Google’s AI: What Does It Mean for Your SEO?

While the SEO industry changes rapidly and is an ever-evolving marketing discipline, some large, overarching trends in effective SEO strategy are quite consistent. The following slide was presented by Rand Fishkin in his intro to MozCon last fall and highlights both the significant changes to SEO and the consistency in the trend of effective SEO. Namely, old strategies are getting older and quality continues to trump all.

This slide has HUGE implications for SEO strategies of large and small businesses. The direction Google is heading will likely help large businesses and hurt small ones trying to compete with national and global brands.

Think about what this slide says: These four searches (plus "dozens more") all return nearly identical results. This means that businesses must engage in comprehensive SEO strategies and no longer are able to focus on one or two specific keywords. At the very least, it increases the importance of geo-targeted keywords and quality SEO strategies.

Let's dive in and analyze the implications of the Moz study this slide portrays.

RankBrain and Hummingbird

Before we start, we need to talk about Google's artificial intelligence RankBrain and how it works within the Google algorithm Hummingbird.

RankBrain is a learning AI that helps discern the meaning of a query by guessing at similar words and phrases, which is particularly useful in filtering search results for unique, never-before-seen queries. RankBrain is a huge improvement on the old latent semantic indexing which connected synonyms and related words because, as a learning AI, RankBrain can learn and improve as it sees more unique queries and filters results to the search engine results pages.

We pay special attention to the effects of RankBrain on Google results since Google listed RankBrain as one of the top three factors in its Hummingbird algorithm.

In terms of the four similar queries in the image above, RankBrain discerns that, although the wording is different in each query, the user intent is the same across all four queries and therefore the results should be the same.

Implications for SEO Strategies

The implications for these findings from Moz are numerous and we'll focus on a few of the most important.

1- Specific keyword-catered content and on-page SEO has less of an effect

For example, a small business (like a niche tech review site) that knows it couldn't rank for a high-volume, general keyword such as "best mobile phone," might try to rank for a specific, longer-tail keyword such as "best high-quality mobile phone" in hopes of capturing a part of the queries for best mobile phones.

But this study shows that most related searches return identical results which means that the little guys will consistently get beat out by large websites that have expansive content filled with many different versions of a set of keywords.

Old strategies such as "make sure your keyword appears in the first paragraph" or first two sentences and title, etc. aren't likely to afford you any positive results. Rather, you simply need to make sure that your topic, which obviously will be related to the keywords for which you want to rank, is in the first paragraph (and title)–which isn't SEO strategy as much as it is basic good writing.

2- Quality content is better best

Duh.

I almost apologize for even bringing up the subject of quality content as though this is "breaking news" on the "cutting edge of SEO" and not something that's been practiced by the best SEOs for the better part of this millennium.

But I still consistently come across SEO strategies that tout grey, outdated SEO tactics and/or talk about quality content as though it's the new thing.

The best SEO, and certainly the SEO that will help you filter through RankBrain and rank in a Hummingbird algorithm is content that focuses on humans and helping real people. To perform well in search, you must worry less about "SEO" and more about a good, old-fashioned value-added proposition.

To be clear: I'm not throwing out SEO, and neither is Google (or Moz). But so many in the SEO world use outdated definitions of SEO. We just need to keep up with the real-time definition, which is long-term, big-effort, solid-quality content strategies. SEO is alive and well, it's just gotten a lot better.

3- Fewer websites can rank well

We know that SERP features such as featured snippets, knowledge cards, local packs, and even ads have limited the space on the first search results page and therefore limited the ability for websites to rank on page one. But the trend of delivering identical results to like searches has a much greater impact on a website's ability to rank well.

What was (potentially) 40 different websites ranked across the four different searches in the image above, is now closer to ten websites ranked similarly across the four different searches. And, realistically, the impact is not just 40 first-page results, it's more along the lines of hundreds of first-page results since Rand said that dozens of like queries returned identical results.

