Google Hummingbird: SEO changes

Whereas Panda and Penguin updates were changes to Google algorithm, Hummingbird is a replacement of the old algorithm and is the biggest change they’ve done in 3 years.

This major change came shortly after Google announced that in the future all searchers will be secure and because of this keyword data will no longer be available in Google Analytics. Earlier this year, Google also released the major algorithm refresh, Penguin, which ensures that poor quality SEO will not only be unsuccessful but will hurt your website.  

Hummingbird isn’t just a huge update but it’s actually an entirely new algorithm. It will focus on ranking information based on intelligent and naturalistic search requests, meaning Google is getting a lot smarter.

What you need to keep in mind:

• Most of the old rules still apply, so keep producing fresh high quality content as frequently as possible.
• As always Google still aims to bring you the most relevant and useful search results. Hummingbird just helps Google deliver more intelligent results.
• Longtail will be more important than ever, as Hummingbird is focusing on naturalistic search terms which tend to be more longtail.
• Supposedly up to 90% of searches are going to be affected by Hummingbird.

Over the next few weeks you should monitor your search results, if you haven’t noticed any significant changes than you have nothing to worry about, however slight movements in the search results pages are expected.

SEO for estate agents has always been about providing useful, high quality content throughout your estate agency websites and blogs. If you stick to this than your search results shouldn’t be affected.