Weekly SEO news: 9 May 2017
Welcome to the latest issue of our newsletter!

Here are the latest website promotion and Internet marketing tips for you.

We hope that you enjoy this newsletter and that it helps you to get more out of your website. Please forward this newsletter to your friends.

Best regards,
Andre Voget, Johannes Selbach, Axandra CEO

1. Can you optimize your website for Google RankBrain?

Google's RankBrain system is Google latest signal in Google's ranking algorithm. While good links from other web pages and the content of the web pages are still the most important signals, RankBrain has become an important addition. Can you optimize your website for RankBrain? And if so, how?

Google RankBrain

What is Google's RankBrain?

RankBrain is an algorithm learning artificial intelligence system. In an interview, Google commented that RankBrain was the third most important factor in the ranking algorithm along with links and content.

If RankBrain sees a word or phrase it isn’t familiar with, the machine can make a guess as to what words or phrases might have a similar meaning and filter the result accordingly.

RankBrain attempts to guess what people mean when they search.

Is there are RankBrain score?

Google uses an internal PageRank score to judge the quality of the links that point to a site. There also is an internal quality score that judges the quality of the content of a web page. Does Google also use such a score with RankBrain?

Google's Gary Illyes said on SMX Advanced 2016 that there is no RankBrain score. He also said that you cannot optimize your website for RankBrain. Google's John Mueller confirmed this last week:

John Mueller about RankBrain

So you cannot optimize your website for RankBrain?

Although Google says that RankBrain is a ranking signal, it is not really a signal such as links and contents. However, there are some things that you can do to make sure that RankBrain will work in your favor:

1. The content of your pages is more important than ever before

Google wants to show the best results on the results pages. It's not enough that a page of your website is somehow related to a specific keyword. Your website must be relevant to a particular topic.

Without good content, it will be very difficult to get high rankings. Take your time to develop good content for your website.

2. Your website needs a clear focus

Websites that deal with many different topics are more likely to be flagged as spam (for example 'How to' websites with thousands of topics). The easier it is to find out what your website is about, the more likely it is that your website will get good rankings.

Do not focus on individual keywords, focus on topics. The pages of your website should contain many different keywords that are all related to the topic of your website.

3. A clear website structure helps a lot

Google wants to find out what your website is about. If your website structure helps Google to understand your pages, it is more likely that your pages will get good rankings.

Use categories and sub-categories, use folders and an easy to understand website navigation menu. Breadcrumb navigation also makes it easier to understand the structure of your website: Homepage > Category > Sub category > Tag > Page viewed

Optimize your pages for high rankings

While it is not possible to optimize your website for Google's RankBrain, you still can optimize your web pages for high rankings on Google. The tips above can help you with that.

If you want to further improve the rankings of your web pages on Google, check your website with the website audit tool in SEOprofiler and optimize your pages with the Top 10 Optimizer. If you haven't done it yet, create your SEOprofiler account now:

Try SEOprofiler now

2. Internet marketing news of the week

GoogleHow Google assesses the ‘authority’ of web pages

"Google has no single authority metric but rather uses a bucket of signals to determine authority on a page-by-page basis. [...]

These days, links and content are still among the most important ranking signals. However, artificial intelligence — Google’s RankBrain system — is another major factor. In addition, Google’s ranking system involves over 200 major signals."

Editor's note: The Top 10 Optimizer in SEOprofiler helps you to find out if your web pages have these signals.


10 common mistakes companies make with mobile

"Believing anyone cares enough about your brand to install an app is one of the biggest mistakes companies make when it comes to mobile. [...]

While more often than not, starting with mobile is a good solution, it isn’t always the right solution. In fact, depending on the audience, the task at hand and where you expect customers to interact with your company, mobile may still play a role, but it might not be the lead role."


John MuellerGoogle may release mobile first index slowly in batches

In a Google Webmaster hangout, Google's John Mueller said that Google might release the mobile first index in batches:

"We will provide you with more information about the type of issues that we've run across so far in our tests. And based on that we'll give you more guidance on when we expect some things to happen.

It's also possible that we'll say this batch of sites works perfectly fine on mobile first indexing so we'll just switch that over and wait with the next batch until we're certain that they've been able to solve the these problems."

+++ SEARCH +++ ENGINE +++ NEWS +++ TICKER +++

  • Google won’t demote pages for linking to a 404 page.
  • Google's mobile results pages now contain 'fresh and viral' carousel.
  • Google: crossing two affiliate feeds into your content doesn't add value.
  • Google shortcuts use personalization and rich content to build next-gen local discovery tool.
  • Google spam hall of shame – a well deserved group award.
  • Google hotel reviews now grouped by traveler type.

3. Previous articles

Do you need better rankings for your website?

SEOprofiler is a web-based search marketing tool that helps you to get better Google rankings. You can create a free SEOprofiler account here. The step-by-step manual will help you to get started as quickly as possible.