How to harness RankBrain to promote ecommerce websites

Ecommerce businesses that are not visible on search engines are at the top of the list of reasons they fail. It is not hard to understand why.

According to data, 38 percent of ecommerce stores’ traffic comes from organic sources. If an ecommerce website does not rank well in search results, it can lose touch with large numbers of potential customers. With approximately 12-24 million ecommerce websites online, losing visibility in search results and failing interact with the audience can lead to severe competition.

Attempting higher rankings requires understanding and aligning yourself with Google’s RankBrain search algorithm.

Google uses RankBrain for ranking websites to determine relevancy between search queries, results, and search queries. RankBrain is a requirement for any seller who wants to rank highly and get exposure. How can you harness RankBrain to ecommerce?

What is RankBrain?

Google is extremely secretive about its algorithms, so we don’t know much about RankBrain.

We know that RankBrain, an AI-based search engine that Google uses to understand queries and provide more precise results, is a powerful system.

RankBrain allows Google to understand patterns in browsing and user searches. Google can then determine the intent behind a search, and provide results that are contextually and conceptually relevant to it.

In the following example, we searched Google for “Edison”. It could have been New Jersey’s Edison city. Google must have realized that most people searching for “Edison”, are searching for information about Thomas Edison and therefore generated the results accordingly.

This is courtesy RankBrain.

RankBrain matches search queries to results with remarkable accuracy. It actually outperformed Google’s search experts by 10% in this regard.

Google now uses RankBrain for all its search queries. It is therefore crucial for any ecommerce store that wants to improve search visibility to optimize for RankBrain.

It is important to remember that RankBrain does not represent a Google algorithm. It is part of Google’s Hummingbird algorithm.

Let’s get to the point.

How to optimize RankBrain for ecommerce shops

It’s not rocket science to optimize for RankBrain. Here’s how it works:

1. Rethink your keyword research

Stop optimizing your ecommerce site around one keyword. Search engine technology has advanced far beyond what you might think.

Keywords are still relevant. Google does not use exact-match keywords anymore to determine relevance.

See how search queries and keywords are ranked in search results.

Identify a key keyword and then brainstorm similar keywords.

For instance, when optimizing your Crockery ecommerce shop, your primary keyword might be “Imported china crockery”. However, Google may associate words such as “China sweet bowls” and “imported plates” with that keyword.

Also, you should consider adding medium-tail keywords. Shane Barker, digital marketing expert, says medium-tail keywords make the best choice for optimizing for RankBrain.

Don’t forget about question-based keywords. Research shows that almost 8 percent of search queries are questions.

Google processes billions upon billions of queries every day, would generate a significant number of questions.

Search for question-based keywords and include them in your search.

Remember that keyword density is not the only thing that matters. Optimizing is about the user experience. It is important to include keywords in a way that does not disrupt the flow of content.

2. In-depth, quality content

RankBrain places a lot of emphasis on user experience. This is why RankBrain places more emphasis on well-written content that provides value to users.

First, you need to identify the struggles of your target audience and then figure out their unanswered questions and unsolved issues. Then, create detailed content.

You have discovered that your prospects are interested in learning more about laptops. Now you have a topic. You now have a topic.

Keep your readers in mind while creating content. Make sure that style and language are consistent with their preferences.

Keep your tone conversational. Write as if you are talking so that readers feel a human-to–human connection. They will stay longer on the page and demonstrate satisfaction – which is something RankBrain rewards.

3. Increase your CTR

Another indicator of user satisfaction is CTR. Google uses a quality score algorithm. CTR is also an important part of the quality score.

Activating featured shortcodes might help, since listings with featured snippets have 2x greater conversion rate than those without them.

Rich snippets can be used to display product reviews, price and catalog information in an ecommerce shop.

Branding can also increase CTR.

88% of customers believe authenticity is crucial when choosing brands to support.

Invest in your brand authority. It will be easier to generate clicks if prospects trust and recognize your brand.

Imagine you are searching for “running shoes” on Google and seeing two listings: one from Nike and one from an unknown seller. Which would you choose? Nike is most likely because it’s a well-respected brand.

4. You should be focusing on the user’s intent and search intent

User intent refers to the purpose or intention of a user when they enter a search term in a search engine.

Imagine that you have brought traffic to your ecommerce site. Are you sure that your visitors are shopping, and not browsing?

Here is where the user or search intent enters play.

You need to be more focused on the transactional and commercial intent of your users in order to get more leads.

Intent-specific words can help your website rank higher.

Transactional intent keywords include words like discount, buy, deal and coupons.

This will direct you to the right customers by using transactional keywords.

5. Increase dwell time. Reduce bounce rate

RankBrain gathers data about user satisfaction and assigns ranks based upon that.

RankBrain believes that if a user leaves your website quickly, it is not satisfactory enough. And hence, your website may suffer in ranking.

RankBrain can tell if a user visits your site and stays on it for a long period of time. You may get rewarded.

You must increase your website’s dwell-time and decrease bounce rate. Here are some tips to help you do this:

Work on site navigation

Site navigation refers to the act of clicking on and browsing through pages on a website. It’s a collection user interface components that allows customers to easily navigate from one page to the next.

The site navigation is simple and allows users to finish the task in a shorter time. This improves the user experience by allowing the user to encounter fewer questions about the website.

Simple site navigation allows search engines to crawl your site more efficiently and effectively.

Content

Good content design and formatting can increase users’ engagement and positively impact the user experience. A survey found that 66% of users prefer to interact with content that is “beautifully created”.

Layout that is user-friendly

The layout design and size of text on a website can make or break the user experience. You can make a website user-friendly by adding images and videos to the site, formatting and organizing content interactively, as well as linking to related content.

A user-friendly layout is also possible by using related graphics, CTAs and clear headers.

Site structure

Website structure is the arrangement of content on your website, how it looks, and how the pages relate to each other. A website structure that is well-designed includes many elements, including taxonomies and internal links, navigation, schema, and breadcrumbs.

Hierarchical website structures are the most popular. This structure is best for websites with a lot of data. Search engines can easily crawl ecommerce websites with large amounts of data because they are hierarchical. It is therefore easier to index your website.

Website load speed

Website load time is the time taken for your website to load and for search engines crawl it.

Customers love fast-loading websites. This is why speeding up your website’s load speeds can improve your user experience.

Website load speed is an important search engine ranking factor. It is used by Google to assess a website’s UX and determine its rank.

Optimizing the speed of your website is crucial to enhancing your ecommerce shop.

There are many ways to speed up website load . These include improving server response times, reducing redirects and enabling compression of CSS, HTML and JavaScript files.

Links to internal resources

Internal links allow users to navigate from one page of your website to another, allowing them more time on the site and extending dwell time.

Also, make sure you have a strong internal linking structure. Make sure to only link pages that are relevant.

High-quality product images with product details

To keep customers coming back to your site longer, make sure you have clear product photos.

Conclusion

Avoiding new SEO techniques and Machine Learning can severely harm your ecommerce company.

Google uses RankBrain to sort search results. It helps Google understand and process search queries. RankBrain analyzes user intent to provide relevant search results.

RankBrain is a growing tool that will become more important for optimizing ecommerce stores. RankBrain will make it easier to manage your ecommerce store. Start now to ensure your long-term success.

Atul Jindal, a web designer and marketing specialist. His main focus is on conversion optimization and website/app optimization. He creates web experiences to bring people together and convert web traffic into leads or customers.

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Search Engine Watch’s first article was titled How to Harness RankBrain for Ecommerce Websites.

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