Google’s using a machine learning technology called RankBrain to help deliver its search results. Here’s what’s we know about it.
So RankBrain is part of Google’s Hummingbird search algorithm?
That’s our understanding. Hummingbird is the overall search algorithm, just like a car has an overall engine in it. The engine itself may be made up of various parts, such as an oil filter, a fuel pump, a radiator and so on. In the same way, Hummingbird encompasses various parts, with RankBrain being one of the newest.
In particular, we know RankBrain is part of the overall Hummingbird algorithm because the Bloomberg article makes clear that RankBrain doesn’t handle all searches, as only the overall algorithm would.
Hummingbird also contains other parts with names familiar to those in the SEO space, such as Panda, Penguin and Payday designed to fight spam, Pigeon designed to improve local results, Top Heavy designed to demote ad-heavy pages, Mobile Friendly designed to reward mobile-friendly pages and Pirate designed to fight copyright infringement.
I thought the Google algorithm was called “PageRank”
PageRank is part of the overall Hummingbird algorithm that covers a specific way of giving pages credit based on the links from other pages pointing at them.
PageRank is special because it’s the first name that Google ever gave to one of the parts of its ranking algorithm, way back at the time the search engine began, in 1998.
.. How many signals are there?
Google has fairly consistently spoken of having more than 200 major ranking signals that are evaluated that, in turn, might have up to 10,000 variations or sub-signals. It more typically just says “hundreds” of factors, as it did in yesterday’s Bloomberg article... And RankBrain is the third-most important signal?
.. What are the first- and second-most important signals?
When this story was originally written, Google wouldn’t tell us. Our assumption was this:
My personal guess is that links remain the most important signal, the way that Google counts up those links in the form of votes. It’s also a terribly aging system, as I’ve covered in my Links: The Broken “Ballot Box” Used By Google & Bing article from the past.
As for the second-most important signal, I’d guess that would be “words,” where words would encompass everything from the words on the page to how Google’s interpreting the words people enter into the search box outside of RankBrain analysis.