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Google Bert Update: What You Need to Know About the Latest SEO Update
Google adjusts and updates its algorithm almost two times per day to keep the most relevant and timely content ranking in top searches for its users. So what makes the Google Bert Update different than the everyday update?
The Google Bert Update is the largest and most impactful Google update since the launch of Rankbrain. Yes, you read that right, and we believe it.
Rankbrain changed how we write content forcing us to focus on our searcher’s actual intent and purpose rather than stuffing content full of keywords. The world has been so much better for it. So what makes the Google Bert Update even better?
The Google Bert Update comes down to Bert. Bert stands for Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers and is a new open-sourced Natural Language Processing (NLP) Update released as part of Google’s AI that allows it to better understand the content in long form pieces of content and take into consideration the meaning and intent behind a search query.
The Natural Language Processing Update is the ability for a program to understand the way humans naturally speak and utilize our spoken and written languages.
In this case, it is the ability for Google’s crawling and indexing algorithm to better understand how we write and how we search for the answers to the problems we’re currently searching for the solution to. No longer will we be limited to short phrases and keywords. We are now able to more easily identify the information we want to find from Google, and it will be able to find it for us!
The Google Bert Update has helped Google understand more complex queries during a search. This means Google is now able to understand the subtle nuances and differences between sentences and how words are used in those sentences to convey meaning. Read more below to see the key benefits to Bert.
With Bert keywords are still important, however search is now able to be more meaning-focused. This helps to provide relevant search results and show the information that people are actually looking for in a way that relates as an answer to their question.
The meaning of words can sometimes be one of the hardest things for us regular humans to understand, so now that Google will be able to anticipate our meaning to a certain extent it will make finding the information we’re looking for just that much easier. No more swapping search terms multiple times to get the results we want. Instead, we’ll be able to get better results for our specific search queries upfront as Bert helps anticipate our meaning.
The Google Bert Update is the perfect update for the ever-increasing use cases for voice-search technology. Being able to understand how we speak in reference to what we’re searching for and how we pose questions is important for search. With Alexa, Siri, and Cortana becoming a bigger part of our everyday lives, our voice searches will be better informed and accurate thanks to the Natural Language Processing of the Google Bert Update.
Bert hasn’t changed anything about SEO and content marketing at their core, but it may change HOW we do things from beginning to end. SEO experts and content marketers should still be creating content that is unique, timely, and useful, but when trying to nail down the types of content users search for and the types of content the Google Bert Update maximizes you should consider the following.
Typically when you write articles to try to rank for specific content, we see the easiest and fastest success in informational content. Content that answers the following types of questions:
These types of content strategies provide content that is:
Above all else when you’re writing content, meta information and even deeper SEO elements, stop and think to yourself: is this how a person would say this? After all, it’s sometimes the simplest statements that return the best results.
Bert has already made waves in a lot of SEO 2020 strategies and results, and we don’t expect this to change. What we do expect to change is how we write and optimize content. We expect Google to quickly adapt and update Bert moving forward to be even more focused on the real question the user is asking with their search query and not just focused on returning the fastest results.
While featured snippets have made an even bigger change recently, with the news that if you qualify for a featured snippet the corresponding search result is removed from Google search, The Google Bert Update made some changes to what the featured snippets pull in.
Featured snippet content changes mirror the Bert Natural Language Processing Update changes with subtle changes to what is being pulled in. We recommend revisiting your keyword tracking tools to validate if you saw any major gains or losses in your featured snippets to ensure you’re not missing out on some big opportunities.
The Google Bert Update has thrown a lot of SEOs for a loop, but fear not, we’re here to help. Our dedicated team of SEO Experts can help revise your SEO strategy and maximize your content’s relevancy and impact for your potential users. Contact us today!
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