Google search is getting smarter

Google are continuously improving their search engine algorithm in order to provide their users with the best answers to search queries. Google’s algorithm is getting smarter and smarter with every update but some of their most recent updates aren’t just smarter but more human.

Two of their most recent updates have really changed the world of search:

Google AI – What is RankBrain?

RankBrain is Google’s new machine-learning artificial intelligence system that is used to help process its search results.

Google’s artificial intelligence is learning how to answer tougher search queries. The new technology has been dealing with millions of Google searches over the last few months and amazingly RankBrain’s results have been found to be much more satisfactory than Google’s human search engineers.

RankBrain works by guessing what users want to see by analysing the words and phrases used within the search query, and learning from the responses to improve its answers all the time.

Despite Google’s artificial intelligence technology being pretty new, it is already a very important ranking signal within Google. RankBrain is one of hundreds of signals Google uses but Google has said that RankBrain is the “third-most important signal contributing to the result of a search query.”

That is a big statement by Google and as RankBrain learns to answer queries better, we may start seeing some big changes to Google’s search results.

Google’s mobile search app is getting smarter too

Google’s search app has been updated to enable it to answer tougher questions. The search app is now able to understand more complex search queries by breaking them down and delivering the answer from the context the search terms are used in.

This will only affect longer search queries but it is still impressive. Google will also be able to understand superlatives and ordered items as well as questions that reference specific points in time.

How will these changes affect you?

Of course, the SEO world changes constantly with major algorithm updates happening several times a year now. Search tools are getting a lot smarter and a lot more powerful, which is great because it means Google will deliver better search results so as long as you stay relevant, fresh and within Google’s guidelines you shouldn’t be affected too much by these updates.  

However, with RankBrain constantly refining its algorithm it means we are likely to see a lot of movement in website rankings over the next few months so don’t be surprised if your website fluctuates.