How well does Google Search recognize related words?

Google’s representative – John Mueller, regularly attends video conferences specifically held for webmasters. At these meetings, the expert not only responds to pressing questions from the audience but also shares important SEO insights and significant innovations. During the latest gathering, a considerable amount of time was devoted to discussing how well the mechanism recognizing synonyms in Google Search is fine-tuned, and the role of humans in this process.

During a working meeting, Mueller was asked how the search engine recognizes synonyms – is the process implemented automatically or are specially trained individuals simplifying the task by connecting correlational links between words? It was clarified that the regulation of all procedural moments is carried out automatically; thus, in the attraction of “live labor,” there is no necessity whatsoever.

Mueller voiced a personal opinion on this account: “As far as I am informed, the rationalization of synonymous arrays is supported by mechanisms that effectively replace manual labor. Creating targeted groups that would be engaged in forming a synonym table – a totally ineffectual solution. To process and organize the entire volume of data would have taken years, if not decades.”

It is crucial to understand that the Google system processes around 10-15% of entirely new search queries weekly. Even if a person were to exert maximum efforts, they wouldn’t be able to analyze even half the material.

In answering the posed question, Mueller referenced one of Google’s engineers, specifically Paul Haahr. In 2019, the mentioned specialist participated in a video conference where he elaborated on how the synonym search system operates. Mueller recommends young webmasters to watch the recording since Haahr engages in modernizing the schema of synonym organization, making it clearer or less ambiguous, and shares genuinely useful insights in the video.

Additionally, Mueller emphasized that an automatic system does not always function flawlessly; sometimes errors occur when forming commands with subsequent transformations in action. For this reason, Google does not completely disregard the mechanism of feedback. Support works at the limits of possibilities; qualified specialists process each inquiry from the user, considering client feedback to eliminate arising deficiencies.