They say that today is the first day of the rest of your life. That makes everyday an important one though as we all know, some days are much more important than others. Today is one of those days.
It has taken over a month for Google engineers to install, tweak and unleash a 3.5 module update to the core Google algorithm known as the Bourbon Update. StepForth’s Senior SEO, Scott Van Achte keeps strict tabs on several factors at Google, including the number of back-links directed to sites owned by the firm and our clients as well as the number of pages in Google’s index from each site he monitors. Scott noted a major shift in back-links and in pages indexed starting early this morning (Wednesday). A major shift in back-link counts has traditionally signaled a subsequent shift in Google search results. Coupled with increases to the number of pages from our site and client sites found in Google’s index, we are predicting a fairly substantial shift in Google’s results to be seen early next week, if not sooner.
As with previous updates, Google has been tightlipped regarding the exact nature of the alterations made to the algo. Many long-term industry observers, myself included, believe the details can be found in a devilishly long patent document Google released at the end of March.
While there is no way to know how Bourbon will affect Google’s search results or the extent of the changes to the algorithm, we do know by this time next week, Google’s search engine results pages will almost certainly look different than they do today.