{"id":117707,"date":"2019-10-29T16:45:17","date_gmt":"2019-10-29T08:45:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/seo-hacker.com\/?p=17707"},"modified":"2021-05-11T05:48:55","modified_gmt":"2021-05-11T05:48:55","slug":"google-bert-seo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/seo-hacker.com\/google-bert-seo\/","title":{"rendered":"How BERT Affects SEO and How You Can Optimize For It"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Google\u2019s roll-out of BERT<\/a> caused a massive buzz in the whole SEO industry since they deemed it as \u201cthe most important update in five years\u201d. This particular update, called BERT, officially impacts 10% of search queries. That\u2019s already a massive number since there are millions of searches made every single day. So, what exactly is the BERT update, how will it affect the SEO landscape, and how can we, as webmasters and SEOs, better optimize our websites for this algorithm update?<\/span><\/p>\n

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What is BERT?<\/span><\/h2>\n

Bert stands for Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers. It is a neural network-based technique for Natural Language Processing (NLP) that was open-sourced by Google last year.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Google BERT Update<\/span><\/h2>\n

BERT isn\u2019t necessarily an update to Google\u2019s current algorithms but it is a technique to improve NLP. It allows Google to process words in search queries in relation to all the other words contained in the query – unlike the word per word process that Google has been using before.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Through this process, Google can, therefore, hopefully, understand the whole context of a word contained in the search query. This means that Google\u2019s application of the BERT model enables them to do a better job of assisting users in finding useful information. The primary target for the BERT model are \u201clonger, more conversational queries\u201d where words like \u201cfor\u201d and \u201cto\u201d greatly affect the meaning of the query – in my understanding, these are, more often than not, long-tail keywords.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

BERT is currently affecting 10% of searches in the U.S. and it\u2019s currently only applicable to the featured snippets in other languages.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Here\u2019s an example that Google used to highlight the effect of the BERT model:<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Google<\/a><\/p>\n

How You Can Optimize for BERT<\/span><\/h2>\n

According to Google, optimizing for BERT is impossible since there is \u201cnothing to optimize\u201d. It\u2019s a direct echo to their statement during the release of RankBrain. However, SEOs always have ways of understanding an algorithm update in a creative and unique way that allows us to come up with strategies that will help our site navigate through Google\u2019s ever-changing algorithms. With that said, here are some (simple) strategies that can help you with the recent BERT update.<\/span><\/p>\n

Simpler and Succinct Content<\/span><\/h3>\n

I\u2019ve mentioned in a past blog post that\u00a0<\/span>word count isn\u2019t as important as you might think it is<\/span><\/a>\u00a0and that\u2019s directly related to writing for answering a user\u2019s query. Google has always reminded webmasters that we should write for the users – not the search engines. Of course, there are still some webmasters that put the \u201ctechnicality\u201d of their content as the most important aspect. If you\u2019re one of the webmasters that still focus on keyword density, keyword placement, etc. inside your content while not giving importance to the quality and \u201cnaturalness\u201d of your content, you might be losing out on Google\u2019s recent algorithm updates.<\/span><\/p>\n

BERT focuses on the context of the words used inside the sentences (or group of sentences) that you used inside the body of your content. However, at the end of the day, BERT is still just a process used by machines and they can only understand so much. Our roles as webmasters must be providing content that is simple but still succinct.<\/span><\/p>\n

One guiding principle that I\u2019ve followed every time I write content is if a high school graduate can understand (this is dependent on the niche) the content I\u2019m writing, then the search engines can understand it as well. Here are some pointers to always consider when you write your content:<\/span><\/p>\n