Google Hummingbird affected 90% of search results and transformed the long tail query results in particular. It is the biggest algorithmic change in Google’s history since 2001.
Hummingbird is Google’s first well publicised move towards emphasis on meanings of phrases and concepts and is very much an SEO game changer. Whilst the large wave of ecommerce has brought about many SEO casualties, should you be winging and moaning about the power brands taking all of the spots in the ‘head’ area of search?
No.
A lesson learnt in any intermediate / advanced SEO development back before ‘disavows’ and ‘thin sites’ was that long tail search queries are where the high traffic opportunities are. So whilst everything has changed in terms of capitalising on this – some of the rules are the same. Your domain authority matters less in this area of SEO – making quick results more achieveable. So after Vince and Bigfoot there is at last an opportunity for the little guy.
What to do?
The elements that we believe are important to Google – titles, tags, URLs and paragraphs are all about satisfying specific, targeted customer/user queries. Grab a blank piece of paper and write down the key problems or challenges that your customers face when going through the buying cycle of your product/service. Then rewrite / reconstruct your web content to provide solutions to those areas.
Here is an example:
You sell beds and your content isn’t that original – a common problem in ecommerce that leads to difficulty in getting product pages to rank.
What are the key elements of buying a bed? I’m not a specialist at all in this area but this could be:
– Fashion
– The size and lifespan
– Budget (need to be creative in your existing / new content for this area)
– Health considerations
If you can then demonstrate with text,imagery and video that your category or product address these areas then this has to be good for the long tail searcher and then the user.
Isn’t this just common sense?
Yes – outside of the fight for big generic keywords that’s exactly what long tail SEO is.
Does delivering this mean hiring an army of content/video producers?
Not necessarily, content curation can get you part of the way – the most important part is the creative SEO strategy.
There, I’ve said my piece. Simultaneously, I hope you have regained your love for SEO.