Last month, Google introduced a whole new “engine” behind its “search engine”. However, it didn’t tell anyone until last week, so we can assume that the quiet way it was slipped in didn’t actually have a massive impact on most websites. There’s a good FAQ on the “Hummingbird” update at Search Engine Land.
Do we need to do anything about it? No, other than continue to add good content to our websites. It’s a fair guess that with every update (especially massive ones like this), Google is fighting back against websites trying to manipulate the results. So it’s likely that cheap “search engine optimisation” techniques are going to become more unproductive – and possibly dangerous – than ever.
There are still over 200 factors which determine where your website ranks in Google. However, the most important remain coding your page correctly; adding lots of informative, original content; and getting links from within articles on quality websites. All of those are well worth an investment of your time and money.