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Monday, 02 December 2019 11:03

How The Google BERT Update Impacts Denver Search Engine Marketing In 2020

The search engine industry is always in a constant state of change. Out of all the top-tier search engines, Google is definitely the top change-maker. Every so often the search engine giant releases broad updates to their system. In late October of 2019, Google released yet another impressive update called BERT. Since then, the entire update has officially been rolled out internationally in over 70 languages. We wanted to discuss this update as it can have some vast implications for your Denver search engine marketing campaigns.

What Is BERT?

BERT is an acronym for Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers. Talk about a jargony mouthful! The name might be confusing, but this update is incredibly beneficial for Google. Essentially, BERT is an algorithm update to help Google better understand natural language.

The algorithmic intricacies of BERT are far too complex to discuss here. All you really need to know is that BERT leverages machine learning and natural language processing to better understand search queries. With this update, Google will be able to better understand linguistic nuances and the context of words in searches. This ultimately helps the search engine match queries with more helpful and more accurate results.

It is estimated that BERT will impact at least 10% of all U.S. English searches. This impact makes it one of the largest algorithmic updates in quite some time. If even just 10% of Denver searches are affected, then this algorithmic update could drastically impact Denver search engine marketing campaigns. Many businesses in Denver rely on search engine traffic for their continued growth and success, so let’s examine what it means for your business.

How BERT Stands To Impacts Denver Search Engine Marketing

2020 is practically here, which means the next decade of search engine marketing is on the horizon. If you hope to see success through your digital marketing strategy, you can’t ignore this update. Let’s dive into how search engine marketing strategies may need to be adjusted.

BERT and SEO

Language is confusing, ambiguous, and occasionally messy. We love to use prepositions, words with multiple meanings, and syntactically correct sentences. Take the following sentence for instance: “Rose rose to put rose roes on her rows of roses.” This sentence can feel lexically ambiguous, however it is grammatically correct. Most search engines will undoubtedly have trouble understanding this sentence. BERT is a step in the right direction to correct this communication problem.

BERT is really a stepping stone towards a more conversationally driven search engine. The update aims to connect the searcher intent more accurately with the best and most helpful organic search results. More and more people are searching in conversational ways, thanks to the rise of personal voice assistants. Your Denver search engine marketing strategy needs to reflect that shift in consumer behaviors.

When compared to other search engine updates, many SEO experts agree that the BERT will have a minor impact on most business websites. However, BERT might have a more significant impact on your Denver business if:

  • Your website has a surplus of irrelevant content.

  • Your business has a multilingual presence online.

  • Your company has begun to leverage voice-enabled devices.

BERT is a clear signal from Google that the search engine space is moving towards a more voice-oriented future. This search engine is paying more attention to prepositions and pronouns in searches, so you need to as well! If you want your Denver search engine marketing strategies to succeed, then you need to make adjustments now.

Start converting your site content to be more conversational! Orient your content to address searcher intents when possible. Focus on the immediate actions that people will take in local Denver searches. You can find more actionable insights by examining your related keywords in Google webmaster tools.

BERT and PPC

The best Denver search engine marketing (SEM) strategies are always two-tiered. Your SEM needs to emphasize both search engine optimization (SEO) and pay-per-click (PPC) advertising. While BERT mainly affects organic search, the update can greatly influence PPC in Denver as well. It has become much more important to adopt the best practices of intent-based search.

The BERT update will make organic search much more adept at addressing people’s needs. Your search engine ads will now appear alongside more accurately curated pieces of content. If you hope to compete against these pieces of content, your ads will need to work harder to address searcher intents.

Google will now be able to better understand and interpret all of the words in a given phrase. As we’ve stated earlier, that includes conjunctions, adjectives, pronouns, and more. To accommodate this shift, your ads need to become much more targeted. Google won’t display your ads unless it is convinced that your ads are relevant enough to appear alongside curated search results. Your ad copy and landing pages need to become more tailored towards those highly targeted keywords.

You can achieve better results with your Denver search engine marketing campaigns by routinely auditing your organic search results. You can find some keyword insights and critical searcher behaviors from those audits that could improve the performance of your paid ads.

The dominant search engine is getting smarter, so you need to adapt to how it changes. Your Denver business can make the most of the BERT update by adhering to these key takeaways:

  • Generate ads that account for all the words of specific search queries.

  • Tailor your ads to be more targeted for conversational phrases.

  • Strive to address searcher intents with your ads.

Achieve Better Results From Your Denver Search Engine Marketing Campaigns

As a small business owner, you shouldn’t be expected to have to keep up with every search engine update. You already have plenty of other tasks to take care of, so why should you add on SEM to your responsibilities? At FiG Advertising + Marketing, our search engine marketing specialists are well-versed in the best practices for SEO and PPC. We stay up-to-date with the latest SEM trends and search engine updates so that you don’t have to. Our team will work tirelessly to ensure your SEM campaign delivers the high-quality results that you want.

Do you want your next Denver search engine marketing campaign to be a great success? Contact FiG Advertising + Marketing today to learn how we can benefit your business.

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