What is User-Focused Optimization?

User-focused optimization is an approach that is critical to understand in SEO (or search engine optimization.) This article covers what user-focused optimization is and what Google’s BERT is. SEO Design Chicago has experts who can help you with all of your user-focused optimization questions.

What is User-Focused Optimization?

If your business’s website contains useful information, you might think that it should rank high in the search engine’s results. However, another question you should ask yourself is, “what do users think?”

User-focused optimization refers to the user’s experience of your website. This is also sometimes referred to as Website UX. You need to create a memorable user experience in order for the user to view your content and eventually buy your product.

There are several ways to produce effective user-focused optimization:

Boost Page Loading Times

If your page takes too long to load, your audience isn’t going to want to stay on your page. Your page should take less than a second to load. One way to accomplish this is to keep your content short and relevant.

Organize Your Content

When organizing your content, you need to remember the importance of quick, relevant content. There are several ways to organize content, such as use of shorter paragraphs, subheadings, bullet points, and relevant links.

Follow a Minimalist Format

If your website contains a lot of information and looks too busy, it can overwhelm your audience. If you follow a minimalist format, it helps your audience navigate easily and helps them find information quickly. SEO Design Chicago can help you get started on your website’s content organization.

Follow Proper Font Psychology

Font sends messages to your audience, as weird as that sounds. Font size and style say a lot about a brand or business. Do your research on font psychology to find out how your font speaks to your audience.

Remember Color Psychology

Colors are similar to fonts in that they send specific messages to your customers. You might find that a lot of social media platforms use blue, such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. There is a reason why they all stick to blue. When deciding on your brand colors, do your research on what you want your company to say.

These are a few tips to help you improve your user-focused optimization. You might think that you know everything you need to know about search engine optimization. However, SEO is constantly changing. But there are some aspects that stay the same, such as the importance of meaningful keywords. Google has some changes for optimization that have been in the works for a few years now, but will need to be understood for 2020. With technology constantly changing, user-focused optimization in 2020 is a concept that is critical to understand. Google recently released an AI update called BERT.  

What is Google BERT?

The name BERT might be new to you. That’s largely in part because not much has been said about it. BERT is still a relatively new concept for 2020, even though it has been several years in the making. 

BERT, also known as Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers, was developed by Google in 2018. It is a technique for neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) pre-training.

One of the goals of BERT is to improve search engine results. BERT helps Google understand natural language better than before, mainly, conversation search. BERT is more likely to give you the results you expected than before. As of October 2019, Google has started implementing BERT in the United States.

BERT isn’t just a Google algorithm update, but a research paper and machine learning natural language processing framework. Google’s BERT is a natural language processor (NLP) framework that can get better at natural language understanding over time.

Most of the BERT information online is not about the BERT update. Instead, most of the information is research papers explaining how BERT is being carried out.

BERT has been worked on for more than a year, and Google has only influenced one in ten English search queries within the United States. However, this is only the beginning of what Google has in store for BERT. Google plans on extending BERT to other places and languages as BERT progresses. 

BERT Google Al

Google BERT is a Google update that is powered by AI (artificial intelligence.) BERT has big implications for marketers. What BERT does is help Google understand the context around its users’ searches.

BERT uses AI to process each word in a Google search in relation to other words in the sentence. Previously, to BERT, Google would process sentences word-by-word. The goal is to improve search engine results. BERT is more likely to give you the results you expected than before. As of October 2019, Google has started implementing BERT in the United States.

Google’s BERT is a big improvement from the last update. You might have found that in your searches there are minor keywords (such as “to”) that Google might not have picked up on before, but those are the keywords that are critical in your search. With BERT, those types of common words in your search can provide you with a more relevant result.

How Does BERT Work?

The B in BERT stands for bidirectional. Previously, language models that came before BERT were uni-directional. In other words, they could only move in one direction to understand a word’s context. Because BERT is bidirectional, BERT can see the whole sentence on both sides of a word contextual language modeling and all of the words at once.

The ER stands for encoder representations. This means whatever gets encoded gets decoded, so it’s an in-and-out mechanism. 

The T stands for transformers. In the past, one of the issues with natural language understanding models was not understanding what context a word was referring to. Search engines struggle to keep track of when you say it, they, he, she, etc. What BERT does is it keeps track of these words and ties them together to keep track of the context.

What Does BERT Have to Do with Me?

You might not have noticed any changes at all with Google’s algorithm update. That’s because these types of updates can come and go without anyone noticing they’ve changed. Currently, BERT is being used on a small sample size, as Google is learning more on what to fix and change, and once Google figures out all of the bugs, they will start to roll out BERT to the overall population. BERT is still an ongoing process, so improvements on BERT will continue to happen for a while. 

If your business’s SEO is important to you, you’ll be happy to know that SEO and well-written content isn’t much of a bother with the BERT update. Because of how long Google has been working with BERT, there isn’t much to worry about with SEO, as long as you’ve been creating quality content.  

However, if you are using a website that hasn’t been updated in several years, now is a great time to edit it, especially where the goal of BERT is to provide their users with more accurate search results to give them the results they are looking for.

How Can BERT Improve My Search?

