Category Archives: Hummingbird algorithm

SEO Predictions For 2014

Google Plus, Hummingbird algorithm, SEO, Small Business Marketing, Social Media Marketing

SEO saw huge changes with the Penguin and Hummingbird updates of 2013 and we can expect to see loads more of the same in 2014. However, it’s a pretty big subject – so what do we think will be the main areas of change in the coming year?

Diverse SERP’s

We’ve seen all sorts of changes to the SERPs in 2014 – some which were trialed and some of which were permanent. Organic listings got pushed down the page in a number of areas and we saw the Knowledge Graph and shopping result info take up its space. Schema Mark-up is going to be increasingly important in the search engine results page (SERPs).

Schema

Schema and Data Mark-up are going to be incredibly large in 2014 and Google’s been pointing this out for a while now. In fact, last year they even introduced a new Structured Data Mark-up Tool to help us out. So, expect to see a significant amount of more Schema mark-up for sites in 2014 and Google really pushing content that’s been ordered and organised in this way.

Authorship

Another one of the big pushes in the world of SEO will be in the Authorship area. Expect to see Big G really begin to implement this in 2014. In fact, we wouldn’t be surprised to see digital agencies actually even take it into account when giving people jobs. So, get building those Google Circles and Twitter followings – they’re most certain to help in 2014.

Hummingbird

Hummingbird arrived at the end of the autumn and it’s going to have a large part to play in 2014. Semantic influenced content is set to be a big factor in 2014 and it’s going to come down to the production of long form articles that answers the long tail questions and queries users have. It’s going to be interesting to see how it’s going to affect the world of the SERPs and SEO.

Technical SEO

Expect to see an increased focus on the technical SEO area and more onuses on mobile optimisation and site speed. Mobile is such a large part of the search world now that sites that haven’t passed any attention to it before now will suffer in 2014. Crawl errors, broken links and technical issues are also going to cause big problems too in 2014 for sites.

Guest Blogging

Expect to see some changes to the world of guest blogging. Until now Google has allowed for some leeway here, however as Matt Cutts has stated already Google is seeing a lot of spun content and duplicate content, among other abuses in the area. At http://fusewave.co.uk/ we obviously don’t expect guest blogging to disappear, but do expect it to evolve and the cream of the crop to rise to the top and the poorer stuff to get a bit of a battering after an algorithm update in the first half of the year.

Fake Reviews

Expect fake reviews to begin to disappear and expect Google to really begin to heavily punish companies it expects are creating false reviews of their products.

Social Signals

Expect these to become increasingly important and though there is no proof they do so at the moment, many people expect to see it as an occurring development in the coming year and that we’ll see Google take them into account as a ranking factor in 2014.

These are just some of the SEO changes that we can expect to see in 2014 and though we may not be right about all of them, expect some to come to pass.

By Cormac Reynolds a social media writer with a passionate interest in the subject. When he’s not writing about it, he is learning about social media.

Protect Your Website Against Google Algorithm Updates

Hummingbird algorithm, Organic SEO, SEO, Small Business Marketing,

google hummingbird updateChanges in Google algorithm updates can put the fear into even the most successful of affiliate marketer. The changes can affect search engine optimisation ranking, and can mean the difference between obtaining healthy traffic volume to a site, or not at all. Here’s all you need to know to ensure your website is as protected as possible against future Google algorithm updates.

Make your content unique

It’s been no secret that Google has been waging war with websites that produce low quality content. What this means as an affiliate marketer is that you really need to ensure that the content you provide on your site is meaningful, interesting and unique. Don’t copy from any other sites, and always try to think about how you are adding value to what you produce. Consider using a tool such as Copyscape to check your work isn’t duplicated.

Manage your links

Google has also taken it upon itself to penalise any websites with cheap inbound links that smack of spam. If you want to protect your website, then make sure that your link profile is as natural as possible. What does this mean? Try to create relevant and engaging links on your affiliate site. Incorporate your brand name into most of your anchor text. Use generic anchors such as ‘click here’ and ‘learn more’. Avoid the use of automated link-building software. Have a mixture of do-follow links and no-follow links.

Don’t over use keywords

Previous Google updates have penalised affiliate marketing websites that have been keyword heavy. Don’t over use keywords, but focus on the most important phrases only. When you do use them, make their use as natural as possible.

Engage in social media

It’s something that every affiliate marketer should be doing anyway, but to make sure your website is protected as possible against Google algorithm updates, you should be paying even more attention to social media. Google will view your website favourably if you can show that you have an active social media presence, so make sure you have a Facebook or Twitter account. Make use of Pinterest if you produce unique images, and install social sharing buttons on your pages.

Keep your site current

Again, it’s probably one of the biggest golden rules of affiliate marketing, but if you’re not keeping your website current and up to date, then Google could well penalise you in its next round of updates. So, as well as adding as much unique content as possible, keep reviewing it and make sure it is current.

Build a mailing list

One of the best methods to protect yourself from any future Google updates is to get building a mailing list. Your list should be made up of your targeted email subscribers and all of your customers and contacts, etc.

Get people visiting your site

Google seems to favour those websites where visitors like to frequent, and stay there. So, you need to protect your website by drawing traffic to your site and giving visitors sufficient reasons for them to hang out there for a good while.

