The artificial intelligence from RankBrain orders search queries by converting its known data into hypotheses and generalizations and applying these to the respective input. As it is constantly being fed with new data, this means that its conduct is always changing. This means that Google is not working with weekly updates performed by people, instead, they are working increasingly with real time calculations from self-learning systems. Given that the algorithms were already only partly understandable, this now makes the dynamic and personalized AI SEOs even more difficult.
The role of artificial intelligence in SEO is outlined below under the respective headings. There is one thing that you need to bear in mind when it comes to SEO: everyday AI is gaining new knowledge, relating to the quality of a website, from user experiences and signals. These are then applied to future rankings. Google knows where a user clicks, which links they use, how long they spend on a page, and how likely they are to react to an advertisement. The following points could be helpful when it comes to SEO:
1. User signals are highly relevant: It’s no longer all about clicks. What is now also crucial is things like time spent on page and, according to some studies, social signals. Four things are truly decisive:
- Time on site: This is the average amount of time spent on a website
- Bounce rate: This includes both very brief visits to a site as well as visits that only involve one page being viewed.
- Click through rate (CTR): Refers to how often ad banners or sponsored links are clicked on.
- Social signals: Social signals are likes, shares, and comments on a website or a website’s content. They are an important indicator for the popularity of web content.
2. Semantics versus keywording: RankBrain was originally developed in order better understand longer and previously unknown search queries. The result is that Google is getting better and better at interpreting searches in everyday language and the respective intentions of these searches. This shows that with Google, semantic phrases are becoming more and more important, whereas classic keywording is losing importance. Hence, when it comes to achieving a good ranking, it is the quality of the website’s content and its relevance to the user, which is becoming more decisive.
3. Google recognizes user satisfaction: Google evaluates user signals in order to rate the quality of a website more precisely than was done by search algorithms prior to RankBrain. For this reason, it makes sense to focus on a greater user friendliness. The key to such improved ‘usability’ lies in comprehensible texts and intelligent link building. The loading speed of a page is also decisive for user satisfaction and the length of their stay on the page. The navigation menu is crucial as well – both users and any AI need to be able to find their way around easily. In short, it is not just flawless content but also technical perfection that is demanded.
4. Promote inter-divisional online marketing: The larger a company is, the more it will invest in their online presence, the bigger their team of online marketers, SEO people, social media specialists, usability managers, and so on. If you want to be able to react effectively to innovations in the field of artificial intelligence, then all of these parties must all be pulling in the same direction.
While the rankings are getting more flexible, the good news is that this hasn’t made too much of an impact on search engine optimization. It has been a long time since pure keywording has been the only standard for successful SEO. In the last few years, the industry has made user satisfaction one of the main focuses; at the end of the day, the target audience should want to visit the website frequently.