Google Hummingbird and the future of SEO

The Google Hummingbird update has been around a few months now, but I wanted to see what, if any, effect it had before publishing a post about it. And when the time was right, I asked Nick Morris from Wicked Cow Marketing for his take. Nick was one of the first people I met at a local Flying Solo networking function, so I am thrilled to finally have him here. I hope you enjoy reading his post as much as I did.

 If you’ve been following the SEO news over the past few years you would’ve noticed particular instances of buzz surrounding major Google algorithm updates, including ‘Panda,’ which targeted low quality websites, ‘Penguin,’ which targeted backlink schemes and, most recently, ‘Hummingbird.’

What does the Hummingbird update target? Well, actually, it doesn’t target anything in particular and, in fact, its implementation went completely unnoticed by the SEO world until Google announced it nearly a month later, describing it as the biggest update to their algorithms since 2001.

What is Hummingbird?

Google says it affects 90% of search queries, is their biggest update since 2001, will improve all search results and is named for being “precise and fast,” but what is it? Danny Sullivan from Search Engine Land uses the analogy of a car engine.

“Panda, Penguin and other updates were changes to parts of the old algorithm, but not an entire replacement of the whole. Think of it again like an engine. Those things were as if the engine received a new oil filter or had an improved pump put in. Hummingbird is a brand new engine, though it continues to use some of the same parts of the old, like Penguin and Panda.”

Essentially, the Hummingbird update is a fundamental change to the way that Google matches results with queries on its search engine. In the past the focus has been on keyword matching whereas now, Google wants to understand the intent behind a query and serve results accordingly.

This is particularly applicable for “conservational queries,” commonly used in voice searches made from mobile devices but also in regular search, where people usually construct their query as if they are talking to someone e.g. “How tall is Westpac house?” rather than something like “westpac house height.” This shift in focus comes as no surprise as many of G’s recent innovations follow a similar theme, including Google Now and the Knowledge Graph.

What does it mean for you?

Like most of us, you probably haven’t noticed much of a change in the search results since Hummingbird was implemented but now is a good time to make sure your SEO strategy is on track so you can stay ahead of the curve when changes do start to occur.

If you’re already using a content marketing strategy that focuses on educating your customers and solving their problems then you are already on the right track. Here are some specific suggestions for you to implement:

• Make sure you have an FAQ section on your website. Make notes of all the questions you receive before, during and after a sale and make sure those questions are answered in your FAQ section

• If you have more to say in answer to a question, create a blog post on the topic and link to it from the FAQ section

• Write case studies for every job or groups of similar jobs to put on the website. Include any specifics or challenges that the job involved and how your offering achieved the desired results

• Dive into Google Analytics and find your landing pages that have low search engine visitor engagement (high bounce rates, low time on site, low pages / visit). Review those pages and see if you can improve the quality of the content

• Install a widget on your site, such as iPerceptions’ 4Q Task Completion Research, to help you understand the intent of your website visitors. Review the results gathered and make sure your website satisfies people’s reason for visiting

• Create in depth content (think Wikipedia), particularly on topics closely related to your business

• Make your website responsive and make sure the user experience on mobile devices is good

• Help Google to understand more about your business by setting up Google Authorship, setting up and verifying your Google+ Local business page and encouraging customers to leave reviews, implementing structured data markup on your website and participate in the Google+ social network as a person and business

Conclusion

Despite being Google’s biggest algorithm rewrite since 2001, the effects of the Hummingbird update are subtle or unnoticeable and probably will be for some time to come. The future is difficult to predict but it’s a good bet that this could mark the beginning of a major shift in search. You should act now to stay ahead of the curve, but also to make sure you’re meeting your website visitors’ needs and improving the quality of your website overall which will have many benefits beyond SEO.

Nick Morris is the owner and SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) strategist at Wicked Cow Marketing. He helps Australian small businesses increase their traffic, leads and sales from search engines using sustainable, long term techniques.