Anytime Google changes is heard it worries even the most successful of people. Clicksure, the author of this post, does everything they can to make sure we prepare you before and after the updates.

Semantic Search, Is It The Future Of SEO?

Hummingbird algorithm, SEO, Small Business Marketing, , , ,

Entity search can be defined as an ‘answer engine’ and works by using ‘entities’ on a web page that are recognised by search engines to provide specific and well-defined queries. So, is it the future of SEO?

The Hummingbird Update

google-hummingbirdIn September 26, Google had taken a step towards in becoming an ‘answer engine’ as the Hummingbird update came into play. Google is quickly implementing a semantic Web technology through updates, whilst still maintaining the main parts of its old algorithm, which is how Google plans to evolve from text links to answers. Google are not making huge changes overnight, but are gradually putting in place the ‘answer engine’ and will display more specific results for the user in order to give web users a better and improved experience.

The steps taken so far by Google to progress in this direction: the Knowledge Graph, the Voice Search and Google Now. These three ‘updates’ each provide answers for users and can even sometimes anticipate users questions due to the ‘entities’ used by Google as opposed to ‘keywords’.

Unstructured Vs. Structured Data

The previous two decades has been witness to the Internet, search engines, and Web users all being classed as unstructured data; meaning that the data gathered by search engines has been unorganised and/or unclassified. Therefore, only patterns within WebPages were able to be recognised (keywords), without any meaning attached to the pages.

This leads to structured data and semantic search:

semantic searchSemantic Search is a way of classifying data gathered and searched for, through labelling every piece of information as an ‘entity’ — this can also be referred to as structured data.

Structured data provides very accurate product data, which is not only beneficial to the user, but also the retailers. The way this works is that search engines classify, understand and link the structured data aspects together to provide a targeted search result. Additionally, Semantic search will not only optimise retail products.

Have a look at schema types, which is the technical language that’s required when creating a structured Web of data and in which case becomes machine-readable.

An example of how semantic search data is used to identify and provide a more specific answer:

Mrs. Keller → subject → an entity

Algebra → object → an entity

Is teaching → predicate or relationship → links the entities

Links to Answers

When this logic is expanded in terms of technology being structured, using schema, which has the ability to answer our specific questions and queries without using keywords or anchor text links, web designers, SEO professionals and so on, have to get ahead of the game by making sure they implement these practices for their clients and for themselves. Ignoring these semantic updates will surely damage a website in terms of search results, as they will be simply left behind and then find it very difficult to catch up again, if at all.

Understanding vs. Indexing Data

Structured data will significantly improve a search engine’s capability to “understand” rather than pick out ‘keywords’ relevant to a users search query ‘index data’. This will provide a big breakthrough in terms of being able to receive accurate answers to questions when ‘asking’ a search engine.

Making Your Business Data & Content Visible With Semantic Markup

Using semantic markup now will enable a business’s data and even digital content (rich media video etc) to become very easily readable and accessible to search engines, which by the way will stand you in good stead. The changes are happening now and will continue, which will give businesses a head start in terms of being higher ranked within search engines, now and in the future.

Lisa Pollitt, the author of this article is an expert in the SEO field and has several years experience gaining vast knowledge in the industry and on white-hat SEO techniques.

How To Beat the Google Hummingbird Update

Blogging, content marketing, Hummingbird algorithm, Mobile Marketing, responsive web design, SEO, Small Business Marketing

The Google Hummingbird update is the biggest change in the search algorithm since 2001 and as with any update it is always a good idea to look at how your site could be affected by it and how you can combat those problems. The good news is that even though this is a major update it will not affect your website quite the way you thought, so in all honesty it should be that bit easier to beat it as will now be explained.

Be mobile.

A major part of this update is that it really does improve what happens with mobile search as Google rightfully realize that more people are using their smartphones on the move. What this means is that if you want to beat it, then you are going to need a mobile website because without it you stand to lose out as your site will just be lost in the vastness of those results pages.

Get a responsive site template.

If your site has been penalized with this update, then one thing you can do is to get in touch with your designer and ask them if you can be set up with a responsive design template. The reason why this is important is because it will mean that your site looks so much better on mobile phones as it means that your website will automatically be resized as soon as they land on it. By seeing you are prepared for these changes it should ultimately mean that your site stands a better chance of ranking higher.

Long tailed keywords.

However, perhaps the best way to beat this Hummingbird update is to spend some time looking at long tailed keywords as the main aim, aside from mobile search, is to improve the results that you get when you ask a question. This means that you should perhaps get in touch with your SEO company and get them to do some work on this area because if some clever work is done with regard to these keywords it should mean that your website will rank higher.

Use white-hat techniques.

Even though it is not directly mentioned in updates, it is still the case that your website should only use white-hat techniques or you stand to be punished. This update may be a major one, but it does still include various aspects of the older updates such as Panda and Penguin and Penguin 2.0 in particular would hit black-hat websites hard and the same applies here.

In short, when it comes to trying to beating this Hummingbird update it does involve you using special templates to enhance the viewing experience for somebody that is using their phone and also it places more importance on keywords than ever before. Generally speaking there may not be that much you have to do to your website in order to survive, but if you are unsure about anything remember to talk to a professional who can guide you through the process and advise you correctly on what your next step should be.

Henry Hernandez is a veteran, father and CEO of an Austin SEO company. You can learn more about Henry by checking out his Google+ Page.

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