Making It To the Top of Google: Understanding Ranking Entities in Search Engine Optimization
In the process of optimizing pages for Google's SERP, Google keeps improving the search engine’s understanding of natural language.
In this article, we will look closer to what it takes to make it to the top of Google and take a closer look at the meaning of ranking entities.
Building content that lasts
There goes quite a lot of analysis into working and succeeding with SEO. The steps to take before you can rank on the first page of your desired query should be supported by data analysis. Whether you already are deep into algorithms and natural language processing or this is the first you have ever heard of SEO, I will give you some insight into building stones necessary to create a successful website.
When your analysis is complete regarding the search intent you are looking to fulfill, then the next natural step is to look at the content production. But writing website texts today is nothing like writing a plain article or random description of your product.
No, you have to be careful to understand the context of the text that will represent your product. Think of your website's text features as good ambassadors that inform your user (and thereby Google) on what they can expect. But how do you build a successful communication structure for this?
Think hubs
Before you put pen to paper, you might want to take a closer look at the user's related search queries to this topic. In which state of mind are the users finding themselves? Comparing products? Asking about product features? Or reading in-depth user guides and product reviews? Start by implementing a structure that helps both users and yourself.
The “content hub”-structure is one way to do this (and in my opinion the best way). Whether you are a shop that sells shoes or dog food, your users will be interested to know more about that product and the context of the product. Whether it is a blog about the latest fashion tips or a guide to caring for your pets.
Blog content is a great and inevitable way to reach your user segment today. Therefore you should create a few ‘core’ or ‘pillar’ pages, where you focus on a relevant and broader topic like fx. ‘dogs’ if you are a pet shop. This pillar page then contains a table of contents on ‘niche’ areas that relate to a dog: breeding, owning a dog, walking and exercising, feeding, grooming, etc.
The pillar page serves as an overview page of finding the questions users need answering. The niche or ‘cluster’ pages then contain in-depth information on each subtopic. The relation between the pillar and cluster pages serves as both a great user experience and provides you with a strong internal link structure between pages. The structure pillar/cluster becomes very clear for pages that are built as blog universes. Here the pillar page for fx. a sports site consists of a main topic, like an ‘exercise and training’-landing page, where the cluster content is the actual blog posts discussing different subtopics on sport in relation to the main topic.
How Google ‘reads’ your site
When it comes to writing the actual content it can serve the writing process to understand how search engines ‘read’ texts and make meaning of them. This is where the concept of ‘entities’ becomes relevant. For search engines to gain an understanding of what words mean, definitions have to be ascribed to the word/words.
Entities are both well-defined and distinguishable, meaning that they are defined to a very specific understanding. To make this more simple, someone like the former president Barack Obama is defined as an entity with what we already know about him:
Processing the information using entities, Google can map up entities with other entities. Fx Michele Obama is defined by her husband, Barack Obama, as the former First Lady and so on. Using the logic of entities Google can understand many complexities of natural language. This is why context is an essential part of making sure search engines understand what you are trying to communicate. Also, it is by using context you can make it to the first page of Google.
Ranking for a smarter SERP
Google has over the years improved the user experience on the SERP by understanding user queries. Often this results in new featured snippets, where Google can provide users with insights before they even click on the result. Based on search queries regarding entities such as “top movies 2020” Google is mobilizing these entities for a greater experience using the carousel feature:
The carousel feature is only one of many that shows us the ability of search engines to understand language and content. Google is becoming more aware of semantics and context to provide the best search results, and so should you!
Final thoughts
Thinking SEO in a 2020 context means having a greater understanding of your customer segments and the natural ways in which content is provided to them. Google is becoming smarter with each new update and natural language is the way to go if you want to make it to the first page of Google.
If you are interested in knowing more about Google’s BERT algorithm read my blog post on the effects of the BERT update on content marketing.
Impacts of Google BERT update on SEO
By now, everybody wants to be aware of Google's new update. The BERT update was introduced by Google with an intention to improve search accuracy. This has been said to be one of Google's most critical releases of the year. The SEO community has been polarized since the start of this upgrade.
BERT reportedly concerns 10 per cent of search queries. This is a very big number, and on a daily basis, millions of requests are made. Google originally introduced this upgrade with a goal to better understand natural language processing. So, how does it affects your SEO?
Let us understand what BERT is exactly before understanding its effects on SEO.
What is Google BERT?
