Know The Google Hummingbird With Its Wings of Change

Google, on the day of its 15th Hummingbird search algorithm, named precisely because of its fast and precise search capabilities. This new update from Google is believed to revolutionize the way online search engine optimization works, because unlike the Panda and Penguin updates, Hummingbird replaces the entire core algorithm completely, but still retaining some of its previously working features. 

What’s more is that it affects 90% of the searches across the globe, giving it more influence on how search is conducted using this search engine. A lot of debates have been around of how this could affect search marketing, since this algorithm is operating with the semantic search concept, which primarily gives more attention to the intent of the person’s search rather than focusing on the terms/keywords the person used.

Basically, Google aims to address users with more complex searches with the new algorithm, especially now that voice search is becoming more and more available in smart phones and computers alike. People who use the voice search often make more complicated searches because they use natural language. This is far more difficult than just typing a query where you just enter keywords. That’s why Hummingbird ranks websites using its encyclopedia which houses more than 570 million concepts complete with relations among them, otherwise known as the Knowledge Graph. 

This powerful database correlates facts and data on the searches, which in turn allows voice searchers to query additional information without having to repeat the query; instead, referencing terms such as pronouns could be related to the previous search. Also, the knowledge Graph displays information about specific searches (like prominent people and historical figures) directly in the Google Site, along with other related data such as age, height and date of birth in its search results. Another feature is the comparison tool, which allows the results page to display a table comparing various general terms like food, dogs and others. This could be good in e-commerce if Google decides to extend this tool to specific products like computers, phones or even establishments such as restaurants. 
  
The use of the Knowledge Graph in the Hummingbird update just stresses the search engine company’s desire in  achieving better relevance as opposed to the Caffeine update which stressed on website indexing and crawling for faster results. This pretty much eliminates the “black hat” search engine marketing solution methods offered by dubious SEO companies, which have been Google’s master plan ever since.

Google has always been trying to find ways to improve the quality of their searches, using semantic search, natural language processing and their powerful Knowledge graph in its Hummingbird update. This feature alone makes the algorithm understand longer and more complex queries by applying concepts underlying the searched words as well as the relationship between them. This leads ultimately to a better communication—a natural conversation between the search engine and the person using it, no matter what device they’re using. While many SEO companies worry about what search engine marketing campaign strategies to use with this all-new algorithm coming out, Google assures that as long as “white hat” SEO strategies are used, there’s nothing to worry about.