With Google’s new update BERT, there are several way the update can improve your search results:

• Word problems: BERT is designed to aid with solving ambiguous phrases and sentences that have many words with various meanings.
• A word’s context: A word has no meaning on its own unless put in context. In other words, a word can change its meaning when put with other words in a phrase or sentence. It is the words around the identified word that gives it meaning. One example is the word “like.” Depending on how you use it in a sentence, the meaning of “like” can change–it can be a verb, noun, and adjective. When used on its own, a search engine would have to show all of the various usages.
• NLR or NLU: NLR (or natural language recognition) is not understood. In order to understand a language, you need to understand the context and common sense reasoning. It is easy for humans to do this, but not as easy for machines. NLU (or natural language understanding) is not structured data, which helps to disambiguate. For example, a machine might not have the easiest time trying to interpret a Shakespeare passage.

BERT and Optimization

SEO is important to your business, so you might be wondering if you should (or can) optimize your content for BERT. The answer is probably not. There is little that can be done in regard to SEO and BERT. However, they both require quality content. BERT’s purpose is for better understanding. That means it doesn’t judge content–it understands what’s out there. In other words, BERT will better understand what is relevant to a search that it might not have picked up on before. For more information on how BERT will affect your SEO, contact SEO Design Chicago today!

Ready to Improve Your User-Focused Optimization?

Now you know more about user-focused optimization and how Google’s BERT affects your content, and you are ready to use its techniques for your business. SEO Design Chicago has trained SEO experts who are ready to help improve your user-focused optimization.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. What exactly is user-focused optimization and why does it matter for my website?

User-focused optimization refers to the user’s experience of your website (also called Website UX) and focuses on creating a memorable user experience that encourages visitors to view your content and eventually purchase your products. Even if your website contains useful information, you need to ask “what do users think?” rather than just assuming it should rank high. User-focused optimization is critical because it directly impacts whether visitors stay on your page, engage with your content, and convert into customers. It’s about making your website work for real people, not just search engines.

2. What are the key elements I need to focus on for effective user-focused optimization?

The main elements include: boosting page loading times (your page should load in less than a second); organizing your content with shorter paragraphs, subheadings, bullet points, and relevant links; following a minimalist format to avoid overwhelming your audience; choosing proper fonts that align with your brand psychology; and using appropriate colors that send the right message to customers. For example, many social media platforms use blue (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn) for specific psychological reasons. Each element works together to create a seamless, intuitive user experience.

3. What is Google BERT and how does it affect my website’s search performance?

BERT (Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers) is Google’s AI-powered update developed in 2018 that helps Google understand natural language and conversational searches better than before. BERT processes each word in a search query in relation to other words in the sentence, rather than processing words individually. This means Google can now better understand context, including minor but critical keywords like “to” or “for” that were previously overlooked. As of October 2019, BERT has been implemented in the United States and affects about one in ten English search queries.

4. How is BERT different from previous Google algorithm updates?

BERT is bidirectional, meaning it can see the whole sentence on both sides of a word and understand context from all directions, unlike previous uni-directional language models. The key improvements include: better understanding of ambiguous phrases and sentences with multiple meanings; improved contextual understanding where words change meaning based on surrounding words (like “like” being a verb, noun, or adjective); and enhanced natural language understanding that helps interpret complex or conversational queries. BERT essentially helps Google think more like humans do when interpreting language.

5. Do I need to change my SEO strategy because of BERT?

There’s little you can or should do to specifically optimize for BERT. The good news is that if you’ve been creating quality, well-written content, BERT shouldn’t negatively impact your SEO. BERT’s purpose is better understanding, not judging content – it simply helps Google better understand what’s relevant to a search that it might not have picked up on before. The best approach is to continue focusing on creating high-quality, natural, conversational content that serves your users’ needs. However, if your website hasn’t been updated in several years, now is a great time to refresh it.

6. How can BERT actually improve my search results and user experience?

BERT improves search in several ways: it solves word problems by handling ambiguous phrases with multiple meanings; it understands a word’s context since words change meaning when combined with other words in phrases; and it enhances natural language understanding which helps interpret complex content that might be difficult for machines to understand (like literary passages). This means users are more likely to find exactly what they’re looking for when they search, and your content is more likely to be shown to the right audience when it truly matches their intent.

7. Should I be worried about BERT affecting my website’s performance?

You probably haven’t noticed any changes from BERT, and that’s normal – these algorithm updates often come and go without anyone noticing. Currently, BERT is being used on a relatively small sample size as Google continues learning and fixing bugs before rolling it out more broadly. BERT is an ongoing process with continuous improvements planned. As long as you’ve been creating quality content and following good SEO practices, BERT should not negatively impact your website’s performance.

8. How do user-focused optimization and BERT work together?

Both user-focused optimization and BERT emphasize the importance of quality content that serves real user needs. While user-focused optimization focuses on the technical and design aspects of user experience (page speed, organization, visual design), BERT helps Google better understand and deliver your quality content to the right users. They complement each other because BERT can better recognize well-written, contextually relevant content, while user-focused optimization ensures that once users find your content, they have a positive experience that encourages engagement and conversion. Together, they create a more effective, user-centered approach to SEO.