What makes BERT unique? Truthfully, it’s because BERT provides “context” unlike Word2Vec, Glove2Vec, and more. Previously, I did a post on the introduction of BERT with Say Hello to BERT! and What Problems Will BERT Aim to Solve?

In order to understand how BERT improves natural language understanding, I will break it down for you.

B is for Bi-directional

• What do the previous language models have in common? They could move in 1 direction, either from only left to right or right to left. To know the context of a sentence, it uses either of the two directions mentioned.
• However, BERT is uses a bi-directional approach. A first of its kind! Now, BERT can scan a sentence as a whole.

ER means Encoder Representations

• What goes in goes out. BERT utilizes an “in-and-out” method so whatever you try to put it, BERT will decode and solve.

T stands for Transformers

• Lastly, BERT now has a masked language model (MLM), which was impossible in the past.  Before, it was hard to learn the context of a sentence. For a machine, it’s surely hard to understand the meaning of things. Previous models struggled with natural language understanding.
• For example, search engines could easily mix up the pronouns used. Who is “he”, “she”, “they” or “we” in this sentence? Machines could easily get confused on the meanings especially when multiple pronouns are involved.
• Hence, this is where the “transformers” come in handy. It will help search engines keep an eye on the pronouns and meanings whether it’s directly stated or implied. This way, BERT can quickly tell who is the receiver and sender of the sentence, and understand the context as well.
• The masked language modeling is there to stop search engines from taking the words too literally. When there’s a “mask”, BERT reads between the lines and tries to guess the missing word.

BERT in the World of Google Search

More understanding on the human language

• BERT is there to try to decipher the nuances of people: on how they speak, how they type, and how they communicate in general. When Google understands human language on a deeper level, it is a huge breakthrough for online search.

Seeks to improve conversational search

• As I said earlier, it is NOT just how humans type their queries. However, it is also about how humans do voice search.

Expand SEO to an international level

• With the English language that’s being fed to BERT, it will surely master the 2,500 million words quickly. BERT may be mono-linguistic now… but who knows in the future?
• BERT could master multiple languages and translate the English phrases into various languages. Yes, multilingual BERT could be a real possibility even if at this point, BERT can’t still fully understand other major languages. Eventually, it will come.

Solves ambiguous and confusing questions

• Currently, people are complaining how the search results are being ranked. With BERT, ambiguity is hoped to be lessened. Google can now have a better understanding at the context of words and knowledge of resolving ambiguous queries.

SOURCE: (1)

Okay, I have discussed 6 Ways in Creating an Effective SEO Strategy Using a Limited Budget (Part 1) and 3 Ways in Creating an Effective SEO Strategy Using a Limited Budget (Part 2). It’s NOT yet over though! In this post, I will still talk about how you can work around your minimal resources. Are you ready?

Fix Internal Issues First.

Focus on the insides firs. If your website has issues, no matter how you beautify it… it will still be faulty! You don’t want to waste your effort on fixing the exteriors when it’s the core that needs some repairs.

So, I suggest you do a website audit. From A to Z, scan your website for issues. This step might reveal some problems you never knew existed in the first place. To be honest, it won’t cause you a thing. You just need more time and effort to scour the entirety of your website. In this crucial portion, you need to be extremely patient and look at your objectively.

Here are some questions that could help you identify internal problems:

• Are there any website migrations recently?
• How is your backlink profile?
• Did you apply any on-page SEO optimizations?
• Are there any technical issues in crawling and indexing your website?

Once you answered these questions, then you would know if there internal problems stopping your website from making any progress. The blog posts can help you in dealing with internal issues: Why Switching Domains Can Be a Real Challenge, A List of Important On-Page SEO Elements, When Should You Request Google to Recrawl Your Website?, and How to Request Google to Re-Index a Website?

In the end, it’s highly important to fix these core issues because you won’t be able to move forward. Perhaps, back then, there was no enough knowledge to ensure a smoother transition or maybe a client insisted on retaining certain page titles and meta descriptions that aren’t working. Well, now, it’s time to fix them!

Try a Different Strategy.

Go out there and take the road less traveled. Away from the hustle and bustle of the busy industry!

