Celebrating its 15th birthday, Google recently announced its first major overhaul of its search engine since 2010. The revamp, called Hummingbird, is designed to make search more relevant and provide more specific results for queries. This means that when you search for something, your whole query or sentence is taken into account to offer a result page with more precise answers. In other words, semantic search has got a boost with Hummingbird. Semantics in relation to search, allows a search engine to display results to queries based on what it things the searcher is looking for.
Hummingbird, unlike Penguin and Panda which are updates, is a rewritten algorithm. It’s over a month since its release and webmasters are wondering if and how Hummingbird will impact SEO. There is nothing to worry about, say SEO experts. For one thing, Google’s Knowledge Graph, an encyclopedia of 570 million concepts and relationships, has been enhanced as Hummingbird has improved Google’s ability to link search queries and web content, says search engine expert David Amerland. Businesses can benefit by identifying their USP and using semantic mark-up to help index information in products and services. Businesses need to be able to provide consumer with answers to their queries, rather than focusing on just keywords. Better consumer engagement will enhance online visibility.
Hummingbird is also relevant because more and more people are using mobile and voice search. Spoken queries are more natural and simpler than typed-in queries, and Hummingbird can provide more accurate results for such queries by paying more attention to meaning of a question rather than focusing on particular words. The goal of Google is to display the pages matching the meaning, rather than pages matching just a few words. If you have shared your actual location with Google, Hummingbird understands where you are and will show the pages from your city.
A reputable SEO company can help improve your search results with high quality, informative content and a proper linking strategy. A professional web service provider can make you make the most of online marketing opportunities in the face of Google’s algorithmic changes and help you get ahead of competition.