How Google’s Latest Update Will Impact Your Website Traffic

Just a few weeks ago, Google unrolled one of their biggest algorithm changes in years, BERT, short for Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers. Google says BERT is a neural network-based technique for understanding natural language. Basically, this update will empower Google to better understand language that is used, especially in conversational searches. While seemingly small, this update can be huge in helping Google yield more relevant results for users, and in addition, it will favor content creators and SEO writers. How? BERT encourages more natural, unique, conversational, and compelling pieces that are catered to the user rather than Google. In the past, many writers worried that their content wouldn't get picked up by Google's search engine, but this update aims to bridge the gap. Quick tip: if you're a real estate website, you might consider producing informative, expert-driven content like this rent report from ABODO. Before getting too in-depth, here are a few key points to keep in mind as you start to unpack BERT:

• BERT will impact around 10% of searches.
• BERT will impact organic rankings.
• BERT will improve searches in other languages.
• BERT is part of the Machine Learning Algorithms, meaning it learns as it comes across new information.
• BERT will aid in the improvement of voice-assisted search engines.
• The overall goal is to make the search experience more human.

How Does BERT Work?

For starters, BERT is a natural language processing (NLP) framework that was created by Google and later open-sourced so that the whole NLP field could improve at understanding natural language. So, if you search for BERT online chances are you'll find lots of other articles out there — not just ones related to the Google update. BERT technology is focusing more on context and will consider the entire context of a search rather than specific words, meaning users will have better search results than ever before. Additionally, BERT has the ability to better understand prepositions, which can have a huge impact on search results. Finally, BERT is said to improve featured snippets, although details are still limited on this area, it's definitely something to keep an eye on.

How BERT Will Improve the User Experience

Google did a pretty good job of delivering users what they were looking for, but many users know that you have to know how to search for something if you need a specific answer. With the update, BERT will be able to better understand and interpret queries. It likely won't surprise you to know that a ton of web content is in English. Because English is a language with many words that have double meanings, it can be complicated to sort through content, with the update Google will likely deliver appropriate results more quickly.

Get Noticed with Unique Content

Want to make sure your site ranks? Start putting your energy back into creating original and compelling content. Don't think about fluffing for SEO purposes and start delivering the quality information your audience is looking for! For more info on BERT and other updates, check out Google's blog.