What is Google Caffeine?
Launched in 2010, Google Caffeine was a major search algorithm update that aimed to improve the “freshens” of Google search results.
This replaced Google’s old indexing system and incorporated a number of new systems and technologies that allowed Google to crawl, index and rank web pages more quickly and efficiently. This new system updates continuously, allowing Google to show new and updated content faster than before.
It also introduced better indexing of images, videos and a more comprehensive understanding of search queries and user intent.
How Does Google Caffeine Work?
Google’s old index categorised pages into layers, depending on how often Google though it needed to be refreshed. So those who needed to be refreshed more frequently were in one layer, where those that were updated less frequently were in another. This means that some websites were updated more frequently than others – which is not ideal if you’ve updated your site and it wasn’t due to be crawled for a while!
However, Google Caffeine changed how Google indexed webpages. It no longer splits sites into categories based on refresh frequency. Instead, Caffeine introduced a more efficient system where the entire web is indexed in real-time. This means that when you update your site, Google can crawl and index it more quickly, making your changes visible to users faster.
Where There Any SEO Effects?
Google Caffeine had little effect on website rankings, as this was an update to Google’s infrastructure and not it’s algorithm. In documentation prior to rolling out the update, Google mentioned that users were unlikely to notice changes, but web developers and advanced users would see a few changes – allowing them to provide feedback.
