Google News: Hummingbird - New Algo Announcement

Google HummingBird Algo Update

Google - The most famous and widely used search engine hosted a special event at a garage of the Menlo Park (Calif.) where Google born. On occasion of 15th anniversary of Google foundation, Google's VP Amit Singhal given more information about a new algorithm launch of a google, namely, "Hummingbird". So after having animals like panda and update, now Google has launched a bird :D This algo launched before a month and rolled up completely but officially they announce it today.

The name "Hummingbird" is derived to express fast and precise result of the Google search. This algorithm is specifically designed to improve the search result for all devices. After 2010 "Caffeine" algo launch this is the complete algo change of google. The panda and penguin were just an algo update. Means both of them were minor/major changes to the already existing algorithm. While hummingbird is completely new algorithm which will sort and display the search result.

So what about Panda and penguin update? They are uneffective? 

If you are thinking that now panda and penguin are gone and not going to affect you negatively and you got a free sky to spam the net with low quality links and content then you are going to feel bad with my upcoming lines :) The Hummingbird algo change has woven all previous updates including panda and penguin which means Google will make sure all the search result will filter out with the thumb rules of high quality content and authority. So you still have to follow the penguin and panda rules to be in top or to not get thrown out of the search result.

Why hummingbird algo launched?

Google always want to make sure that the users get the best result out for what they are searching for. And for that google used to work day and night to assure quality result serving to it's users. Of course that is the reason Google is favorite of many and home page of many :) So to make result more quality and related to the search of user Google launched this algo.

What will it do ? How will it affect the search result?

Hummingbird algo will try to understand the conversation search and deliver the best result. Now you might wonder what is conversation search? The answer is when someone insert query like conversation, for example "library near my area" "best alternative of joomla technology for website development" . In previous algorithm Google was used to go for a like query means it will show result with all those links which has any or many words from the query. but now Google will try to understand the complete query and will deliever the result as per the query. For example if someone search for  "library near my area", in previous scenario Google might show all the result having keywords "library","near", "my", "are" or any combination of it. But now-onwards Google search algorithm will try to understand the query inserted and will even be more smarter and will also try to figure out your area [could be ahmedabad for me] and then display the relevant result means in previous scenario Google might show me libraries of US and UK and are of different places but now if i'm logged in it will sort result in a way that I see library list near or in ahmedabad. isn't it cool?

If this is really what google is going to introduce then this concept sounds like graph search of Facebook to me. of course not for all queries but for few. don't you think so?

On other note it's quite cool feature from end user's perspective. I mean people who are not master in surfing the net and who are normal end user, this search algo will going to be boon for them i guess. As it will make search easier for them by serving the relevant result and excluding irrelevant results which it was showing before by it's like query practice.

Does it mean Google wont use like query? means Does google exclude result of combination of words of queries? 

No. Google will use like query and will show result with combination of words as it was showing before. But the sorting of result will be in a different way. The most relevant result will be listed first. As simple as that.

Hummingbird algo will hurt your website?

Have you noticed any drop in traffic or results in past month? No? Then it won't affect you. Because this algo rolled out before a month and the it was a smooth process so no-one noticed the change before announcement. After announcement many SEO people might dug their analytics stats :D So if there are any drop or increase in past month in your traffic stat then that's because of hummingbird change. If not, you are on safe side.

Is SEO Dead with this algo launch?

LOL. why should SEO get dead with such algos change and update? SEO is just becoming smarter day by day. Each SEO people have to go with an agenda to get the quality services for their clients and that's the only intention of Google. So if Google and SEO both will work smartly to serve the quality result they can better be friends rather than thinking to kill each other :D SEO is not massive linkbuilding tactic anymore. But in very smart way use your logic and vision with thinking of 3rd person who might looking out for a service and what that person might look for? you just need to serve that as simple as that. Because if you do so, you will rank highr in Google as that's what google want to show the users high quality and relevant result. and it will also help in lead generation and decreasing bounce rate by getting massive unrelevant traffic.
In short, SEO is and will be alive but in a smarter way ;)

What can you do to rank higher after hummingbird algo launch?

• Create good quality content and build an authority of your website.
• Try SMO to get others way open for your traffic and lead generation
• Work for user/client and not for search engine's. This is most important. I will write more on this for designer, developers and seo :)

How do I know all these? or how can you know all these?

• Reading and common sense and experience  :)
• Reading the posts and news of authorised writer. Don't read from anywhere as they will make you confuse so read from people having name or authorised in SEO industry
• Don't trust everything you read and use your common sense to conclude the facts because each person might have different analysis or point of view
• Use your or others experience and get the best

Give your queries and feedback in comments. Bye for now. :)

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Posted in: ashseo,ashvyasseo,Google algo update,google news,hummingbird algo,hummingbird algo update,SEO Tips

