SEO Tips For The Hummingbird Algorithm Update

Analytics Graph Affected By The Hummingbird Update

So, Thursday September 26th, Google has revealed the fact that a new algorithm has been running for a month. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-24292897

For people not in the industry, you may wonder why there had not been more guessing or supposition from the SEO community. As one of the search engine optimization professionals at My Favorite Web Designs who deals with the constant whims and vicissitudes of the Google engine updates, I can attest that it does not matter too much what it is called, just what it portends.

According to the BBC article, this update utilized almost an AI – a computer algorithm that understands the interconnectedness of concepts and ideas, and thereby simulates something very akin to human understanding in its ability to associate concepts.

Now, I am the first person I know using the word AI for hummingbird, but I have been assuming this would be the wave of the future. Now, is it a true AI, or a sentient self aware artificial intelligence? No, far from it, it is simply replicating functions of learning associated with humans to teach itself.

Now, of course, Google cannot release specifics, since they have patents to protect and intellectual property to safeguard from the other search engines and search engine optimizations pros like those at My Favorite Web Designs. But, I have always done well for my company by speculating, and trying to be logical with the clues that we are given about the search engine updates. So let’s examine the implications, the real practical nitty gritty implications, of an update like Hummingbird.

Conquering And Recovering From Hummingbird

Related Concepts Help SEO

First, Hummingbird seems to be pulling from a pool of knowledge called “latent semantic indexing” which associated words with other words. This means, if you are on a page for plumbing, then Latent Semantic Indexing” theorizes that we should see words such as “plumbing” and “pipes” and “leaks”. The shortcoming of this, and many blackhat SEO’s have known this, is that it is tough for that type of algorithm to catch spun articles, or randomly inserting keywords, as long as they are at a proper density and related to the article.

Hummingbird seems to imply that it will look beyond the keyword to the context of the keyword, both in relation to it sentence, paragraph, heading section, page, etc… (again, I am assuming a lot, but this is how I would set it up, given an unlimited amount of computing power, which Google must be approaching quickly, for its intents and purposes, given the advances in quantum computing and shared processing techniques)

So, this tells me that I can use things like asides, subheadings, and other areas to convey related concepts. So if I am doing a page on phoenix gardening, I can include a section on the pests found in phoenix, and gardening FAQ, etc… Again, I would theorize that the content which best presents these resources in one spot in a well optimized way should be the page that gets the boost from Hummingbird.

Long Tail Becomes More Valuable

Long tail search becomes much more valuable with the arrival of the Hummingbird Search Engine Update. This can be very useful once it is understood. Hummingbird partially addresses a change in the way that end users search. More search occurs on mobile devices, and a fast growing percentage of these are voice searches.

Voice searching is different that typing. Early indication are that people will use much longer tail keywords when voice searching. For example, instead of search phoenix gardening, you might now search “cheap gardener near downtown phoenix” or “gardener who cuts grass and can care for trees”.

How do you take advantage of this? More content! More writing, and, more video, since video utilizes voice recognition and can give more content to a page without making it obnoxious. You can also work with embedded PDF’s, embedded audio files, etc… So when we say more content, it certainly does not need to mean words on page.

Hummingbird Conclusions

Nothing has really changes for web design pros at My Favorite Web Designs, it simply more enforcement of rules from prior years, so if you have been playing it straight you will be fine.

Predictions For The Next Big Updates

Expect Hummingbird, due to the advanced nature of this update, top go through a solid year of iteration. The next update from Google should include social graph data. I do not estimate they are currently calculating entire social graphs for companies and their social reach, due to the processing power required, but this is a very logical extension of the current update, and the processing power seems to be ramping up very, very quickly, so look for social signal to affect search more solidly by this time next year, roughly.