To celebrate its fifteenth birthday, in late September Google announced that it had released a new update to its search engine: the Hummingbird. Google has created this version with its mind set on mobile and voice searches, and an estimated 9 out of 10 searches will be affected.
As for Internet content, the difference between what people are searching for and why they are searching for it is the heart of the Hummingbird update.
Why do users visit your website? Usually it is because they have a problem that they are trying to solve. That is, they have a purpose that moves their needs and they are on your website for that purpose.
Since the late nineties, search engines have positioned their results by coincidence between the keywords you were looking for in the bar with those of the web pages. It is simple from a user perspective and possible to do from mathematical and engineering logic under the surface of any search engine.
But words can have different meanings.
In May 2012, Google Senior Vice President of Engineering Amit Singhal used the example of a search for the Taj Mahal to illustrate this problem: “Is the search about the monument in India, the musician, or a local curry house ? What is the intention behind the search? ”
The result of Google's efforts to clarify the context of searches and content is Hummingbird's semantic search capabilities. It is a search engine that tries to understand how people use language, the different possible meanings of words or phrases and the different context in which those words are used.
Google will still need some time to develop and show all the potential that your hummingbird can have, in part due to the continuous evolution of the ways in which people search. "Where I can…?" "What do I do if…?" "As I do…?" "What is the difference between…?" These kinds of questions will be key in the near future.
Evolution from Google Panda to Hummingbird
If you look back two years, you will see that Google has followed a constant. Panda's algorithm penalized junk content, such as a website riddled with keywords that gives no value to the user. And it made it even more difficult with keywords when not long ago it stopped giving webmasters information about what keywords were giving them traffic from organic searches - the famous “not provided”.
The key to positioning success is engaging content
The essential ingredient that Hummingbird now adds is relevance. If it is the Google robot that is trying to understand the search intent as well as the meaning and context of the words, relevance is the most important criterion.
The Hummingbird and the content strategy
Once the new situation that we find with Google is understood, we can enter the matter. Good content can surprise and delight the audience. But how will the Hummingbird identify the relevance of the content and help your audience associate them with what your business does? If you can make any type of piece of content go viral, it will be an excellent advertisement for your brand. It will give you traffic and it will be shared socially. But the question here would be: if the content is on your website, will it influence the positioning in the future?
If we consider that SEO will never die, consider these recommendations to ensure that the content you have on your website will be favored by Hummingbird:
- Understand what the customer needs: think about why users want or need your product or service in the first place. If you don't already know, consider using tools like Qualaroo to find the answer. For example, if you are hanging personal loans, what does your website have to say about home finances? And if you were to sell vacation packages, what does your content say about traveling to a destination, local customs and spoken languages? Control analytics tools: do you have a search engine on a site to measure the effectiveness of your content? If so, take a look at the information that will show you what people are looking for when they come to your site, but can't find it immediately. It can give you very valuable information to optimize your website.Think beyond blogs:Good content can take any shape, no matter if it is a video, a graphic or an ebook. It doesn't have to be just text. The form should adapt to the content you have and the purpose of it. Take your language into account: the Hummingbird is prepared for mobile and voice searches. So be clear on the words you are going to use and how you structure the sentences. Consider synonyms - alternative words or phrases that could describe what you are doing and that people could use, rather than focusing on targeting your content around certain exact keywords. Put social media sharing buttons on all of your content: make it People have an easy time sharing your content and ask for their participation in the issues that concern them. Define your brand, your voice and your values:One of the maxims of marketing is that you have to start with a very defined brand. Don't leave your customers guessing who you are or what you do. Don't be boring: informative content doesn't have to be bland. Consider your sales goals: The best content marketing doesn't just make noise that gets in the way of a sale, yeah Not that it complements your sales efforts. To do that, the content of your website has to be relevant to your products or services and support them. This is not just what customers want. It is what the Hummingbird wants too.The best content marketing doesn't just make noise that gets in the way of a sale, it complements your sales efforts. To do that, the content of your website has to be relevant to your products or services and support them. This is not just what customers want. It is what the Hummingbird wants too.The best content marketing doesn't just make noise that gets in the way of a sale, it complements your sales efforts. To do that, the content of your website has to be relevant to your products or services and support them. This is not just what customers want. It is what the Hummingbird wants too.
