doubt that Google Caffeine is radically changing the face of SEO; the reality is that the Internet is not static….but in fact very dynamic. Does your small business have the time to keep up with the changes? Chances are the answer is no. It is also a fact that small businesses need to be on line and get a strong presence before the going gets even tougher….and it will get tougher….competition for local search will continue to heat up….big time….More and more local companies are “getting it”.

More reality: well done SEO builds an on line presence which means you build the book value of your business. The more time you spend trying to keep up with good intentions (i.e. keeping up your blog), the more time your competition has to pull ahead.