Many have heard Google change terms in regards to their search engine such as Panda and Penguin, but what about the Hummingbird change? Google updated last year in 2013 their search algorithm, the formula and system it uses to sort through all the information. It’s called “Hummingbird” named by Google and it is responsible for filtering through information, but also for the search results and the quality of them.
Search algorithm is a technical term used by search engine companies to describe the formula and system used to sort through the information of the World Wide Web and return the answer most relevant based on multiple criteria. Hummingbird is the name given by Google to their latest update and change to their formula and system. Google called the update “hummingbird” because according to Google, the update should return better results, which means more “precise and fast”.
Google is not a stranger to making changes to their search algorithm. After all, we experienced “Caffeine”, “Panda”, and the “Penguin” changes over the last couple years. Even though there were massive changes to their search engine, they were not like the Hummingbird changes. The “Caffeine” update was a big change, but mainly for Google to collect and filter information faster and better. In other words, the change was more for indexing purposes, rather than results oriented. Panda and the Penguin updates were changes to Google’s older algorithm. It did not replace the entire system. Hummingbird is a brand new system for Google. Even though it incorporates some older parts such as Panda and Penguin, it is a major change to search.
How Does Google Hummingbird Help With Search?
Hummingbird should better focus on the meaning behind the words. It is an impressive “conversational search” algorithm change. Google stated that this change would pay more attention to each word in a query, ensuring that the whole sentence is taken into account, rather than specific words. The goal of the “Hummingbird” change is that pages matching the meaning do better, than pages matching just a specific keyword.
Google search engine users can now get more accurate search results based on conversational search algorithm. For example, search results will be able to relate better to the individual searching. If a person searches for a car or services as an example, results can be related better to the searcher itself and his or her location. There are many more examples how this latest algorithm change can influence results.
Link Building and Content Marketing Campaigns
To be successful and effective with Link Building campaigns (a major part of Search Engine Optimization SEO) and Content Marketing, changes to search engines such as Hummingbird have to be taken into consideration. Panda and Penguin already forced many marketers and website operators, to strictly pay attention to the structure and strategy of online marketing and advertising campaigns.
Most remain successful, but websites that deployed “black hat” or poor search marketing techniques, experienced heavy losses in traffic, search results, and keyword rankings. Companies and brands that want to ensure that their websites are compatible with the latest changes, can always hire help with marketing consulting services to review and audit their website quality. This is always a good idea, prior to making any substantial investments into upgrades and changes.
Content marketing campaigns are one of the most critical marketing methods and strategies in today’s digital world. These changes by Google further enforce the importance for companies and organizations to produce high quality, unique content, and publish this content in multiple ways. Content cannot be duplicated on the Internet for best results. In other words, content that is created for a website, should not be found on another website. Content created for publication and distribution, should not be again on the main website. In short, no duplicated content allowed for best results in search engines.
Successful websites should produce quality and relevant content frequently and publish it on a company blog or designed area on the website. Further content created such as articles and press releases should be published on other websites and distributed. Those published should not be duplicated on the main website for best results.
To increase links to a website with all these Google changes, marketers must make sure the websites linking back to the main site are high in quality and relevant. Link farms and other older methods such as directories do not work anymore with the recent updates to Google. If all these Google changes are confusing, a website operators can always get help with professional marketing services or retain a marketing consultant to gain clarity and expertise first.
