It’s that time again. Google has released another update to it’s search ranking algorithm. This time it’s called Hummingbird. Before you cringe and despair over the possibility of your site getting hit with search ranking penalties, take a deep breath. If you’ve been putting out quality content and playing it safe with your SEO, you have no reason to fear. That being said, you will probably still want to adjust some of your efforts to stay ahead of the Google curve.
Here at MyAdvice, we keep up with the latest search marketing and search engine optimization technology, and here’s what we’ve found. According to Google, the Hummingbird update will affect 90% of searches. So what’s this update all about? This most recent update was aimed to make Google more equipped to handle and display accurate results for what are being dubbed “conversational queries.” More and more people are entering phrases and questions in the search bar, rather than individual keywords. This is a more natural way to search, and with the rise of mobile and on-the-go internet usage, more and more people are inputting searches like “Where is a good pizza place in Midvale?” Although Hummingbird is the first official update related to conversational queries, Google has actually been moving towards a more semantic and holistic-based search algorithm for the last couple of years to keep up with the way people are searching.
What this means for website owners is that we need to transition from being too narrowly focused on keywords, to being laser focused on covering the topic at hand. If you cover the topic well, you will have plenty of keywords and relevant content for Google to pick up on. We have been harping on this for years, and it probably still sounds cliche, but content is still king. Google is looking for good topic coverage, rather than pages with poor content and overly optimized and keyword stuffed pages. This update also coincides with the recent move to consolidate all keyword search data into the “not provided” section in Google Analytics. With all of these queues, Google is sending us a clear message: forget spammy SEO and publish quality content.
The Digital Marketing team here at MyAdvice has developed several strategies to evolve with Google and provide cutting-edge visibility and marketing services to our clients. Here are a few links to check out if you’re interested in learning more about the Google Hummingbird update:
- https://moz.com/blog/hummingbird-unleashed
- https://moz.com/blog/google-is-changing-long-tail-search-with-efforts-like-hummingbird-whiteboard-friday
- https://searchengineland.com/google-hummingbird-172816
Contact an MyAdvice representative to find out how the MyAdvice team can help your business.
