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What is the Google Hummingbird algorithm's impact on SEO? Understanding the intent behind Hummingbird is key to predicting what it will mean to SEO today and tomorrow. In this POV presentation from Ogilvy subsidiary Global Strategies, Ken Shults outlines the implications of Google's focus shift from keywords to entities.
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POV Google’s
Hummingbird Update
KEN
SHULTS
SVP, Analytics
Global Strategies
GOOGLE HUMMINGBIRD.
ALGORITHM UPDATE.
Google Penguin Google Panda Google Hummingbird
Aimed at reducing visibility for
sites that participate in link
schemes and/or spammy
practices such as keyword
stuffing
Aimed at reducing visibility for low
quality content sites such as
those that are overly heavy with
advertising
Based on semantic search
focusing on user intent,
Hummingbird aims at improving
search results for conversational
queries such as questions
Google algorithm updates will always support the goal of presenting quality content
aligned to the information needs of searchers.
http://insidesearch.blogspot.com/2013/09/fifteen-years-onand-were-just-getting.html
What is Hummingbird?
In short, it’s Google’s new approach to move beyond keywords and understand “entities,” or what real-world things
actually are or do, rather than relying on the inexact and often ambiguous words that describe them. Hummingbird
should better focus on the meaning behind words. The goal is that pages matching the meaning of a query will rank,
rather than pages matching just a few words.
Is this a big deal?
Google says that the last time they made this dramatic a change to the algorithm was 2001.
When did this start?
Google says that Hummingbird went live about a month ago, but Google’s launch of Knowledge Graph was really the
catalyst for beginning to understand the semantic web.
http://www.google.com/insidesearch/features/search/knowledge.html
GOOGLE HUMMINGBIRD.
ALGORITHM UPDATE.
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(bla
nk)
Nat
ura
l Se
arch
Tra
ffic
Natural Search last 90 days
Hummingbird
If this is such a big deal and it’s been live for a month, how has it impacted us?
Minimally so far. But that doesn’t mean it’s not important
Source: List of GSI Clients’ Natural Search Traffic
Hummingbird in Action
GOOGLE HUMMINGBIRD.
ALGORITHM UPDATE.
Hummingbird in Action
• Google understands the “entity” ABC is a company
and that its founders are Marc Cherry & Leonard
Goldenson.
• Google attempts to answer the searcher’s query
immediately, with supporting information from the
Knowledge Graph and search listings where the
searcher may find additional relevant information.
• Google is building its understanding of entities from:
o Current trusted sources like Wikipedia and the
CIA World Factbook
o New sources, potentially including your website
• As Hummingbird acquires more knowledge of more
entities and their relationship to searcher intent, we
should anticipate that the results presented may not
include the searcher’s keyword, but rather attempt
to answer the searcher’s question. Knowledge Graph
GOOGLE HUMMINGBIRD.
ALGORITHM UPDATE.
Entities vs. Keywords Example
Search Term: ABC Founders
So if everything is based on intent now,
then I guess keywords don’t really matter
any more?
• Not quite. While exact keywords should be less
important, we still see that Google is presenting
results that look pretty much the same as they
always did for most of the keyword landscape
we care about.
• But, as Hummingbird acquires more knowledge
of more entities and their relationship to
searcher intent, we will see results presented
that may not include the searcher’s keyword but
that answer the searcher’s question
GOOGLE HUMMINGBIRD.
ALGORITHM UPDATE.
Hummingbird in Action
What does this mean? I need some more examples. Search term: AAPL
Before Hummingbird
• AAPL is a string of text containing the letters
“AAPL”
• Google looks for web pages that include the
string “AAPL”
• Pages that include the string “AAPL” will be the
result set presented to searchers
• Pages with good page rank based on quality
backlinks relevant to the term “AAPL” will rank
better
• Pages from domains with good reputations will
rank better
Hummingbird
• AAPL is the ticker symbol for the ENTITY Apple
• Google knows many things about the ENTITY Apple
and about the ENTITY of Stock Ticker Symbols
• Google knows that common activities related to
Ticker Symbols involve buying, selling, researching,
investing, etc.
• Google knows about ENTITIES related to all of
those related activities
• Google’s knowledge of AAPL as an ENTITY greatly
expands the value that is possible for them to
provide in search results well beyond relevant
results based simply on strings of text (keywords)
Hummingbird in Action
GOOGLE HUMMINGBIRD.
ALGORITHM UPDATE.
Where does this ENTITY information
come from? It seems like this is headed
back toward spamming meta data like
keyword and description tags.
• Google is building its understanding of entities
from trusted sources like Wikipedia and the
CIA World Factbook.
• Google will also build on this information from
other sources, potentially including your
website.
• We can help Google understand information
about entities on our site through the use of
Structured Data Markup, aka Schema tags.
http://www.schema.org
Hummingbird in Action
GOOGLE HUMMINGBIRD.
ALGORITHM UPDATE.
What does this structured data look like?
If you have searched for a recipe, a hotel or a
movie you have already seen structured data in
action.
In the results page example here for the keyword
blueberry pie recipe we see many of the listings
include Ratings, Reviews, Time to Prepare and
Calories.
This information comes from structured data tags in
the web pages for this recipe content.
Hummingbird in Action
GOOGLE HUMMINGBIRD.
ALGORITHM UPDATE.
Alright, this is all very fancy, but what does it mean we should do?
• Leverage Global Strategies’ Consumer Intent Modeling™ in order to better understand the INTENT behind the
search queries that searchers use to find information that is relevant for our business.
• Develop rich content that ANSWERS the questions that searchers have.
• Keyword selection and optimization is still important and will continue to be an important factor, but our
understanding of keywords needs to evolve toward more sophisticated interpretation of intent and the relationship
between entities.
• Evaluate opportunities through SCHEMA MARKUP to enhance our content in the eyes of Hummingbird.
Hummingbird in Action
GOOGLE HUMMINGBIRD.
ALGORITHM UPDATE.
