Indeed they are! 🙂

Redmond,

You can drop me a line with your URL if you like? There’s bound to be an underlying problem with your website if that’s the case…

…is your house in order?

Jakk

Hmm :/…

…the best example of the impact I can give you is to recommend you ask Google a question such as ‘Who is X’ or ‘What is the weight of…’.

Hummingbird has not addressed all queries yet, but as the content is created, I am sure Google will pick it up and improve their results.

Jakk

Thanks Nikita!

I agree completely. Voice search has pushed Google’s algorithm to the ragged edge over the past year and Hummingbird is one solution to this. It definitely focuses on the long tail and addresses the rise of question based queries.

Jakk

Research is the key to this!

BTW – great post. Trying out different formats of content is the key to success here.

Nikita

I don’t think that Hummingbird is a great update to be honest. I’m yet to see a major impact in the search results.

I think Google is also on the brink of a major transformation, but not as much through questions as others think – I think the amount of shares content gets determines where content ranks now. This of course presents a real challenge for small-time bloggers and new blogs because getting shares with no visibility of nigh on impossible.

It’ll be interesting to see where this goes!

Neil

Google do appear to be doing the right thing with this, although I am still seeing a lot of spam in the search results. I know this isn’t Hummingbird but I am really struggling to rank against my competition:

My competitors build more than 100 links a month manually, contrary to Google Webmaster Guidelines. I add 100 blog posts to my website per month, pro to Google Webmaster guidelines.

Guess who ranks better?

You guessed it, my competitor!

So, whilst I see what Google is trying to do, they are failing, at least in my opinion.

Red

Thank you Charlotte! Your advice is spot on.