It’s no secret that our society is becoming more digital and technology driven every single day. As technology advances, the impact of machine-learning and artificial intelligence on our society is much more perceptible and has even influenced the way we practice SEO. Most people have probably heard of machine learning but many won’t be aware of how it effects rankings within search engines. Here’s a lowdown of machine-learning and why it’s relevant to your business.
What Is Machine-Learning and Why Have Google Made the Shift?
Machine-learning is a form of algorithm that gives computers the ability to teach themselves how to operate and change based on data or signals. It has an ingenious level of independence and intelligence which means that it can work entirely unsupervised by humans, recreating the characteristics that we ourselves have. Machine-learning was created to facilitate human processes and increase productivity to create results within a time-frame that humans could never attain on their own.
All business owners want to minimise costs and maximise profit. The brains behind Google are no exception and have made the switch to machine-learning because it is the most cost-effective way of working. Machine learning is faster, more efficient, cheaper to run/hire and is generally just better than employing human workers. Machines can perform all the tasks that we can and can provide all the same internet-based services but for a lower price.
How Has Machine-Learning Impacted SEO?
Machine-learning means that computers can learn and adapt independently based on incoming data and signals. It acquires knowledge and acts accordingly without help from its programmer which is a huge progression from how it was done in the past when Google employees would come together and manually manipulate algorithms. Now, engineers input complex formulas and allow computers to adjust their weightings accordingly until they find the values that will maximise the end goal. It’s ingenious because it creates its own metrics and can measure a website’s ranking factors without supervision. It is impossible for humans to anticipate every possible metric for every query but a machine can.
Consequently, we have to adapt to the influence of machine-learning. Voice search is rising in popularity, mobile searches have surpassed desktop and the days of organic search seem to be running short. Eventually, organic search as we know it will become outdated as we're moving towards a world where machine learning has more power than ever before: more power than humans!
Whilst we can't keep up with algorithms, we can keep up with technology by making an effort to understand how it’s impacting SERPs, users and consumers all over the world. Going forward, people need to become aware of machine learning and work on how they're going to adapt their internet presence to mirror the ongoing changes to the industry.