RankBrain Googles New Content Ranking Algorithm

In the early days of search engine optimization (SEO), website owners focused on keywords and phrases specific to key search engine queries. However, as Google continues to improve its algorithms to understand context and quality, focusing only on keywords is starting to decrease rather than increase website rankings. Recognized as a leading artificial intelligence (AI) technology company, Google recently announced a new ranking algorithm called RankBrain, which uses AI to return more precise results to its users. Out with Old SEO The common way website owners target search engine queries is to find related keywords and phrases used by potential customers. For instance, if your company sells widgets, a search engine user could search using the phrases â€Å"red widgets,† â€Å"widgets,† or even â€Å"red widgets on sale this month.† The longer phrase is referred to as a long-tail phrase. These long-tail phrases are less commonly requested, but a few thousand searches a month could bring in a few hundred leads. Using a list of several keyword phrases, a site owner could create articles and content that focused on these phrases. Writers were required to include them in certain areas of the content such as the first paragraph, title and subheaders. The idea was that Google gave more authority to sites that used specific keywords in certain sections of content. But constant focus on keyword phrases instead of on users’ interests caused an issue called keyword stuffing. Website developers were so focused on keyword phrases that their content was no longer readable. This became a huge issue with early SEO efforts and so Google was forced to create algorithms that detected keyword stuffing and devalued it. In time, Google fine-tuned its algorithms and released a large update named Panda. Panda helps Google’s algorithms find low-quality content and lower that site’s visibility. Panda made history for SEO, because site owners could no longer overlook quality and were forced to improve their content with emphasis placed on reader value. The Introduction of RankBrain Although Panda dramatically improved results for search queries, Google still had issues providing results for obscure requests. The company’s Hummingbird release was an attempt to better understand voice commands and is thought to be a catalyst for RankBrain. RankBrain attempts to better understand obscure queries and return results based on the context and readability of a website article, landing page or blog post. For instance, take the term â€Å"orange.† A user typing the word into Google could mean the color, the fruit or possibly a company or band. RankBrain attempts to understand what the user really wants whether it’s the fruit, the color or something else. The signals Google uses to understand user intention aren’t known. Google is very secretive about its algorithm’s quality signals, but the company continues to tell website owners to focus on users and not on bots. Still, it’s difficult for webmasters to let go of old SEO efforts that originally brought them high-volume traffic. RankBrain is currently being used for the 15% of search queries that have never before been requested. Since these queries aren’t used frequently, Google’s regular algorithms aren’t able to identify user intent or relevant results. RankBrain is therefore an attempt to remedy this problem and deliver optimized search results for these original requests. What Webmasters Should Know for On-Page SEO Google often tests its algorithm changes in the wild. If results are satisfactory, the company releases the algorithm change to affect all search engine results. For this reason, site owners should prepare for a major shift in search engine results with regard to long-tail phrases rarely used. The following are some rules to incorporate into your SEO strategy to avoid any unnecessary hits to your search engine rankings. Avoid Keyword Stuffing The first rule is to tailor your content for your readers. Having keyword phrases in mind while writing doesn’t hurt, but you shouldn’t focus solely on keywords. This leads to keyword stuffing and can trigger Google’s low-quality filters. Keyword density is a common SEO myth. Google has never endorsed a specific keyword density rule and the company has always said to focus on the user experience. When you only focus on keyword density, your content will likely suffer. The answer is to write content naturally and from an authoritative perspective. The writer should ideally be a subject matter expert making it easier to create unique, useful, quality content that generates backlinks and increases search engine rankings. Don’t Auto-Translate Content Having content in multiple languages can help drive traffic to your site from different countries. However, one common mistake is to use Google Translate or another online translator to convert content from one language to another. This often ends up backfiring when the translation is off and the content consequently appears butchered. For instance, if your content is in English and you want to target Spanish speakers, hire an English to Spanish translator to interpret the content for you, rather than attempt to use an unpredictable online translator. Google’s algorithms have gotten much better at detecting auto-translated content. Now when auto-translated content is detected, a filter is put on the site. In really bad translations, it can sometimes trigger manual review. When a Google reviewer determines that content is auto-translated, a site can either be completely removed from the index or artificially pushed down in the search engine results. Best Practices Google actively monitors site engagement; therefore, you should mainly focus on engaging your users to avoid poor search visibility. If you target phrases unrelated to your content on the page, your users are likely to bounce quickly once they see that the content is irrelevant. Google algorithms catch these behavior patterns and reduce the site’s visibility accordingly. With RankBrain, Google should be able to identify unrelated site content and phrases even easier. Site owners with good content shouldn’t be worried as long as you regularly reevaluate all site pages for quality and engagement. If content isn’t authoritative and well-written, it should be rewritten or removed. If you need help developing original quality content for your site look to the expert writers at Constant Content.