Google’s Hummingbird – Explained

If you have some basic level knowledge regarding SEO and you are interested in it then you might have heard about the Google’s latest update – the Hummingbird. And if you haven’t then don’t fret and sit tight as we explain the new update by Google and how it can affect your site, what you can do to improve your rankings in regards to this update and so on.

The Intro…

On its 15^th birthday, Google unveiled its new search algorithm the Hummingbird. What was more surprising for many people was the fact that Google had implemented the update almost a month ago before making an official announcement. They named it ‘hummingbird’ keeping in view of it being “precise and fast.” According to Google it would enhance the search engine results and the overall users’ search experience.

What Is Its Purpose?

So, many of you might be thinking that what is the purpose of this new search algorithm? It’s simple – making the search engine results more accurate. For instance, if you would search “What’s the closest place to buy an android phone?” the old algorithm would return results of the web pages that have keywords like “buy” and “android phone”. However, with Hummingbird, Google went for ‘Conversational Search’.

It means that now the algorithm would try to return the results for the above query by focusing on your location (if you have provided it to Google) and that a place means a ‘physical store’ (not online) that deals in android phones. Thus, trying to interpret what you really mean and then return accurate results. This would obviously enhance the overall searching experience of the users on Google.

How Will It Affect Your Site?

What you should understand is that the Penguin updates from Google were rolled out to curb the spam and put stress on the website owners to provide only high quality content to users whereas the Hummingbird affects the search results. It does not mean that it won’t have ‘any’ effect on your site. Think of the Humming bird as a complete new engine in a car with some old parts which in this case are Penguin updates.

So, if your site provides users with high quality content and/or information and uses only white-hat SEO techniques with quality back links then it will be in good standing in front of hummingbird or any other future updates as well.

What More Can You Do?

Obviously, there are a few things that you could do to stay on the safer side of the fence. The new search engine algorithm can affect your site or your site’s results in the search engine. Here are a few things you should keep in mind for your SEO strategy from now on:

• Detailed articles
• Quality back links
• Google Plus
• Panda
• Penguin
• Encrypted Keyword Data
• Knowledge Search

Remember that Google also made all keyword data encrypted in order to prevent the online marketers to track the traffic generated by keywords from organic search. Moreover, try to focus more on Google Plus as it will be the next big thing in the near future. And this is pretty much what hummingbird is all about.