SEO Tips for Website Testing for Developers, Designers, Testing Team

SEO Tips for website testing

Hi there,

Today I would like to talk about few tips for testing team that includes developers, testers, beta tester, designer, etc. We SEO people usually face a problem in terms of traffic tracking because of testing team sometimes. Because when developers are trying any new development change or designer is going to change an image, logo or design of a site, they used to follow some bad practise which generates some unnatural stats for traffic, bounce rate, etc. and sometimes. Some traffic tracking sites like Alexa start giving stat like maximum traffic from India Though site is developed for a foriegn client. And then to count real traffic SEO people need to apply filters or block ip range of a company. It also make job of SEO tough to explain the clients that why such stats are there. It also affect in other way by showing downfall in traffic in upcoming months when development and testing part is over and they stopped opening sites. Few search engine also measure it as false or unnatural traffic if repeatedly site open requests are there from the same IP address and it can harm a site's performance in search engines, adwords, affiliate, etc. Of course it's not a fault of people who are testing as they do not now this is affecting the SEO, traffic tracking, etc because they are unaware of world of SEO.

So today I am going to give few tips or standard practise which a developer, designer or tester can follow to avoid condition of unnatural traffic and can help SEO people somehow:

• Don't open and close website again and again just to check a small change of code or design. 
• If you are developing or designing anything new and want to test it then better to test in local system first and then upload it on live site. So it will save lots of open close request of live site for small small changes
• If you know that you are about to work on the website for whole day then let it stay open in one tab of 
• browser so whenever you make any change, you can simply go to website and refresh it to check the change. It will save new site load requests and will continue in one session. 
• If you are doing changes in multiple pages, the rather than opening each page in new tab better to open a website in single tab and the navigate through the website in different pages.
• If you have opened a page of website and the test is successfully done and you think you won't need to open website again still do not close the website right away. just stay on the website for a while and navigate afterwards to 1-2 pages and then close it. 

You might be thinking why to do all these? :) or what if we don't follow this. Explanation could be technical and difficult to understand but I would like to point out the factors of it:

• It will save website from getting unnatural traffic stats.
• Decrease unnatural bounce rate [when you stop opening and closing single page it will decrease bounce rate]
• It will increase user engagement, page views and user loyalty.
• It will make job of SEO bit easier by not spending hours in explaining client or filtering the native traffic.
• It will preserve the bandwidth and will use it for actual clients and never gives "509 bandwidth exceed" error to actual visitor :)

now what is bounce rate and what is traffic stat that needs one more descriptive blog post :) So just start this practice and contribute in your site's SEO :)

Give your feedback and queries in comment. As feedback helps in improvement & queries leads to solutions. I will catch you again in digital marketing world on tis blog next time with other digital marketing topic :)

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Posted in: ashvyasseo,basic seo tips,designers,digital marketing,SEO Tips,seo tips for developers,tester

Personal Branding and Blogging as Personal Branding Tool

Hey there,

Today I am going to talk about personal branding and Blogging as best tool to create strong personal branding. I will try to make it as simpler and short as possible. But bare the length if you find it long because i believe if you give information then give it completely or don't give it because half information is worst than no information. Now coming on the topic,

Recently I have visited few business events related to digital marketing and have also been part of international business event campaigns for vary industries. And what I get to learn from all those exhibitors, speakers and visitors of the event is Personal branding is the most important and mandatory part somehow. Why? how? let's talk on that in detail.

First of all what is the meaning of Personal Branding?
In Simplest words, Be Famous. In simple language with brief I would say, do something unique so people of your community or world start knowing you by your own name. In more simpler world, people start searching for you on search engines rather than on social media sites. And you can set milestone that Google show your knowledge graph in Google search result when people search for you as result of your efforts to build a brand.

For those who are not technical people, knowledge graph is information including your name, detail, pictures, etc Google shows in sidebar. For example when you search for Shakespeare, Google will show you the knowledge graph of him in sidebar, marked in red in below image.

Google Knowledge Graph Example

In more detail, When people start talking about you, start following you and start knowing you by your own name is known as building a personal brand.

Benefits of Building brand:
Finding your own Qualities and enhancement of self-awareness
It will allow you to find your own unique qualities and pitfalls by critics as well. You can take complaints or criticism as feedback and can work on it to improve yourself as a person or professional. As you start getting progress and build your brand you will learn what people like about you and what you should work on to be more better. As you start improving it will also get you tremendous self confidence

Personal or professional network expansion & socialization
As you will start taking interest in particular niche domain & building your brand in it, you will start finding people from your community who belongs to the same nature or profession. Your network of friends or business will start getting expanded. It will make you more socialized in niche work or interest domain.

Be more closer to targeted Audience
As your network starts growing you will get an opportunity to be tightly coupled with the people of your targeted domain or of the same/vary  nature to you which will lead you to learn more from experts and vary nature people of your community and enhance your skills and expertise. It will also allow you to enhance both your professional and personal skills and can also increase your productivity. As you will get constant feedback & opportunity to polish qualities and decrease loopholes or dissatisfaction.

Gain self confidence & your hidden capabilities
Personal branding will make you more closer to yourself  and allow you to know your qualities which you might not find otherwise. As you start exploring yourself you will get to know the uniqueness of yours and hidden capabilities. one by one your internal coating will get uncovered and you will experience the uniqueness and improve own satisfaction ratio.

