Not long ago, we put together a collection of interesting terms related to the Google Ranking System, covering both those still in use and those that have been retired, to share with marketers who are just getting started with SEO so they can familiarize themselves with the key technical terms that affect website rankings (read more: The Collection of Terms You Must Know for the Google Ranking System in 2022). For anyone who has already read it, you probably understand the various components of the Google Ranking System a lot better now. That said, we believe there may still be certain Ranking Systems that leave you wondering about their roles and functions, especially Google Passage Ranking, which many people often confuse with Page Ranking. This sometimes leads to website improvements that aren't comprehensive, resulting in rankings that don't turn out as expected.
So in this article, Relevant Audience would like to volunteer to take all of you new marketers on a deeper dive into Google's "Passage Ranking" system, so you can prepare to plan an SEO strategy that performs better than your competitors in the market. If you're ready, let's get into it.
What Is Google Passage Ranking?
"We aim to give Google users the best possible search results" is one of the popular taglines that tends to pop up with every update to the Google Ranking System. But little do people know that, behind users' smiles, there are the tears of marketers who have to scramble to update their websites to comply with new algorithms in order to push their rankings higher. And one of the algorithm updates that has caused marketers the biggest headaches over the past year is none other than Google Passage Ranking, which some people call Passage Indexing.
Cathy Edwards, who is Google's VP of Engineering, has offered the following definition: "Passage Ranking is an algorithm that helps Google focus more on finding specific passages of text, so that it can display results appropriately and accurately." Put simply, it's an algorithm that helps rank searches involving highly specific search queries, based on both the paragraph and the text written on those particular lines.
For example, before this update, you might have searched for "how do I know if my house has ants" and the results you got could have been an explanation of how many species of ants there are, or a description of house characteristics, and so on. But once Google applied Passage Ranking, the results became more relevant to the search query, such as displaying an article rounding up ways to repel ants using household items, or methods to eliminate ants in a room for good. In short, Google's Passage Ranking system helps make things more convenient for Google Search users and lets them access information that better matches their needs.
The Impact on SEO Website Improvements
Even though Google's John Mueller once spoke about the Passage Ranking system, saying that "there's no need to optimize your website for Passage Ranking," a Google Blog Post nonetheless explains that Passage Ranking affects as much as 7% of changes to search results. So if you weigh it up, 7% is by no means a small figure and has a fairly significant effect on what shows up in the SERPs.
For that reason, the best approach is for new marketers to optimize their web pages to suit Passage Ranking, which emphasizes ranking searches around specific terms, to help give the page overall a better chance of being picked up and displayed by Google. You can make adjustments as follows:
Final Thoughts
In any case, the important thing about doing SEO is to "make sure you cover everything first," whether that's Off-Page or On-Page. The same goes for taking Passage Ranking into account — even though it isn't the typical search behavior of everyday users, it still matters if you want your website to rank on the first page.
Source: SEOSLY
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