The 2014 London SMX was way different than the one in NYC just a few months back. SEOs and marketers are now looking at the softer attributes of marketing in search, exploring how to develop authority,enhance their reputation and generate trust with their audience.

1. What is
Hummingbird
and the Entity
Search Revolution
How Search Has Changed
1David Amerland SMX London 2014

2. What is Search?
The ‘easiest’ concepts are the hardest ones to define.
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3. Search Used to be ‘Easy’
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4. In a way it was no different
to counting cards
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Yandex still has a very
traditional approach
to search
Keyword matching
based on statistical
lexical analysis cannot
easily filter out spam.

5. The same search query in
Google search:
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6. And from an SEO mentality the
change is even more marked:
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We go from this: To this:
Which also means that search changes from being the broadest net possible
bringing in as many people as possible to a search query, to being the best
answer possible.

7. It means that SEO work
that used to look like this:
5/17/2014Footer Text 7

8. Now looks like this:
Source: Stone Temple Consulting 8

9. Because search that
looked like this:
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10. Now looks like this:
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11. We know what Hummingbird
really looks like:
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12. Though this is the more
familiar look:
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13. So what is Hummingbird,
really?
• One man has the answer: http://goo.gl/ym5Xx1
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14. So a search engine is
made up of:
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15. And the moment you add the human
element you begin to also demand:
• Comprehension
• Historical Context
• Personal data
• Search History
• Search Patterns
• Usage habits
• Intelligence in the results
• Social connections
• Social activity
• Personal context
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16. Search now looks not just at
information but also, knowledge
And this is where Entities come in.
In order for an Entity to be formed it requires the
indexing and verification of a host of attributes.
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17. Entity Attributes
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18. Entities transform search
from an activity that was
focused purely on search
engine metrics to one that
now takes into account
the full spectrum of
human engagement and
interaction.
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19. This makes SEO harder to
game because it changes
the economic dynamic
that drives human
behaviour.
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20. So we go from …
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21. 21

22. And that really changes
everything:
• Keywords
• On-page SEO
• Backlinks
• Publishing
frequency
• Link dumping in
social networks
• Content length
• Keyword stuffing
• Keyword
placement
• Anchor text
• Link sculpting
• Etc…
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• Concepts
• Search queries
• Trust
• Authority
• Reputation
• Citations
• Social network
footprint
• Comments
• Sentiment
• Social proof
• Brand equity
• Authenticity
• Etc …

23. David Amerland
www.davidamerland.com
@davidamerland
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http://goo.gl/AVWmEhhttp://goo.gl/wcL9fS