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In case you haven’t heard yet, Google announced a few weeks back that it has made several artificial intelligence updates. These new additions will impact the way the search engine handles queries.
Here are some important things you need to know:
Finding Relevant Content
The new AI algorithm update called “Passages” is expected to affect approximately 7 percent of search queries and is intended to help Google better understand content in sections of a webpage. This is an update from just understanding a page as a whole.
The update will rank “passages” on existing webpages, rather than creating a separate index for individual sections of larger pages. In other words, the algorithm will now be able to find information that pertains to a user’s query specifically -even if it’s surrounded by irrelevant information.
Although this is meant to help Google better understand content that is not well structured, it’s also important for content creators to understand. They must still use titles and headings to help the search engine find relevant information and Passages may even increase competition as more pages will now be able to rank for a query – even if they are not optimized for the keyword used in search.
Another update they announced, similar to Passages, will apply to video content. Google will now analyze videos to figure out what each section of it is about. Users will be provided search results that take them directly to a specific part of that video which is relevant to their query. This change is expected to affect 10 percent of searches and may impact the way content creators produce and organize videos.
Understanding Language
BERT, a technique that Google uses to understand words in context, was originally used in only about 10 percent of searches, but now it will be used in nearly all queries submitted in English. The change is expected to deliver better results for users. In addition to this, Google announced it will use an algorithm to also understand misspelled words. That change is intended to help the search engine figure out a user’s intent, even if it is not expressed as clearly as it could be.
Finding Information on Subtopics
In an additional move to help better understand what searchers are looking for when they enter a query, Google also said it will use neural nets (computing systems similar to biological neural networks in the brain) to help understand subtopics related to a general query and provide more diverse content results. This change will make it harder for businesses to rank for broad keywords but will help companies that optimize their content for more specific subtopics.
Providing Statistical Data
In yet another AI update update announced by Google, the company said it is using natural language processing to figure out if a statistic (data) would answer a user’s question. If so, Google will find a statistic in the Data Commons Project and display it directly in the search results as an answer. It will also give users the option to view other relevant information.
Get Help with SEO
Search engine optimization is complex, and it isn’t getting any easier! If you’re trying to manage a business and focus on sales or customer experiences, it can be difficult to make sense of these recently announced changes. We can explain how these updates may affect your business and design an SEO strategy that suits your needs. Contact us today!
