Influence on Google Ranking and SEO, What is a Stop Word?
Before a further text is processed by an algorithm, usually this stop word is removed.
Google's algorithm is constantly changing, so there are more and more tricks to maximize search there. One thing you need to understand is the stop word.
The reason is, this stop word is considered quite influential for search engine optimization (SEO) which is often the main focus of digital or content marketing.
Come on, identify what a stop word is and how it is applied in SEO and Google search through this "Ayiko" article.
What is Stop Word?
Stop words are words in human language that are not processed by computer algorithms.
Before a further text is processed by an algorithm, usually this stop word is removed.
According to Media Vine , examples of stop words in English are: a, an, the, and what.
Basically, stop words tend to have no meaning or are also prepositions, conjunctions, and so on.
Because Google also processes search keywords with algorithms, these stop words are also ignored.
In fact, usually the keywords entered contain approximately 25% of the content even though they are not related or considered by the search algorithm.
Reducing Use of Stop Word
Search engines, especially Google, are constantly evolving and getting smarter.
With its sophisticated algorithms, Google can understand stop words contained in sentences.
Even so, Google also knows that stop words can be ignored as long as the context of the sentence can be understood.
For example, with the BERT algorithm , Google can still understand a sentence even though the order of the words is slightly random or does not contain a stop word.
Therefore, the stop word is ultimately ignored in the search results because it does not represent the content contextually.
Even without a stop word, Google will still understand what the searcher means and wants to find through his search.
Like SEMrush said , stop words are words that do not change the overall meaning of a text.
However, this doesn't mean that stop words need to be removed from your content.
There are conditions in which a stop word may not be used, and there are circumstances in which a stop word is absolutely necessary.
However, stop words are words in a language that can complete or clarify sentences for human readers.
Maybe you've seen a warning to remove the use of stop words from URLs when you create content with Yoast in WordPress.
This is especially so if the content is written in English.
Well, this is an example of a condition where you can reduce the use of stop words in URLs, especially if the URL is too long.
Before doing this, see if the omission of the stop word affects the context of the sentence.
The reason is, the URL is better simple and short, because it also appears in the SERP and affects user perception.
However, still the URL must be clear and able to represent the contents of the site.
You can also remove stop words from meta tags and alt text.
Meanwhile, stop words in the content and website content are still needed.
The reason is, stop words make a sentence clearer when used for titles or writings.
It is important to remember that stop words are words that play an important role in maintaining the user experience.
Imagine reading a blog post without conjunctions, conjunctions, prepositions, and so on.
Of course it would be weird, right?
In the end, we must be careful in choosing whether the things we write really need a stop word or not, especially for SEO.
Stop Word and SEO
According to CSEO, stop words are the things that affect the ranking of a website in the SERP.
However, don't worry too much about this.
The reason is, there are so many factors that Google uses to judge how good a website is.
As mentioned earlier, stop words have an effect on user experience, and user experience is indeed one of the biggest aspects of Google rankings .
However, the assessment for user experience is not just about stop words.
Well, because there are so many influential aspects, you also have to learn a lot about digital marketing, SEO, content creation, websites, and others in more depth.