What Did Google Do With This New BERT Update?
Introducing BERT, a new Google algorithm upgrade called Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers. It pays to learn as much as you can about BERT since, like all important Google upgrades, it will have a direct impact on search engine optimization (SEO).
In reality, Google has publicly stated that BERT will directly impact more than 30 million searches each day, or around 10% of all searches made in the United States.
Thus, the natural question arises: What exactly is BERT?
BERT is essentially a deep learning algorithm designed to enhance language comprehension in search. In particular, BERT improves search in two crucial areas: nuance and context.
How does that appear? Imagine the word “boat” appearing in both the search keywords “boatload” and “boat prices.” To us, the difference is clear. It may not be as obvious to a machine with poor contextual differentiation. As an alternative, think about the differences between prepositions such as “to,” “for,” and “from” (e.g., “nine to five” versus “a quarter to three”).
The crucial step in this situation is identifying user intent, which BERT does by comprehending specific search phrases in the context of the entire question. In other words, rather than just returning web pages that match keywords, the search will now produce results based on a deeper understanding of what is actually being sought.
Regarding voice search and how it will affect everything from SEO to reputation management, we have previously discussed this. BERT furthers the change in search’s emphasis toward user intent, which is excellent news for everyone who uses Google but poses some marketing challenges for your dealership.
How Does It Affect You?
Specifically, how will BERT affect your SEO? Much depends on how well you follow the SEO best practices that are already in place.
Without going too technical, we already know that on-page SEO, also known as BERT, is directly impacted by BERT the most. On-page SEO is primarily composed of three elements: title tags, the URL or web address of the page, and the content of the web page (including any alternate text you provide for images).
We’ll focus on the content of your website as one of these factors. Why? Remember that the goal of BERT is to better comprehend entire queries and provide consumers with pertinent results.
That means that websites that overuse keywords but lack a clear structure or emphasis will suffer more penalties than before. However, this is not necessarily new advice. In the long run, keyword stuffing has never been a successful tactic.
In other words, BERT is more of a wake-up call for marketers to review their current SEO tactics than a revolutionary change that demands new methods of SEO. Those who have gotten by up until now with scant, subpar, and irrelevant information may discover that their luck has run out.
This is crucial for dealers, who must contend with severe local competition and have every incentive to ensure that their websites are stuffed with fresh, practical, pertinent, and distinctive material in order to rank as highly as possible in those search results.
Conduct an SEO audit.
Because of this, it would be a fantastic idea to evaluate your dealership’s SEO strategy right away and make sure you’re using best practices wherever possible.
What percentage of the following do you do?
Unique, current, and keyword-focused website material that boosts your site’s search rankings Keeping your new content in front of customers and search engines with a dealership blog and articles on major automotive blogs
Continual meta title, description, and keyword management and updating can help you accurately describe the content of your website to readers and search engines.
Using site indexing, managing the navigation, and customizing the sitemap
Although this is simply the tip of the iceberg, utilizing these guidelines as benchmarks for your SEO performance will undoubtedly put you on the correct path. Additionally, as Google continues to improve its comprehension of user intent, it will assist in preventing your websites from becoming BERT fatalities.
Avoid buying into the hype that BERT is poised to drastically change your SEO, but also avoid dismissing it as irrelevant. Like any significant search update, it helps to be as knowledgeable as you can about the change, but in the end, adhering to tried-and-true best practices still prevails.
Your marketing will go smoothly if you do that and ask the pros for assistance to prevent you from becoming overwhelmed.
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