How Hummingbird Affects Your Search Engine Rankings

Hummingbird, the latest update from Google, created a lot of hum. What is so important about Hummingbird? Firstly, it affected over 90% of the search requests submitted to Google. The main aim was to focus on relevant concepts and intent instead of singular keywords. The Hummingbird update stresses on ‘conversational search.’ This is its key feature. In this regard if you are told that SEO is suppose to be dead soon, then it’s wrong. The rankings and their impact are still prevalent and nothing major is really going to change.

As far as your content strategy is concerned, it will remain similar unless it is stuffed with keywords. You do not need keyword rich content. You just need quality and relevant content. So everyone who told you that ‘content is king,’ was right. On the SEO part, the legitimate back links are still crucial and so are the earlier tried and tested methods like the use of properly placed keywords, used in moderation. The only difference is that Google’s new algorithm defines the way a browser searches. So what has actually changed with the application of Hummingbird? This latest update from Google breaks away the old search habits. When you search for a particular question, the algorithm picks up specific words in them and generates results accordingly.

Post the Penguin and Panda updates, it was a natural choice for Google to revamp its search algorithms so that they are smart enough to concentrate on the context rather than considering each word in the query as separate entities. This is a more intelligent way of looking for a required result. The new technology has been combined with the existing model to ensure that the users get more relevant information for their queries. It achieves this end by picking up long tailed keywords and provides actual results instead of focusing on the keywords. This is the reason why it is advisable to come up with good and relevant content. If you have rich and unique content it will appear on the search engines. Thus, your SEO does not depend anymore on the keywords only.

Conversational Search is a new feature that is easily visible on Google Chrome. There is an icon of a microphone in the search box. If you click on it and the microphone is properly configured in your system, you can ask your query aloud. The question along with the results will be displayed on the screen. Moreover, if the answer is there in Google’s Knowledge Graph, then an Information Card will appear with more information on the query and a list of reference websites. For those who have already used Google Speak know that more conversational your query, the better results will be yielded.

The big question for SEO professionals is how can they take advantage of this update? In a situation where keywords are of less value and phrasal keywords are more important and links are crucial too, what can be done to help the websites? Your answer lies with content. Since the search engines are picking up specific queries, you have to expand the landing pages. These pages must have original content. If you are still unsure about how the latest updates will affect your websites, there are several SEO tools which can help you. In this regard, you can check outhttp://www.paradoxseo.com.

Hummingbird provides you an opportunity, but how you can make use of it effectively depends on your creativity and strategy. But one thing is for sure, this Google update does not disrupt your search engine rankings, provided you are not resorting to black hat SEO. 

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Humans or Search Engines? Which One Should Your Content Marketing Strategy Be More Focused On?

There are times when it may seem like the hardest part of content marketing is engaging the actual people searching for content via search engines. As a result, many sites opt for the easier route: targeting search engines with black hat tactics like keyword stuffing and cloaking, ensuring that the people searching for content don’t actually end up finding what they’re looking for. However, these tactics are not actually very effective and, if anything, can be hugely damaging to businesses’ websites, which end up penalized or even removed from searches entirely.

Good quality content should never come last. As a matter of fact, Google’s constant updates to its algorithm – including its latest, Hummingbird, which was released toward the end of 2013 – are making it so that businesses now have no other option than to properly target their content to individual users.

How to Cater to Human Readers  

Let’s take a look at how users are searching lately. Many searchers are using more natural language than ever before – and this is largely as a result of voice searches. That’s because mobile browser use is greater than ever before. Thus, Google will substitute words like “restaurant” for “place.” So if you’re searching for “best Chinese place in town,” the algorithm will know that you really mean that you’re looking for a Chinese restaurant.

Okay, so searchers are becoming more conversational in tone. But what does that mean for content? Ultimately, the answer is this: simply put, content needs to be good. Targeting humans entails creating content that they are going to want to engage with.

Google's Hummingbird Update: What You Need To Know

Don’t feel bad if you’ve been lost in the flock of Google updates lately. You’ll want to be in the know in regards to their latest avian themed algorithm update, Hummingbird. This is a complete overhaul to Google’s algorithm which flew in all at once, unlike the previous updates Penguin and Panda. The freshly hatched Hummingbird update refines how search results populate for user search queries and ruffles the SEO feathers of websites across the internet. It’s important that you know the main changes the Hummingbird update brought as you continue to develop your brand’s online presence. 

Searching Semantically

Google is now looking at how you search instead of just what you’re looking for and this is especially true for complex search queries. What I’m getting at here is that inputting a complex question into the Google search bar yields more relevant results than before since Google is looking closely at the descriptive words you’re using. 

Simply put, searching is becoming more “conversational” as it’s more commonplace for users to ask their cell phones complex questions via voice commands. Before Hummingbird, inputting a complex question would bring up results that hit relevant keywords in the question and not actually answer the question directly that you wrote. You may not have realized it but you probably caught onto this and tailored your searches in ways to find the answer, not how the question should be asked. 

If that still sounds confusing then take a peek at this video from Google which explains this topic a little further. 

Overall, Hummingbird appears to be putting less emphasis on keywords and more emphasis on the context of your search. Many users on the internet also see Google’s previous move to make search term data “100% not provided” as putting more emphasis on context and taking power away from keywords. 

Relevance and Content

It’s hard to stress search relevance enough and content is becoming a huge focus in the eyes of Google now. Since Hummingbird strives to provide a more natural search environment, content on the internet that is more in-depth and naturally worded appears to have an edge over keyword-rich lines of text written solely for search engines in mind. Sites with well-written, high quality content and pages grouped together which are relevant will rank even higher than before with the introduction of Hummingbird. This shouldn’t come as a surprise since Google has been preaching this for a while now. If you’ve seen any backlash it’s from those who are inundated with “old” SEO tactics pertaining to keywords. Those pundits will soon find those “old” tactics without much value with Hummingbird flying around.  

The Future Is Mobile

It’s hard to dismiss the fact that Google showed off and announced Hummingbird on their blog by using mock-ups on mobile devices…not on a desktop or laptop screen. The internet is accessed via mobile devices by users more than ever; that trend doesn’t seem to be diminishing anytime soon and Google is keenly aware of this. The search engine giant wants it to be easier than ever to pull out your phone and find exactly what you’re looking for on the internet. Don’t forget that Google has a large stake in the mobile market with their Android operating system as well. 

Hummingbird is the biggest algorithm change that Google has made in a long time but it shouldn’t come as a surprise. Google is really just reinforcing messages that it has been giving out for quite some time. High-quality content truly is king now, and the effectiveness of search queries has been enhanced. Don’t be scared about the Hummingbird update, embrace it and use it to the advantage of your brand.

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