Back to all articlesGoogle RankBrain is becoming more important each day, in fact Google announced that it is Google’s third most important ranking signal. It is important to get on board with optimising your SEO for RankBrain. It is so efficient as it tries to actually figure out what you mean when you search something into Google.
So, what is Google RankBrain?
Google RankBrain is a machine learning algorithm that is used to sort search results and helps Google process and understand queries. What makes is so unique is the fact it is no longer just a hand coded algorithm, (even though human engineers still work on the algorithm) RankBrain is able to do its own thing in the background, tweaking the algorithm on its own!
Depending on the keyword that has been searched, RankBrain will increase or decrease the importance of content freshness, back links, content length and other factors. It then looks at the searchers response to the new algorithm, if they are happy with the results, it stays and if not, I will revert back to the old algorithm.
How RankBrain Works
RankBrain actually tries to figure out what you mean. It does this by matching never-before-seen keywords to keywords that Google does recognise. Google RankBrain goes beyond basic keyword-matching. It turns your search term into a concept and tries to find pages that cover that concept. The algorithm will show you a set of results that RankBrain thinks matches what you searched, if you like it, it will give that page a ranking boost. If you dislike it, it will drop that page and replace it with another and see how it performs in future when a similar term is searched.
What is RankBrain Looking at?
It pays close attention to how you interact with the results it gives you by looking at user experience signals (UX Signals):
- Bounce Rate – the bounce rate is the number of visitors who visit a webpage and navigate away from it by clicking the back button after being on one page.
- Click-Through-Rate – the proportion of visitors to a web page who follow a hypertext link to a particular site.
- Pogo-sticking – pogo-sticking is going back and forth from a search engine results page when the searcher clicks on a link on a SERP (Search Engine Results Page), sees that it’s not what she is looking for, and immediately bounces off by hitting the back button.
- Dwell Time – The dwell time is also referred to as the average time on site and shows the average time a user spends on a website.
Optimising Your SEO by Keyword Research
RankBrain works best when your optimise your content around Medium Tail Keywords. These are the middle-of-the-pack terms, they get more search volume than the average long tail. However, they’re not massively competitive either. When you optimise around a medium tail keyword, RankBrain automatically ranks you for the term you search and thousands of other keywords. It is also able to understand concepts and makes a page rank for thousands of keywords.
Optimising Your Content for RankBrain
The longer someone spends on your website, the better. This is known as dwell time and tells Google to boost the rankings of that page and if someone bounces from your site, it tells Google to drop the site down the search results page.
There are a few strategies you can use to increase the dwell time on your site:
- Push Your Content Above the Fold
- Use short Introductions
- Publish Long, In-Depth Content
- Break Up Your Content and Improve Readability
Rankbrain uses LSI Keywords (Latent Semantic Indexing)1 to give the algorithm the context it needs to fully understand your page. LSI Keywords are things like: Backlinks, Domain Authority, Email outreach, Anchor text. When Rankbrain see’s you have these included in your content, it is confident that your page is about link building and is more likely to rank for keywords related to that topic. When you use these LSI Keywords, they tell RankBrain that your content is comprehensive.
RankBrain is making Google smarter and smarter every day.
RankBrain is a form of advanced artificial intelligence that is becoming more important everyday as it is able to figure out what we actually mean, and knows what searchers are trying to find by matching similar key words and understanding concepts of what a searcher may be looking for. Optimising for RankBrain will be a significant part of increasing your SEO and your brand awareness through writing natural but relevant content.
If you have any questions or need further clarification on Google RankBrain, please feel free to get in touch with AMA. We have qualified experts who can help immediately!