Google has cleared up confusion about passages within content after stating that blocks of text in an article or blog won’t be indexed separately, and will instead be an additional ranking factor.
Webmasters and SEOs were left wondering whether passages would have their own indexing process after Google announced last week that it will soon use individual passages to gain a better understanding of a page’s relevance.
It said that the change, which will roll out globally in the coming weeks, would affect 7% of queries and see certain portions of text surfaced in search results.
Google noted that the move was driven by the fact that answers to searchers’ questions are sometimes “buried deep in a web page”.
This led to speculation that passages could be indexed independently of whole web pages, but Google confirmed on Wednesday that this will not be the case.
“We’re still indexing pages and considering info about entire pages for ranking. But now we can also consider passages from pages as an additional ranking factor,” Google said in a tweet.
The search giant added that there was nothing “special” that content creators need to do to prepare for the change and urged everyone to focus on publishing great articles, blogs and web copy.
Google’s clarification is good news for marketers and SEOs as there won’t be any additional optimisation required in the future.
The rollout of the new tech should also make it easier for brands to create content that serves the audience’s needs as particularly relevant passages will contribute even more to the quality of the overall piece.
Last week, Google also announced improvements to how search will understand words that have been misspelled in queries.
There are also several COVID-19-related updates that will make it easier for users to get access to high-quality information during the pandemic.
