Google BERT

Google’s done it again. On October 25, 2019, Google BERT hit the scene. Boy, it has been a rollercoaster. Within the first few days of its release, many people saw sizable fluctuations in their keyword performance, page ranks, and site traffic. Others saw almost no change at all. Still others questioned whether Google BERT was actually that big of a deal. Yet, this rather innocent-sounding update is described by Google as “one of the biggest leaps forward in the history of Search.” It’s expected to affect one in 10 organic searches (yikes!). Google releases almost nine algorithm updates each day. So, what makes BERT so important? And what do marketers (and site owners) need to do to prepare or recover from the effects of this update on their site? Those are great questions! Let’s explore. Google BERT Explained, Plus 5 Ways to Make the Most of Google’s Latest Search Innovations What Is Google BERT and Why Is Everyone Freaking Out? Why You Saw Site Traffic and Keyword Fluctuations How to Make Sure Your Site Is Ready for Google BERT in 5 Steps 1. Optimize for Humans, not BERT 2. Keep Calm and Continue E-A-T-ing! 3. Revisit How Your Site Captures Informational Searches 4. Avoid the Keyword Superstitions That Are Currently Everywhere 5. Get Ready with Those Featured Snippets [bctt tweet=”Saw something weird happened in your current site rankings? Maybe it’s the latest Google BERT doing its job. @JuliaEMcCoy explains what happened and some easy tips to keep your site afloat. ‍♀️” username=”ExpWriters”] What Is Google BERT and Why Was Everyone Freaking Out? There’s been a lot already written on what BERT is and what it is not, but it’s worth revisiting exactly how Google BERT works. BERT stands for Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers. This mouthful of neurolinguistic terminology basically means that it’s now easier for the search engine to understand the context of words in a search string. Using Natural Language Processing (NLP), BERT helps the search engine understand the significance of words like “to” or “for” (transformer words) in the context of a search. These would have been previously ignored by the search engine, leading to frustrating goose chases while someone tried to find the right combination of words or phrases. For example, before BERT, Google results for “math practice books for adults” would have included hits that – while technically keyword matches – were irrelevant: Source: Google By emphasizing transformer words, the search engine can now understand that “for” is an important part of the sentence grammatically. Previously, it would have ignored the word, returning results involving math books for any demographic with adult in the term – such as young adults. Google BERT doesn’t change any rules for keywords and the update didn’t change any of the metrics the search engine uses for determining page rank. Nonetheless, it’s still going to have a pretty big impact on site traffic and page ranks. In fact, it already has. [bctt tweet=”What is Google BERT? BERT stands for Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers. To simplify: BERT helps the search engine understand the significance of transformer words like ‘to’ and ‘for’ in the keywords used. ” username=”ExpWriters”] So, You Saw Something Spooky With Your Site Traffic? Here’s What Happened. Within 24 hours of Google BERT going live in English, people started reporting chaos in their analytics as the changes took place. Some people reported significant drops in their site traffic and page ranks, while others witnessed surges to the top. Nutrition and supplement review site Examine, for example, saw a return to normal traffic from the July update: Source: Twitter Other sites saw a significant drop in their traffic and page ranking, with some claiming they’d been de-ranked or had pages de-indexed altogether. Given the way BERT affects searches, a few reasons exist as to why this might have happened: You were getting a lot of traffic from keywords, but your information was irrelevant. For example, if you had a site selling young adult math textbooks, you would have previously gotten traffic from “math practice books for adults” because your keywords matched. That’s not happening anymore. You’ve been pushed down by a competitor with a stronger keyword game. This is proving to be especially true for local SEO, where searches rely more heavily on transformer words like “at” or “in.” You don’t have a lot of content that would turn up in informational searches. Informational searches – the type of Google query where a user is seeking specific information about something – are the most common type of Google search out there. They’re also what BERT primarily affected because they’re the types of searches most likely to use transformer words or include conversational wording. Your site is optimized for search engines, not people. Google has been pushing content quality for years now, but some sites have stubbornly clung to SEO oriented to the search engine rather than human readers. If you’re using outdated SEO techniques, you might have seen a plunge in traffic. If anything, BERT reveals just how important it is to stay up to date with Google’s major algorithm updates. Google can – and does – merrily overhaul the way search engines rank pages. (Remember Panda and its 2015 update? I sure do. Sheesh.) With the release of Google BERT, we’re going to see another one of those overhauls, albeit a less traumatic one. Those who have been lagging behind the times with their SEO strategy are the ones feeling the most negative effects. Fortunately, I know a few tricks to help correct any downturn you might have experienced and get the most from the release of BERT. [bctt tweet=”After the Google BERT update, there were significant drops in site traffic and page ranks. But don’t worry. If you have a content strategy in place, you’re more likely to be unaffected. You might even see better results! ” username=”ExpWriters”] How to Make Sure Your Site Is Ready for Google BERT in 5 Steps Wondering how to optimize … Read more