For those who have not yet heard the news about the current version of Google's search algorithm, here is a short description of what it is and how it operates!
BERT stands for Bidirectional Encoder Representation for Transformer. This sounds very vague and confusing. So, let’s understand it in an easy way.
BERT is the latest version of Google's algorithm, which is more focused on understanding the search query's purpose better. BERT lets Google better grasp the whole sentence in order to provide more precise answers to the searcher instead of looking at the user's question word by word. This update marks a big step forward in Google's search to learn how people think.
Should you change the way to do SEO?
The way you do SEO, there is absolutely no reason to change that due to BERT. You must also ensure that best practices and standards are practised all along. If you have a good framework for your keyword analysis and content development, there is nothing to think about.
While you hear quite a lot of arguments and chatter about the BERT update, but from the side of website owners, nothing changes. Many people who write web content should turn their interest into precise keywords for consistency and appropriate content backed by enough research. BERT adjusts which category of content to show for a query which covers to preserve the search efficiency.
What are the effects of BERT on SEO?
BERT can impact certain search pages. Therefore, if you see your pages are performing badly during the analysis, BERT causes that surely. Nonetheless, you may need to do some more work on that. Let me show you an example and give you an insight into how it works.
Suppose you find traffic to one of your sites has fallen dramatically over the last few months. Finally, you insert the query in Google and see that the highest quality ranking now stands for blog posts.
If you see want a successful SEO, you might think of repurposing it to take over the position in the top ten. That is because the type of content that should be delivered to the user for this particular question may have changed by BERT but the SEO method will be unchanged.
The chance of BERT impacting the webpages is insignificant and no alerts or warnings are needed right now. You need to be sure that your search efficiency is tracked regularly.
Below are a few important points to remember from the BERT update.
1 BERT is giving extreme significance to informational queries
Despite considerable importance, information queries tend to have more complexity than transactional or navigational queries. Most of the update is cracking down on these inconsistencies to have a more clear response. BERT impacts keywords that are at the top of the funnel, which are keywords relevant to the information.
Such informative questions are processed by Google into a method called masking. In fact, when you type a word in the search bar that describes something, Google investigates the word for any missed letter to find out what the user really is searching for in the process. Google would then try to give you the correct answers, even if the letters or words of the question were incorrect or not found in the query.
2 BERT focuses on long-tail keywords
Shifting the attention on long-tail keywords and questions is what you expect from the BERT update. It is more than just maximizing the keyword density of your text. The challenge is to provide searchers with straightforward answers to questions about exactly what they have asked in the search bar.
What you should do is to give laser-focused answers and organize the content around unique questions. The structure of your content is very important in this regard. You wouldn't want to go through a huge piece of material when you're searching for basic information and discover what you're searching for on the website.
You should aim for a super-concentrated content that answers the questions of searchers straightforward. While it is not new in the SEO universe, BERT just seeks to advance it.
3 Longer Content has not much importance in BERT
When we get wrapped up in statistics from all around the world, we continue to assume that, usually, long content is favoured. But, with any new change, inevitably, this notion becomes a pure delusion.
We can't say, however, that making shorter, more succinct material in SEO is a specific reality. It all depends on your question. Wide questions such as "what are the various types of Facebook Ads," or "how to implement LinkedIn ads" would take lengthier and more detailed content. But basic queries such as "What is on-page SEO" or "what is a backlink" do not need a long material.
The key here is to provide true information that provides searchers with a reasonable yet clear response.
All in all
One of Google's old-age advice was making professional content by thinking about the user in your head. You may have noticed longer content being rated, but according to the recent BERT update, more value is added than the duration of the content rating.
Content developers will also ensure that they keep track of digital media changes and put in the new website design requirements and improved rankings.
If your attention is on getting importance and information to your target market, there will be no problem will with any new update from Google. We can finish by suggesting that if you can produce outstanding content that addresses the pressing questions of your target customer, then you don't need to customize it for BERT.
If you see the performance of your blog, a specific web page, or website is going down, you may need to rethink and implement your SEO strategy as soon as possible. Use this complete SEO tools to make your SEO best performing and result oriented.
The most important things in BERT update
So, you keep hearing that Google recently reported a significant algorithm update, BERT. But you are wondering if this update is worth spending time learning. Well, I'll tell you now. BERT will affect 10% of searches and improve search results for everyone. Web experts were comparing it to the release of RankBrain back in October 2015. If you are an SEO professional, this update is likely to affect your website. Well, if it doesn't right now, it will with the growth of traffic on your site. But before we delve into how this update will impact SEOs, let's try understanding it first.
