Google’s use of machine learning and artificial intelligence to better understand people’s search intentions and surface the most relevant results is paying off, according to a study released today by SearchMetrics.

At the same time, many simplistic techniques that marketers use to artificially help their pages rank higher ? such as collecting more backlinks and increasing the number of times keywords are mentioned in text – are becoming less effective.

Searchmetrics’ annual study of Google Ranking Factors analysed the top 20 search results for 10,000 keywords on Google.com. The aim of the analysis is to identify the key factors that high ranking web pages have in common.

“Google revealed last year that it is turning to sophisticated AI and machine-learning techniques, such as its RankBrain system, to help it better understand the real intention behind the words that searchers enter in the search box and make its results more relevant,” said Searchmetrics’ founder and CTO, Marcus Tober. “And with the help of user signals such as how often certain results are clicked and how long people spend there, the search engine gets a sense of how well searchers’ questions are answered; allowing it to continually refine and improve relevance.”

User intention
The most relevant content ultimately depends on the user intention Tober believes. “A searcher who types ‘Pesto Ingredients’ into the search box is most likely looking for a short list for example; someone who types ‘who won Superbowl 50?’ wants a single piece of information, while a query like ‘halloween costume ideas’ is most likely wanting a series of images and a ‘how to tie a windsor knot’ query might be best served with video content. Our research suggests Google is getting better at interpreting user intent to show the most relevant content.”

Searchmetrics has picked out five findings to back up its conclusions. Firstly, high-ranking pages are significantly more relevant than those that appear lower. This indicates that Google recognises when content is more relevant and gives it a rankings boost, and this is not simply based on a crude analysis of the number of times web pages mention keywords that match those entered in the search box.

Secondly, wordcount is increasing on pages that rank higher, while keyword mentions fall. This is because top performing results are more detailed, more holistic, and are hence better able to answer search queries.

But interestingly, even as text grows longer, the number of keywords (words that match the search query) on higher ranked pages is not increasing. This is because Google is no longer just trying to reward pages that use more matching keywords with higher rankings; it is trying to interpret the search intention and boosting the content that is most relevant to the query.

In fact the top 20 results include 20 per cent fewer matching keywords (on average) in the copy than in 2015. Also in 2016 just 53 per cent of the top 20 results have the keyword in the title (compared with 75 per cent in 2015) and less than 40 per cent now have the matching keyword in the H1 title tag that is usually used in the HTML of web pages to tell search engines what the page is about. On average, pages appearing in desktop results are a third longer than those appearing in mobile search results.

The third point is that user signals suggest Google increasingly guides searchers to exactly the right result. The evidence for this is that more searchers are visiting the suggested pages, taking in what is there and then leaving without having to look elsewhere.

Searchmetrics’ analysis of user signals indicates that bounce rates (when a searcher visits a page and leaves without clicking more pages on the same site) have risen for all positions in the top 20 search results and for position 1 have gone up to 46 per cent (from 37 per cent in 2014). This is not because more people are bouncing away from pages immediately – having found that the content does not answer their question. On the contrary, time-on-site has also increased significantly over previous years, with people spending around 3 minutes 10 seconds on average when they visit pages listed in the top 20 results.

Downward trend
Fourthly, the number of backlinks coming into a page from other sites are becoming less important for a high ranking. It still has a strong correlation with pages that rank well, but is on a downward trend as other factors such as those related to the content on the page become more important.

As well as the growing importance of content related factors, backlinks are becoming less important because of the rise of mobile search queries: pages viewed on mobile devices are often ‘liked’ or shared but seldom actively linked to.

Finally, Searchmetrics notes that Google shows more longer URLs to answer search queries, not just optimised short-URL home and landing pages. In fact, the study shows that the URL addresses for pages that feature in the top 20 search results are around 15 per cent longer on average than in 2015.

Searchmetrics’ hypothesis is that instead of the highly optimised home and landing pages that marketers might prefer to appear in searches (and which tend to have short, tidy URLs), Google is better able to identify and display the precise pages that answer the search intention; these pages are more likely to have longer URLs because they possibly lie buried deeper within websites.

Mobile devices
The study also found significant differences between high-ranking content on desktop devices and that which appears on mobile devices. High-ranking mobile results tend to have faster page load speeds, smaller file sizes, shorter wordcounts and fewer interactive elements such as menus and buttons.

“Since Google is becoming much more sophisticated about how it interprets search intent and relevance, you also need to work harder and smarter at understanding and delivering on these areas in content you put on your websites,” concluded Tober. “You need to use data-driven insights to analyse exactly what searchers are looking for when they type specific queries in the search box and make sure your content answers all their questions clearly and comprehensively in the most straightforward way – and you need to do it better than your competitors.”

There’s more information about the study here.