RankBrain algorithm and its importance in future

DotNek Software Development 13 minute(s) read

Last updated: Jan 25, 2021

Google search engine is constantly trying to provide more complete algorithms and are more similar to human intelligence to be able to rank websites on the search results page as accurately as possible and websites with richer and more useful content and information for users. The RankBrain algorithm is one of these algorithms.

What is Google Algorithm?

Google algorithms are computer programs which have mathematical functions and formulas that analyze and categorize the contents of websites with the help of Google crawlers. Google's goal of doing this task is to deliver the most appropriate result to the user. Plus, Google has introduced many algorithms, including FRED algorithm , Friendly Mobile algorithm, Hummingbird algorithm, payday loan algorithm and several other algorithms, until now. Rank Brain algorithm is the one which causes a huge change in the field of website optimization in a Google search engine results page . In this article you will be completely acquainted with this algorithm.

What is the RankBrain algorithm?

The RankBrain algorithm optimizes search results based on user behavior, and the Google algorithm is based on continuous learning. In other words, this algorithm is responsible for ranking using artificial intelligence. This algorithm was released in the spring of 2015, but was not announced until October 26 of that year, releasing it caused a huge change.

Imagine that you search in Google search engine to meet one of your needs, after viewing the search results page, you usually click on the first website that is displayed. In fact, this website that you clicked on has the first rank in the search results page, but with a brief look at the content of the website, you will notice that this website is not suitable for you and doesn’t contain the answer of your question, so you will quickly leave the website and search again for the same title. At this point Google algorithm realizes that the website does not have the needed application for you, if this happens again by other users, Google decides to change the website ranking according to user behavior.

On the other hand, the opposite may happen and the website that has a lower ranking on the search engine results page, will be popular among users, by analyzing user behavior, the site rank will change and get closer to the top of the search results page.

Naturally, Google has not described exactly how RankBrain works yet, but by document analysis we can realize that this algorithm pays a lot of attention to UX signals, which are generally a function of two algorithms, dwell Time and Click Through Rate , which we will discuss more detailed below.

RankBrain continuously performs complex and high performance searches for the right answers and provides you with the best results so that you can give comprehensive answers to all your questions as quickly as possible.

What is artificial intelligence?

Artificial intelligence, unlike natural intelligence that is seen in humans and animals, is existed in machines that has no consciousness or any emotion. Also, the whole purpose of artificial intelligence is to enable computers to be able to understand and respond like humans.

Machine learning is one of the applications of artificial intelligence and causes the tool to learn automatically and can create good experiences for users. Machines are able to predict content by analyzing patterns and recording repetitive behaviors of users and give the best answer to users.

What are UX signals?

Behavioral patterns are measured by a Google search engine to determine whether a user is satisfied or dissatisfied with your website, and as we mentioned, two of the most important behavioral metrics are click-through rate (CTR) and dwell time.

How does the RankBrain algorithm use the Dwell Time factor?

First you need to know what Dwell Time is. The amount of time a user enters your website and returns to the Google search engine page and clicks on another result or searches for another title is called Dwell Time.

The longer the retention time, the more likely the user is to reach the goal that they are searching for, so the more valuable the site is to Google, the shorter the user stays on a website, the more meaningful it is, it means that the website has less valuable content, which according to an internet research, 3 minutes and 10 seconds, is the average time that users spend on a valuable webpage. Dwell Time is used to rank a website on the search engine results page

- The effect of this factor on RankBrain:

Given that now you are familiar with the dwell time factor, then it is time to understand that how this algorithm uses the dwell time factor to optimize the website, Google RankBrain algorithm points to this part and considers that if a user spends a lot of time on a page after clicking on a website, it is likely that the content of that page meets his/her needs and has valuable and rich content. As a result, this page can get a better position in Google results, and over time by repeating this event, the position of valuable pages in Google rankings will improve, and pages that have less dwell time and do not contain valuable content have lower rankings in the search pages.

How does the RankBrain algorithm use the Click Through Rate (CTR) factor?

- First you should know the definition of Click Through Rate.

Click-through rate is defined as the percentage of visitors who click on your website link in search results, or in other words, it is known as the number of users clicks on your site divided by the number of times your page is displayed to users.

- The effect of this factor on RankBrain:

When numerous users click on a website that is displayed on the search results page and this happens repeatedly, the Click Through Rate increases and Google perceives that the website has attracted a lot of users, so it gives a high ranking to the website , therefore more users are attracted to it.

How to influence RankBrain and take the advantage of it?

In order to reach a high ranking and ultimately a high website traffic , the website must pass the RankBrain algorithm filter, but the question is, how can we use this algorithm to achieve our goal?

Put yourself in the user's shoes to understand what they are aiming for and realize the purpose behind each keyword, so that we can respond to the user's needs and get more traffic.
- After the user clicks on the site, by providing content as much as possible, valuing the content and answering all possible questions of the user that are related to the topic. We should make the user spend a lot of time on the website and answer all of their questions so, the user doesn’t need to search again and read other contents, finally repeating the same act by users will raise the site to a high rank.

Changes that RankBrain has made to the website ranking by Google:

Before the release of RankBrain, Google algorithms had to constantly modify and manipulate their formulas and mathematical algorithms to determine the ranking of each website on the search results page, and these formulas which were used to rank websites were fixed until the release of updated version. The algorithm may be updated, but with the release of this algorithm due to the fact that, it is a part of Google’s core, search results are constantly changing and the ranking that a website gets is not permanent, and it changes.

It should be noted that the RankBrain algorithm has been constantly developing since its release and has undergone significant changes.

In October 2015, when the algorithm was released, it was only able to affect 15% of search results. In 2016, this algorithm developed a lot and was able to affect all search results.

Over time, RankBrain identifies more points about user behavior, the relationship between the words searched by users, and more, and gains more ability to rank websites better

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In general, Google algorithms are computer programs that have mathematical functions and formulas and with the help of Google crawlers analyze and categorize the contents of websites, these algorithms are becoming more applicable day by day, and ultimately Google's goal for doing this, is to deliver the most appropriate result to the user, so that the user leaves the website which he had clicked on, with complete satisfaction. After reading this article, you know for sure what you should do to optimize your site due to the existence of algorithms such as RankBrain.