What is BERT?

A couple of weeks ago, Google released an update that affected a good number of websites around the world. Incoming traffic of many websites was affected when the updated was implemented. But, you may ask what the latest Google update is all about, how does it affect your website, and what can you do to minimize its impact. While I haven’t written about these types of tech articles for the longest time, I’ll try to discuss this update and how it affects online freelance workers, particularly content providers, and websites as a whole.

What is BERT?

The latest update by the search engine giant is called BERT or Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers. This update supposedly affects ten percent of all queries done on Google. Some digital marketers think this is not a major update, but ten percent is ten percent. It is still a huge number when you consider the number of queries performed every day. In fact, a press release from Google indicated that BERT is “one of the biggest leaps forward in the history of Search.” While it may not be the biggest, it is a major update that is comparable to RankBrain in 2015. 

The rollout started in the last week of October for English queries, and it is supposed to be rolled out for other languages soon. Since the Google AI blog explained the update in full detail, I will just try to explain it the way I understand it. According to Neil Patel, the update allows Google’s algorithm to better understand natural language when a query is performed. It basically tries to figure out what you are really looking for (any U2 fans here?) when you are typing a query. 

This may not be easy to understand without context or an example. Google actually provided an example on their blog. It was a search for “2019 brazil traveler to usa need a visa.” The new update used the word “to” and how it is related to the other words used on the query. Due to this, the new algorithm would look for pages about Brazilian travelers going to the United States. Prior to this update, the search results would show US citizens traveling to Brazil. The latest update can understand the way the query is made and takes different words into account before it shows the results. Due to this, it can provide more relevant results to people using Google.

Bert Update Sample

In another example, it shows a query “do estheticians stand a lot at work.” The update is now using the right context of the way the word “stand” is used. Previously, it matched the word “stand” with standalone. So it did not accurately answer the query, which is about the physical demands of the job of an esthetician.

Bert Update Sample

Basing on the examples provided by Google, it seems BERT focuses on information-related keywords. Due to this, some online marketers are recommending websites to provide quality content. While some are partial to long articles, the algorithm of Google does not appear to focus much on word count. In a tweet, Google's public Search Liaison, Danny Sullivan, said digital marketers or SEOs should focus on good quality content that is compelling, unique, and useful.

How Does It Affect Websites?

Well, websites without good quality content will likely see a drop in their incoming traffic. It has already affected several websites whose content is not up to par. This is particularly true with websites whose content is written or the machine rather than for the reader. It is important to connect with the audience and give them relevant information related to what you are offering. While keyword research may still continue, it is important to make sure the keywords or keyword phrases are used properly. Aside from being spelled correctly, they should also be grammatically correct. Websites with content that do not provide relevant information or content that have a lot of grammatical and spelling errors will likely see their incoming traffic go down. By now, you should already know if your website is affected by the latest update. If your website was not affected by BERT, it may contain good quality content.

What To Do

Taking into account what BERT is all about, one thing websites should focus on is good quality content. The content should also be compelling and unique. Long-tail keywords may help but are not really required. On one article I read on Medium, it seemed to be partial to long-tail keywords with at least five words. On the other hand, an article on Search Engine Journal hints at the importance of long-tail keywords, but the website should provide information that connects with the readers. Or in other words, the information should be relevant and direct to the point.

After getting wind of this update sometime in October, I started reading about it. And in most of the articles I encountered, they are all in agreement that BERT will focus mainly on quality content. Websites with content that are not really of good quality will have reduced incoming traffic. This traffic is mainly from Google searches, which means they are mainly first-time visitors who are looking for information about the topics the website is offering. Many digital marketing experts have said there are  no SEO tactics for the BERT update. It mainly depends on the quality of the content you have on your website. Some of them even say the word count does not even play much of a factor in the update.

Digital marketers also recommended looking at your landing pages and checking which ones are not ranking well after the update. You may have to adjust the content of these pages so they provide more specific information to your readers. You may also create new content for these pages so they answer the questions of your audience.

Summing up, BERT is an update that basically focuses on content. For the moment, there are no SEO fixes that will work with this latest update. In this regard, website owners should focus their efforts in producing high-quality content that their target audience will like. If you are contracting freelancers to provide for the content of your website, you may want to look for content writers who provide high-quality content. While it may cost more than a run-of-the-mill writer, your website will benefit from their work in the long run.