One of the hottest topics in many of the SEO blogs and forums has recently become hotter: Google Caffeine.

An illustration of how the new Google Caffeine Web indexing system will differ from their previous system.

Interest in Google Caffeine—and more specifically, its impact on SEO, search engine result pages (SERPs) and page rankings—has spiked because Google last month announced completion of its new Web indexing system.

Right now, you probably have two questions:

• What exactly is it?
• What does this mean for my hospital’s SEO?

Since this is the first of what will likely be many blogs on this topic, we’ll start with some simple answers.

What is Google Caffeine?

Google Caffeine is most simply a new way that Google looks at Website content so it can decide a page’s relevancy—which ultimately impacts SERPs. Put even more simply: It will work faster and presumably deliver more relevant keyword search results.

(If you want a more specific answer about how it works, go straight to the source and check out Google’s official announcement for Caffeine.)

How Will Google Caffeine Impact Hospital Website SEO?

The answer, of course, is not as simple—nor is a link that neatly explains how Google Caffeine might impact your hospital Website’s SEO.

But if you want our two cents, we believe the impact will likely be minimal—at least in the short term. That is because it will take some time for the new algorithms (the “rules” that create the SERP results) to kick in.

But once they do, it could mean some drastic changes, especially for hospital Websites.

Redefining Search Engine Relevancy for Healthcare Content

As it always has, Google’s search engine has always rewarded relevancy. Whereas once “relevancy” was perhaps limited to having the right keywords and keyword density, “relevancy” has seemingly become a matter of an index page age—the newer or fresher the page, the more Google has been likely to give it great placement.

Of course, the other rules apply—such as with the number of links a page has and the quality of the page from which it links (which again suggests a high value on relevancy).

Considering the many ways that content and links can now be published and shared (e.g., blogs, RSS, social media), all of those components that define and continue to redefine “relevancy” are presumably going to have more significant impacts on SERPs.

Nevermind that most hospital Websites are updated and revised every few years…the real difference is likely going to be between those that actively produce frequent, relevant and viral content.

Unfortunately, if your hospital doesn’t already publish frequent news articles (especially with RSS) and blogs or engage in social media or anything that improves the number of links back to your hospital’s Website, it may start feeling the effects before hospitals that do.

And launching a campaign to do so overnight won’t be an answer because it takes a bit of time to get the pieces and rhythm in place that let you develop relevant content and channels…and that’s on top of the traditional SEO analysis of the rest of your Website.

AVID Design has the ability to help you develop successful Website content, analytics and strategies to compete in a constantly evolving landscape. Contact us today for a free analysis of your Website and content.

Add to Technorati Favorites

Tweet This Post

This entry was posted on Friday, July 9th, 2010 at 8:22 am and is filed under Analytics and Metrics, Industry Trends, SEO. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.