Back on September 26, 2013, Google officially rolled out their new algorithm update called Hummingbird. However, they had rolled it out quietly about a month ago.
The biggest of the update included with Hummingbird Google to handle long questions better further improving Knowledge Graph. Another update was for more advanced voice queries, which is great for web accessibility for those who can’t read. If your site hasn’t seen a drop in traffic in the last month, then you probably will not see a change.
Search Engine Land actually has a Hummingbird FAQ that you may want to read in order to understand the new update.
What can you do if your website traffic has dropped after the Hummingbird update?
Some bloggers in the blogosphere were recently complaining about having lost traffic. Did your website get hit by Hummingbird?
Please remember that Google is always doing little tweaks here and there to update their system. You also need to keep writing quality content and engaging with others online through your article. And with all these updates, SEO is not dead… it’s still alive and going to be for a long time.
If you lost traffic, check out how people are engaging on your site and who. Influential people who are sharing your content to their followers do make a difference. Are you connecting with them?
Remember to look around your niche for juicy news and don’t be afraid of blogging about it and linking. Don’t expect to get a link back. Your goal is to be informative to your visitors and if it means referring to another blogger’s article, then do it. Don’t be stingy.
Go back through old posts and improve them. And when you do bring them out, don’t add a bunch of fluff… go above and beyond. Don’t forget to share it out on the social network sites when you have updated.
If you are seriously wanting to rank certain articles well, don’t just think of using single keywords, think of also implementing long tail keywords and questions. In fact, with the Hummingbird update, using the exact question or questions in the results for your posts may help.
Make sure your article is organized with the correct headings and it would help if your site had Schema.org markup implemented into the design framework.
Remember that you should be thinking about linking organically. Don’t unnecessarily and excessively ping your website.
If you have gotten hit by Penguin, Panda, and also seen a drop after Hummingbird, and you still have no clue on why or what to look for, you may need to hire someone to give you a website audit or review to help you get back on track.
What do you think about the new Hummingbird update revealed by Google? Have you seen a negative or positive effect on your site after the Hummingbird Update?
Thanks for the share Nile 🙂 Of course even though “things” change in the SEO world quite often, the basis and the strategies always do remain the same. Providing value will help in the long run for sure 🙂
That is quite correct, Jane. 🙂 There really is no need for people to feel that they need to game the system. Google wants quality content, good social engagement, and organic link building.
If I understand correctly, Hummingbird started out as Caffeine a couple of years ago. I know the voice demo was very impressive. I haven’t heard of anyone personally being affected by Hummingbird but it’s a tough call as to which updates are causing search traffic to slow or increase.
Yeah doesn’t seem like Hummingbird has had quite as dramatic an effect on people as Penguin, Panda. It seems to give more credence to the old SEO adage “CONTENT IS KING”. Using schema.org is a good recommendation.
Good advice Nile. There is so much hustle after every update. Some are happy and some are sad. I liked the advice on going back to your old posts and updating it. I am a little confused on how to write posts using using exact questions. Perhaps we can use questions as headings. I will certainly be on the lookout for this one. Lets hope it does affect any of us. Fingers crossed.
If we work with basic SEO and writing blog post regular then we did not care about this any updates from Google.
One thing I want to tell everyone that is going slowly is better than any fast move. Because most of bloggers want to get rank their any blog post within a 2-3 days and starting backlinks rapidly.. But they must care about their blog.
As far as I have heard, HummingBird is a killer algorithm change. It is a brand-new search engine inside Google’s old logo. It brings most relative search results to users than any other search engine provides.
I think the “Hummingbird algorithm” is the best thing Google’s done for internet search. Coming up with Keywords alone when giving results for a search were often useless, because of all the different meanings words have. I’m sure that if a blog or website has a lot of relevant content, it will come up for a lot of different searches under the new algorithm.
Nile,
well, here is me again, the guy who has no idea about many internet terms and never mind any Google new stuff as “HummingBird”… this is the first time I see the name or heard about it, that tells you I am not into this at all, correct?
For certain this annoy you at some level since you are into it so deeply, but hey, we all have some interest and mine is not into tech or CEO, or anything at the likes… sorry Nile, but at my age I am lucky I get what I get done haha 🙂
Hope you continue improving your knowledge since you love it and you are so young.. Thanks so much for sharing and hope next time I read something more easy for me to understand that I can comment better for your hard work..
_nickc
In spite of so many updates, i have seen that sometimes Google comes up with completely useless results that has nothing to do with the search term entered. Lets hope if Hummingbird has some positive changes.
As Google rolls out Hummingbird update so different people are describing it in different ways. Matt Cutts who is the head of webspam team describe some backlinks to not do in 2014 like guest blogging etc. Now the contents is the king and key for your success. If you want to improve your ranking then it is necessary to pay attention upon the quality of contents. And stop all the ways like duplicated contents or automatic linkbuilding. Its time to act natural and get reaction organic.
Hi Steph! I was already warning bloggers about abusing guest blogging a LONG time ago, as far back as 2010.
I changed your link to your website. You should be using that rather than Facebook when you comment.