Google BERT: What It Is and How It Affects SEO
1803
2020
In 2019, Google announced an update to its search algorithm called BERT. BERT is a language processing technology that impacts 10% of all Google searches. The technology essentially assesses the way words placed in a search query are related to each other to give Google a more distinct comprehension of the online searcher’s intent. BERT is one of the most significant algorithm updates in years. What does that mean for your business?
In this article, we’ll examine the Google BERT update, including its benefits and impact on SMBs as well as SEO strategies.
BERT Update: What It Means
The term BERT stands for Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers. This search algorithm is a language processing approach that manages entity recognition, speech tagging and question & answering processes. It assists Google in comprehending natural, organic text from the Internet. BERT helps the machine properly understand what natural text in a sentence means and the nuances and meanings of said words and messages.
What This Means For SEO and Marketing Strategies
At the moment, BERT technology strictly analyzes search queries and not the websites themselves. As the Google algorithm is now understanding word meanings and sentence contexts far more effectively, it will have an impact on site rankings for keywords. This means that the top results provided to the searcher will be far more accurate to the intent of the search. Websites with vague, incomplete or nonspecific content and focus will likely not rank highly on Google search results. Fortunately, you can maintain your website ranking or improve it to accommodate to the BERT update in the following ways:
Simple, Concise Keywords: BERT technology will prioritize simple, tight, concise and conversational keywords over long phrases of more than three words. This means that your content and keywords should have a clear objective and lead to genuine, detailed information. Web pages should answer specific questions the searcher has.
Increase Website Speed: The Google algorithm wants to provide its users with viable web pages that work effectively with proper information. By speeding up a web page, this can improve its ranking and allow for overall improved user experience. This may be through AMPS (accelerated mobile pages or via a static site generator.
Incorporate Stop Words: Stop words are words previously neglected and unused by Google such as “in,” “about,” “and.” These stop words were previously omitted by Google because they limited the search for answers. However, with the introduction of the BERT update, Google will likely consider these words to improve the accuracy of the search.
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