The Google team responsible for search, recently announced an update to the engine behind the beast. This is the biggest update they've made in 12 years. They call this latest update hummingbird. Here's some details if you want to read more.
We're still waiting to hear all the details about it, but from what I know, it's geared to analyze searches and return answers to questions versus just looking at keywords independently. I have a droid phone and notice now a woman like siri responds to my questions when I use the voice search. She tends to keeps me company when the sox are playing and I'm on the road. 🙂
I've been hearing a lot of people are affected by the new update. We haven't seen anything on our end or with our clients, but have you noticed anything with your community or agencies rankings?
All these various Google search engine updates and their effect on rankings are like building a house (your website). When building a house, you need a strong foundation. If you build it on sand, then you risk having the thing sinking to the ground with you left behind wondering what happend.
These last rounds of updates have created havoc in the SEO community because each one is making it harder and harder for unethical people to game the system.
The team at Google has been saying for years to follow their best practices, and to create the best experience for searchers. Meaning if you have high quality, unique content, with people linking back to your website, they will reward you with higher rankings than the competition. Make a website and internet marketing program for people and the search results will follow.
In theory, they are trying to implement that with each change in their algorithm. In reality, that works some of the time.
If you're soley depending on traffic from search engines, then you're living a dangerous slippery slope. If you think of marketing strategies like a spoke on a wheel, then the more spokes you have, the stronger the wheel will hold up. If you have 30 spokes and for some reason loose a spoke it's not big deal. But if you only have two spokes and happen to lose one, then the integrity of the wheel is severly compromised.
If diversification is best in your personal finances, then it is as well as in marketing.
If you are one of the unfortunate communities or agencies to lose rankings recently, then I would encourage you to ask your internet marketing company if theyr'e following best practices. If they aren't then I would consider if they're looking out for your best interests.
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