Today, the playing field for online marketing is far from being level. A small or medium-sized business has little or no budget for buying advertisement and pay-per-click promotion, they are often left behind larger firms with allocated budgets and marketing departments. They occasionally invest into a website, but see no benefit from it, and give up on getting customers from the web. In other cases, they get an email from a "SEO expert" firm telling them that their site needs programming. They pay a low price for improvement, but - as the changes are carried out using old software generating automatic, irrelevant links - this will not deliver results, either.

The alternative for small businesses to improve their website is to engage with a local marketing expert, knowing the rules and the goals and requirements of the business.

Hummingbird Search Engine Update is about Relevance

Hummingbird, the name - according to Google - refers to an algorithm that is fast and precise. This means that the more relevant the site is to search queries the higher it will rank in search engines. However, it is also important to note that the company considers user engagement and social media weight as one of the main ranking factors. This means that trying to rank for "buy a car" will not be possible, nor would be wise. Instead, providing product and service names, descriptions, to narrow the results and seem more relevant is the way forward for companies' online marketing strategy.

How Small Businesses Can Benefit from Google Algorithm Updates

The Hummingbird update is good news for small and medium-sized businesses. Instead of relying on a software, they can create a sales funnel that is relevant to the needs and expectations of their local market and target their customers better. The online marketing and promotion playing field has just been levelled, and it is easier to rank on the first page with relevant and specific content than ever before. Companies relying on search engine optimization software and robots will lose out, and smaller players will get a chance to get more customers online.

Should Businesses Follow Rules when Creating Sales Funnels and Marketing Plans Online?

Every promotional email coming through a business owner's inbox offering cheap search engine optimization will tell them that they are not obeying the rules. Often enough, however, these emails refer to rules that are no longer relevant, due to the recent updates of Google search algorithms. Instead of relying on Cookie-cutter options and robots, companies can now create their marketing strategy based on engaging with their target market on various levels: social media, press releases, blogging, video marketing, newsletters, and other methods. While most small and medium-sized business owners lack the knowledge and time to create a custom sales funnel for their offers, there are some marketing consultancy firms out there that can tailor campaigns to the needs of the user, instead of relying on cookie-cutter options or robots. Therefore, following the rules is not as important as engaging with customers online.