Google Artificial Intelligence Understanding Search Queries Better Than Before

What is Google BERT Update?

Google announced that they are applying BERT model to Search that can effect 1-in-10 queries. Google BERT is one the major update that will impact long search queries that are complicated due to context. Last year, Google introduced and open-sourced a neural network-based technology to understand search queries and enables anyone to train their own state-of-the-art question answering system.

What Is BERT Algorithm?

BERT is called Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers. Transformers refer to models that process words in relation to all other words in a sentence. It means that BERT models can interpret the appropriate meaning of a word by looking at the words that come before and after. This will lead to a better understanding of queries, compared to processing words one-by-one in order.

How BERT Will Impact On SEO?

There are lots of questions about this latest update specifically how BERT can impact on SEO. Google said that BERT is so complex but it will help to find more useful information so that is why it will affect both search rankings and featured snippets. For now, BERT will impact on one in 10 searches in the U.S. in English, and it is coming to more languages and locales over time.

Furthermore, Google’s BERT Update not analyzes not web pages but search queries. I think On-Page SEO becomes more important in terms of using words in precise ways. Poor content may not be helpful for this Google BERT update.

According to Google:

“Particularly for longer, more conversational queries, or searches where prepositions like “for” and “to” matter a lot to the meaning, Search will be able to understand the context of the words in your query. You can search in a way that feels natural for you.”

Examples of BERT Improvements:

Before launch this update, Google did a lot of testing and found that BERT algorithm can better understand nuances queries and connections between words. Here are some of the examples that shows how BERT is able to understand the intent behind your search quires.

When you search for “2019 brazil traveler to usa need a visa”. You can see how BERT helped Google to show more relevant result for this query. Because this search query is about a Brazilian traveling to USA, not the other way around.

Here’s another example of search query “do estheticians stand a lot at work”.Previously, Google’s systems understand the words “stand” and “stand-alone” as same meaning, which lead to irrelevant search results. Now BERT models understand that “stand” is related to the concept of the physical demands of a job, and displays more useful search results.

Search Queries With and Without BERT:

Here are some more before/after examples of queries with and without BERT that help to understand the subtle nuances of language.

With the BERT model, Google can better understand that “for someone” is an important part of this query, whereas previously we missed the meaning, with general results about filling prescriptions.

In the past, a query like this would confuse our systems–we placed too much importance on the word “curb” and ignored the word “no”, not understanding how critical that word was to appropriately responding to this query. So we’d return results for parking on a hill with a curb!

While the previous results page included a book in the “Young Adult” category, BERT can better understand that “adult” is being matched out of context, and pick out a more helpful result.

One thing to take notice that these examples are simply meant to illustrate the types of language understanding challenges that BERT helps with, but there are of course many other queries where BERT will have an impact.

Google applying BERT to make Search better for people across the world. The search giant said that understanding language is an ongoing challenge, and with BERT they are trying to make things better. Google said that they are trying to provide meaningful and most helpful information for every search query which you are looking for.

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What SEO Tasks Need To Perform Before and After Launch Website

Why is content marketing important for your business?

Content Marketing is more important than ever in the world of digital marketing. Instead of writing about your products or services, you should need to write relevant and useful content for your customers that help to solve their problems.

What Is Content Marketing?

Content marketing can be defined as a strategic marketing approach that creates and distributes valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract, retain, and drive profitable consumer action among a specific target audience. While this is a formal definition filled with industry jargon, its importance and relevance to today’s marketing landscape is proving to gain momentum. Here’s a short analysis of how content marketing has impacted marketing strategy in 2019.

When talking about overall effectiveness of content, produces approximately five times more leads than paid search advertising.

Content creation allows for the distribution of many different pathways (a whopping 434% more index pages on search engines, 55% more traffic, cost reduce 62% less than traditional marketing) all over the internet, giving customers multiple ways to find businesses. These statistics prove the importance of Content Marketing in 2019 as a powerful way to  grow online visibility.

Pillars Of Content Marketing Strategy

Judging this effectiveness can be broken down into two key factors, audience relevance and compelling storytelling. Knowing an intended audience has never been more important, especially considering 63% of marketers are creating content focused heavily on buyer persona. Still, no matter the type of audience, an overwhelming 97% of marketers converge heavily on using the pragmatic rules and strategies of marketing built around prescriptive content. A successful marketing strategy depends on four main pillars including brand positioning, value proposition, business goals, and strategic plan.

