5 TIPS to Optimize for Google Hummingbird

Google's core algorithm, which controls answers that we get when we google a query online, gets a refresh, with an update dubbed Hummingbird that signifies speed and accuracy. "This is the biggest change, which affects 90% of global searches, to the underpinnings of Google search ever since the search giant embarked on a semantic search journey", said Google execs at a press event that was held in the garage of the Menlo Park house in California where Google started.

Anticipating what you might want to know

Although this is a major overhaul from Google search, users may not have noticed all the change that this update has brought to the table. That's because this has more to do with strengthening of the foundation of the search algorithm in order for it to be able to handle more complex and long tail queries. It rather adds to the capabilities of its existing Knowledge Graph, which can make sense of more than 500m concepts and their intertwining relationships. For instance, when you conduct a search

with keyword ‘Eiffel Tower', the engine can ready answers under the hoods on related questions like the height or the history of the tower, etc that you you may end up asking subsequently.

This is how Google takes search to the next level serving you more semantic based search results by parsing the meaning behind phrases as a whole rather than individual words within a search query.

Meaning of queries Vs documents on the web

Natural language processing (NLP) has been in for years now. However, it's only recently that the technology starts gaining momentum. The latest changes being embedded to search algorithm is about tweaking its engine to handle queries that users make in the more natural way by making sense of extra words in the long tail query. This way, Google search is heading towards enabling a natural conversation between Google search and people irrespective the type of device you are using.

The search also wades an extra mile to provide users more data on the search results page as well, than requiring him to click on a link to get answers. For instance, when you type in ‘delhi to london' in Google search, you can see a long list of flights along with their frequencies, duration, etc on top of the regular search results.

New features in Hummingbird

While the Caffeine update, which was launched in 2010, was more focused on better indexing and crawling of sites, Hummingbird is focused on ranking sites better for relevance. The much touted Knowledge Graphs get smarter with comparisons and filters. See the image alongside.

Google is also launching a new version of the Google Search Apps on iPhone and iPad over the next few days. "With this update, you will be able to you can get notifications across your devices. So if you tell your Nexus 7, "OK Google. Remind me to buy olive oil at Safeway," when you walk into the store with your iPhone, you'll get a reminder. We'll also show you Google Now notifications, so that you're not late to your cooking class, " said Amit Singhal, SVP, Google Search, in a blog post.

To sum up, you can now ask Google questions like "How much saturated fat is in butter versus olive oil?", "OK Google. Remind me to buy olive oil at Safeway.", and so on.

5 Tips to optimize for google hummingbird

This is a reminder for digital marketers to ‘write for users and not search engines'. Here are some measures that you can embrace to stay on top of the impending changes.

- Add more user generated content to your site with product reviews, forums, Q&As, and conversations and attribute content to the authorship via Google+.

- Before you market your niche keywords, analyze users' discussions around them and tweak your pages accordingly

- Look beyond the traditional keywords. Complex and long tail keywords are given more preference by Hummingbird.

- Consider adding to the number of unique entrance pages used by your users to land to your website.

- Figure out audience's frequently asked questions.