An in depth dive into Google's Hummingbird algorithm. A series of examples of how it works, a look at related patents, and what it means for publishers and SEO professionals. Presented at Pubcon Las Vegas on October 22, 2013.

1. Hummingbird – The True Story

2. First Off... Who Am I?
 Co-author: The Art of SEO
 CEO: Stone Temple Consulting, 30+
person Digital Marketing and SEO firm
 Columnist:
 Interviewer:

3. Hummingbird

4. Synonyms

5. Understands Context – “Where is the
closest Italian restaurant”

6. Maps to Knowledge Graph

7. Maps User Intent – “Red Sox VS Yankees”
Evil
Good

8. Comparison
Queries
Jupiter VS
Saturn

9. Conversational
Queries
“Show Me
Pictures of the
Eiffel Tower”

10. Remembers Context – “How Tall Is It?”

11. Another
Example
Sequence

12. “How Tall Is He”

13. “Who Is His Wife?”

14. “Does He Have Children?”

15. “Who Is He Playing This Sunday?”

16. “When Did He Start Playing Football?”

17. Important
=

18. What Is The
Weather In
Rome?

19. Rome
Weather

20. No Difference In The Results!
=

21. Very Early Days!

22. Where Can I
Find a Party?

23. Is Jennifer
Aniston
Older
Than
Russell
Crowe?

24. A Brief Look At The Patents

25. First Query Rewriting Patent Filing

26. From The
“Hummingbird
Patent”
H/T Bill Slawski

27. Zooming
In

28. Co-Occurrence
H/T Bill Slawski

29. Hummingbird in a Nutshell
Hummingbird
User
Query
Query
Translator
Modified
Query
Translated Search Query Results
Main
Algo

30. Inside the Query Translator
Query Translator
Relative
References
User
Query
“near”
Comparison
Query
“vs”
Previous
Query
References
“It”
Synonyms
“auto”, “car”
Perform
Query
Translation
Modified
Query

31. “Where is the nearest pizza place?”
“How far is it from San Jose to Las Vegas?
“I want to know the price of gasoline”
Modified
“How tall is Anna Kournikova?
“When was the last episode of Breaking Bad? Query
Long Tail Impact

32. “Where is the nearest
pizza place?”
Modified
Query
“pizza
restaurants”

33. Immediately After a Search for “Rome”
“hotels”
“rome hotels”
Modified
Query

34. 1
SERP Impact
2
3
4
5

35. Basics of Hummingbird
• Affects 90% of queries
• Translates queries
– Natural language
– Synonyms
– Context
– Co-citation connections
• Maps true intent

36. Google’s Process Is Like Teaching a Child
One Step at a Time

37. PCs Declining, Tablets Exploding

38. Smart Phone Sales Too

39. Role of Voice Search

40. Environments Where It Will Not Work

41. The destination
+

42. Impact on SEO

43. Some Tactics Significantly Changed

44. SEO
Copywriting

45. Address User Wants / Needs

46. User Groups

47. UserTesting.com

48. Mechanical Turk Can Work Too!

49. Map Web Design to User Needs

50. Excessive
Keyword
Centricity

51. Example
Where is
the Nearest
Pizza Place?
Las Vegas
Pizza
• Does your site
show that it
makes pizza?
• Is the location
information on
the pages?

52. Example 2
Who is
Better, Tom
Brady or
Peyton
Manning?
Compare
Tom Brady
Peyton
Manning
• Does your
sport site have
a page that
discusses this
very common
question?

53. Query Anticipation
• What if Google knows that 25% of people who
enter the query “Eiffel Tower” next ask for the
height of the tower?
• Does your page answer that question?
• What are the real questions users have in
mind when they start with a basic query?

54. Exercise: “Digital Cameras”

55. Keyword
Research Tools

56. PageRank

57. PageRank May No Longer Update
•
•
•
•
•
Last updated in Feb 2013
Not bring updated again this year
Google may not update it again
Data was really bad quality anyway
Much better to focus on actual authority
– Not a number that Google uses anyway!
• Comes with industry knowledge

58. Third Party Measurements

59. Check it Yourself!

60. Google Wants You To Think Strategically

61. Be an Expert or Go Home

62. Show Leadership

63. Stand for Something

64. Dig Deep (Be
Comprehensive)

65. Build Trust

66. Help Others and Communicate Your Expertise
You

67. Thank You!
Eric Enge
eenge@stonetemple.com
@stonetemple
+Eric Enge
(508) 485-7751
www.stonetemple.com