There is a TON of talk, speculation and alot of worrying going on in the world of SEO.  Google has been testing and creating a new search algorithm that has plenty of seo people stressing, stressing, stressing.  I admit, I have been one of those people.  There has been some strange things going on lately (mostly since August) with the serps (search engine results pages), sites I have been working on having been going all the place with regards to their placement for keyword phrases.  One day page one, the next page three.  Rumor has it that Google has been testing (some say not so successfully, depends on where your page is huh?) this new “Vince Algorithm” which has been causing all the strange search results lately.

Does this mean you should be worrying?  No, I don’t think so.  What it means is that you should be employing the best tried and true seo techniques such as quality link backs and internal linking, GOOD quality content targeting your readers/visitors, MILD re-write for the search engines and optimize those meta tags for EACH and every page correctly.

I spent some time this summer and early fall playing with the “sandboxed” version (aptly named “Caffeine” for it’s speed) and found to my delight, the search results did appear to be more relevant and accurate.  Now, perhaps I ma biased because many of the sites I maintain improved greatly in the serps, but I don’t think so.  There have been several sites and pages that have been maintaining placement for certain keywords, that were in no way relevant to the serps they were showing up for, that have dropped off from the first pages.  This made room for more relevant results and for sites that had some real quality seo work.  Ahem, mine included!

The roll-out seems to be happening sometime early 2010 so it will not create a major upset during this holiday season.  But, SEO and web people, stay alert and abreast of any news regarding Google Caffeine and Webmaster Central here.

You can also join in on a webinar tomorrow “Get your site ready for the holidays: Webmasters - make your list and check it twice!”