Standout of the competition
If you are professional and involved in business anyhow weather you are an enterpruner or an employee, you will start leaving mark everywhere. You don't need to be in the rat race or don't need to worry about the sales. As once you start getting famous, your product will start getting sold without any hassle :) If you are one of like me who is not interested in being enterpruner and happy to be an employee, then you don't need to wander for good job and your bosses will do everything to keep you in their firm as you will bring them potential business :) You will feel the empowerment!!

Get support with no Effort
You will start getting support for any of your cause and people will make efforts to get you the necessary support for you. Support could be anything weather it's investors for new business product or donations for charity or something else. People will worry for you, you won't need to :)

Make you stand apart from the crowd
As I already state it will make you known and followed by the people. You will not get lost in crowd of people with having diversified skills and knowledge. In online world, digital branding is also known as creating unique resume where people wont ask you the question tell me something about yourself. In fact, they will start explaining about your self to others.

Easy to Measure Success
You can easily measure your success by watching increase in your followers. You can also work out to improve if you see downfall by working on weakness and boosting your strength by constant efforts. Easiest way is as I mentioned before set a milestone of getting Google Knowledge graph for yourself . :)

Feel Special
Being important to someone make you feel out of the world. As people start following you, as they start adore you. When they come to you and try to prove you that they are your fan. It make you feel awesome. And I am saying this from my own experience. When a girl came to me and said I am your fan and I was looking for you online since 2-3 years but couldn't find you. She was the reader of my previous blog and when I stop writing she missed contact of mine :) I felt awesome when from a crowd of 30-40 people she recognized a silently sitting girl and told her she is fan of her :) which lead me somewhere to write this blog and build my brand too

Coming back to the topic

Now How to do Personal Branding  or how to build personal brand?

There are many ways of building personal brand. Like

• Be a Television or Movie Actor
• Be a politician
• Be a public figure 
• Be an active Social Worker

Sounds crazy or impossible for you? There is one simpler way, Be a blogger or an Author. All the above mentioned ways might failed or may be difficult but being a blogger is very much easy way for anyone. As you know in digital world Blog is a platform which allows you to speak what you feel. You can represent your views, thoughts in simplest way ever and in language you feel most comfortable with and you can be a public figure and build your own brand. I can give you the example of few people who get famous because of their blogging and started a trend somehow who stands out of others were Matt Cutts - Google Web Spam Head, Danny Sullivian - editor-in-chief of Search Engine Land. What? do you think they gained it because of their industry? Then what would you say about Malala Yousafzai? A normal Pakistani girl who started a revolution by her blogging.

How to use Blogging as Personal Branding Tool?
Are you confused or thinking that it needs profound technical knowledge of blogging and technology? Neah.. it's not like that, it's damn easy. Here are the simplest steps ever for being blogger:

• First of all select any blogging platform. Some free, easy to use & most popular platforms are wordpress, Blogger, tumblr, etc.
• Think the domain name you would like reserve where you will post your thoughts and knowledge
• Think the subject domain you would like to write on. Not to worry about subject much, it can be mixed like you can write post showing your technology knowledge and your weekend fun at same blog under different category :) Because blog is your own place [My previous blog has that title Ash - It's my place :D where i written whatever I want to & it worked quite well ;) ]
• Start writing in your own language.

Sounds easy? you don't need to worry about grammar or spelling or language as people do overlook small things as they like to read good information. You even don't need to be an experienced writer to becoming a blogger because people appreciate the simple day to day language because there are thousands of professional writers online, you don't need to be one of them running for views. Just be yourself, use your language and people will like it and that's I'm saying by my personal blogging experience. I have never done any marketing or SEO for my previous blog which i used to write anything i like to and it got 1000+ visits from US. I was also surprised when I get to know that figure. Here is the proof

I have stopped writing since long time on it about a year or two on that blog and the image above is the screenshot I took just now. The blog still gets visitors. I used to write that blog at midnight after tiring day so never did proof reading. sometimes me myself don't know what I might written. I just write it with thinking I am writing it for myself  and self satisfaction. So blogging is anyone's cup of tea. Even if you are shy or reserved. Writing a blog is something like talking with ourselves and when we publish it others can read what we think and feel about something or how much sound knowledge we have about some technology or aea. The only thing required is activeness in Blogging. Because if you stop writing blog after few posts you will be lost in the forest of bloggers as you will start loosing your visitors and followers and wont be able to create your brand which is our sole purpose for blogging, right? .

Even if you don't want to build your brand, I suggest you to be a blogger. As it will allow you to meet yourself, increase your self-confidence, allow you to know what is current trend in market, what people like about you and you can find similarly crazy people from the glob :)

So what are you waiting for? Start writing.. start blogging and start building your brand...

If you have any confusion or query, or if you want some help, or if you are looking out for information/knowledge on any specific SEO or digital marketing topic, just put your comment or message, I will surely try to help out in possible ways :)

Feedback are warmly welcome, weather positive or negative :)

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Posted in: ashseo,benefits of personal branding,blogger tips and tricks,Blogging as personal marketing tool,branding,digital marketing,Google knowledge graph,reputation building