Google’s search algorithm update, codenamed “Google Caffeine” in set to launch in the coming days. Google Caffeine is said to stir up the Webmaster / SEO world with a slew of algorithm updates. Most predominantly, it will be much quicker than the current Google search and rely more on keyword strings in the page content, and it will make real-time search much more important.

The new focus on real-time search results means that sites that consistently ranked high will take a hit. This will give smart webmasters who understand the dynamic of  real-time social media an excellent opportunity to markedly boost their Google rankings.

Here is a summary of what we know about Google Caffeine and it’s effect on SEO:

Page load speed will be important

The time it takes for a webpage to load is now important  to rank high on Google. Studies have shown that improving page load speed results in improved user retention and increased conversions.

Check out Google’s Site Performance diagnostic tool in their Google Webmaster Accounts. Basically, it boils down to:

1. Writing lean HTML and CSS code
2. More intelligent use of Javascript
3. Compressing html, css and Javascript
4. Improve browser page caching

Fresh Content Wins

Pages with static content will drop in the search rankings and more dynamic businesses with active blogs will take their place. This update declares war on “black hat” SEO spammers and rewards webmasters that provide up to date, meaningful and original content.

Ideas to keep your site dynamic:

1. Publish dynamic content like blog posts, comments, press releases and company news. You should try to add fresh content daily.
2. Encourage user interaction through profiles, comments, social bookmarking and social media links.

Backlinks Rule

The Google Caffeine update will not affect off-page factors much, so quality and relevant backlinks will continue to be an important ranking factor. However,  links and references from social media sites like Facebook and Twitter will be weighted higher.

There you have it. Try to take advantage of Google’s new Caffeine and update your blog regularly, improve page load speed by using Google’s Webmaster Tools to pinpoint sections that are slowing things down and employ a strong backlink strategy that targets the viral potential of social media networks.

There are several ways to generate and improve the attention for your web site. Some of them rather simple and easy, others thake a bit more effort and there are a few thing you really want to avoid.

1. Know what is trendy at Google, Yahoo and company

Making an effort in researching the popular keywords at popular search engines ensures that your articles are included in search results. Utilising tools such as Google Keyword Tool, Yahoo Overture Keyword Selector Tool or WordTracker can assist you in finding relevant keywords and balance them against the competition. Note that just because a keyword is very popular doesn’t necessary mean success. If there are many sites that contain those words, you competing against all of them, making it harder for your site to show up on top. And placing the keywords towards to top of your page and embed them into h1 or h2 tags improves their effect. In addition, embedding them into your page’s URL is just good seo practice.

2. Maintain a blog and get participation

The value of blogging on a consistent basis — aside from being able to share your expertise and opinions with the literate world — is that search engines will index your site more often. In addition, being an active blogger leaves your fingerprint all over the web and people will find your site by reading your posts/comments and that link back to you. For example, if you’re writing about basketball, and you participate in the important blogs in the world of NBA, having those links coming back to your site would be regarded as authority links and greatly enhance your sites page rank.

3. Leave your link and exchange links with other sites.

That includes getting links to your home page, special article pages and using your keywords as part of the anchor text. To get links, write articles and place them on other sites. Then make sure it includes a resource box or bio at the end of the article that includes your URL in the first line and something that will compel readers to come to your site in the second line, along with another link.

4. Make your visitors stay longer

That means focusing on compelling content and those areas that will encourage people to hang out longer. Interesting articles, interactive content, pictures, videos and music just to name a few. To measure sucess, use Google Analytics. You can track a multitude of variables about your site’s activity and best of all it’s free.

5. Don’t waste time and effort on email marketing

What about those newsletter sites that promise success and wealth? Forget it. There are so many highly effective spam filters and firewall, your mail won’t get to their intented target. And the few that get thru, end up in spam foders and are never read. Save your time and effort and focus on your site’s content. it pays better.

Images are often ignored when it comes to SEO, despite the fact that Google has it’s own search domain for images. Paying a little more attention to naming scheme and additional tags can make a big difference in search referred traffic.
Here are some basic tips relating to images in web pages:

• most obvious but often ignored, name the image according to it’s content. Instead of DSC00456.jpg, call it sunset-in-italy.jpg (do not use spaces in names, use dashes instead)
• make use of the “title” attribute, adding meaningful information helps search traffic
• using the “alt” attribute is debated when it comes to SEO, but should be part of any clean web design. Just imagine your image is missing or the path incorrect, the visitor at least knows that there is supposed to be an image containing what’s described in the alt tag.
• placing ample and descriptive text around the image helps search engines index the images
• store them in separate, descriptive folder
• ensure that you’re actually hosting the images, otherwise the search referred traffic will go to the image hosting site
• never use duplicate “alt” and/or “title” tags on two or more images