Google Hummingbird is the name Google has given to its latest search algorithm. This is not an update to their algorithm; it’s a completely new algorithm that they launched to improve the way they index web pages and serve search results.
…billions of people have come online, the web has grown exponentially, and now you can ask any question on the powerful little device in your pocket. You can explore the world with the Knowledge Graph, ask questions aloud with voice search, and get info before you even need to ask with Google Now.
Google have called their new algorithm Hummingbird because it is “precise and fast”. The new algorithm was quietly launched during August 2023 which means you’ve actually been using it for some time now. Make no mistake this is a dramatic change to the way Google crawls and indexes websites, and is a huge change to the way you will see your search queries being answered.
What does Hummingbird actually do?
Hummingbird made a number of changes to the search algorithm, but the single biggest example is its impact on so-called “conversational search”. Traditionally, people focused on short keyword phrases, e.g. “buy iPad”, but in reality, there has always been a wide variety of longer (long tail) keyword phrases. These long tail phrases have also become more conversational over time and particularly with the huge rise in mobile searches e.g. “Where can I buy an ipad near me?”. The new Hummingbird algorithm means Google will have a better understanding of, and focus on, the meaning of the words in a search query e.g. “where can I buy xxx near me”. Basically Google will be able to understand better the whole sentence of a search query and the meaning behind it, rather than just certain words within the search query.
If you marry this all up with Google’s Knowledge Graph (whereby Google will show you answers to questions within the search results page e.g. search for “compare butter with olive oil”) and with the prevalence of mobile searches, you can see that this algorithm is designed to understand the meaning behind a certain search better, put it into context and location, personalise it and then return the best result possible for the searcher.
In terms of SEO this new algorithm update has had only a small impact. Check your website visitor numbers over July, August and September and if you haven’t seen a significant drop in visitor numbers then you’ve come through fine.
