Everybody wants to be on the first page when it comes to Google’s searches. Although the new Hummingbird Algorithm that Google recently launched is still very new this just refines the way Google used to search. There are many things that influence your webpage rankings but having good quality content is now even more important than ever. Most importantly still is whether Google believes a page is of good quality and is popular in other words visited often and by many people.
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What is a Search Algorithm? It is the technical term for the recipe Google uses to come up with the answers by looking at billions of webpages and all the information it has when you type in your search. Hummingbird is just the name of the new search algorithm that Google is using which was launched at the end of September 2013.
One thing that has changed with the new Hummingbird Algorithm is that the focus has shifted from using short keywords when searching to using long and descriptive sentences or what they call Conversational Search. The other factor that has become even more important now is to have regular and valuable content. This is why it is vital for your website to have a Blog. Having social media like Facebook, Twitter, etc. without a blog is like going to a networking event without business cards.
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The reason for the whole algorithm change is that Google is saying that people don’t search using just a few keywords anymore but using sentences. So Google has changed the way it searches to accommodate that. Paying more attention to each word in a query, ensuring that the whole query — the whole sentence or conversation or meaning — is taken into account, rather than particular words. The goal is that pages matching the meaning do better, rather than pages matching just a few words. An example would be Guest House accommodation in Bloubergstrand with wheelchair friendly room.
In a nutshell: Make sure your website is updated regularly with good quality content (Blog) that is read and shared. Get as many visitors to your website as you can, through social media (Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google +, etc.), have links on your monthly newsletters that send traffic to your website (yes you need to send a regular newsletter to your subscribers), and direct marketing of your website (telling people to go to your website), as well as other online links (web listings, etc.).
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Before you rush off to go do some of your own searches on Google just remember one thing – when someone searches for something on Google the search results is influenced by a myriad of things, e.g. previous searches, previous website visits, location, associated links through social media, etc. your website might be no. 1 in one person’s search results, and no. 4 in another.
The better way of tracking whether your SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) efforts are successful is to look at your website visitors and page visits, which ultimately is where the person that searches will end up. In other words, you need to think about what your goal is with SEO. While you might say that your goal is to make it to the first page of Google, this really isn’t a useful goal. You want to get onto the first page of Google because that gives you more page views and page views turn into sales queries which turn into sales. So you should focus on website visitors and page views rather than on where you are ranking in Google search.
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More of what you can do to help increase your rankings or website visitors with the new semantic way that Google’s Hummingbird Search Algorithm works is to use your Blog more effectively.
– Position yourself to be the provider of answers that people are seeking.
– Identify intent, needs and problems. Provide solutions and answers. Look at queries and what they really need. Give them what the people behind the queries want. One way of finding out what people ask is Start typing in a question, and Google will show you a list of related ones. For example, if you sell rhubarb, type in Google search, “is rhubarb.” You’ll immediately see the question “is rhubarb poisonous?
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