Hummingbird’s Impact on Online Marketing

Google has been known to shake the online world every now and then with their unending series of algorithm updates and more. All in the name of giving the users the best and most useful search results. So, they can’t be fault for wanting that, can they?

Even if it meant that your job will be a little more difficult. Your content need not just focus on keywords or link profile. So adjustments had to be made to keep the site where it should be.

The Biggest Update

This is the first major revision to the main Google algorithm in 10 years. In simple terms, the Hummingbird update is aimed at returning search results based on Q&A format. Google thinks that because people are no longer using phrase or keywords to search, it is becoming increasingly important to return results that answer specific questions.

With Siri, people are asking “What is the best Mexican restaurant in Chicago?” Siri will likely return results in response to that question. In plain language, this means that the content can no longer be limited and confined to just being interesting and informative. The content needs to have audience engagement and feedback. With Hummingbird, this is the same kind of thinking employed – in Q&A format.

Impact of Hummingbird

The new Google algorithm update is said to revolutionize the way B2B companies market their sites in search. The old concept of paying a few thousand dollars to do a basic SEO setup will no longer be an effective tactic for these types of companies. B2B space is usually not very competitive in an online atmosphere.

For sites that have been creating contents and blogs that answer questions people usually ask in sales meetings, Hummingbird will be a breeze. It won’t be a big change and it’s unlikely that you have seen a traffic decrease. That means your strategy is working fine.

If you’re still stuck with the usual SEO associated keyword rich contents, you might want to think about the following tips to help you with Hummingbird.

Tweak Your Contents

Contents may be tweaked in a few ways to test your search results.

Answer the questions people ask in sales meetings. Consider yourself being on the spot whose response is awaited by those in the meeting room. Then you will be expected to deliver real answers. The focus is more on the human behavior behind a search. The search process has become more of a conversation with specific details. Hummingbird wants to pump out answers that relate to the context of the question instead of just zeroing in on just one or two small words.

• Do Interview Series. This is done by many bloggers already. PR professionals are great at this. This jives well with Hummingbird because it’s in the Q&A format. Contents are then geared towards giving direct answers to the questions asked.

• Use Webinars. Those who are hosting webinars can consider themselves one step ahead. There are two things that can be done:

  • Transcribing a content of a webinar for the website

  • Answer the questions asked during the webinar in a blog post or an article content

In essence, Hummingbird has just made the importance of high quality and relevant content climb up the ladder. This SEO element has not been negatively affected by all the algorithm updates search engines have implemented so far. Instead, in every update, its importance is emphasized and highlighted to make everyone understand what good, quality and relevant contents mean to everyday searchers.

Ultimately, Hummingbird aims for a result that has been Google’s and other search engines’ objective ever since – to provide the searchers with the most relevant and useful content they are hoping to find every time they make an attempt to look for sites that can give them what they need.

Hummingbird is not designed to hurt anyone. It is meant to improve the user’s experience by eliminating online garbage.