Cracking Google’s RankBrain AI
To get your site to rank as highly as you can on Google, the most widely used search engine by a huge margin, you must understand exactly what the algorithm looks for and what factors have the biggest impact. Remember, Google is dedicated at every turn to end users searching for information, theorizing that they’ll continue to use Google if they can find what they’re looking for quickly. By focusing on these end users, you can crack Google’s RankBrain AI and position yourself for success.
To get started, let’s focus on two different factors that heavily influence RankBrain.
Click-Through Rate
The Click-Through Rate (CTR) helps Google determine what results are relevant for given search terms. The rate at which a user selects your site tells Google that the human user deliberately chose that link for those search terms, making it — to that person — the most relevant link on the page. A site that often occupies this space is one worth ranking fairly high because it has something to offer the user.
Is this a perfect science? Perhaps not, at least in a one-time event. A user could accidentally click on your page or get confused by the page title and believe your page is relevant when it is not. But this is why the rate is truly important, as looking at the overall statistical picture helps to eliminate some of that noise and show the consistency which accurately points back to relevancy.
Dwell Time
This brings us to the second point, which is Dwell Time. This is the time that the person spends reading the site after clicking on it. The longer this time period, the farther Google moves it up the search results.
Dwell Time is so important because it means that you have relevant content that actually connects with the user and provides value. Again, that is Google’s main goal. It also weeds out some of the accidental clicks and other human errors. If the Dwell Time is exceptionally small, it may mean that the user never meant to click the link to begin with. Google takes all of this data into account.
The End Result
As you can see, the key to cracking Google’s RankBrain AI with your content lies in crafting professional content for end users, not for Google itself. The site understands user reactions and utilizes this information to determine where sites should rank. If you have excellent content with a high CTR and a high Dwell Time, a high page ranking will follow.
