Have you ever wondered why when you search on Google, they know what you’re looking for? Or maybe you’ve been trying to improve your own SEO and want to know how Google uses NLP.
NLP stands for Natural Linguistic Processing. This is the science behind how Google understands what users are searching for and how it can improve its algorithm updates. They use NLP in their algorithm updates just like BERT and MUM.
NLP is a pretty neat concept. It’s what allows Google to understand that when you search for “apple phone” are you actually referring to the computer company or are you actually looking for the fruit? If it’s the latter, they can helpfully suggest other options like “Google Pixel Phone.”
In order to do this, Google uses various NLP tools and processes to understand what people are asking for when they type in certain words or phrases into their search bar.
Here’s a rough overview of NLP and how it’s used by search engines.
What is NLP?
Natural language processing is a fancy way of saying that computers can understand human language. What does that mean? It means that computers can process text, spoken words, and other inputs and understand them in the same way humans do—they can read it, hear it, and understand its meaning.
It’s not just that you can use your voice to control your GPS system or talk to Alexa. Natural language processing also enables computers to respond intelligently to your needs.
For example, if you ask Alexa for directions and she has never heard of the place you want to go before, she might provide some helpful suggestions based on what she knows about similar places or places you’ve been before. She might even be able to find an alternate route if she doesn’t know either way—it depends on what data is available to her.
Natural language processing is an important part of businesses because it enables them to streamline their operations and increase employee productivity by simplifying mission-critical business processes.
The idea behind NLP is that everyone has their own “language” that they use to make sense of the world around them; our brains are programmed to interpret information in certain ways based on prior experiences—and we’re not always aware of this programming!
It involves listening to how people speak, looking at how they talk about things and then building up an understanding of what they’re saying based on that context.
Basically, NLP is an approach to understanding human language based on statistical machine-learning techniques and principles of neural networks. It can be applied to text analysis, speech recognition, and natural language processing.
Natural language processing is the linguistic equivalent of natural selection: it’s the reason why you and I exist.
NLP is what allows humans to communicate with each other—and the computers that we use to do so. It’s how we talk to our phones, to our assistants, and even when we’re speaking with our friends over dinner.
NLP lets us take advantage of all those years of experience that humans have had in order to make things easier for us. It also enables us to communicate with machines in ways they can understand, which is just another way of saying that it allows them to do things like drive cars or perform surgery without needing a human being around at all times!
Imagine a world where the words you said to your computer weren’t just understood, they actually made sense. Where you could ask it questions and it would understand what you wanted and try to help you achieve it. Where you could talk to your phone or computer and it would understand what you were saying and respond accordingly.
That’s the future of natural language processing!
How Google Uses NLP
The concept of NLP has existed since the early 2000s. It was originally intended as a way for computers to understand human language and respond to it appropriately.
As early as 2011, Google was already collaborating with researchers on NLP studies. At the time, the search giant itself wasn’t sure if its NLP studies would yield concrete benefits. However, it did, and Google introduced BERT in 2019. According to Google, BERT would improve searchability in over 10% of search queries. The algorithm was equipped to point search users toward answers and websites better suited to their queries.
As time progressed, however, it became evident that this was not just a tool for computers; NLP is also used by humans to communicate with one another on a daily basis. It can help us understand each other better through conversations, emails, and social media posts.
Google uses NLP algorithms to convert web pages into machine-readable topics and concepts. These topics and concepts are called “named entities”. This means that when you search for something on Google like “Pokemon Go” or “Samsung Galaxy S9+” then you are actually searching for named entities like Pokemon or Samsung as opposed to specific words like “Pikachu” or “galaxy s9+.
The algorithm was designed with the sole purpose of helping Google better understand and process queries on its search engine as humans would. Elements of language like context, tone, phrasing, and specificity can be better processed using NLP frameworks.
SMITH is the latest update to Google’s Natural Language Processing (NLP) algorithm. The new algorithm improves on its predecessor, BERT, by improving the processing power of its underlying algorithms.
BERT analyzes the meaning of individual words along with how they fit into the context of a sentence. SMITH takes this capability a step further by improving the processing power of its prototype.
How to Use Natural Language Processing for Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Google’s newest Search Quality Rater Guidelines, released in January 2018, have changed the way we understand search engine optimization. Google’s new algorithm, called BERT (Bing-Elevated Result Trust), is built on machine learning, which means it’s constantly learning from millions of user searches to help Google better understand what users want.
The more data Google has on how users are searching for information, the better its algorithms can be at delivering that information.
With this in mind, you should always consider NLP when performing any kind of SEO—it will improve your chances of ranking higher on search engines and ensure that you’re providing relevant content to your users.
Here’s what you can do:
- Instead of thinking about keywords, think about topics. It’s important that you are through with your topic, making sure that your visitor would not want to go to another source.
- Utilize Ubersuggest. This platform is an SEO tool that is freely accessible to everyone who wants to specialize in generating new keyword ideas. Make use of the AI writer available on the platform, but do remember that it would not write a whole article for you. But using this could save you half the time it actually takes to make one piece of content.
Natural Language Processing (NLP) is one of the most important fields in search engine optimization.
It’s a big part of why any website can have Search Engine Rank (SERP) visibility.
Search engines, like Google and Bing, are interested in understanding the language used on your website so that they can better understand how to rank it for certain terms.
The more specific you can make your content, the better. This is where NLP comes in. The more specific you make your content, the easier it will be for search engines to understand what you’re trying to say and rank that content higher for relevant searches.
