{"id":5215,"date":"2013-10-30T12:22:13","date_gmt":"2013-10-30T12:22:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/braintechnosys.net\/braintechnosys\/?p=5215"},"modified":"2018-04-30T05:21:12","modified_gmt":"2018-04-30T05:21:12","slug":"did-hummingbird-just-kill-your-local-seo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.braintechnosys.com\/blog\/did-hummingbird-just-kill-your-local-seo\/","title":{"rendered":"Did Hummingbird Just Kill Your Local SEO?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Andrew Shotland from Search Engine Land talks about how Hummingbird affected local SEO.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s cut to the chase: no, it didn\u2019t (see Betteridge\u2019s Law of Headlines). But Search Engine Land tells me the Hummingbird stuff really drives the page views these days, so you only have yourself to blame. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

That said, Google\u2019s Hummingbird algorithm, along with all of the other awesome updates Google has made over the past year, has<\/em> forced me to reevaluate how I approach a local SEO campaign.<\/p>\n

First, some background on Hummingbird:\u00a0Google wants to do better at matching queries to results, particularly as voice search becomes more popular and people start asking their phones complex questions instead of typing simple searches. According to Danny Sullivan:<\/p>\n

\n

Google said that Hummingbird is paying more attention to each word in a query, ensuring that the whole query \u2014 the whole sentence or conversation or meaning \u2014 is taken into account, rather than particular words.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Danny provides a great local search example to illustrate the change:<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s the closest place to buy the iPhone 5s to my home?\u201d A traditional search engine might focus on finding matches for words \u2014 finding a page that says \u201cbuy\u201d and \u201ciPhone 5s,\u201d for example. <\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Hummingbird should better focus on the meaning behind the words. It may better understand the actual location of your home, if you\u2019ve shared that with Google. It might understand that \u201cplace\u201d means you want a brick-and-mortar store. It might get that \u201ciPhone 5s\u201d is a particular type of electronic device carried by certain stores. Knowing all these meanings may help Google go beyond just finding pages with matching words.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

So how do you apply this to your Local SEO strategy?<\/p>\n

Invest In FAQ Content<\/h2>\n

The FAQ has been the go-to SEO strategy since time began (circa 1998). Over time, your sales staff probably answers the same set of questions from potential customers over and over again. These are the same queries that customers type (and now speak) into search engines. By adding the most popular questions to your site, either in a dedicated FAQ section or on a blog, you now are more eligible to rank for these queries.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut wait,\u201d you say, \u201cmost of these types of queries are not necessarily local, right?\u201d That\u2019s true. There\u2019s nothing inherently local about the phrase, \u201chow to get rid of mold spots on ceiling,\u201d and the current Google SERP for that query shows a lot of national DIY site results.<\/p>\n

But if you think about Hummingbird\u2019s goal to \u201cfocus on the meaning behind the words,\u201d you\u2019ll see that sooner or later, Google is going to start to put the fact that you have mold spots on your ceiling together with the idea that you might want to remove those spots and that\u2019s where local businesses that target these queries can gain an unfair advantage over the eHows and DIY.coms of the world.<\/p>\n

Invest In Content That Provides Unique Information (Pro Tip: Use Data)<\/h3>\n

The problem with the FAQ strategy mentioned above is that any mold-removal company can throw up an FAQ that targets a bunch of juicy queries. So you\u2019ve got to go the extra mile and start putting up content that both answers questions and is not easily duplicated by that low-brow SEO your competition is using.<\/p>\n

Even when you think you have nothing to say, you can still use your proprietary business data to come up with interesting stuff. For example, if you are targeting people in the market for body sculpting, how about looking at all of the data you have on your patients and doing a post like How Long Does Vaser Lipo Last?<\/p>\n

\"Swelling<\/p>\n

Invest In \u201cFresh\u201d Content For Your Target Service Locations<\/h3>\n

Like everything else in local, this is easy to say and hard to do. But I have seen no better tactic for improving local rankings (particularly for service areas where a business has no physical locations) than regularly updating a site with content relevant to those service areas. And there are plenty of ways to skin this cat. You could:<\/p>\n