It’s no secret that Google’s search algorithm has evolved progressively over the years. Long gone are the days when simply using a word many times on your site would mean Google would rank you for that word. As we have mentioned a few times in our articles, Google’s semantic search (powered by another Google overarching algorithm called ‘Hummingbird’) utilizes contextual signals to more accurately interpret content and deliver search results that better align with what you’re looking for. One of the primary factors contributing to this is Google RankBrain.
Introduced in 2015 as part of a major algorithm update, Google RankBrain is an AI-powered system designed to enhance Google’s search algorithm by making it smarter and better understand the context of user searches.
In essence, rather than using simple words or combinations of words and then pulling up sites that match those words, Google has been able to understand your intent. Back in the day, you’d have to be pretty specific about what content is on your site to convince Google that you were relevant for a specific keyword. For example, if you were a roofer servicing Austin, Texas, you’d want to try to mention ‘Roofing’ and ‘Austin’ as many times as possible on your site so Google would read it, ‘match’ those words, then show you for a keyword like ‘roofer in Austin, Texas’, This led to ‘SEO content’ and sites that looked spammy, offered bad user experiences, yet ranked high in Google.
Using AI to get you the correct answers
With Google RankBrain, everything changed. Using AI and natural language processing (NLP), Google is now able to read beyond simple keywords and understand what you’re looking for. For example, let’s say you search for something like ‘What’s the name of that movie where bad guys hijack a plane and the American president needs to fight them off?’ In the old days, Google would likely show a ton of results that wouldn’t give you a good answer, since it would be scanning websites, looking at words such as ‘guys’, ‘bad’, ‘fight’, ‘plane’, etc, and give you a lot of varied results based on who mentioned those words. Although you’d likely get your answer eventually, it would be surrounded by a mess.
With RankBrain and AI, Google understands what you’re looking for. It can ‘connect the dots’, realizing you’re asking for the name of a movie, where the plane is likely the US president’s Air Force One airplane, and his fighting implies it’s an action film that takes place on that plane. Naturally, it can assume you’re asking to find the name of the adrenaline-filled 1990s blockbuster, ‘Air Force One’, and show you relevant, helpful results. Mission accomplished.
How does Machine Learning work?
Machine learning, which gives systems the ability to ‘remember’ data and build on it, is paired with NLP to really start to understand how we communicate. It uses other factors such as search result performance (how long people stay on a page after clicking on it from a search result) to start to understand if the content it shows is actually helpful. The more it does that, the more it learns what people want and provides them with the right answers. Pretty cool right?
One of the main benefits that has come from this AI-driven search algorithm is much-improved search results, including showing searches that are never or rarely ever seen. Since Google better understands content, it discovers more pages out there that can be relevant to search queries. This opens up the opportunity for other sites to rank, businesses to grow, and users to get the information they actually need rather than being fed things that have been overly optimized for SEO.
How does Google RankBrain Affect SEO?
So what does this mean for SEO? Well, for one, it means the old tactics of keyword stuffing and writing a ton of low-quality content are over. Google doesn’t need to be told 100 times on your site that you offer a specific product or service. It needs you to provide honest, helpful information that matches what your clients may be searching for.
For almost 10 years now, Motoza has focused on producing higher-quality, user-friendly web experiences for our client sites, rather than the traditional methods of keyword-focused on-page optimization and link building.
To adapt to the modern age of search, here are a few things we’ve changed in our SEO strategy:
- Rather than focusing on stuffing a keyword onto a page as many times as possible, we focus our attention on providing actually useful content about that keyword. The type of content your users would appreciate, and that makes sense to be there.
- Providing a user journey experience that makes sense rather than being focused on getting Google to rank your site. Google doesn’t need to be spoonfed information anymore; it can read your site the same way a user does, understand what it’s about, and rank you accordingly. If it works for the user, it should work for SEO.
- Linkbuilding, which can be quite controversial depending on how you conduct it, has become much more content-focused. Rather than trying to build as many links as possible via low-cost directories and spammy methods, we build high-quality links from relevant partners that signal to Google ‘you’re trusted by others in your vertical, you’re relevant, and your content is useful’.
- Improving the overall experience so that people can easily access the information they need, without disturbance. Since Google likely uses signals such as bounce rate and time on site to determine the relevance of your content, focusing on this component has become increasingly important for SEO agencies. Get clients the information they want as soon as possible.
While it has admittedly made SEO much harder than in the past, the benefits far outweigh using the old tactics still employed by a vast majority of ‘SEO firms’ out there.
The Future of Google and AI Search
Google has been implementing machine learning, NLP, and AI-driven technologies for almost a decade now. In the past two years, however, AI has completely taken off. As more conversational AI becomes standard and AI optimization becomes a necessity, it will be very interesting to see what the search experience looks like in the years to come.
If you have doubts over whether your site and brand are positioned for the new era of search, reach out to us. We’ll be happy to discuss our thoughts, how we’re adapting, and what may be the best route for you to take to move your marketing to the next level.