Try to expand your horizons and explore your options aside from the usual Google. If you are selling products online, why not focus on optimizing your images? Start with these: 3 Platforms to Use If You Plan to Start an E-Commerce Business and 3 More Platforms to Use If You Plan to Start an E-Commerce Business.

Perhaps, you can also strengthen your social media presence. More on: Using Social Media to Improve Brand Awareness.

There Are Other Search Engines, Too!

Having said that, there are also other search engines aside from Google. Maybe you don’t have to deal with Google right away! Remember, there are Various Webmaster Tools to Use for Your Website.

It all depends on your country of origin and on your current industry focus. For instance, in the U.S., Bing 963.5 million unique monthly global visitors. Moreover, there are 12 billion in terms of monthly search volume worldwide, and 500 million in terms in the U.S. alone. This report is from Statista.com and it was published October 7, 2019.

Google might be number 1, but it does not mean Bing is that bad. In fact, the Statista data looks promising! So, maybe stop focusing solely on Google because there are people using Yahoo, Bing, or even others.

Next? 3 Ways in Creating an Effective SEO Strategy Using a Limited Budget (Part 4)

In this series of blog posts, I will teach you the things you need in formulating an SEO strategy that won’t necessarily hurt your bank account. Yes, you can still achieve success even with a limited budget. In order to create an effective SEO strategy, you have to organize and plan well.

Acknowledge your limitations.

First, you have to assess your situation. You can’t simply ignore the setbacks that lie ahead of you; a limited budget could mean you are going to accommodate these problems areas. Truthfully, this is a crucial part in developing an SEO strategy for your website. Furthermore, you have face these realities and find a way to work around it. The problems you may encounter could be any of the following:

Time Constraints

With a limited budget, of course, you won’t have time to make the necessary SEO optimizations you want to do. Plus, the tiny budget could be shared among other website plans and strategies.

Minimal Resources

It could mean that you won’t have access to the premium SEO tools out there. For one, keyword research is one task you need to do before actually adding content. Research is essential in any project!

Here are blog posts that can help you in your search for FREE tools:

• Need New Content for Your Website? These Tools Will Help!
• 3 Free SEO Plugins
• Exceptional and Free Keyword Research Tools You Need

Little Expertise

If tools are limited, then so are the available SEO experts you can grab and help you in your project. For those who cannot contact that many people, hiring a highly knowledgeable expert will just harm the budget. There could be gaps in formulating the final SEO strategies.

Insufficient Money for Assets

Well, of course, money won’t flow endlessly like a river. You won’t have enough budget to expand your skills and your team. For example, you might not be able to hire graphic designer, social media manager, multimedia editor, and etc.

Thus, it is important for you to identify what your website needs. For content heavy website, you would need an editor to proofread every published content. For an artsy website, one might need to invest on a designer to produce personalized images and banners.

Related: Ten Websites that Provide Royalty-Free Photos

Make up for the limitations.

Now that you know that the budget is limited, you can start to find other alternatives. For one, Google has free website analytics and analysis through Google Analytics.

There is also Google Trends if you need to research on the latest trends. To give you a report on the progress of your website, there are various webmaster tools that you can use.

Yes, it would definitely be tedious on your end because it would mean less automation and more effort. Don’t lose hope because there are still Things That SEO Tools Will NOT Tell You. Not everything can be solved through purchasing a high-end tool or a state-of-the-art device.

Next? 3 Ways in Creating an Effective SEO Strategy Using a Limited Budget (Part 2)

Did you Say Hello to BERT already? With BERT, search engines can now have a better understanding on how humans communicate. BERT, a new addition to Google’s algorithmic updates, will help understand natural language better. Of course, they will be things that machines won’t easily understand.

Since BERT is now in the picture, search engines hope to solve the following problem areas:

Lots and lots of words

• Since Google values content, there are a humongous pile of content out there. That would also mean, words are everywhere. How can search engines understand everything? Well, this is why BERT is created.
• With content being in every part of the Internet, words can get ambiguous. It could imply a totally different meaning. BERT aims to solve what a content is trying to impart its readers, and understanding the sentences & phrases as a whole.

