Hummingbird is Google’s new search engine algorithm built using both existing and new matrices, with the goal being to serve the search demands of today. According to Google, the name Hummingbird comes from it being “precise and fast.” Google started using Hummingbird about a month ago, and announced the change on September 26.
WHAT IS THE GOAL OF HUMMINGBIRD?
A primary focus of Hummingbird is “Conversational search.” For example: “What’s the closest place to eat the Italian food to my home?” While traditional search engines might focus on finding matches for words on a page that says “eat” and “Italian food” Hummingbird focuses on the meaning behind the words so it may understand the actual location of your home, if you’ve shared that with Google. It might also understand that “place” means you want a local restaurant and that “Italian food” is a particular type of food severed by a restaurant. Knowing all these meanings should help Google advance beyond just finding pages with matching words.
Hummingbird is paying more attention to each word in a query, ensuring that the whole sentence, conversation, or meaning is taken into account rather than particular words. The goal is that pages matching the meaning do better, rather than pages matching just a few words.
MY THOUGHTS: DIGGING A BIT DEEPER.
After revisiting comments that were made by a Google representative in a hangout from late September, I got the sense that Hummingbird looks at the different aspects of content the entire site and not just on one page. Then it tries to return sites that satisfy the intent of the query.
If this is the case then a SEO should limit their concerns about what keywords are included on a page and look towards what supporting pages are included on a site. How helpful are the supporting pages to the site’s broad range of users needs to be a focus area as well.
WHAT DOES THIS MEAN TO YOU?
For those who are already engaged in internet marketing, be aware that concentrating on matching keywords on one page may soon become an antiquated practice. Over the long term, there is going to be a departure from 2 and 3 word phrases and the long tail phrases that comprise the query will also become increasingly harder to define, as they will perhaps to cease to be just words. Intent will be a very important part of the picture. Chasing keywords under such a situation seems like it would be a frivolous venture.
For those looking to start marketing their business on the internet, it is critical to have someone who understands and is keeping up with the various changes being made by Google to guide the development of a useful website and internet marketing efforts.
DOES THIS MEAN THAT SEO IS DEAD?
No, according to Google there’s nothing new or different that SEOs or publishers need to worry about. Guidance remains the same and the signals that have been important in the past remain important. Hummingbird simply allows Google to process them in new and hopefully better ways.
In fact, with the direction Google is going, the need for someone with a comprehensive understanding of internet marketing to guild your efforts online will continue to increase.