The impact of frequency around posting content is still up for debate. There is varying research that tends to confound and contradict the effectiveness of more frequent versus less frequent posting. Nonetheless, as a whole, 38% of marketers were found to stick to publishing content at least once a week, of which B2B marketers focused mainly on blogging and B2C marketers focused mainly on visual content.

However, more data is needed to determine one of the most crucial objectives in digital marketing – engagement. Looking at engagement trends from a social media perspective, LinkedIn is the clear winner with 82% audience engagement, while Twitter falls to second place with 66%. Knowing the trends in audience engagement helps to shape the structure and angle of marketing campaigns, making every marketing dollar spent retrieve a desirable return on investment.

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What SEO Tasks Need To Perform Before and After Launch Website

Want To Launch Your Website? Find Out What SEO Tasks You Need To Know?

Are you going to launch a new website to impress people? There are thousands of website get live on the internet but mostly don’t know how to optimize for organic traffic and generate business. If you’re feeling stuck and want to know what SEO tasks need to perform and why SEO is important, then this guide will help you to meet your goals.

Achieving a high search engine rank is one of the top priorities for website owners and digital marketers. It boosts organic website traffic, thereby increasing brand awareness and credibility. In addition, it also helps generate leads for your business and convert them into paying customers. It is highly cost-effective and provides several long-term benefits such as reinforcing customer loyalty and audience engagement.

As you prepare to launch your site, find out what SEO Tasks you need to know? The list will will help to optimize your site for search engines and visitors alike.

Before Launch:

Before launching your site, optimize it for search engines:

• Add a site title – Even if you’re using a logo you should add a site title, as the text may be indexed by search engines. We recommend you keep the title under 60 characters and include one or more keywords.
• Add a site description – Add a short (50-160 characters), relevant, readable description of your site. This text may appear below your site title in search results, depending on what your visitors search for.
• Add your location – Your site has a better chance of appearing in searches for your area if Google and your customers can see your location. If you have a business with a physical location, we recommend you create a Contact us page with your address and a map. Alternately, in some templates, your business information can display on your site.
• Connect a custom domain – Using a custom domain (rather than the third party URL) strengthens your brand and makes it easier for potential customers to find you in search results.
• Connect to social media – Set up social sharing to link to your social media profiles, push content as you publish it, and encourage people to share your pages.
• Add social sharing images – Social sharing images display on social media when you or someone else shares your site. Add one to represent your whole site, one for each page individually, and one for each blog post, product, and event.
• Add SEO descriptions – Ensure each page on your site has a unique SEO description. The text should be short and readable (50-160 characters), and describe the content of the page. You can also add SEO descriptions to individual blog posts, products, and events.
• Check your page and title formats – Control how your page titles appear in browser tabs, social shares, and search engine results. You can set this for page titles, the homepage, and collection items (such as blog posts or products).
• Create a custom 404 page – Customize the 404 Page with links to some of the popular or important areas of your site. This encourages visitors who encounter a broken link to stay on your site, rather than immediately going back to search results.
• Choose your blog post URL format – If you’re blogging, choose how your blog post URLs are automatically created. While you can choose any options that fit your needs, we recommend you always include the post’s title.
• Check URL slugs – It’s best to have URLs that reflect the content of the page. If you save a blog post, product, or event before adding a title, the URL slug will be a random string of characters. Check the slugs for each page and item on your site, and change any that don’t use real words.
• Ensure SSL is enabled – Confirm your SSL panel is set to the Secure setting. Sites without SSL may be penalized.
• Review your content – Ensure you’ve followed our content best practices for all pages on your site.

At Launch:

As soon as your site is launched, we recommend you:

• Verify your site with Google Search Console – After you’ve verified your site with Google, you can manage your site’s presence in Google search results and see how visitors find you.
• Request that Google index your site – This asks Google’s bots to review your site and update search results with your new content.
• Verify your site with Bing Webmaster Tools – Verify your site with Bing to manage your site’s presence in Bing and Yahoo search results.
• Connect to Google Analytics – Track visits and other reporting on your site through our built-in integration with Google.
• Enable AMP – If you have a blog, enabling AMP creates a stripped-down version of your site that loads faster on mobile devices.

