How to Shift Your Keyword Focus after Google’s Hummingbird & [Not Provided] Updates

It’s been a busy fall at Google Headquarters (I’m assuming, although I haven’t been peeking in through windows or anything). First was the confirmed release of a new algorithm “engine” in Hummingbird, released late August 2013. Changes here included a better code used to discern user intent in search. Next (and it was no coincidence) came the transition of Google providing keyword data to Analytics. Many of you may have noticed a bucket in your Organic terms list under (Not Provided) continue to increase over the past year. In late September, Google confirmed they had moved ALL of their keyword information to this (Not Provided) category, essentially stripping any keyword information you may have tried to gather from their search engine to improve your site. So now you are left with a new search algorithm in Hummingbird, and no keyword information to use to make changes. Danger, SEO Robinson! What are you to do? There are still several ways people can get around these changes, and still provide valuable website content to search engine users looking for your business. Moz had a great video this week highlighting how these Google changes will shift internet marketing focus. In essence, while we no longer have specific keyword information through Analytics, many good websites have already built up pages which focus on specific keywords or keyword themes. Best practice will be to keep this keyword focus, but expand on content to capture a wider range of long tail keyword traffic, or lump keywords into larger themes on specific pages. In essence, internet marketing will move from individual keywords to looking at individual pages, working to create BETTER content, and not just MORE content. Here at Ecreative, we feel much the same. Many clients have come to us hearing the “buzz” around Hummingbird and (Not Provided) and have worried all their website work will be for naught. I’m here to assure you this is not the case (Hurray!), and to outline a couple of the major ways in which we at Ecreative – and really, any smart SEO company – should be shifting their focus to continue bringing the biggest impact to your website.

Keywords Aren’t Going Anywhere

FACT: Keywords are still relevant! Just because this (Not Provided) bucket is now at 100% from Google, it does not mean we don’t have ANY keyword information. Here are many ways we still gather keyword information which is relevant to your site:

1. Estimated search traffic per month on a given keyword with keyword research tools,
2. Rankings for keywords through search engine results pages, as usual,
3. Visits off of keywords from users visiting your site from Bing, Yahoo!, and other search engines (at least until they withhold keyword data, too!),
4. Keyword mapping trafficked terms to specific landing pages on your site,
5. Implementing, tracking, and reviewing site search terms on your website,
6. Impression shares on keywords too your site, and
7. Paying Google for keyword information by signing up for an Adwords Pay Per Click program (Don’t worry, we can manage this for you too!).

As you can see, there is still a vast amount of keyword visit data available, just not as aggregated as it used to be in Analytics. But that’s why we’re here to help.

Look at the Bigger Picture On-Site

While we can still gather many specific keyword terms users may be typing into search engines to get to your site, with the user-intent algorithm update through Hummingbird, it is becoming more and more important to see the larger picture in a user’s search. In the Moz video mentioned before, they reference long tail traffic (or long-worded, unique search queries) as regularly being 20% - 50% of Google's searches, with 18% - 20% being extremely long searches Google has never seen before. Knowing this, we also know it is impossible to optimize for ALL of these variations. This is why keyword “themes” and specific theme landing pages will become more important. For instance, if a user historically was using the queries “A great SEO company for a B2B industrial company” versus “B2B SEO”,  you may have received vastly different results. However with Hummingbird, the intent behind this search is largely the same. In this case, it is important to now have a page which targets a theme of Industrial B2B SEO, with good content, which will capture both of these queries. We’re getting closer.

Better Content, Better Websites, Better Results

And so what do keyword themes and a greater on-site focus mean? According to Google, it means we’re doing what they have wanted us to do all along! It means we’re creating websites that have BETTER content for people, rather than websites that just have MORE content for people. By refocusing our efforts to on-site changes instead of just tracking down an elusive single keyword variation, we change our focus on creating an informative and helpful website for visitors. And, hopefully, a converting visit. See? Everyone wins! Still have questions about the changing landscape of internet marketing? Don’t worry, Ecreative can help you get started. Contact us today about our internet marketing programs to get your website to start producing business leads.