Back in August Google released their ‘Hummingbird’ algorithm and didn’t announce this change until late September. So far the repercussions of this update haven’t been recorded as hugely dramatic, but Google announced that this shift has affected around 90% of searches.
Here’s our quick break-down of what it’s all about:
When Google has started using Hummingbird, it wasn’t simply an update to the old algorithm like Penguin was back in May this year (albeit an update that had a huge impact), it was a completely new algorithm. The key things Hummingbird will do for searchers:
• Hummingbird has adapted to suit the way we search and makes the results generated from longer or more complicated queries more relevant to what we’re actually searching for.As we suggested in our blog earlier in the year, technology like Google Glass will lead to an increase in voice commanded searches and search engines will have to adapt to suit this style. Therefore, Hummingbird will facilitate this conversational style of searching by having a greater understanding of what the user is searching for.
• It will enable Google to continue to give us the answers we want and fast. By understanding our queries better it will be able to generate more answers in the Knowledge Graph function.
To compete with this, the key thing to remember is , as always, quality content is king – spending time on creating good content for you site, helps keep it relevant and authoritative in Google’s eyes and means people will want to use you site to access the information they cannot get from Knowledge Graph.
We are interested to see how this update will affect the way we search in the coming months but so far it’s clear that search is set to become easier, more accessible and more natural to how we all want to use the internet.
So, what does this hold for SEO?
Well, it certainly isn’t dead, but Hummingbird is just another step in Google’s path to offering a ‘human’ search experience. This means brands need to be cleverer with their search strategies – placing priority on naturally compelling content, great user journeys and technically sound platforms.
