Machine Learning - Randomness in Search Engine Ranking Algorithms
-
I believe, sometimes you may 'deserve' the first position, but get #3. And of course, sometimes you may deserve #3 and instead be #1. All due to a 'randomness factor' in search engine algorithms.
I've been holding this hypothesis for quite sometime. Really, it started when I learned about SEOmoz using machine learning to better investigate SEO best practices.
I suddenly found myself wanting to learn more about machine learning, and the implications of using it for SEO. I'm by no means able to utilize machine learning myself, but I it appears unsupervised learning would have a real chance of cracking search engine algorithms. Hey, even Stuxnet was cracked!
Surely Google/ Bing would know (and account for) this, right? We can agree they'd obviously prefer a highly skilled mathematician not be able to crack the code.
Therefore, I'm led to believe that search engines use some sort of randomness in their rankings. Maybe not much. Perhaps not all the time. But if a random percentage of search results, had a random variable of sorts included in their calculations... wouldn't that be enough to prevent the vast majority of cracking attempts?
Thoughts, opinions, criticism? Thanks.
-
Hey Ryan, thanks for the ideas. Respectfully, I disagree however.
With something as simple as 'rand(1,4)' in php you can generate random #s. There's no telling what Google could do with their algorithm(s). Okay, so it's (relatively) easy to do, but why would they do it? After-all, they have heavily invested in complicated models that do the ranking for them...
Well, they've heavily invested in complicated algorithms, and if cracked, bump- there goes there flagship product. I'm sure SEOmoz aren't the only people attempting to glean insight using machine learning. And perhaps, others don't like to publish their findings and tip anyone off.
Of course, I'm not an A.I. scientist, so perhaps I misunderstand how unsupervised machine learning works, but I'm under the impression that it very well can be used to logically explain all of those factors. I'm sure there's tons and tons of work that would go into it, but if you had the resources (and some do), wouldn't you do it?
This is why I wanted to post this question though- to get feedback and other opinions, so thanks Ryan!
-
Hi Donnie.
I enjoy your analysis but disagree with your conclusion. I believe search engines are working with an unimaginably vast amount of data. They evaluate hundreds of factors then assign different weights to each. Also consider the source data is constantly changing, and the best anyone can have is a "view" of the data at a given point in time.
There is absolutely no need for any random factor. In my naivety, I believe every last ranking result can be logically explained. We simply do not have proper access to the data, metrics and weighting involved in those calculations. Our educated guesses seem to do a pretty darn good job.
-
Darn, I can't delete this comment
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Is The Moz Community Rankings broken?
Not as active as I would have liked recently but still visit and login, answering a question now and again, yet I can see my profile is still listed as unranked. until recently I was somewhere around 45-49 and have been for many years - the criteria appears to be what it has for the last ten years or so. I see people with lower moz points outranking members with far more points. I can even see one with 0 points now appearing in the top 50 so my question is - is the moz community rankings broken or have I missed something? I know once before I pointed it out and it had to be fixed...input from all welcome 🙂
SEO Learn Center | | Matt-Williamson2 -
Can anyone share an example of a search strategy they've created?
New year, new plans. I'm currently working on outlining a search strategy for my company's marketing team. I'm primarily in charge of SEO but I'm working closely with our SEM and Content Marketing teams to build out a more holistic, integrated set of goals and initiatives for us all to work with. Does anyone have any good examples of a search strategy they've done in the past // a template they've worked with? I have a pretty good idea of what I want to include but would love to see how others have approached this + get some inspiration.
SEO Learn Center | | Jessie-beck1 -
Backlink From Different Language Sites Will Spoil My Ranking?
Hi there! Excited to joining this community. The main question is that if I get backlinks from different language sites then that backlink will be worthy or non-worthy in the eye of search engine? I know if I target international market by presenting my content in different languages then of course it will be worthwhile for me. But what will be happened if I do not represent content in different languages on my site but get the backlines from other language sites such as: Chinese, Russian or any other? Also I have seen many sites which are getting backlinks from different language sites and they are just getting high authority. Is there any expert?
SEO Learn Center | | mianarfan3331 -
What keywords will this page possibly rank for ... tool?
Hi all, I'm looking for a tool that will look at a web page that you submit to it and tell you what keywords it thinks the page is targetted towards and thus hopefully rank for. Does anyone have any suggestions please? Hopefully this type of tool will help us understand why page A is being ranked for keyword X when page B is actually the page that should be being ranked for that keyword. The only tool I have really found so far is http://www.ranks.nl/tools/spider.html I dont want to tell the tool what keywords I am looking at, as with Moz On page grader. Background reason (and possibly some one maybe able to shed some light on this also). We list a group of products... Nextbase Click 9 Lite, Nextbase Click 9 Lite Duo and Nextbase Click 9 Lite Duo Deluxe. All 3 are similar but very different products and each has its own page on our site. For the keyphrase "Nextbase click 9 lite" currently in Google we are listed for the pages containing the "Nextbase Click 9 Lite Duo" and "Nextbase Click 9 Lite Duo Deluxe"... but not the actual specific product page that targets the "Nextbase Click 9 Lite" product. Thus my reason for wanting to try such a tool that may help me understand why this is. Thanks for any hints, tips or pointers.
SEO Learn Center | | jasef0 -
Index Page Dropped From Rankings
On average my site was getting ranked 3rd for "Tucson DUI Lawyer", Best Tucson DUI Lawyer, Tucson DUI attorney and etc. Recently my website fell for all of these keywords and I thought it is the best time to launch the new website. The problem is that my internal pages show up for some of the keywords on the third or fourth page but my index page doesn't show for any of them. Does it have anything to do with the site structure ? I have a lot of news excerpts on the homepage with links to the main posts. Here is the link: http://www.michaelharwinlaw.com/ Any help is sincerely appreciated.
SEO Learn Center | | yasinyaqoobi0 -
How do you eliminate negative "Searches Related To This" on Google?
I have a client who when you type in their company name in Google there are some negative terms in the space that says "Searches related to this" ... Is there any way to eliminate these? We are not sure why it is showing up since it has nothing to do with their company but it does look bad...
SEO Learn Center | | JChronicle0 -
WP Permalinks, categories, and organic ranking impact
Hello. this is my first post here, so I hope it to be a question with an easy answer... I am working on a site that has an established domain, but has recently suffered significant ranking decline. one of the problems I have found involves over-use of categories and tags - making the actual content 3 to 4 clicks deep within any given post URL. My question involves the restructuring of category / tag use for improved page content and SEO organic rank impact. Here is an example: domain.com/blue-shoes/blue-shoes-tampa I want to target this specific post and optimize for "blue shoes tampa". I have used the Wordpress SEO plugin by Yoast to help achieve balanced optimization on the on-page post content itself, but now am struggling with the best approach for the URL... also, the site has about 80 (62 posts and 18 pages) total items with similar issues, , so I am hoping that any answer / opinion offered here might also be applicable to the rest of the site. thanks in advance for your time & comments.
SEO Learn Center | | MindSpark0 -
For Newbies! | Matt Cutts on "How does Google use human raters in web search?"
I answer many questions here in Q&A. Instead of helping one individual, I thought this would help many newbies understand how Google uses human raters for web search. Watch Matt and learn why you should not SPAM or make sorry titles. http://youtu.be/nmo3z8pHX1E?hd=1 I hope this short video helps you! Leave a comment if you wish.
SEO Learn Center | | Francisco_Meza2