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.

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Visit us at www.falconconsultingandmarketing.com

7 Content Marketing Tips for Your Blog

Over the years we at Falcon Consulting & Marketing have been able to work with many small and medium sized businesses developing and nurturing their online marketing.  Besides developing the website, one of the more important aspects is writing kick-ass content that will engage your audience and be precise enough to be picked up by the search engines so your website can be ranking higher in the search engine optimization (SEO) phase of your marketing journey.   Content marketing as some would call it has become a very important aspect of the marketing strategy.   Through trial and error we have decided there are a few things that are absolutely necessary for you to do in order to eventually drive the traffic that you want to your website and eventually increase leads and sales.  Below are 7 tips that we believe are vital in writing website content:

1.  Do not under any circumstances plagiarize someone else’s work. Eventually, copying content from other sites will get you penalized with the search engines.  Try your best to spend time gathering your thoughts, researching material and write your own content.
2. When you are writing your material, do not make it too technical.  Using technical complex terms may seem appropriate depending on your particular business but most people have difficulties handling longer prose.  Try to keep the language simple and understandable to the layman.
3. I know this might sound like a high school tip, but try to use an outline of your thoughts before starting to write out your article.  The reason this will be important is you will be able to get organized and believe it or not by being organized your thoughts become clearer and many more ideas come into fruition.
4. At all costs, try not to overpromote your brand when writing your article.  The purpose of the content should be to inform your audience of something that may be of quality interest to them.  By doing so you will eventually become a thought leader in your field of business.  We understand that the purpose of the website is to promote your business but it shouldn’t be at the detriment of the reader.  Your audience will figure out what you are doing pretty quickly and you will lose that potential customer forever.  Provide them with informative content and they will appreciate you and come back whenever you have something new to offer.
5. The length of the article is important. If the article takes too long to get to the point, then the reader is likely to stop move on. Getting your article to be appreciated and insightful for your readers is a tall task for anyone and ruin your chances by having your articles being too long. The best articles have a word count between 350 and 1100 words we have seen.
6. Keywords need to be incorporated somehow into your article.  You have to be crafty and it take some effort in the beginning to craft your articles in a manner that the keywords stand out.  The reasons why keywords need to be incorporated is for the search engines can rank your article.  Having keywords and phrase will refine searches and having rich articles with keywords planted are primary tools in having your website rank higher.
7. Try to be consistent with your writing.  Try to maintain and schedule when you are writing your content.  Say if your writing on Monday and Thursday, try to maintain that schedule.  That way your audience will begin to have your routine down pat and come back more often to see what you have new on your site.

Writing content can be a glorious task for the business owner.  It keeps you abreast in everything that is new and fresh in your field that you would like to communicate to your audience.  Doing so can make you an industry leader if you can maintain a consistent stream of writing.  The problem with most business owners is that they do not have the time to invest in the research, planning and execution of writing articles.  This is where a digital marketing agency can come into play.  Hiring a company that can maintain a schedule and doing all the requisite research for you to review can be accomplished.  A professional company can also have your articles drafted and posted consistently.  At Falcon Consulting & Marketing, we have specialists that will be able to meet your goals when to writing great content and having your website reach the top of the rankings.

Falcon Consulting & Marketing is a New York City based digital marketing agency assisting small businesses one client at a time.  They can be reached at sales@falconconsultingandmarketing.com or 855-445-9530.

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Visit us at www.falconconsultingandmarketing.com