Where small websites once had a strong, fighting chance to rank for long-tail and unique keywords, the longer the learning AI works (and it's been publicly at work for 18+ months already), the more that fighting chance becomes a vain hope and a pipe dream.

The battle for page one is even more solidified around clout and quality content that people read, like, and greatly benefit from. Small business can provide such services, but they must be very strategic.

4- Large websites win over small websites

To follow on from the previous point, website age and size have long been ranking factors in Google's algorithm. But the consolidation of related search queries around identical results caters Hummingbird even more to large websites.

Large businesses (think CNET, Consumer Reports, PC Mag, etc. in the "best mobile phone" example), stand to rank well across more queries than ever before since the websites are full of related keywords. Rather than losing a spot to a smaller, niche website for a long-tail keyword, big websites now can conquer all queries including those targeted hard by small businesses.

Small businesses that try to build SEO strategies around one or two specific, long-tail keywords are at a huge disadvantage because they don't have the wholly-comprehensive websites and extensive network of related content. One advantage smaller businesses still have is around geo-targeted keywords which we will discuss in the next section.

Small Businesses: All is Not Lost

Smarter algorithms and AI implementation doesn't spell doom for small-business SEO, despite the gloomy outlook painted thus far in this article.

Small businesses, particularly regional and local small businesses, still have a distinct advantage that is made even more advantageous by the improvements to Hummingbird and the consolidation of the SERP results.

Local search

One large advantage is in local search. Local search has greatly benefitted from special SERP features such as local packs that include maps and reviews. And businesses with geo-targeted keywords won't be nearly as affected by global brands winning more SERP spots.

Businesses operating in a particular location still are only in competition with those other businesses in the area. Therefore, with the right SEO strategy, they can use the ever-improving search algorithms in their favor. For example, a dentist in Orange, California with a strong content strategy can beat out other dentists in Orange for many keywords, rather than just one or two as was previously possible.

Of course related queries returning identical results is a two-edged sword. A local business can win big or be completely lost in a Google search. Small businesses must be aggressive in their SEO strategies.

Niche marketing & PR

For small businesses in national markets, like the hypothetical review site spoken about above in competition with CNET et. al. for the mobile phone market, local search is not an option. Instead, those small businesses should be playing up their unique value-add over what others in the market provide. Yes, this strategy is just common sense and businesses should already be doing so in all their marketing efforts, but in SEO it has particular advantages.

RankBrain is the third of the top three ranking factors in the Hummingbird algorithm, after links and content. This means that a review website that focuses on hyper-technical specs for specific audiences such as camera features for mobile phone videographers can still rank for their specific services if they are strategic in their link building and content creation SEO efforts.

If your content is better than everyone else in your specific niche then Google will recognize that and you will rank for certain queries. Especially if you are diligent in your PR efforts and publish on  or are talked about on bigger, noteworthy websites, you can rank against the big guys. You must put in the necessary and required effort to provide helpful content for your potential customers and be effective in your relationship building with big publishers. SEO isn't about quick-wins. It's about long-term, sustainable results.

Focus on Quality

Whatever your industry and whoever your competitors, the clear win is a strong focus on quality content. Write for humans–and write well–and ignore artificial attributes such as specific keyword usage. If you're talking about the topic at hand in an engaging, thoughtful way, you'll naturally have good, related keywords that RankBrain can connect and apply to multiple search queries.As search grows and search methods and algorithms improve, SEO only becomes more important and vital as a part of your overall marketing efforts. For additional SEO tools and a free SEO website consultation, check out Boostability. We're equipped to handle all small-business SEO needs.

Caz Bevan

Caz is Director of Marketing Communications at Boostability and has many years experience providing SEO-powered social media and content strategies for a variety of businesses and products including Sony Music Entertainment and SpeedTV. Connect with Caz: @CazBevan | linkedin.com/li/CazBevan

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Source: Google's AI: What Does It Mean for Your SEO?