What is BERT?
BERT is an acronym for Bidirectional Encoder Representation from Transformers. This means that Google has made some modifications to understand Natural language Processing. In some ways, BERT is like RankBrain because it also has a machine learning algorithm. Thus, like the AI-based system, its target is to understand queries and content on a webpage better. Without BERT, Google wouldn't understand search queries or content that is human-like. You can observe that today Google understands more conversational based or natural language. So, if asked, what is BERT? It is an algorithm that helps Google understand the context of words in searches. It also helps match search queries to more relevant results.
Should You Worry About the Update?
Well, this is dependent on the type of content you have been creating on your website or blog. Sites that have been focusing on the keywords risk losing rankings in search results. But, if you have invested in providing content with real value to the user, there is no need to worry. So, why endanger your rankings when you can get an expert essay writer from Essay Zoo to craft an essay for your website? With such professionals, you even get a chance to boost your rank in Google Search results. But only time will tell. To be on the safe side, write your content with intent or seek help.
Google Discusses Algorithm Update
Nayak , a Google fellow and VP of Search blog, discusses how BERT models are useful in searches. They describe BERT as a technology that allows users to train their individual Q&A system. BERT models look at a word in relation to others within the sentence. Thus, the google Bert update considers the context of a word within a sentence. It checks other words before and after the word in question to understand what a user intends to say. So, they improve the accuracy of results in search queries.
Why it matters
This update is a big deal, and you should care about how it will impact you or your business. Let me tell you why.
- First, it will affect 10% of all searches. SEJ asserts there is a high chance it affects your website traffic.
- This Bert update also improves Google search to understand more of natural language
- Finally, it will help the search engine understand the context of words in a search. Thus, user queries are better matched, and they get more relevant results.
How Bert is changing SEO
Experts assert that BERT updates will have impacts on SEOs, but they won't be so significant. Bounteous points out ways that the BERT updates can affect SEOs. It will drop rankings in search results among companies with irrelevant content. The same is true for those that have targeted unrelated keywords. There is also a lower risk for firms that started leveraging voice-enabled devices. Google's Search Liaison tweeter feed urged companies to focus on content quality. He warns, "emphasizing on content length" would drop your rankings in search results. Experts recommend hiring content writers to craft a perfect essay for your site. The new BERT updates promise to reward companies that have put a lot of thought into their content.
What Does the Data Say?
We take pride in using data to inform our recommendations to our readers. But, no data has yet collected to measure the effects of updated BERT on SEOs. It takes resources and time to gather enough data to determine the impact BERT has on website traffic. Experts from Google still maintain that optimizing BERT is through improving your content. The focus of webmasters and site owners should be on providing users with great content that can help them. So whether you are new to SEO and don't know what Bert means or you are a guru, ensure your content is of high quality.
Life After BERT
The new BERT updates should not change any of our SEO principles or strategies. As an SEO professional, you must maintain the same standards you did before the updates. They are but not limited to:
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Creating excellent website content supported by keyword research.
Find a premium EssayWritingService and communicate to your audience the way you intended. Determine the questions people are asking online using tools like answerthepublic.com. Finally, cross-reference them with Moz for your list of keywords.
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Provide answers to users in a way that users expect.
Using your keywords, create content that answers them. No matter the type of content you choose, ensure the final text is of good quality.
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Track your webpages and apps and observe your performance.
Use AI-based systems such as Google Analytics to track your site. This approach ensures you know where you are heading.
Configure your Website after BERTS
You have to perform tiny changes to your site after BERT update to earn new or maintain positions. Consider:
- Getting rid of spammy links.
- Optimize your site using technical SEO updates
- Publish amazing content. Then you will earn featured snippets.
- Match the searcher's intent with a SERP analysis.
- Target featured snippets.
The last two allow you to make the most out of the BERTS update. The reason is that it is challenging to configure your sire for the update
The BERT algorithm update is a big step for the Google search engine. In such a course, it won't be long until we have conversations with computers. The Algorithms of machine learning capabilities will ensure users only find relevant information. But, SEO professionals have to do their part to keep up with these advancements. Delivering quality content seems inevitable at the moment.