What is Rankbrain and how it affects SEO?

Since the beginning of internet marketing we have wondered what affects a company’s ability to be seen on the search engines.  It was easy to manipulate rankings in the dawn of SEO but now it is becoming more complex.  Google has put in safeguards in order to prevent internet marketing professionals from “rigging” the rankings.  Google has indicated to Search Engine Land that there are more that 200 factors that are used in the Google algorithm.  These factors also have over 11,000 variables that must be considered when measuring the algorithm.

Recently Google has confirmed the top 3 factors in determining the rankings on Google.  The three most important factors are.

1. Content- as we have articulated in many of our articles, content is king.  It is important not to skimp on quality when writing on your blog.  Google is now looking into not just hitting the necessary keywords but whether the material is valuable.  It is important to now take your time and research the material you are to write about.   Although you may be in a technical field, it is always important to write for the everyday man.  Keep sentences and phrases simple and easy to understand.
2. Link building- These are links pointed to your site.  Link building involves several sets of skills in that you have to be a content creator, salesperson, and psychologist if you want other people to consistently link to your site.  It is an arduous process for many and that has led to black hat methods.  Methods such as spamming has become prominent in the last few years but now Google has cut down on the practice by penalizing websites that use such methods.
3. Rankbrain- Rankbrain was thrust upon the masses in October 2015 as one of Google Hummingbird’s key algorithmic factors. It is Google’s evolving AI that helps refine search results and deem the most relevant pages.  Rankbrain attempts to find patterns among keywords and resolve issues with unclear queries.  It also looks for compelling content and determines how relevant it is for the particular search.  This means that writing valuable content is becoming necessary if not mandatory.  The days of keyword stuffing and having fluff articles will be less significant to Rankbrain and because it is an learning AI, it is always looking for material that answers the queries directly.

So what does this mean for content marketing and SEO?  From the 3 major factors it looks like Google has been making major attempts to curtail abuse by black hat SEO companies.  The best and legitimate way to increase your rankings and have a successful SEO campaign is to write valuable content.  Writing content that has long term benefit to the user is more beneficial than writing on current developmental news.  Of course, it surely doesn’t hurt in the short term to write about current trends in your business niche.  Especially if your company is involved and referenced in it.

Google is making it much more difficult to manipulate rankings.  The only way to legitimately have a successful SEO campaign is to invest in valuable content.  You can do that by doing the work yourself or hiring an in-house person to assist with your content marketing needs.  This can be become pricey to bring someone on and if you should decide to do it yourself, you will be spending plenty of time away from managing your core business.

In light of this it can be beneficial t0 work with a digital marketing agency that understands all of the factors that affect SEO that will be updated with new trends that will affect your online marketing campaign.  Falcon Consulting & Marketing is a digital marketing agency that can help any business with these needs.  We are a New York City based digital marketing agency that assists businesses one client at a time.

https://falconconsultingandmarketing.com/rankbrain-affects-seo/

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