Increasingly, I find myself using question-based search terms on Google, and it appears I’m not the only one, as Google recently released their new Hummingbird algorithm last month.
How Will Hummingbird Affect Affiliate Marketing?
At Clique Affiliate Marketing we use content-based affiliate marketing strategies, so this news has left us questioning – how will Hummingbird affect affiliate marketing?
Unlike Google’s previous updates, Panda and Penguin, Hummingbird is an entirely new algorithm. This is Google’s biggest change in 12 years. Hummingbird is paying attention to entire phrases rather than specific keywords in a search query, with the intent to provide precise results much faster.
For example, the kind of searches Hummingbird will impact might look like this:
What are the benefits of outsourced affiliate management?
Who sells water resistant down jackets?
In the past, Google would display results based on specific keywords, rather than taking into account the entire phrase.
If you’re wondering how this change may affect your affiliate website, the answer from Google is that, if you’ve implemented good SEO practices prior to the update, your site will not be affected. They go on to encourage the creation of unique, high quality content along with links to relevant web pages. For an in-depth analysis of Hummingbird we suggest you take a look at Search Engine Land.
While it’s too soon to predict the overall effect on affiliate marketing, we’ll be paying close attention to new developments and passing them along to our partners.
