What is Google BERT?

Google BERT

Google BERT is the term being used for a new Google algorithm update based on a new language representation model called BERT (Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers). BERT is designed to pre-train deep bidirectional representations from unlabelled text by jointly conditioning on both left and right context in all layers.

BERT is better able to understand context in user search queries. By being bidirectional, BERT can better understand longer-tail and more conversational queries. This is especially true in search queries where propositions such as “for” or “to” are used. Unlike directional models, which read text sequentially, BERT reads the entirety of the text at once. This means it can learn the context of a word based on all of its surroundings (left and right of the word).

How does BERT affect SEO?

Although no web site could have prepared for BERT, it is possible that it won’t majorly impact most digital sites. In fact, the companies that will be most affected are the ones that have been publishing irrelevant content, targeting unrelated keywords, have a multilingual web presence, or have started leveraging voice-enabled devices.

More than ever, your content will need to have greater relevance for particular keywords in order to get web traffic.

Digital marketing agencies will have to incorporate strategies that optimize SEO for voice devices. The implementation of long-tail keywords will be extremely important because people phrase queries and questions differently when speaking, and it’s vital to capture those digital words as well.

How to Improve Your SEO With Bert in Mind?

• Keywords are becoming less important. Traditionally, SEO was very focused on literally selecting and repeating keywords, but this no longer works. BERT is a step further towards the “humanization” of content. Rather than worrying about entering exact keywords, you need to seek to create content that correctly responds to users’ concerns.
• Google BERT benefits searches that are more ambiguous and long-tail. The idea of BERT is to be able to correctly interpret all the elements of a search query in marketing context. Therefore, it is now able to understand ambiguous queries that previously yielded irrelevant results.
• The focus shifts from extension to quality. Another SEO technique that is becoming outdated is writing very long articles, often over 5,000 words. In some cases, if you want to cover a topic in-depth, this length may be necessary. However, BERT no longer focused on the number of words, but on the quality of the content to answer users’ queries. Therefore, the length should match the marketing content and not the other way around. If the user asks a specific question, you must provide a concise answer.
• Voice searches are becoming increasingly important. Voice searches have been trending in SEO for years, thanks to the popularization of virtual assistants. With BERT, Google is able to understand these searches, which tend to be more natural and conversational than text searches. Therefore, it’s a good time to review your website’s optimization for voice searches.
• Optimize for position zero. As seen in recent years, zero-click searches are becoming increasingly important, so you need to be prepared to provide structured data and optimized content to appear in the featured snippet.