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Who here has seen a noticable increase/decrease in traffic since Google BERT launched on Friday? Unfortunately it hasn't been too kind to us.

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Dani AI

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your hunch about long-tail is on point. BERT (rolled out October 25, 2019) helps Google interpret natural-language queries and prepositions, and it’s used in both ranking and featured snippets. At launch it affected roughly 1 in 10 U.S. English searches, which skews toward longer, conversational queries — exactly the kind of traffic communities like DaniWeb rely on. (blog.google) Many rank trackers underplay it because they monitor mostly head terms, which is why might not see movement. (searchengineland.com)

Quick way to validate impact: in Search Console, compare a pre/post window around Oct 25, 2019 (e.g., 14 days before vs. after). Use the query filter with a regex for 4+ words: ^(\S+\s+){3,}\S+$ (regex filters arrived later, but you can run this analysis now). If regex is not your thing, export queries and tag long-tail in Sheets with:

=IF(LEN(A2)-LEN(SUBSTITUTE(A2," ",""))+1>=4,"long","short")

Look for drops in long-tail queries containing prepositions (for, to, with, without, etc.) clustered on certain intents. This helps separate BERT shifts from other causes. (blog.google)

On January 2020 specifically for : there was notable, unconfirmed volatility around Jan 7, followed by a confirmed broad core update that ran Jan 13–16. If you were “clobbered twice,” as said, that sequencing fits. Use annotated date ranges so you do not attribute January losses to BERT. (seroundtable.com)

What to do next: there is nothing to optimize specifically for BERT. Instead, tighten pages around clear intent, answer narrowly phrased questions directly (great for snippets), and remove vague filler that muddies context. That aligns with Google’s guidance and tends to recover long-tail visibility. (searchengineland.com)

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Member Avatar for Reverend Jim

Haven't noticed any difference.

Member Avatar for Dani

My question was directed at other site owners who have insight into their analytics. :)

BERT supposedly is a big update, yet it's not triggering as such via all the top SEO tools out there (Moz, etc.). However, there seems to be some more insight into that. Apparently BERT mostly affects long tail traffic (which of course is 90% of DaniWeb's traffic), while most SEO tools and small business websites out there typically just focus on short tail. That's why it's not noticable by most people. <sarcastic>Yay us.</sarcastic>

Edited by Dani
Member Avatar for GabrielLuke

Hi, Dani hope you will all fine. I have also noticed about Google Bert and due to this update of Google my own side ranking has been disturdbed.
I also worried about it.

Member Avatar for Funrus

What about the new update from January guys ? Have you seen some differences on your side ?

Member Avatar for Dani

I’ve been clobbered twice in January. Once with the January 7th update and then again with the core update.

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