What is BERT and What Does it Mean for SEO 

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Google is marking yet another stride in search with the release of its proprietary technology called BERT. This stands for Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers. It aims to process the query by interpreting words in relation to other words in the sentence. With this, the BERT technology can assess the thought of a sentence instead of interpreting a word by itself.

And with every major algorithm and ranking factor being changed, it impacts SEO experts and site owners. Take note that Google claims that BERT is the biggest innovation in search for the past five years. That alone is enough reason for site owners to be worried.

How BERT will impact SEO

Currently, BERT will be used only in 1 out of 10 searches in the U.S. using the English language. Its complexity is the reason behind the limited scope, as Google says it’s too intricate that BERT goes beyond the limits of their hardware.

Also, BERT will be used for rich snippets in all the countries where it’s currently available. This way, the audience will get better results and websites with more high-quality content will be given priority.

Take note that BERT isn’t a hit and miss algorithm. It has undergone rigorous testing. This way, Google can ensure that it will serve the users with better search results. In Google-speak, BERT is a neural-network-based technique that aims to analyze content as if it’s the search engine’s natural language.

Site owners should keep up

Over the years, Google has constantly introduced changes and new technology to improve the search experience. Also, it ensures that queries are answered in a natural way, with the best possible results.

For now, Google hasn’t commented about how drastic the change BERT will bring in the search engine. Site owners don’t have to panic since this technology is only being used for 10% of all searches. Unlike full-scale algorithm updates, the impact of BERT would be minimal, at least for now.

Nevertheless, it always pays to stay abreast of every Google update. Soon enough, we can expect BERT to advance and be used on a larger chunk of internet searches.

While it’s still in its infancy, it’s best to understand how BERT works and what you can do to optimize your site for this new algorithm.

Experts say that you don’t really have to ‘prepare’ for BERT. Besides, it’s not created to penalize or change how you rank drastically. The worse thing that could happen is when you lose traffic because you’re optimizing for the wrong audience.

The only preparation you need for BERT is creating relevant and high-quality content. Don’t panic if you lose traffic due to BERT. If you assess it, you’re not actually benefiting from it since those visitors aren’t warm leads.

Conclusion

BERT is another algorithm that Google released to improve the search experience. As a website owner, you don’t have to panic. All you have to do is focus on creating relevant content and following current algorithms that govern your ranking.