Google has been hard at work preparing for one of the biggest recent changes in the world of search – Google Caffeine should roll out sometime after the new year.

What is it? Google is changing the criteria for choosing which websites show up when you search for information on the web.

How are they going to do that? Google has added new “ranking factors” that will determine how high your site appears in the results.(This doesn’t mean existing factors will go away)

Why are they doing this? Google wants to remain King of the World. Changes like this ensure they continue providing the most relevant search results to their users.

What are those factors? Here’s a few items shared recently by Matt Cutts from Google.

• Site Speed – How quickly a website loads
• Broken Links – Links within your site that don’t work or link to pages that don”t exist anymore
• Linking to Bad Neighborhoods – Don’t link to spam sites such as link directories/farms or sites known for hosting paid links
• On Page Factors – More so than before, an emphasis on unique relevant content, page design, clear navigation, unique page titles, relevant descriptions and keyword density
• Analytical Items – Page views, bounce rates, usage/traffic figures, page view time
• Social Bookmarks – How many times has the site/page been added to a social bookmarking site

A lot of speculation surrounds the Social Bookmarking element of the future ranking updates. Including social links certainly allows for the relevant popularity factor, yet does raise some questions around its ability to be gamed. (I’m sure Google is light years ahead of me on this element) Social link inclusion also levels the playing field for those online marketers who didn’t have the ability to compete with a large quantity of paid back links.

Page view time is also an interesting factor. I’ve heard the argument about time spent on a page being less important – or even more difficult to effectively measure with the advent of tabbed browsing. Again, I’m sure Google had someone in a very messy cubicle solve this riddle.

What can you do, even if you’re not a search engine optimization consultant?

Plenty…you can help your company by simply paying attention to some of the on page factors mentioned above: Is your site easy to navigate? Are there broken links? Does the page content makes sense and is it relevant?

If you’re involved with these items in a daily basis, you’re probably already busy with this…or will be.

Search engine results placement is a vital key for so many businesses – what else are you doing to maintain your search rank?