RankBrain is Coming

Well, actually, it’s already here and has been since 2015. Google’s RankBrain is an AI – artificial intelligence – that is learning and contributing to search results. The primary goal is to provide the user with the best quality and most relevant content in response to their query. The secondary goal is to eliminate pages that do not provide the most relevant content to a search query. Working with two other algorithms, Panda and Penguin, RankBrain and its friends are terminating pages that have unnatural link profiles and low-quality content. This three-pronged attack means that SERPs (search engines results pages) are going to be harder for Scottsdale small businesses to attain on raw content and SEO alone.

What Can a Small Business Owner Do?

It’s been rough for owners doing their own small business SEO without the expertise of a digital marketing agency. The changes to search engine algorithms have flown thick and fast, as have the changes in SEO policy. There are ways to optimize for Rankbrain on your own, but if you have not tweaked your site, blog, or other content in a while, an update may be in order so that your site is not only algorithm friendly, but secure from hackers and other hazards. Older HTML and coding can cost you in the rankings just as much as outdated SEO.

Quick Tips to Optimize

All is not lost. Scottsdale business owners needing to revise and optimize their small business SEO can find plenty of advice from Fasturtle.

1. Focus on the user, not the AI. The machine is learning about humans and how they search, so logically, creating user-facing, high-quality content is the focus. In your content, adopt a human-to-human conversational tone.
2. Think about how keywords sound. Voice search is changing how people conduct their searches. Keywords and content must be user focused. For instance, think about how someone would go about searching for a pizza place. “Pizza Scottsdale” will certainly get you a roster of pizza places, but what if you’re on the road with friends late at night? Instead, a voice search might go something like this – “Scottsdale pizza with craft brews open now.”

It’s very straightforward when you consider how humans search for what they need on the Internet. Google is the 800-pound gorilla of search engines, and all others must follow suit. Find out what you need to optimize to get that page rank and contact Fasturtle Digital.