For those of you with existing ecommerce, blog or affiliate businesses, you may be aware of a big update that is only a few weeks away to Google’s ranking algorithm – “Google Caffeine” as it has been dubbed. Based upon all indications, this is not going to be just a simple update of their algorithm, but a major overhaul of its index and algorithm. Matt Cutts, the PR guy over at Google has been oh so kind to let us know that this year, they plan to roll out the Caffeine update after the holidays so as not to majorly upset site owners during the busy and lucrative holiday season.

A few months back Google showed the world a preview of what Caffeine was going to look like when it was rolled out (or rather how it was going to act). The beta site, www2.sandbox.google.com which was recently taken down in anticipation of the rollout, would show you where your site will rank on the new algorithm. Based upon this beta test module, we along with many other SEO’s ran a number of tests to try to figure out what was different in the new algorithm, what ranking factors would carry more weight and what factors would be less important for the Google in 2010.

I recently came back from an internet marketing mastermind weekend conference in Orlando where a group of about 25 professional marketers discussed these same changes, and what are the best practices for SEO moving forward in 2010. Here is a rundown of new focus points for your business, your SEO and link building campaigns for Google Caffeine:

• Site speed - this has not played a huge role in the ranking algorithm for Google in the past, but expect that to change in 2010. Grab a Firefox plugin such as Firebug and test your site speed.
• Broken links and linking to “bad neighborhoods” – on page linking is going to play a huge roll in the Caffeine rollout. You want to check your Google Webmaster Tools account for any broken links (they report them to you, how cool is that) and get those cleaned up. Also take a look at any outside sites you are linking to. Are they quality sites? Are you offering paid links to pages that might be considered a link farm or bad neighborhood? Cut those links now.
• Please login or register for a Free Membership or Silver Pass or PRO Mom membership to view the rest of this content.