Although not a sexy topic , we must sometimes get academic:

if you’re serious about getting people to your website and more importantly, keeping them there and converting their business you gotta pay attention to the latest updates by Google, and the new “Hummingbird” Algorithm Update .

Although I like to believe that Googles’ main focus continues to be to bring their users the best quality search results, one of these new updates, which was just rolled out late last week , The Google Hummingbird Algorithm Updates definitely delivers there.

Why named Hummingbird? Think of a hummingbird- fast, targeted, as in fast and targeted search results. I love it. Although there are a few other features in this update, the main feature to Hummingbird concerns asking questions in a search.

It’s moving towards a “conversational search”. This is a good thing.

Where as before if someone types a question in to Google results relied strictly on keywords and therefore often times did not end in a satisfying answer, the Hummingbird update seeks to improve this. Try it out-ask a real question in Google and see what comes up. It should result in a more targeted answer than a few weeks ago, and a more specific page on a site rather than just the homepage.

For more on this check out Danny Sullivan’s article in SearchEngineLand.com

On the other end of the spectrum, Google has also recently instilled a “nuicancy” update designed, supposedly, to keep information more privatized and “protect” users from having their info exposed. In doing so it’s made it harder for web owners and those doing the keyword research for websites and blogs to do their jobs well- an increasing number of searches are turning up in the bucket called “not provided” when we look to see what words triggered someone landing on our sites.

So hmmmm….. how to work around?

Here’s my suggestions, to get around “Secure Searching”:

a) If your keywords are pretty static- in other words if your services or products don’t change that often, you are probably not going to be affected by this new update that much. You know ( or should know) what someone will be looking for when they search for you. If you don’t know that you have some work to do and might want to contact me or another SEO expert.

b) You never-ever-want to rely solely on any one approach to garner traffic. That’s why we call it a strategy, or more specifically an Integrated Marketing Strategy. That’s a fancy way of saying to lay a strong foundation and ensure targeted traffic you must incorporate at least 3-4 ( I like to teach 5-6) methods to garner traffic, which include things like:

• Email marketing
  

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Google+
• Referrals and inbound links from other websites and blogs
• Social Media Campaigns
• Guest Blogging
• Offsite Networking
• Direct Mail
• Ad campaigns
• Link Sharing
• Article Marketing
• Affiliate and Joint Venture Opportunities

Etc., etc. Look at it this way:

What would happen if you relied solely on a PPC ad campaign for your marketing ( ie the lazy woman’s method). And lets say you wanted to take a break from spending all that money on ad bids, or the ads just stopped proving to be as effective as you were hoping they would be.

If nothing else is in place- if you are not branded along a broad platform where you are being sought out, recognized, linked from, the minute you stop that campaign, what happens?

That’s right- Adios traffic. There goes any and all of your visibility, and you are back to square 1 in a Google search as well as on your website.

Can you spell website T-A-N-K?

c) Never stop building your warm lead list. Anyone who follows me knows that I can’t stress this enough. Your list is your leads which you work to turn into your prospects which hopefully you will convert to your clients/customers. How?

d) Best method: Make sure to have an opt-in form on your website that is being used exclusively to give out free information and gather emails from. When appropriate, use alluring and irresistible offers that can be immediately downloaded or given away at your physical site.

Integrated Marketing. It’s never been more important than right now.