The hummingbird, outsmarting the panda, the penguin and you

The new google algorithm does justice to its nomenclature, its fast in its processing and furious with its accuracy. Humminbird is the freshest Google algorithm, which assimilates the best features of existing algorithms with new technologies, to enhance user experience with respect to search query's. At the moment, you type your inquiries into Google and Google provides you with results based upon the keywords that its algorithm picks up. Often leading you into an in-depth research, browsing through pages of search results, to get the exact data you were looking for. As a result Google has subliminally influenced us to comply with its algorithms methods and base our inquiry on key words. This has lead to a guessing game, wherein you try to predict which keywords would get you an apt response from Google.

eg.

Rather than searching for,

How do I write a technology blog?

Google has influenced us to search,

Writing technology blog

This leads us into a maze of results ranging from companies offering tools, hiring opportunities for bloggers, etc. We are required to spend time in further skimming through result pages trying to get the best article for ourselves. Hummingbird just like the actual bird gives us faster and more accurate results.after understanding the context of our inquires.

One of the key reason for existence of search engines is to provide accurate results quickly. I get tired of browsing pages of unwanted results and postpone the purchase of various articles I would have liked to buy.s By offering such a variety of responses search engines don't do justice to their own purpose. Their lack of understanding of the human psych is costing companies which could have sold goods had the engine performed better. But hummingbird seems to be changing this behavior.

For eg. earlier when I used to ask Google "Should I carry my umbrella today" it showed me a list of places where I could buy an umbrella, picking up the keyword "umbrella", but now it understands the context of my inquiry and posts the weather report for my city

The strategy aims at producing relevant results specific to your query. They have endowed this algorithm with enough intelligence to take a question and perceive the context rather than treating the words within your query as individual entities. This will be leading to the revival of long tail keywords, which helps companies serving in niche segments.

Contextual and Conversational Searches

Google carries one of the biggest knowledge databases in the world, now all of it will be available to us exactly as per the contextual relevance of our queries. The contextual approach of Hummingbird has set the grounds for better conversational search. Contextual research focuses on relevance of a text rather than a few keywords. The example provided above clearly indicates the shift in the results offered for similar inquiries, showing that the focus has changed to a more contextual understanding of the inquiries.

Now you can simple click on the small microphone on the bottom right corner of the Google search box and ask your questions orally. The question is displayed on the search and its contextual answers provides as results. Brace yourself for a world wherein you would not have to surf through result pages for the exact food that you want or the book that you are looking for. Google will do it for you at the mere utterance of some words.

Hummingbird and SEO rankings

The bigger question in everyone's mind was how will this new algorithm affect their webpage rank on Google. Although everything new comes with its own influences but the core SEO practices stand true for Hummingbird and all future upgrades to it. I believe that writing original and relevant content and optimizing and moderating keywords are as crucial for your webpages as they were before. Now content strategist can focus on elaborating their niche segment by using specific long tail keywords highlighting the specificity of the services or products they provide.

Content is the answer

As SEO marketers all over the world try to decode best practices to tame the hummingbird, they should realize that their is no way that they can outsmart Google. I am of the view that the only way to ensure good ranking is to do the basics right in all honesty. There is no alternative to genuine content, the importance of which is even more now that Google interprets its database as a whole before returning a search inquiry. Although it is safe to say that all knowledge is borrowed from the past, it is our talent that makes us connect dots in newer and more innovative manner.Google values this fact. According to me if you create original and genuine content you don't need to further adapt to a changing algorithm, but a few minor twitches wont do you no harm.

I will elaborate on Long tail keywords and contextual searches in following posts to further elaborate the changes bought about by this naive little hummingbird.