What’s passage indexing and what does it imply for search engine marketing?
There are few things Google likes more than updating its ranking signals. If you've heard about indexing passages, there's a good chance you have questions.
What is passage indexing? Is it a major update that will fuel your website traffic? Or is it just another small change in Google's ever-evolving algorithm and ranking factors?
Take a deep breath and ignore fate and darkness.
There's good news: Passage indexing isn't a big Google update. It's a small change to help the search engine better understand content and deliver the best results to searchers.
There's no need to worry about this update, go crazy trying to update your content, or spend thousands of dollars getting someone to update it for you.
(If you've seen a significant drop in traffic lately, I recommend using this guide to diagnose traffic drops using Google Analytics, but indexing passages was most likely not the cause.)
However, this does not mean that this change does not matter at all. There are SEO implications that I'll explain, and I'll also share some tips so that you can get the most out of passage indexing.
What is passage indexing?
Indexing Google Passages is an automated feature that pulls sections of pages into search engine results, even if the page covers a slightly different topic than the main topic.
What does that actually mean?
Let's look at an example: suppose you wrote a long post on affiliate marketing. Their aim was to cover the subject in full. Hence, we've included sections on how to become a successful affiliate marketer, what affiliate marketing tools to use, which affiliate marketing networks are the most popular, and how to get started in affiliate marketing.
That's a lot of useful content, but it also means that all of your post is likely to not rank well for terms like "affiliate marketing networks" since only one section covers that topic.
With passage indexing, Google can pull out sections of your content and rate them independently of the rest of the page. For example, your Affiliate Marketing Tools section might be ranked for that keyword even though the entire post isn't optimized for it.
See? Not that big of a deal.
Here is an example of how indexing passages affects search results:
Notice how Google bolded certain words that it deems relevant to search. It searches for keywords that indicate the content. This is likely to be useful for a particular query.
Google's Martin Splitt said he would refer to the changes as a "passage ranking" because it is actually a ranking change, not an index change. Therefore, these terms may be used interchangeably.
Passage Indexing vs. Featured Snippets: What's the Difference?
Selected snippets provide users with an instant answer to short questions, so users don't have to click to get the answer to their question.
For example, if you search for "What time is it in Paris?" Search, Google will put the answer at the top of search engine results without you having to click on any result.
Passage indexing is a completely different system that looks at the content of a page, determines whether parts of the page answer a search query, and delivers these results in the SERPs.
How does passage indexing work?
As with most things from Google, the search engine was not transparent about how exactly the feature worked. It keeps things interesting, doesn't it?
Here's what we know:
According to his blog, Google uses BERT and neural networks to understand content and better evaluate passages if necessary. Google continues to index the entire page, but searches for content and the meaning of passages while crawling the entire page. Each passage is annotated and can be rated and rated independently.
According to Google, the shift affects only seven percent of search queries. So don't expect big changes. If your page is already ranked well, indexing passages (or ranking passages if you prefer) may not affect your website at all.
However, websites with useful long-form content that are not perfectly optimized can see a slight increase in rankings and therefore traffic.
It seems like indexing passages is the next step in using AI programs like RankBrain to better understand the context of content, rather than dealing with formula factors like keyword density.
Note that the indexing of passages has no influence on which pages Google indexes, but rather on the ranking for certain passages.
What is the difference between Passage Indexing and RankBrain?
RankBrain is a machine learning-based algorithm that helps Google process search results and provides users with the most relevant search results. The passage indexing is not an algorithm. It is an automated system that annotates long passages of content.
How does passage indexing affect SEO?
How much do you have to worry about passage indexing when it comes to SEO? For most websites, this has little or no impact on your SEO. Websites that notice a change are likely to see a small increase in traffic.
However, there are a few minor changes that are worth noting.
Long-form content has a better chance of finding more keywords. This could mean that sites with shorter content get a small hit in the ranking as content with longer form gets a boost.
