IndexWhat RankBrain meansFirst assumption: User behavior is changing and will change again.Second assumption: Competition will get tighterThird assumption: Machine learning will destroy spam and black hat practicesFourth Assumption – You can influence RankBrainWhat can we do to make RankBrain work for us?”Yes, I know you are wondering exactly the same thing. RankBrain is out. It has been covered in many SEO news sites, but how it works Does the "Third Most Important Ranking Factor" Really Affect SEO? Say No to Plagiarism Get a Tailored Essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned" Get an Original Essay What RankBrain does As far as we know, it is a machine learning algorithm. which manifested itself earlier this year. Its effects are gradual, so most of us haven't made a big fuss about it, but it has affected us, albeit subtly. I will keep this post short and full of my hypotheses on how RankBrain will influence SEO in the long term. First assumption: user behavior is changing and will change even further. Because search results are becoming better and better in terms of user relevance , making it to the top 3 – whether that spot is a local listing, a Knowledge Graph listing, etc. – as long as it is an organic and non-paid listing (since paid has an obvious yellow button-like label that says “Ad”) it will get more clicks from users now more than ever. The top 3 places will eat up clicks from the rest of the SERP listings. This is because people are increasingly satisfied with the results of the top 3 places, so we have a natural tendency to only take a look at the top 3 and we are almost sure that we will be satisfied with the results. Takeaway: Not so it's no longer a question of "getting to the first page." Now it's about "getting in the top 3". Second assumption: competition will become tighter Research has made a leap up the competitive ladder. What RankBrain has actually done is prioritize meaningful results. “Strings to Things” isn't all that friendly to those who play the search game primarily for traffic. Any articles less complete than its 10x counterparts will drop in the rankings. Only the best will be ranked, all other mediocre performers will start to decline. Research is a zero-sum game. It always has been. And just when we thought the game wasn't getting any harder, it bit us in the ass again. Third Assumption: Machine Learning Will Annihilate Spam and Black Hat Practices We can conclude that this is the beginning of several years of embedded machine learning at Google (because it worked better than they thought). Considering that Google's direction has been to fight spam and close gaps (we've felt the effect quite strongly since 2010), it's a surprise that RankBrain isn't an algorithm that targets black hat tactics. That said, I think the next machine learning algorithm Google launches after RankBrain will focus heavily on fighting spam and loopholes. If RankBrain worked better than they expected, I'm pretty sure they would use the positive result to block spam and black hat problems. Fourth assumption: you can influence RankBrain. Google provides RankBrain "offline" data. This means he doesn't learn on the Internet as it is. What Google thinks is good enough to provide to RankBrain, that's what they give them. So coining catchy terms like “Growth Hacking” or “Inbound Marketing” or “Link Earning” might actually signal that you are an authority on that term and.