Why would you even care about what Google thinks about?


by Clarice Polanski

Google unveiled its Hummingbird search algorithm in August. Hummingbird reportedly impacts 90 per cent of all searches. You should care about this. You should care a lot. If any of your business is supplied by online sources, this affects you.

Unlike Google's Penguin and Panda launches that were just updates to its existing algorithm, Hummingbird is a complete overhaul. Google's search master Amit Singhal said Hummingbird is the first update since 2001 that a Google algorithm has been so totally re-constructed.

Google's recent algorithm update, often known as Hummingbird, was created to handle more advanced searches. This update cranks up Google's capacity to understand the meaning between word combinations as opposed to just looking for keywords. In the geeky SEO world we live in, this is referred to as LSI, or Latent Semantic Indexing, and is getting baby steps closer to the holy grail of computers understanding natural human writing.

<strong>Keyword Optimization Is Now Old News</strong> Reading between the lines on Google's newest update may seem to point towards the diminishing impact of keywords just sitting on a page. This speculation is supported by another recent move by Google to encrypt all keyword search data. Online marketers won't be able to (easily) determine which keyword phrases sent people to their web site. This basis of SEO metrics has long been critical for optimizing an internet site for specific keyword phrases.

Google is being really clear in pushing search marketers to optimize using good content and truly craft value for audiences rather than keywording and technical whiz-bang.

<strong>Classic Marketers are Going To Win</strong> The initial decade of SEO was much like the Wild West: we all improved the technical elements, and threw your articles all over in order to increase links, results and listings. Clients unfortunately encouraged this as the folks winning SEO bids were those who took a low-price winner, short-term, slash and burn approach (we refused and thankfully are still here). This left businesses to nose-dive in the search engines as algorithms evolved and the SEO companies simply shrugged, and moved on to new clients with new tricks. As the search engines like google and yahoo have evolved, this cowboy practice is starting to become obsolete considering that latest algorithms can comprehend meaning, context and quality without having much of the technical backend techniques for telling Google what's in your pages.

<strong>Nowadays, good SEO just looks a lot like "marketing". </strong> Marketers specialize in delighting our audiences for clients, producing remarkable content that is cool enough to share and promoting a good image of the brand. Technical optimization is trailing to real world optimization. Gaming link-building is losing to digital public relations.

<strong>SEO is not dead, it is just getting "more real" every day. </strong> The cut-rate, shadowy, technical SEO companies overseas are becoming irrelevant as they now have to embrace brand building, actual connections and business targets. This can be harder work, and some vendors aren't up for this challenge.

<strong>Focus on "Long-tail" Searches</strong> Long-tail keywords is the term used for long searches that are more precise in nature. These are generally asked in question forms, like "how do I shed pounds in my hips quick?" For quite some time, great marketers have used this lucrative traffic segment to amplify online sales. Long-tail keywords are unsurprisingly really specific. This makes them lucrative in search, because a individual with a very specific question is often more motivated and in a position to buy "right now" if you answer their question or give a compelling solution to their crisis.

Consider it this way: if you were selling autos, would you rather deal with a customer requesting "a car," or would you rather speak with the customer wanting "a Black Camaro with tan leather seats, a v8 engine, and a stick shift"? Long-tail search phrases convert at 3 times the rates of general phrases.

The Hummingbird update is now honoring the longer tail searches in an attempt to provide better search engine results for more specific and complex searches.

While quite a few Search Engine Optimization firms are scrambling and crying about the updates, many are popping champagne (well, sparkling cider in the workplace anyway…), and are fascinated with what this will mean to the clients of SEO.

Like they've done after most major rollouts, The bigger and better SEO companies are now even providing free evaluations to help companies figure out how much they are affected.

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