After Launch:

As you add or edit content, ensure that your site stays as friendly as possible for search engines.

• Use your site’s analytics tools – Visit your site’s Google Search Keywords panel and other analytics panels, such as Other Search Keywords, Activity Log, and Traffic, to track changes to your site traffic and search engine ranking.
• Follow Google Analytics – Use our integration with Google Analytics for more visitor tracking and reporting.
• Make updates strategically – Continue optimizing your site by following our content best practices.
• Redirect changed or broken links – If you change the URL slug on a page on your site, create URL redirects to forward visitors who go to the old URL to the correct page.
• Continue updating and adding content – Updating your site frequently helps search engines see your site as the active site. One way to regularly add content to your site is to start blogging.

Content Best Practices:

As you build your site, keep in mind:

• Use keywords strategically – Include text on your site (including page titles and descriptions) that matches the search terms people will use to find sites like yours. For more help, visit Adding keywords for SEO.
• Structure your content – Structure your pages with headings to keep your text skim-friendly and help search engines navigate your content. Visit our tips for more help.
• Add alt text to images – In addition to increasing accessibility for visitors who use assertive screen readers, alt text also helps search engines identify the content of a page.
• Add social sharing images and SEO descriptions – As you add new pages to your site, give them social sharing logos and SEO descriptions.
• Give your images readable file names – Image file names may also be used as alt text. Follow our best practices when creating your image file names.
• Add tags and categories – Organize your blog posts, products, gallery images, and other content with tags and categories to help visitors navigate your site.
• Link to your site’s content – Where it’s relevant, use content links to connect the pages on your site to each other.
• Customize URL slugs – As you add pages and collection items, ensure their URLs reflect the content of the page.
• Keep your pages nimble – To ensure your site loads well, we recommend keeping images under 500 KB and overall page size under 5 MB.

Site Ranking Changes:

If you see a dip in ranking right after optimizing your site, it’s okay. It’s normal to see some fluctuations in your ranking while search engines index your changes.

If your ranking hasn’t gone up after a week or two, check Analytics to see if there are site traffic trends that might explain the dip. For example, a change in how other websites link to your site can impact your visibility. You may also want to consider updating your keywords to target different search terms.

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Why SEO Is Important For Your Online Business

Google celebrates 218th birth anniversary of physicist Joseph Plateau with a special doodle

Today Google Doodle honors Belgian Physicist Joseph Plateau on his 218th birth anniversary. The search giant celebrated the 218th birth anniversary of the physicist who invented the phenakistiscope, a device that led to the onset of cinema by creating the illusion of moving images. The Doodle is inspired by the mesmerizing animated discs, the animated Doodle art was made to reflect Plateau’s style, with different imagery and themes in them on different device platforms.

The doodle is inspired by animated discs reflecting Plateau’s style with different images and themes on various device platforms. The Doodle was created by animator Olivia Huynh and help from Diana Tran and Tom Tabanao.

Here are the early animation test for the Doodle

Google says it’s doing something unique to celebrate Joseph Plateau 218th birth anniversary. The company says it’s the first Doodle with different artwork across desktop, mobile, and its dedicated search app.

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Google Doodle Letting You Play Baseball Game for July Forth 2019

Find the best prices and places to buy with Google Shopping

Google redesigned Shopping platform to make is easy and simple for buyers where they can get all the information from websites and local stores.  So you can discover and compare millions of products, and find the best prices and places to buy online or from a store nearby.

Surojit Chatterjee is Vice President at Google Shopping, wrote in the blog that the Google Shopping experience is now available in the U.S. across mobile and desktop. Google resigned the homepage so buyers can see useful product recommendations, also help you to reorder those items or continue your shopping research. There are three options to buy online including purchase online, a nearby store, or directly from verified retailers on Google.

Track Prices of Products on Google Shopping

Do you want to track the prices of the product on your mobile? Google has make it simple for you. Now you can track prices of products on Google Shopping.

