Google celebrated its 15th birthday on Friday, September 27, by announcing a major change in its search algorithm. 
The new algorithm is nicknamed "Hummingbird," continuing the wildlife theme established by the Panda and Penguin algorithm updates. Even though the hummingbird is a tiny animal, the Hummingbird algorithm update is actually much broader than Panda or Penguin.
How Big is Hummingbird?
Panda and Penguin were both add-on algorithms that influenced search rankings by looking at specific elements. Penguin, for instance, looked solely at link profiles and penalized websites with spammy backlinks.
Hummingbird, on the other hand, is an update to the core search engine algorithm itself. To use one common analogy, think of Google.com as a car, with the search algorithm being the engine that makes it run. Panda and Penguin would be the equivalent of changing the oil or filter. Hummingbird is more like changing the engine itself.
As such, Hummingbird is the biggest change Google has made since at least 2010 (and possibly since 2001).
What Hummingbird Does
According to Google, one of the biggest reasons for the Hummingbird update is to make the search engine better at understanding conversational searches.
More people today are searching Google by speaking into their mobile devices(or using Chrome's "search by voice" function). As people speak their queries, they are more likely to use natural-language questions. Instead of typing in "pistachio ice cream Houston," they might ask "Where is the nearest place that sells pistachio ice cream?"
Previously, Google may have answered that question by picking out the main keywords from the search query (in this example, "pistachio ice cream") or by treating the phrase as a long-tail keywordand looking for content that contains the full phrase.
Hummingbird instead looks at every word and tries to understand exactly what you are asking: you are looking for a brick-and-mortar store ("place") that sells pistachio ice cream. Of all the stores that sell pistachio ice cream, you want to know which one is closest to your current location ("where is the nearest"). And since you didn't mention where you currently are, Google will fill in that essential piece of information based on your phone's GPS, the Wi-Fi network you are using or other location-related clues.
Hummingbird's Impact
Before you worry too much about what impact Hummingbird will have on your search rankings and SEO campaign, there is one important detail to note: Hummingbird has already happened.
The new search algorithm rolled out at least a month before Google announced it. So, if it does have any impact on your organic traffic, you will have already noticed the change. Since Hummingbird did go unnoticed by pretty much everyone until it was "outed" by Google, it would seem the impact on marketers has been negligible.
It is impressive that Google could seamlessly change its core algorithm without anyone noticing. In fact, it is still not clear exactly when the change happened. Based on our own research, though, the best guess is that Hummingbird went live on August 13 or 14 of this year. This is because, on August 14, two Google metrics changed:
- The EMD influence dropped. This metric reports how many first-page search results are exact-match domains, or domain names which match the keyword being searched for (such as pistachio-ice-cream.com).
- The SERP count dropped. The SERP count is the average number of search results listed on the first page. Google usually displays 10 results per page, but sometimes lists only seven; the drop in SERP count means that more seven-result SERPs are being provided.
In each case, the drop has resulted in a new trend line, or a new "normal." If your site was impacted by Hummingbird, the change in traffic will have likely first shown up around August 14.
Mostly, though, the Hummingbird update is designed to improve user experience, not to change SEO strategy. To quote one example provided by Google, a search for "pay your bills through Citizens Bank and Trust" used to return the bank's home page. After Hummingbird, the first result is their specific "Online Bill Pay" page. The bank's ranking didn't change, and it will still get the same amount of traffic; users will simply have one fewer click to get to the page they want.
Looking Ahead
Google makes changes all the time, with most being too small to notice or warrant mention. With the release of Hummingbird, Google's stated goal is to make search more conversational and intuitive, providing answers to questions rather than matches to keywords.
The goal for online marketers is to continue making content that people find useful and interesting. Do that, and any future changes by Google should just make it easier for you to attract visitors to your website.
* Image courtesy of freedigitalphotos.net
