How does the new Google hummingbird update affect your auto body shop website Google ranking?
Hummingbird, in a nutshell, will reward sites that write web pages the way people ask questions. This is called the “long-tail” keyword search. Let’s just get right into this because it is quite involved.
First let me explain a fundamental principle about Google that I tell auto body shops all the time.
1. Google is the top search engine in the world.
2. It became number one because it was the best at matching your search queries.
3. Because it is so good it has altered how we use the internet, and in turn but has evolved along with us.
4. Google makes its money selling advertising.
5. In order to sell ads, it needs people with amazing websites and people with terrible ones.
6. It sells the ads to the terrible ones.
7. It awards free first page ranking to the amazing ones.
8. Google has millions of people asking it very particular questions.
9. Google needs great answers to those questions.
10. The guys paying the ads don’t always have great answers to the questions.
11. Great websites make money for the business owners as a result.
So that is my big talk in it’s primary elemental form, but a really important point is #2.
When Google first came out, we were still inventing the internet. We were back at web 1.0. It was a lot cruder even just 10 years ago. If you can remember that far, when you typed in a subject, say “Gym Shoes” you would have to wade through a lot of pages and maybe even try a few search engines before you found what you were looking for.
Then Google came along, and it started indexing things in a way that allowed a better response to your search for Gym Shoes. In a matter of a year or so we started “Googling”. We even began Googling “red gym shoes” or “red gym shoes in size 12” or even “red gym shoes, Bel Air Maryland” (that is where I live).
In those examples “gym shoes” is the key word that athletic apparel companies would have traditionally tried to rank for.
As we have become more sophisticated in our web searching, and now content generating, Google has a lot more great answers to pick from to supply all these questions. To match those questions, Google’s algorithm will reward sites that have a focus on better long-tail keywords. In this instance, it might be “where can I buy the best red gym shoes in Bel Air Maryland?” Let’s say you answered that question with a great blog post on your site. Chances are you would go right to the top of page one in Google just for writing that post.
This is what the Hummingbird change is all about. Google will now begin indexing sites based on a longer keyword chain, and will more consideration to the way you phrase the words. The more they reflect real searches, the better off you will be.
We preach a couple of things here at AutoBody-Review.com. The first is to blog like crazy on your shop page- adopting the “they ask, you answer” methodology.
The second thing is to pay special attention to our consumer sentiment engine in our own shop reviews. The way our reviews are worded, using real phrases from actual customers, will actually help rank your shop’s site in a new post Hummingbird world. This is because the language that your past customers use in their reviews will be a better match to the questions that your current prospects are searching for on Google. No more shop speak. More car owner speak. Make sense? If you have any questions, type them in the comments section below and I will answer all of them.
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