While searching product on Google Shopping and think that you need this, you have to turn on “Price Track” option so you will receive a notification on your mobile when the price of that products drops. In future Google will add the option to receive notification via email. So why not turn on price tracking feature, it will helpful for you to track the price when shopping online during the holiday season. Find out how to set the price tracking feature:

Buy Online Directly With Google Guarantee

More than 70% users are doing online shopping by using their mobile phones but due to high fraud ratio many buyers are disappointed.

But don’t worry, now you can buy direct on Google. The checkout is safe and secure so you can shop anything from thousands of stores which are list on Google Shopping. You orders are backed by Google guarantee, means that you can trust on Google’s customer support. Google said that “they will have your back for easy returns and refunds.”

So you can you buy any product from any store with confidence and find latest products which you have never seen before. If you want to buy directly on Google, see the colorful shopping cart icon on product images and in the search filters. Whether you want to buy a single product or looking for a best deal, the new Google Shopping experience makes it simple for you to stay ahead during the holiday seasons and beyond.

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Google Ads Introduced Account Map Tool to Manage Multiple Accounts

A New Layout To Drive More High-Quality Calls To Your Business

Google is going to update the layout of call-only ads which will help to drive more quality leads. Now your business’s phone number will display at the top with a larger phone icon, while the name of your business and headline will show directly below your phone number.

See the comparison of new versus previous layout:

What Are Call-Only Ads?

According to Google “Call-only ads make it easy for customers to call your business directly from mobile search results. To improve the user experience and drive more high-quality calls to your business”

As you can see in the above screenshot, the phone icon is more prominent, so it is now conformed that these ad units are call-only ads. This new look helps call-only ads stand out from other text ads, reducing accidental clicks from users who didn’t intend to make a call.

Google says that, in testing, the new design has had a positive impact on phone calls and conversions while keeping costs down for advertisers:

“On average, advertisers with the new design have seen a 14% increase in phone calls, a 16% increase in call conversions and better cost efficiencies with an 8% decrease in overall paid clicks. The new look helps call-only ads stand out from other text ads, reducing accidental clicks from users who didn’t intend to make a call.”

Call-only ads that are already in place will be automatically switched over to the new design this week. There is no additional action needed on the part of advertisers.

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Google Introducing Swirl Display Ads Format With 3D Objects

If you want to submit your website to Bing and review performance report or get access diagnostic tools, you need to verify the ownership of that website in Bing Webmaster Tools.  There are three verification options to verify your site in Webmaster Tools which are:

• Option 1: XML file authentication
• Option 2: Meta tag authentication
• Option 3: Add a CNAME record to DNS

For option 1 and 2, webmasters need to get the access of site and put verification code in the source code and complete the verification process. For option 3, users can verify website in Bing Webmaster Tools without having access the source code. According to recent announcement “We announce the support for Domain Connect open standard that will allow webmasters to seamlessly verify their site in Bing Webmaster Tools.”

What is Domain Connect?

Domain Connect is an open standard that makes it easy for a user to configure DNS for a domain running at a DNS provider (e.g. GoDaddy, 1&1 Ionos, etc) to work with a Service running at an independent Service Provider (e.g. Bing, O365, etc). The protocol presents a simple experience to the user, isolating them from the details of DNS settings and its complexity.

Bing Webmaster Tools verification using Domain Connect is now live for users whose domain is hosted with following DNS providers:

• Plesk
• 1&1 Ionos
• GoDaddy
• Media Temple

This capability will be constantly integrated with other DNS providers that support Domain Connect open standard. When adding website to Webmaster Tools, the system will automatically determine that the site is hosted on a DNS provider who has integrated the Domain Connect solution with Bing Webmaster Tools.

How To Use Domain Connect Feature To Verify Your Site in Bing Webmaster Tools?

Step 1: Open a Bing Webmaster Tools account

You can open a free Bing Webmaster Tools account by going to the Bing Webmaster Tools sign-in or sign-up page. You can sign up using Microsoft, Google or Facebook account.

Step 2: Add Your Website

Once you have a Bing Webmaster Tools account, you can add sites to your account. You can do so by entering the URL of your site into the Add a Site input box and clicking Add.

Step 3: Check if your site is supported for Domain Connect protocol

When you Add the website information, Bing Webmaster Tools will do background check to identify if that domain/ website is hosted on DNS provider that has integrated Domain Connect solution with Bing Webmaster Tools. Following view will show in case the site is supported.

