How Google’s BERT will affect your website traffic?

Earlier this month Google announced a major update to Google search, which will or has already affected your rankings and visitors to your website.

The change was called BERT. Which is short for Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers. Which is probably why they shortened it to BERT.

So what is Google’s BERT?

BERT is a change to the Google search algorithm that tries to understand better the intent of the search query and deliver more focused results.

What this means is, it tries to understand the actual meaning of the searcher’s query and deliver better, more relevant answers in its results.

Google has always tried to give searchers better, more relevant results and BERT is a natural evolution to obtaining that goal. There is still more to do, but this is the first giant step on the path to better understanding the nuances of language.

Why have they changed it?

Every day billions of searches are undertaken on Google and on average 15% of those searches have never been searched for, before. I.e. hundreds of millions of searches are unique.

You have probably experienced this yourself. You have typed in a search query into Google, clicked on the first few answers that come up, and if they haven’t quite answered your question, or they have missed the mark, you will try and rephrase the query to find the answer you are looking for.

Google is trying to stop this from happening, by better understanding the query in the first place. They are trying to get it right first time.

BERT understands the content of the query better by taking into account the words before and after other words, to understand how they can affect and change its meaning and relevance. Therefore better understanding the whole intent of the query.

Why is it important to me & my business?

Your website and the visitors it attracts are a key part of your digital marketing. Making sure your website is still fresh, current and performing well online is important.

This change to the way Google will serve visitors their search results can affect not only the number of people visiting your website but the quality of those visitors. For your business to continue and to grow we need to make sure we attract the right people to you.

This change can influence the number of people visiting your website from Google search. It could go up or it could go down, it all depends on the quality of the content and the amount on your website. If you have already seen a decrease in the number of visitors to your website or enquiries from your website then, please give us a call so we can take a look and help you.

By understanding how Google is changing we can adjust our digital marketing strategy and SEO efforts to optimise your website. We can get greater insight into the content required on the website to attract clients and customers and to focus on making sure the correct information is on there to appeal to your best customers.

How will it affect my website?

The first thing you may notice is a drop-in visitors to your website, which ultimately can lead to a drop in leads.

Any keyword tracking or rankings you may be monitoring may become obsolete or out-of-date and give you feedback that is no longer relevant. you will need to look at these and update them to more specific key phrases that are relevant to your business.

Let’s take a look at an example Google has published on their website:

‘Do estheticians stand a lot at work.’ Previously, our systems were taking an approach of matching keywords, matching the term “stand-alone” in the result with the word ‘stand’ in the query. But that isn’t the right use of the word “stand” in context. Our BERT models, on the other hand, understand that “stand” is related to the concept of the physical demands of a job, and displays a more useful response.

How will it affect my digital marketing?

Look at your digital marketing plan, is there a provision in there to combat this change?

You may need to write content to answer your ideal customer’s questions. Think about the questions your new customers ask you at the start of their journey with you. Do you have answers to those questions on your website? As these are the questions they are likely to ask Google.

This requires you to focus more on specifics of your digital marketing, so not only your website but your Google Ads, Facebook Ads and remarking. Make sure the words and phrases used in titles on these ads reflect your new understanding of your ideal customer.

What can I do about it?

Think of your best customer, your typical customer. If they were searching on Google, what questions or queries would they ask Google? Look at the content on your website. Does your website have content that specifically answers those questions and queries? If not, how can you get that information on there?

If you are ranking high for a generic keyword, you may be getting the visitors, which may begin to dwindle and you could be missing out on your ideal customer, by not attracting the right people to you.

Put together a content plan of missing content on your website and then work out the best way to get that content on there. Are more blog posts needed on specific niche questions or queries? Are there missing pages on your services that answer a specific query? Do you need video and transcripts?

Take a look at the websites that do rank for your key phrase or query and see what they have done to rank. Are they directory websites and do you need to be listed in them as well?

These are just a few suggestions to get started, but these are not the only ways.

Need more Help?

Xposure Creative is your leading generating partner. Our expertise, experience, technology and processes help you sell more to more for less. We can help you with a website content strategy and web development to put your website and SEO in the best place to attract the right people.

If you want to know more about our service give us a call or book a meeting online using the link below.