Bay Area Inbound Marketing Blog

Google has rolled out a new algorithm called "Hummingbird" for all search results in September 2013. The algorithm, has been live for about 5 months now and is meant to improve search results for long-tail queries and "contextual search.”

What is Google's Hummingbird Update?

The Google Hummingbird announcement was made in Menlo Park in September 2013. Its name is symbolic for the speed and precision it shares with the bird it is named for.

Hummingbird is the biggest overhaul to the google search engine since the 2009 "Caffeine" algorithm, which focused on speed and integrating social network results into search. It affects about 90% of searches according to Google. The main focus is that the new algorithm allows Google to more quickly parse full questions, as opposed to parsing searches word-by-word, and to identify and rank answers to questions from the content they’ve indexed.

Here is a collection of curated quotes from Marketing Greats to remind us of the finer points of our craft.  I also insert a few tips at the end that I find myself saying to my tech clients often.

SEO and Search Engine marketing are here to stay. Most people search the internet 5 times before they make a major purchase; They prefer to investigate and weigh those options BEFORE they engage with a Salesperson. So if you don't know anything about bringing your company's website to the top of the search, your offerings won't even be considered. Here are some things about SEO your company needs to know if it wants to be successful:

SEO Facts You Should Know

• 61% of global Internet users research products online. (Interconnected World: Shopping and Personal Finance, 2012)
• 44% of online shoppers begin by using a search engine. (Interconnected World: Shopping and Personal Finance, 2012)
• Worldwide, we conduct 131 billion searches per month on the web. (Comscore, January 2010)
• 57% of TV viewers use the web simultaneously. (Nielson, 2009)
• 70% of the links search users click on are organic, not paid. (Marketing Sherpa, February 2007)
• 60% of all organic clicks go to the top three organic search results. (MarketingSherpa, February 2007)
• 75% of users never scroll past the first page of search results. (MarketShareHitsLink.com, October 2010)
• The average click-through rate for paid search in 2010 (worldwide) was 2%. (Convario, January 2011)
• Companies that blog have 97% more inbound links. (HubSpot State of Inbound Marketing Lead Generation Report, 2010)
• Businesses with websites of 401-1000 pages get 6x more leads than those with 51-100 pages. (HubSpot Lead Generation Lessons from 4,000 Businesses, 2011)