Google Rankbrain – changing how Google ranks websites

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Since the beginning of 2016, Google has been using its artificial intelligence system called Google Rankbrain to help it process search results and guide its core algorithm to deliver more relevant organic search results.

Along with good quality content and links, Google Rankbrain is one of the key areas that influence where your website will rank in Search Engine Results Pages so it is important to understand how it works so your website continues to rank high.

What Google say about Rankbrain

In a live Q&A, Andrey Lipattsev, a Search Quality Senior Strategist at Google, named the three top signals in response to a question: Links, content and Google Rankbrain.

That means the top three ranking factors, according to Google, are Google RankBrain, links and content. Andrey also stated there was “no order” when asked for clarification on the order of importance.

It appears that Google has started using Google Rankbrain but the nature of the system means it understands how it works but not what it is doing on a day to day basis.

Google’s Paul Haahr, a top engineer involved in core ranking, said many interesting things in a recent conference speech in March 2016, including that Google doesn’t fully quite understand RankBrain.

This appears to be a consequence of the artificial intelligence, machine learning approach where they system teaches itself rather than being taught by humans or using detailed programming to achieve a result. The system is learning by itself and trying to improve the match between what Google users are typing and the websites that appear in search engine results pages.

What problem is Google Rankbrain trying to solve?

If you gather a group of people together and ask them what they would type into a search engine to find, for example, a new pair of trainers, then you would expect to get a range of answers. Some may type trainers, running shoes, others may search for particular brands. If the query exactly matches the content on the web page then it may appear in the search results, however search engines have got a lot more sophisticated. By including stems of words such a shoe and shoes, run and running etc, and synonyms (different words referring to the same thing), Google does a pretty good job in matching web pages to a query so the user has a positive experience and uses Google again. Previously this matching has been done by the Google Algorithm, using many factors to match websites to queries and how high they should be on search engine results pages.

Google Rankbrain is a more automated version of what Google engineers have been trying to achieve. The system learns what people type into search results and what they choose to click on, refining and improving the relevancy of search engine results.

How should you approach writing content for Google Rankbrain

Google RankBrain is mainly used as a way to interpret the searches that people submit to find pages that might not have the exact words that were searched for. So it allows people to be less specific in their search but deliver better results.

As the system beds in, the focus on single keywords and stuffing content with specific phrases to rank highly will diminish which should make for web pages that read better.

How to accommodate Google Rankbrain in SEO

The whole point to RankBrain is to not be literal, keyword by keyword. You still need to do your keyword research and find out your target keywords, but stuffing your content with that exact phrase won’t bring the same results as pre-Rankbrain Google. You need to be focused on what Google is focused on: providing the best content in search results for searchers. RankBrain, like all other Google updates, is focused on quality for the end-user of Google: the people who search for information.