I was reading PPC Blog this morning and came across this great infographic on how Google works for search:

Click the image to see the full size version, this is just a small sample!

Infographic by PPC Blog

Could it be that Google is beginning to role out Google Caffeine in the UK? SERPS seem to be on the move, and fluctuations seem more frequent in terms. It used to be that Google updated Keyword positions in intervals, but recently things have been more frequent and less controlled.

Google Caffeine is Google’s way of resolving the “Real Time” search issues. In a sense this Algorithm change is Google’s way of bringing in results like news items and videos into the top SERPS faster and more effectively.

We have already had faint wisps of the change, because Twitter and News results have been brought into the SERPS for general terms like “Christmas or Valentines Day”. However could this now be being spread across our web-sites in general? After heavy Link Building for many sites, terms have begun moving up and down, in a strange pattern.

Terms move every 15-20 minutes, more frequently than I have ever seen before. One client has seen movement in the term “Safari holidays”, moving from position 1 to number 4 and back again. Double checking that web history is disabled and I am signed out, I also tried on other computers seeing the same results. In one day this particular term changed position over 18 times. Movement for any terms like this is very rare, and I have not seen this for any of my clients in previous years.

The effect that this could possibly have for small business owners in monumental. This could give them the chance to out manoeuvre the Vince Update (Brand priority) and get a top ranking position even if only for a short time. This short space of time could be enough for a couple of conversions and maybe the click through could help the sites ranking position (although this isn’t a confirmed ranking factor).

If Caffeine is being released out in the UK and is slowly being introduced into our search engine, how long before we see some bigger and faster moving results?

Marcus is and experienced SEO and works for Jaz Travel a tour operator dedicated to selling holidays in Egypt.

Recently Google started forcing UK searchers to view the USA spelling of “optimisation”:

(image from Hobo UK SEO)

This was an extremely poor update from a user experience point of view – if someone types in “search engine optimisation” in Google.co.uk then Google shouldn’t assume they were searching for something which is a wrong spelling for this country.

I was glad to see this morning that the serps for this result are back to normal:

I’m sure Big Mouth Media will be happy to have their first position back!

Patrick Altoft also blogged about the original change, I’d recommend reading that for some background info. If you read it already, then go read it again if for nothing more than to see his cool new Layout. Not sure if its Thesis any more but it looks great ! You can also read Liam Delahunty’s rant on it at Online Sales.