It is also more important than ever for websites to ensure that SEO strategies are in place on the page, such as: B. using the correct heading and optimizing the anchor text. Pages with less optimization but better content could outperform you.
If you've avoided long-form content, now may be the time to try it out. Google shows that it is ready to help users find useful content even if the page's SEO is not perfect.
For websites with shorter content, such as However, e.g. ecommerce websites, the Google ranking is unlikely to change.
What Types of Websites Affect Passage Indexing?
The change primarily helps sites with long-form content that are not perfectly optimized. Publishers with an established SEO strategy, ecommerce websites with shorter content, and websites with no long-form content are unlikely to see any changes.
What are the benefits of passage indexing?
Now that we've looked at passage indexing, how it works, and what impact it could have on our SEO, let's talk about why you should care. Are there any benefits to this change or is it just another minor shift that you can ignore?
Indexing passages has several advantages:
- Longer form contents get a boost: This shift will help long-form content rank higher for more specific keywords.
- Focus on users rather than Google bots: Google is showing us again that website owners should focus more on creating content that users find useful than on what search bots want.
- Long-tail keywords are more important than ever: Long-tail keywords and related terms can likely help trigger passages to be indexed. So add phrases and longer terms just like you would with voice search.
- Could (slightly) reduce the importance of on-page SEO factors: In the SEJ webinar, Google's Martin Splitt emphasized that this change is intended to help pages with great content that may not be perfectly optimized. These pages don't get penalized for having great content, but don't completely ignore the on-page page. Websites in highly competitive niches have great content and on-page optimization.
It's also worth noting that this change doesn't increase Google penalties or cause a huge drop in traffic on most websites.
This is a minor change to help users find websites with useful content that may not be fully optimized.
How can you optimize passage indexing?
In an interview, Google's Martin Splitt was quick to say that website owners shouldn't fall for tools or agencies claiming they can tweak indexing of passages because it's a small change meant to help keep websites with long-form content to improve.
While I don't recommend revising your entire website, there are a few small changes you can make, especially with long-form content:
- Update long-form posts with new statistics, links, and resources.
- For each section, use clear, keyword-rich (but not overly streamlined) headings so that Google understands all of the topics covered in a post.
- If you don't have long form content, now is the time to do it. Make sure you cover as much of the topic as possible, answer frequently asked questions, and use long-tail keywords.
- If you have a page with a slightly different section on the main topic, make sure the section is clearly written and optimized for the search terms that users would use to find that information.
- Spend some time looking for long-tail keywords and incorporate those terms into your long-form content.
Don't go crazy trying to tweak the indexing of passages. You could swing too far in the other direction and optimize your website too much, which can affect your rankings.
Is there a tool to optimize websites for passage ranking?
No, according to Martin Splitt, there is no tool that can be used to determine if your website is an eligible for this change. It is best to follow the suggestions above and focus on creating content that suits what users want.
How does passage indexing affect the future of search engine marketing?
The passage indexing is a small change in the Google ranking system. However, it is worth paying attention to.
Google has long said that users come first and this is another push in that direction. SEO is important, but users should remain your primary focus.
It also shows that Google is dedicated to using AI to understand the context of a page. RankBrain, DeepMind, machine learning, and natural language processing are helping Google better understand context. This is an extension of that effort.
This is good news for digital marketers! Google strives to keep its search results as relevant as possible to users. However, the optimization is no longer enough to deliver mediocre content.
Conclusion
Hopefully by now you have a solid understanding of what passage indexing is, why it's important to your website, and how it can help improve your Google rankings.
Note that most website owners don't need to make any changes and they won't be penalized by Google. Websites with long content can see a slight increase in rankings and traffic.
This rank change also provides a glimpse of where Google could go in the future. The search engine continues to focus on giving users the best possible user experience, which means marketers should focus their energies on users too.
If you need help with search engine optimization and want to provide a better user experience, let my team help you.
Are you planning to update your digital marketing strategy in response to passage indexing? What changes are you going to make?