Google Ranking Shake Up in 2006

Google has added two new servers called BigDaddy to their growing network (located on 66.249.93.104 and 64.233.179.104). They are currently testing their new servers which are using a new infrastructure which includes improved canonicalization (to make sure that data conforms to certain rules), improvements to the site: search query and other changes "under the hood".

How will this effect my search engine rankings?

A key quote from a recent article gives some insight into the changes Google will be making in 2006:
"the changes on Bigdaddy are relatively subtle (less ranking changes and more infrastructure changes). Most of the changes are under the hood, and this infrastructure prepares the framework for future improvements throughout the year."

This brings the obvious question of what the future improvements will be. There has been much talk about Googles recent patent applications and we may start to see the search engine giant start to make use of these patents (if that isn't happening already!).

We should expect to see a shake up of the rankings as a result of any changes to the Google search algorithms. The best thing you can do to ensure that your website either maintains its ranking or improves is to make certain that your website is fully optimized for the search engines.