RankBrain is an artificial intelligence (AI) learning-based Search Engine algorithm, the first usage of which was revealed by Google in September 2021. It helps Google to better process search queries and deliver more relevant search results to users. In an interview, Google clarified that RankBrain is the third most significant factor behind natural search rankings and backlinks. According to Google Senior Staff Engineer, David Bailey, the main goal of the new RankBrain is to make the Google experience better for its users.
The implementation of RankBrain is based on two main components – a generic keyword suggestion tool and a knowledge area. The keyword suggestion tool is the first component. Google’s keyword suggestion tools use a number of diffe
rent factors to suggest popular search terms and related web pages. For example, if you specify the name of a business, the tool may suggest relevant businesses, subtopics, and industry categories. Webmasters can then use the suggested keywords to rank their web pages in these categories.
The second component of RankBrain is the knowledge area. As mentioned above, the knowledge area includes a list of entity queries, including the text associated with each entity, anchor texts used to link to these entities, and meta descriptions, to name a few. The notion behind ranking algorithms such as those used by Google is to find those entities that are most relevant to a user’s search queries, and to rank them accordingly.
What does this mean for your optimization efforts? It means that if you want to optimize your website, you need to use both of the RankBrain components. You need to optimize your web pages in the knowledge graph, since the suggested keywords will likely be low in density until you start to get quality inbound links. You also need to optimize your text and anchor texts using the Knowledge Graph to promote those entities. This will help you achieve a little higher ranking than you are right now, since the suggested keywords and links will likely drop off at some point.
What about the Quality Score component of the RankBrain algorithm? The quality score is an unknown factor used by Google. Many experts believe that Google uses the quality score to determine how relevant a page is to a query, but that is just one of the many theories. Regardless of whether or not Google uses the quality score to rank pages, you can be confident that it has been included in RankBrain, as it will certainly affect the way you rank in SERPs.
In short, RankBrain aims to make it easier to optimize websites by removing the complexity of common SEO tasks. Its result is a simpler ranking signal, which should make it easier to rank for relevant queries. Although RankBrain may not completely remove the complexity of SEO, it will most likely improve the process of finding relevant queries. If you wish to optimize your website, you may want to take a look at the RankBrain and see whether or not it can make your work a bit easier.
