Google has just announced Hummingbird, its first new algorithm for its search engine since 2001. Although Google periodically releases updates and enhancements, most of which have had a significant impact (The Penguin and Panda releases come to mind), this is a big change.
Unlike the results of the Panda update in 2011 in which some sites saw their traffic cut by as much as 50%, Hummingbird does not seem to have affected traffic. “No one seems to have generally lost traffic, unlike some other algorithmic changes, which often produce vocal ‘losers’ and silent ‘winners,’” said Danny Sullivan of SearchEngineLand in a recent VentureBeat article. When asked his general SEO advice Sullivan went on to say stay the course: “Have good, descriptive content, and you should be doing all you can be doing to tap into long-tail searches.”.
For the marketer, Hummingbird is more than a revised approach to SEO. And it’s more than just Search. It's about a mobile customer, an interpretive approach to Inbound Marketing and and even more intimate relationship between brand and customer. As long time Googler Matt Cutts likes to put it, the Google of the future “is about things, not strings.” Hummingbird aims to understand the intent of a query and provide accurate answers. For marketers understanding what questions customers have and developing answers that address those needs should make you more likely to rank according to Hummingbird.
