A popular conception of AI is the robot that looks, acts, and talks like a human. Invariably, it seems like this robot might be capable of developing emotions or overthrowing its master because, well, the robot is always learning and becoming smarter. We don’t know what it’s capable of (see the plot of 2004 movie I, Robot). How close is this conception to the truth?
We live in a world increasingly dominated by those who know best how to use big data. Jeff Bezos is now the richest man in the world because Amazon beats everyone else at using big data for everything from recommendations to shipping practices. It’s not a big stretch to assume an artificially intelligent machine will dominate in a world where big data is king. Elon Musk, for one, is afraid artificial intelligence will render humans obsolete.
But for now, AI is working to consistently do things like help you find the right website. Search engine optimization is one field in which AI is making a big difference. Current iterations of AI in the SEO world focus on rendering results for people in real time. AI is changing the fundamental nature of the game. What will the game look like in the future?
SEO and AI
SEO is defined as the art and science of getting pages to rank higher in search engines such as Google. It’s predicated on the fact that people don’t want to look hard for the answer to their search queries: some 40 to 60 percent of people click on the number one result. Before AI entered the mix, SEO specialists made their living by reacting to a static set of search engine algorithms. Because Google, the world’s number one search engine, made changes to its algorithm intermittently and announced them, SEO specialists were able to base their work with their clients on what they knew about Google’s updates. Now, whether they think about it or not, companies and specialists are having a constant conversation with an entity called Rankbrain.
On the face of it, Rankbrain doesn’t seem to make that big of a difference to the everyday Google user. When you type in a business-related query, sites like Forbes, Bloomberg, CNN, and Business Insider are still on page one. These were the biggest business authorities pre-Rankbrain, and in that respect machine learning hasn’t really altered things much. So what’s the big deal?
Ranking Gets Personal
Before Rankbrain, Google’s algorithms crawled indexed web pages and used signals from these pages to answer search queries. A number of things on a page send signals, including the page’s URL, meta text, title tag, headers, and links. If you were to type in a query such as SEO company, Google’s algorithms would use your location and website signals to find companies in your area, but it wouldn’t base its results on your previous queries and clicks. So, if you were hoping to find out what an SEO company is, rather than where it is, Google wouldn’t use your previous searches to figure that out; it would use predetermined criteria to evaluate your query.
Moz, a company that specializes in SEO SaaS, points out how things have changed. When you make a query, the query now goes through an interpretation model that can apply possible factors like the location of the searcher, personalization, and the words of the query to determine the searcher’s true intent. Rankbrain takes your past searches along with other people’s similar or identical searches and delivers the most relevant results. This can change on a daily basis because Rankbrain is always updating itself based on new queries and web pages.
What This Means Now ¦
Rankbrain’s goal is to crawl everything on the page and look at content more like a human would look at content. As the algorithm evolves, everything on the page matters, and it’s all about context.
Search Engine Land points out that this requires SEO specialists to change their mindset:
- Don’t optimize a page for a single keyword: For one page and its content, it’s about a concept and related keywords, much like a well-written college essay
- Prioritize user experience (UX accessibility) instead of catering to your perception of how the search engine works: Craft content people can understand with an eye and an ear for the user’s intent, like you’re talking to a friend about last night’s big game
- Think more about your invitation: The URL of a page and the meta description determine a user’s first impression on the search engine results page (SERP); make them relevant and enticing
- Be an industry expert: Add content based on what’s happening in your industry ”look at the leading sites in your niche and copy their strategy
Interestingly, all this advice is pointing in a direction that some specialists might not like.
And Tomorrow
For a clue as to what Rankbrain portends, look no further than the relationship between big data and the marketer. Some 71 percent of marketing executives feel inadequately prepared for the substantial growth of data. Before Rankbrain, SEO was considered a science and an art. The exponential growth of data, including the number of competitor sites, long-tail keywords relating to concepts, ranking factors, and pages on a client’s site indicates SEO specialists of the future will need assistance from AI even more than they do now.
The science part of SEO will become the domain of AI programs that don’t need instructions from humans. Right now, specialists plug a URL into a software solution like Moz and then draw logical conclusions from Moz’s analytics, after which they make recommendations. In the future, AI programs will do the entirety of the analysis.
That means SEO specialists will need to be more and more like artists ”people who cater to the subjective whims of others. The best SEO specialists will be the best writers. Winning SEO teams will consist of writers with creativity and the ability to craft content in which every word counts. This will be based on recommendations from AI as to what type of content and how much content should be developed, as well as which concepts and keywords should be used.
Again, in a world where big data is king, the primacy of AI is the logical conclusion. It comes down to competition. AI will dominate every part of the the SEO world having to do with numbers because a company will understand that to dominate the competition, it must use AI. Do you think there’s an error in my logic? Let’s talk about it in the comments.