In case the site is supported for Domain Connect feature, then user will see the default verification options as mentioned in  the above process.

Step 4: Verify DNS Provider Credentials

On click of Verify, user will be redirected to DNS provider site. Webmaster should sign-in using the account credentials associated with domain/ website under verification.

After successful sign-in, users can verify site by Bing webmaster tools within few seconds. In some cases, it may take longer for DNS provider to send the site ownership signal to Bing webmaster tool service.

Using the new verification options will significantly reduce the time taken and simplify the site verification process in Bing Webmaster Tools. We encourage you to try out this solution and get more users for your sites on Bing via Bing Webmaster Tools.

This new feature will help to reduce the time and steps to take for verify website in Bing Webmaster Tools. If Domain Connect feature is not supported, then users will see the default verification options which include XML file authentication and Meta tag authentication.

Bing is still continue to work for simplify the site verification process and help SEOs to easily add and verify their site in Webmaster Tools. So if you are facing any problem using Domain Connection solution, you can raise a service ticket with support team.

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Efficiently Manage Multiple Accounts with Google Ads Account Map

Do you want to manage multiple accounts and sub-accounts in Google Ads manager account? Google Ads introduced a new account map tool that helps you to visualize account structure, view each account’s performance and easily navigate to those accounts. Here is the screenshot of Google Ads Account Map.

The account map allows you to view your manager account and all sub-accounts in one place. You can quickly understand how your account is structured and see performance metrics for each account, such as impressions, clicks and cost.

This new account map tool allows you to see all manager account and sub-accounts details at one place. You can view that how your account is structured and see the performance metrics such as clicks, impressions and cost.

The Google Ad account map also help to analyze which of your sub-accounts share common attributes such as shared labels, conversion tracking, remarketing lists and external managers on the accounts

.

This new account map tool is now available for all manager accounts. You can see the aggregated performance metrics at the left side navigation. You can find account map under “Tools and settings” menu or to your Accounts page in Google Ads. Check out your account map today and see who has access to each account.

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Google Introducing Swirl Display Ads Format With 3D Objects

Pick an idea and make it happen with Google Images

Google is now revamping the Image Search Results on Desktop, make it helpful for users to see more details when previewing images. When you select an image, it will open in a right side panel on the page, next to the search results. The new side panel will help users to see more information about an image while flawlessly scrolling through other results. See the example below:

Google Revamped Image Search Results on Desktop

Google allow users to continue select images and see them in the side panel without losing track in search results. Additionally users can have quick access to to bring up the last image you clicked on. It means that users can easily scroll and compare images with others on the page.

More Context About Images

Users can get more information about the image which they’re viewing in the images. For example, when you select the image of any product, Google will show full details including brand name, price, availability, and reviews. In the related images section, it will automatically add captions below each image thumbnail.

Mike Repass is Product Manager at Google, said that this change has the potential to increase referral traffic. “For retailers and publishers, this updated interface also means people are more likely to visit a web page to get information to help them with a task, or to buy a product on your site.”

The updates is live now in image searches on desktop. Visit the new Google Images and see where your imagination takes you.

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Google Launching New Search Menu Bar Interface

There is no doubt about that Google is continuously updating and make a lots of changes in Search Ranking Algorithm. I am seeing some early signs of Google Search Ranking Algorithm Update on 1st August. Some SEOs and webmasters are chattering about this unconfirmed update at WebmasterWorld thread.  Here I like to share some screenshots that what SEOs and Webmaster are saying:

There is no doubt about that Google is continuously updating and make a lots of changes in Search Ranking Algorithm but some updates are confirmed officially like “March 2019 Core Update” but there were many updates which are not confirmed such as December 15th 2018. So from till now Google has not confirmed any core update today but who knows.

Search Engine Monitoring Tools Tracking Google Algorithm Update:

MozCast:

SERP Metrics:

Algoroo:

Advanced Web Rankings:

AccuRanker:

RankRanger:

Cognitive SEO:

SEMRush:

I will suggest to all SEOs, Webmasters and Site Owners that keep monitor your daily traffic in Google Analytics and manually check your Keywords Ranking. If you see any changes please share it here.

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Google Search Ranking Algorithm Update On 1st April