But, today, you can instantly find a good restaurant that’s nearby if you just search for the term, “Where should I go for dinner?” That’s because Google is sophisticated enough to recognize your intent or the implications of your query. However, prior to 2015, you needed to type rather straightforward queries into the search engine to find the answers you were looking for. Well on October 26, 2015, they confirmed that they updated their algorithm with a machine-learning artificial intelligence system called RankBrain. What Is Google’s RankBrain Algorithm and How Does It Work? In other words, RankBrain helps Google understand a searcher’s intent and serve the most relevant content to them. For instance, since I work at HubSpot and I’m always on our website, every time I search for marketing related topics, Google usually ranks content from HubSpot’s marketing blog near the top of my search results. Today, people rely heavily on Google to provide accurate and relevant answers for most of their questions, so the search engine needs to understand the intent and context behind every single search. This signals to Google that your pillar page is an authority on the topic. Hyperlinking all of the cluster pages to the pillar page also spreads domain authority across the cluster, so your cluster pages get an organic boost if your pillar page ranks higher, and your cluster pages can even help your pillar page rank higher if they start ranking for the specific keyword they’re targeting. If you apply the lessons learned above to your SEO strategy, though, you could adapt faster to RankBrain than Google’s search algorithm evolved after they implemented RankBrain.
Not long ago, if you wanted to find a place to eat, you needed to search for a term like “Boston restaurants”. But, today, you can instantly find a good restaurant that’s nearby if you just search for the term, “Where should I go for dinner?”
That’s because Google is sophisticated enough to recognize your intent or the implications of your query. However, prior to 2015, you needed to type rather straightforward queries into the search engine to find the answers you were looking for.
So how did Google evolve to understand their searchers’ intent and implications so quickly? Well on October 26, 2015, they confirmed that they updated their algorithm with a machine-learning artificial intelligence system called RankBrain.
What Is Google’s RankBrain Algorithm and How Does It Work?
RankBrain is a core part of Google’s search algorithm. By leveraging machine learning, it helps Google understand how specific web pages relate to certain concepts and, in turn, serve web pages that are relevant to a searcher’s query but don’t include the query’s exact words or phrases.
In other words, RankBrain helps Google understand a searcher’s intent and serve the most relevant content to them. To accurately determine a searcher’s intent, Google feeds RankBrain a massive amount of data. Then, RankBrain analyzes it and teaches itself how to serve the most relevant results based off certain search signals, like search history, device, and location.
For example, if you type the query “Where should I go for dinner?” into Google, the search engine will first pinpoint your location and detect the device you’re using. Then, it’ll use these factors to interpret your query’s intent, which Google will translate to “Which restaurants are currently open for dinner within walking distance of my current location?”, helping it serve the most relevant results to you.
Another example of RankBrain’s capabilities is how it analyzes your past search history to serve you relevant content. For instance, since I work at HubSpot and I’m…
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