Google’s Hummingbird Update: What Is Brewing In Search Engine Land?

Changes have been happening for the past month, but without any disclosures made by Google, which has always kept the formula for running its search engines a closely guarded secret.

Whatever changes it makes to the algorithm, they are always targeted towards improving user experience.  With users getting smarter by the day, the questions they ask of Google have become complex too.

Users, over the years, have learnt to override the piles of unwanted and low-quality information and reach superior content and Google has done everything possible to help surfers achieve their goal.

The existence of the new search formula was disclosed at an event held on Thursday, September 26th, in the same garage in California, where Larry Page and Sergey Brin started their company 15 years ago.  You should know that Google celebrates its birthday every year on September 27th.

Google’s Major Formula Updates 

Sources within Google say that the latest changes in the form “Hummingbird” could have a major impact on website traffic. It is a major change and nothing like this has happened in the last couple of years. In fact, it was only a couple of years back that there was a huge redesign called “Caffeine,” which changed the way websites were indexed in Google.

Caffeine update back then spurred a loud outcry because hundreds of websites were affected by the change. The update worked on weeding out sites that tried tricking the Google search engine that their content was relevant to what people were searching for. Those webmasters employed tricks using keywords that garnered a high search volume, but mostly irrelevant to what they offered on their website.

Google dominates the search engine arena, even with so many other search engines in existence today. Most of the traffic online is steered by the big G!  In the United States alone, two out of every three requests are attributed to Google, and in some parts of Europe, the volumes are said to be much higher.  None of us can forget how things changed overnight. The websites that held #1 and other top positions the previous night, vanished without a trace with the break of dawn.  Huge amounts of money was lost.

People began being careful and this ensured that attention was paid to good content that offers value and relevancy to users.  Keyword stuffing became a thing of the past, at least as far as successful marketers go. People who continued to do that are no competitors anyway.

What Does Google’s Hummingbird Bring With It? 

Amit Singhal, senior vice president of search, told reporters on Thursday that the latest “Hummingbird” algorithm currently affects 90 percent of worldwide searches via Google. ~ Reuters Via cnbc.com

According to Google, this update needed to be implemented. It helps the search engines offer people exactly what they’re looking for. Gone are the days when people entered Key “words” into Google. Now they enter lengthy sentences and questions into the search box that sound like discussions instead of search queries.

Google had to change the formula to ensure the results are highly relevant to meet users’ needs.  No longer is it enough to match words using keyword based systems and it has become essential to match meanings and concepts.

How Google’s Algorithm Changes Affect Marketers?

“Remember what it was like to search in 1998? You’d sit down and boot up your bulky computer, dial up on your squawky modem, type in some keywords, and get 10 blue links to websites that had those words. The world has changed so much since then: billions of people have come online, the web has grown exponentially, and now you can ask any question on the powerful little device in your pocket. You can explore the world with the Knowledge Graph, ask questions aloud with voice search, and get info before you even need to ask with Google Now.” – Singhal via Insidesearch.blogspot.com

When people typed their search query earlier, we, as marketers tried to gain their attention by using appropriate keywords.  But now with search engine users entering much longer questions, merely looking at words cannot give the best results.

For example:  Earlier when a user typed “adult acne,” relevant results are those that talked about adult acne.

Today, the question typed is – “How can a 25-year old with skin allergies and using medicine X, get rid of adult acne? What should be the result for this? Should the result be for allergies or for adult acne or Medicine X?

The search engine has to understand the complete sentence and find the sites offering details pertaining to the question and bring back results that answer that question in its entirety. All queries have to be matched with the documents on the Internet.

All this tells us for now is that we continue to offer “highly relevant” content. Use long keyword phrases and let your content answer all possible questions that people may have related to the topic.

What Should Be Done Now To Prepare for Hummingbird?

It still takes a good understanding of search and how it works, to create a proper website that actually manages to attract users and provides the most useful information there can be on a specific topic.

Hummingbird: A Conclusion

If you’re worrying about what will happen by the time you wake up tomorrow, you don’t have to.  Although the announcement has been made now, this update is said to have been running under our noses for the past few weeks. If you haven’t seen anything dramatic as far as your website is concerned, then you may not see any changes – not pertaining to this update at least.

If you’re just starting out, this is what you should NOT be doing:

Launch some XYZ site, try to outsmart Google and the competition, and try to gain business quickly.

You should instead be looking at:

Being patient, giving helpful information, building a reputation, creating satisfied customers, and Google will certainly reward you. You might even like the Google’s Hummingbird!

What are your thoughts on Google’s Hummingbird?