Editor’s note: This item is republished with permission from Global Edge Marketing Ltd. The original post can be viewed here.
For the first time, Google is asking users to test its next-generation search engine, code named Google Caffeine.
The differences between the current live interface and Caffeine are subtle, and it is difficult to spot any significant differences for overseas property searches. Try it for yourself here.
However, searching for other terms and reading reviews in from the U.S., there seems to be three differences:
1. More emphasis is being placed on real-time information and news;
2. There is more weight being given to social media results;
3. Google is incorporating more video, news and image snippets into the results.
It is too early to draw firm conclusions on how you should react to these changes in terms of influencing your Web site rankings, but there are obviously clear benefits to updating your Web site regularly and investing in video. Video is still used by relatively few agents and has huge benefits in terms of converting traffic into leads as well as influencing your search-engine rankings.
The benefits of implementing a social media strategy are still not clear-cut, particularly outside the U.S. It’s easy to waste time and money in this area — time that could be spent sourcing product and selling! More on this in future posts.
Copyright © 2009 Global Edge Marketing Ltd.
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