How to Set Your Content Strategy for Google BERT 2020

Hey Folks, 2020 is coming up. Are you ready to cope up with the new wave of marketing? Google just released the most significant update of their algorithm history (for me, every update is the biggest one). It’s Google BERT update 2019 in how Google understands the search queries.

Billions of searches processes in Google every day. Around 15% of search queries are new to Google among them.

So Google built a new system by which they can filter out the most relevant and useful result for every search query.

NLP (Natural Language Processing) is the core element for this BERT update.

What is BERT?

BERT stands for Bidirectional Encoder Representations for Transformers. This paper introduced two models which are –

• BERT base – 12 layers (transformer blocks), 12 attention heads, and 110 million parameters.
• BERT Large – 24 layers, 16 attention heads and, 340 million parameters.

To understand how the BERT mechanism in-depth, please check this article.

BERT uses a Transformer to understand and breakdown the search queries. The transformer has two mechanisms includes an encoder and a decoder. Using the encoder, BERT read the text and user intent. And with the help of decoder, it produces the best prediction for that specific search query from the available context on the web.

When anyone searches for something on the web, Google has to present the most effective and relevant results to them. No matter what and how they put the word or phrases in the query. 

Google can understand the user intent behind each search query. And present the result based on the full context. 

That’s why it becomes essential to set your content for the user intent as well, not for the keywords only. 

How will it create an impact on SEO?

Google BERT update is very similar to the Rank Brain. By using BERT, Google will not present only the most relevant results as well as it will create an impact on featured snippets.

Currently, it creates a substantial impact on the English search result where the majority content exists. It will create and change an effect on other languages over time.

After the BERT update, the pages which are heavily optimized for the SEO purpose only are started losing the rank. Content which covers most of the search answers and user intent will overtake the positions. So it’s a significant change in the SERP world. Specifically, the changes are notable for the affiliate content.

So it’s high time to re-optimize your existing content or to set a new structure for your overall content strategy. 

How to set the content strategy for Google BERT?

In one word, the best strategy to create content to satisfy the user intent. Period…..

We have to focus on SEO optimization. But that’s not the priority anymore. First, write the content for the audience. Then optimize it for Google.

Here are a few factors you should consider while writing or optimizing your content –

• Technical Optimization

Besides all fundamental and technical points, there are few issues we should recheck now. Make sure the website security is enabled. HTTPS counts as one of the ranking factors for Google now. Optimize your site for mobile properly. Mobile-friendliness is another key ranking point. Make sure your website load faster. Check if there any crawling issues or any redirect issues exist in your site. Fix all the redirection or 404 error now to get the best result.

• Optimizing Existing Content

If you want to keep your SERP or to win over again, then optimize your content for the users along with the Google bot.

Perform a content audit to find the keyword gap with your competitors now. Find the differences between yours and top-ranked pages. Work on it, fix the gap, and see the results.

You can use Google NLP API or other third-party tools like SEMRush Writing assistant to improve your copy.

• Create content for the audience

Understand the user intent before creating content. Try to cover all common and uncommon answers to make your copy a perfect one for the visitors.

Use Google’s natural search result to find all the questions, list down it, and try to cover it in your content. Tools like AHREFS have the feature to generate a question-based keyword based on the core niche. 

So it’s time to create content for your audience. The point was always there, but this time, the effect in real-time. 

Happy Content Marketing 🙂