When Google starting talking about its forthcoming Caffeine, a new technology that improves the company's indexing infrastructure, last August  it was assumed it would have a big impact on Google's search engine algorithms.

Caffeine wasn’t released until recently; since then some SEO experts have come to conclude that it isn’t the game changer first expected. "That may change in the future as Google refines it," Tom Shivers, president of CaptureCommerce, tells MarketingVOX. "But right now it only affects a small percentage of the sites."

The Meaning of Caffeine

Caffeine is about getting good infrastructure into place, Shivers says. "It is not about real time or semantic search. "Google engineers have said that Caffeine - or rather, webpage speed - won't trump relevance, unless speed is the only differentiator between two sites."

It is better, he says, to focus on tried-and-proven-true remedies to build up search. Shivers has six suggestions to that end.

6 Ways

1. Address the real intent of your target audience. "Ask yourself, 'What purpose does someone have for using a certain search term?' We see a lot of businesses push brand names and industry buzz words instead of creating web content that addresses the intent of target audience. Yes, it's true that businesses have an agenda when they create a website but web searchers have their agenda as well. The degree to which those two overlap is where you have engagement."

2. So engage. "Offer up content for the individual so he or she wants to learn more and discover a credible organization in the process. Rather than assuming your customers buy for certain reasons, research them to find out why they buy and then prepare a pathway that sits in their decision process."

3. Consider what kind of medium communicates best with this person. Interactive tools, social tools, email or a combination?

4. Then consider new ways of engaging. Technology and techniques for engagement are ever evolving. Stay on top of them to keep connected with your customers.

5. Organize the content of the site with the user in mind. They should be able to quickly find what they are looking for - even if the search terms don’t match branding initiative perfectly.

6. Influence the influencers of your target audience. "Be open to sharing, collaborating and building relationships - even with your competitors if necessary - if it means being able to creatively engage the audience.