Google's Hummingbird - What it is and it's Impact

Hummingbird – The True Story

First Off... Who Am I?

Co-author: The Art of SEO CEO: Stone Temple Consulting, 30+

person Digital Marketing and SEO firm Columnist:

Interviewer:

Hummingbird

Synonyms

Understands Context – “Where is the closest Italian restaurant”

Maps to Knowledge Graph

Maps User Intent – “Red Sox VS Yankees”

GoodEvil

Comparison Queries

Jupiter VS Saturn

Conversational Queries

“Show Me Pictures of the Eiffel Tower”

Remembers Context – “How Tall Is It?”

Another Example

Sequence

“How Tall Is He”

“Who Is His Wife?”

“Does He Have Children?”

“Who Is He Playing This Sunday?”

“When Did He Start Playing Football?”

Important

=

What Is TheWeather In

Rome?

RomeWeather

No Difference In The Results!

=

Very Early Days!

Where Can I Find a Party?

Is Jennifer Aniston Older Than

Russell Crowe?

A Brief Look At The Patents

First Query Rewriting Patent Filing

From The “Hummingbird

Patent”

H/T Bill Slawski

ZoomingIn

Co-Occurrence

H/T Bill Slawski

Hummingbird in a Nutshell

QueryTranslator

UserQuery Main

Algo

Translated Search Query Results

ModifiedQuery

Hummingbird

Inside the Query TranslatorQuery Translator

UserQuery Modified

Query

Previous Query

References

ComparisonQuery

RelativeReferences

Perform Query

Translation

“It”

“vs”

“near”

Synonyms “auto”, “car”

Long Tail Impact

“Where is the nearest pizza place?”“How far is it from San Jose to Las Vegas?“I want to know the price of gasoline”“How tall is Anna Kournikova?“When was the last episode of Breaking Bad?

ModifiedQuery

“Where is the nearestpizza place?”

ModifiedQuery

“pizzarestaurants”

“hotels”

ModifiedQuery

“rome hotels”

Immediately After a Search for “Rome”

SERP Impact

1

2

3

4

5

Basics of Hummingbird

• Affects 90% of queries• Translates queries– Natural language– Synonyms– Context– Co-citation connections

• Maps true intent

Google’s Process Is Like Teaching a ChildOne Step at a Time

PCs Declining, Tablets Exploding

Smart Phone Sales Too

Role of Voice Search

Environments Where It Will Not Work

The destination

+

Impact on SEO

Some Tactics Significantly Changed

SEOCopywriting

Address User Wants / Needs

User Groups

UserTesting.com

Mechanical Turk Can Work Too!

Map Web Design to User Needs

ExcessiveKeywordCentricity

Example

Where is the Nearest Pizza Place?

Las Vegas Pizza

• Does your site show that it makes pizza?

• Is the location information on the pages?

Example 2

Who is Better, Tom

Brady or Peyton

Manning?

Compare Tom Brady

Peyton Manning

• Does your sport site have a page that discusses this very common question?

Query Anticipation

• What if Google knows that 25% of people who enter the query “Eiffel Tower” next ask for the height of the tower?

• Does your page answer that question?• What are the real questions users have in

mind when they start with a basic query?

Exercise: “Digital Cameras”

Keyword Research Tools

PageRank

PageRank May No Longer Update

• Last updated in Feb 2013• Not bring updated again this year• Google may not update it again• Data was really bad quality anyway• Much better to focus on actual authority– Not a number that Google uses anyway!

• Comes with industry knowledge

Third Party Measurements

Check it Yourself!

Google Wants You To Think Strategically

Be an Expert or Go Home

Show Leadership

Stand for Something

Dig Deep (Be Comprehensive)

Build Trust

Help Others and Communicate Your Expertise

You

Thank You!

Eric Enge

eenge@stonetemple.com@stonetemple

+Eric Enge(508) 485-7751

www.stonetemple.com