Having multiple meanings

• The English language is pretty complex. Take for example, the “love” could be a noun or a verb. The search engines need to identify whether a page is taking about the noun or the verb.
• If you think that’s already bad enough, spoken English is worse because of homonyms, which are words that pronounced alike but different in meaning. For example, “read” (the past tense of read) and “red” (the color) sound the same. One needs to listen to the whole sentence to know its meaning.
• Generally, words may sound or mean different depending on the intonation, stress, and tone of the speaker. If you aren’t careful, then it is easy to misinterpret the words meant.
• Aside from that, we – humans – won’t find it a difficult task since we are born with critical thinking. As for machines and robots, these thing do not understand the context of a written article or a speech. No common sense to help them understand the given situation. Yes, this part would be a big challenge for the future technologies.

Understand the meaning behind the words.

• As words accumulate, it’s harder to understand the context. As the great American painter Kenneth Noland once said, “For me context is the key – from that comes the understanding of everything.”
• Search engines need to work double time to understand the context of the words. Of course, things should not be taken too literally. One has to learn to read between the lines. The sentence’s meaning could totally change depending on the context.
• For example, “I don’t like you to talk like that.” The first “like” means a verb while the second “like” is synonymous to the adj similar. Thus, a word’s meaning can change depend on the other words surrounding it.

The Search Engines’ Ability to Recognize

Remember, the ability to recognize is NOT the same as understanding.

NLR is not NLU; hence, natural language understanding is deeper than recognition because search engines need to understand the context. Google knows about the problems regarding natural language understanding. That is why now, they are slowly introducing BERT.

Gradually, more updates will be released for machines to adapt and understand like humans. Certainly, there are still gaps to fill. So far, Google is planning to make it a collaborative effort by making BERT open source.

SOURCE: (1)

What’s one thing that is constant even in the digital realm? Change! For whatever reason, you can’t help it if a website needs to migrate. As a citizen of the internet, you know well that changes – be it small or colossal – in the business can trigger migrations. It could be about coping with the latest technology or merely changing the direction of the business.

Why Migrations Happen?

Before I discuss what could go wrong, let’s first discuss the reason for migration. Below are the common situations:

• Changing the URL structure.
• Going from HTTP to HTTPS.
• Moving to a new host.
• Getting a new domain name.
• Combining numerous domain names.
• Using a new platform (For instance, from Wix to WordPress)

What Could Go Wrong?

Once migration goes off track, there could be various reason that could have cause this unfortunate incident. Most likely, the culprits are:

• Did not set clear goals and objectives.
• Insufficient resources because you did not plan well.
• Unforeseen changes in the design and user experience.
• Only asked for help when it’s too late.
• Did not do enough testing.
• Little to no response to the bugs found after migration.
• Algorithmic changes by Google.

Develop a clear strategy.

Migration is not always technical. First, you need to clear set your plan. Know what you want to achieve and ask yourself of the desired results you want to achieve. In reality, you just don’t migrate just for the sake of doing so.

If you want to change your domain name, assess carefully if it is needed. Will the new name help you get more customers? Does it have a good brand recall? Expect some roadblocks and detours unlike when you are just moving to a new host.

Of course, you have to keep in mind that all these changes must impact your SEO performance. You would want to have a wider online presence. However, migration will have its risks so you really have to evaluate and discuss with your website team.

Be particular and plan everything down to the last detail.

It’s important to formulate a detailed plan. To avoid hiccups, set realistic expectations and divide each task. Each member should know the scope of each task and how long it is expected to be completed.

By understanding the potential problems, you can avoid them and find ways to not hamper the business operations. For example, when there’s a Christmas break so people would be expected to shop more at this time. So, of course, you would not want to schedule serious tasks at this busy season.

Do launch your new website before the expected holidays. In the U.S., November and December are filled with festivities such as Thanksgiving, Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Christmas, and New Year’s Eve.

Never wait for the last minute!

If you need help, do it now. Never wait until it is too late for third-party firm to help you. If you think your team can’t handle it alone, then ask for SEO firms to help you.

Remember, migrations do not happen in a single snap. You might want to involve the SEO firms early on to ensure a smoother migration.

There are numerous critical decisions to be made before the actual website migration. Once these are set, it’s hard to go back and undo. Thus, it is also important to test the changes before launching them out in the open.