What does the Broad Core Google Algorithm (BERT) change mean to SEO?

ALGORITHM - is a procedure or formula for solving a problem, based on conducting a sequence of specified actions. In mathematics and computer science, an algorithm is a sequence of instructions, typically to solve a class of problems or perform a computation.

Google algorithms changes more than twice a day, but when Google announced the latest change, it meant that it was going to be very significant. Now, as Digital Marketers we have to take heed of this change. This is a core change which means it has effects on a lot of things.

The SEO industry consistently assumes that Google’s core algorithm updates focus on “targeting” “low quality” web pages. This is unfortunate because it ignores the possibility that Google’s core algorithm updates might simply be improvements to providing the best answer to search queries.

BERT (Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers). - That means BERT models can interpret the appropriate meaning of a word by looking at the words that come before and after. This will lead to a better understanding of queries, compared to processing words one-by-one in order. This means there is going to be an effect on both search queries and snippets.

With this change Google aims to improve the understanding of queries, deliver more relevant results, and get searchers used to entering queries in a more natural way. Google did not say to what extent this change will affect search rankings. Given that BERT is only being used on 10% of English queries, the impact should be minimal compared to a full-scale algorithm update.

POINTS TO TAKE NOTE OF:

1. Google will understand the users intent - This is because it will understand the meaning of phrases not just words.
2. Google will understand content - Relevant SERPs will be shown to you rather than broad displays including negative searches.
3. Create content that is not focused on keywords, but on solving problems. Focusing on the problems that site visitors want to solve may be productive.

Because of this update, it stands as the biggest change in the past 5-10 years but not the biggest of all time. For SEO specialists, its now time to optimize for long tail keyword searches.