Google’s Search Dilemma: The Battle With ‘Not’ & Prepositions via @sejournal, @MattGSouthern

While Google has made strides successful knowing idiosyncratic intent, Director & Product Manager Elizabeth Tucker says circumstantial queries stay challenging.

In a caller occurrence of Google’s Search Off The Record podcast, Tucker discussed immoderate lingering symptom points successful the company’s efforts to lucifer users with the accusation they seek.

Among the apical offenders were searches containing the connection “not” and queries involving prepositions, Tucker reveals:

“Prepositions, successful general, are different hard one. And 1 of the truly big, breathtaking breakthroughs was the BERT paper and transformer-based instrumentality learning models erstwhile we started to beryllium capable to get immoderate of these analyzable linguistic issues close successful searches.”

BERT, oregon Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers, is simply a neural network-based method for earthy connection processing that Google began leveraging successful hunt successful 2019.

The exertion is designed to understand the nuances and discourse of words successful searches alternatively than treating queries arsenic a container of idiosyncratic terms.

‘Not’ There Yet

Despite the committedness of BERT and akin advancements, Tucker acknowledged that Google’s quality to parse analyzable queries is inactive a enactment successful progress.

Searches with the connection “not” stay a thorn successful the hunt engine’s side, Tucker explains:

“It’s truly hard to cognize erstwhile ‘not’ means that you don’t privation the connection determination oregon erstwhile it has a antithetic benignant of semantic meaning.”

For example, Google’s algorithms could construe a hunt similar “shoes not made successful China” successful aggregate ways.

Does the idiosyncratic privation shoes made successful countries different than China, oregon are they looking for accusation connected wherefore immoderate footwear brands person moved their manufacturing retired of China?

This ambiguity poses a situation for websites trying to fertile for specified queries. If Google can’t lucifer the searcher’s intent with the contented connected a page, it whitethorn conflict to aboveground the astir applicable results.

The Preposition Problem

Another country wherever Google’s algorithms tin stumble is prepositions, which amusement the narration betwixt words successful a sentence.

Queries similar “restaurants with outdoor seating” oregon “hotels adjacent the beach” trust connected prepositions to convey cardinal accusation astir the user’s needs.

For SEO professionals, this means that optimizing for queries with prepositions whitethorn necessitate immoderate other finesse.

It’s not capable to see the close keywords connected a page; the contented needs to beryllium structured to pass the relationships betwixt those keywords.

The Long Tail Challenge

The difficulties Google faces with analyzable queries are peculiarly applicable to long-tail searches—those highly specific, often multi-word phrases that marque up a important information of each hunt traffic.

Long-tail keywords are often seen arsenic a aureate accidental for SEO, arsenic they thin to person lower competition and tin awesome a precocious level of idiosyncratic intent.

However, if Google can’t understand these analyzable queries, it whitethorn beryllium harder for websites to fertile for them, adjacent with well-optimized content.

The Road Ahead

Tucker noted that Google is actively improving its handling of these linguistically challenging queries, but a implicit solution whitethorn inactive beryllium a mode off.

Tucker said:

“I would not accidental this is simply a solved problem. We’re inactive moving connected it.”

In the meantime, users whitethorn request to rephrase their searches oregon effort antithetic query formulations to find the accusation they’re looking for – a frustrating world successful an property erstwhile galore person travel to expect Google to recognize their needs intuitively.

Why SEJ Cares

While BERT and akin advancements person helped Google recognize idiosyncratic intent, the hunt giant’s struggles with “not” queries and prepositions punctual america that there’s inactive plentifulness of country for improvement.

As Google continues to put successful earthy connection processing and different AI-driven technologies, it remains to beryllium seen however agelong these stumbling blocks volition clasp backmost the hunt experience.

What It Means For SEO

So, what tin SEO professionals and website owners bash successful airy of this information? Here are a fewer things to support successful mind:

1. Focus connected clarity and specificity successful your content. The much you tin pass the relationships betwixt cardinal concepts and phrases, the easier it volition beryllium for Google to recognize and fertile your pages.
2. Use structured information and different method SEO champion practices to assistance hunt engines parse your contented much effectively.
3. Monitor your hunt postulation and rankings for analyzable queries, and beryllium prepared to set your strategy if you spot drops oregon inconsistencies.
4. Monitor Google’s efforts to amended its earthy connection knowing and beryllium acceptable to accommodate arsenic caller algorithms and technologies emerge.

Listen to the afloat podcast occurrence below: