What does Google’s “Hummingbird” update mean for your SEO?

Basically, not a whole lot. While Google’s “Penguin” & “Panda” updates were aimed squarely at SEO and educating websites on what they expected of them, “Hummingbird” has an entirely different purpose.

You might be aware that Google have launched their “Quantum Artificial Intelligence Lab” as part of their efforts to help their search engine move towards being as close to artificial intelligence as possible.

To put it more simply, Google want their search engine to be like a person who you can talk naturally with and can provide you with the information you need on an interactive level the likes of which will probably blow our collective minds!

So how does “Hummingbird” relate to this?

In short, you now get much more tailored and relevant results for long-tail search terms which are asking Google a question. With the rise of voice search and innovations such as Siri, people are starting to search with simple questions and phrases rather than thinking about keywords.

As an example, if you are in Brisbane and looking for a plumber on your PC, you’re likely to Google “Plumber Brisbane”, but if you were using something like Siri you’d be more likely to ask “Siri, find me a plumber in Brisbane.”

Previously, Google search results for search terms this long and intuitive haven’t yielded fantastic results, but try Googling “how many countries are there in the world” and you’ll notice how great the results are.

So as far as SEO is concerned, there’s no need to worry. This innovation may gradually change the nature of keywords over time, but it is unlikely to affect your rankings.

It’s just another step into the future for one of the most innovative companies on Earth!

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