What exactly is Hummingbird?  I don’t know, go Google it.  Okay, I’ll stop or not.  Okay, one more.  Go ask Siri, I’m sure she has a good answer awaiting your questioning.

In SEO terms, Hummingbird is Google’s ranking algorithm that consists of the following but not limited too:

  • Panda Express – No, not the restaurant.  Panda Google’s was aimed at those who attempted to game search ranking results by using “thin sites” or “low-quality-sites”.
  • Penguin – No, not the Penguins from Madagascar. Penguin targets penalizing websites buying links or obtaining them through link networks designed primarily to boost Google rankings
  • Payday – No, not the candy bar.  Payday targets cleaning up search results for traditionally “spammy queries” such as “payday loan”, pornographic and other heavily spammed queries.
  • Pigeon – No, not the local downtown gang of pigeons. Although not the bird, Pigeon does keep it local when looking to help businesses boost their local search rankings.
  • Top Heavy – I’m not even going there, leave it alone. In short, top heavy is designed to demote and penalize websites and web pages with ad-heavy pages.
  • Mobile Friendly – Yup, you’ll need to have a mobile friendly website to take advantage of this ranking factor.
  • Pirate – No, not the Pirates of the Carribbean. Pirate is out to stop those who lift content and then publish it as their own.  Who would do such a thing?  Don’t answer that, just think it.
  • RankBrain – Don’t rack your brain out trying to figure this out, let me help you. RankBrain is one of the newest ranking factors making up Hummingbird.  In short, RankBrain is machine-learning artificial intelligence system that’s used to help process its search results. Yup, Google is now out thinking us 24/7/365 and a learning as it goes.

These are just a few of the common ranking factors that make up Hummingbird out of nearly 200 other ranking factors.

If any of these are new to you, then you’ve got some studying to go do. Good luck!

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Written by Alvin Brown
He's an experienced and passionate serial entrepreneur, founder and publisher of Kickstart Commerce. Alvin possesses a great love for startups dominating their market using profitable digital strategies for greater commerce.