What is Passage Ranking and What to Expect from the Update?

Google first announced Passage Ranking in October 2020, stating that due to the update, the search engine will be able to better find relevant content even on long non-structured pages. The SERP enhancement tool was launched on February 10, 2021. Initially conducted only in the USA and applied to seven percent of English search queries, the update slightly shook up the search results, which was immediately noticed by SEO specialists. In today’s article, we will explain some features of the update and provide universal advice on writing SEO-friendly texts.

What is Google Passage Ranking?

Passage Ranking is a new system for evaluating website content. Its task is to provide the user with a corresponding text fragment in the search results that quickly answers the query. Before Google Passage appeared, the search engine’s algorithm when adding a page to the results checked and evaluated all the content on it based on the keyword.

Unfortunately, this approach led to various tricks by optimizers, of which Google was evidently aware. Often, website owners would create long texts for simple queries just to have a chance of appearing high in search results when the user’s query could have been answered with a few sentences. You likely noticed this more than once when, for example, searching for a brief answer to a problem online, only to find the first search results were long articles where the answer was given only at the beginning or the end.

Thanks to the Passage Ranking tool, Google plans to further evaluate web pages based on individual fragments regardless of the rest of the site’s/page’s content. Thus, even if a page as a whole isn’t considered relevant to the query, posted on a non-theme-related site, Google may find that some key fragments on it are relevant to the user’s query and consequently display this information in the results.

Interesting Fact! Google has reported that about 7% of search queries will be related to this update. This is indeed a large number, and it is fascinating to see how this change affects SEO.

What Websites and Types of Web Pages Benefit from Passage Ranking?

Passage Ranking targets sites with poorly structured but good content, so we can assume the situation may improve for:

• Various blogs;
• Forums;
• Long-reads and article sites.

Thanks to the new algorithm, pages have the opportunity to gain additional traffic if they:

• Cover several topics;
• Contain diluted content not dedicated to one main topic;
• Cover a very general topic;
• Have poor informational structure (such as lack of headings, subheadings, quotes, or paragraphs);
• Were not optimized for search engines.

It seems that both large and small websites will benefit from Passage Ranking. Here are 2 examples:

• A small travel blog run by an individual. The blog isn’t optimized for SEO and contains travel reports from different countries. The blog posts aren’t focused on one specific topic but contain practical experience and advice that Google can highlight in search results.
• A large health website covering numerous different topics and containing many lengthy general guides. Each of its articles and guides covers several and more general topics about health, such as healthy lifestyle or healthy eating. Thanks to Passage Ranking, these general guides will also have the chance to rank higher for very specific queries.

How to Create SEO-Friendly Content in 2021

• The first tip is not to write for the search engine! Write for your readers and provide them with relevant and readable content. The changes coming in 2021 mean that the key element for classifying websites will be how clear and up-to-date their content is.
• Create content that matches the user’s search intent.
• Avoid using elaborate language – Google may have trouble analyzing your content. Use simple and clear language in your content, the kind you would use in conversation. Don’t use specialized jargon.
• The structure of the content has always been important, but this year it will become even more relevant. Your content should be readable on various devices, including mobiles. Create short paragraphs (no more than 200 words), simple sentences, lists, headings, summaries, etc.
• Use keywords naturally. Don’t write your content around a keyword – if before only the user visiting the site could see it, now Google can see it too.
• Create clear headings in your content. Avoid pushy phrases.
• Create content that corresponds to the article’s topic, service, offer, etc.

Remember! The number of characters on the page is not always a deciding ranking factor; this is easily observed when analyzing the list of search results for a given keyword.

Conclusion

Soon we will see many changes. Google has long focused on creating content for users and not for search engines. This is further confirmed by the introduction of yet another SERP improvement tool for users: Passage Ranking.

How does this affect site owners? It’s still hard to say. Certainly, Google will stop some traffic this way – the user will automatically get the answer in the search results list and won’t have to read through the site to find it. Will small specialized sites benefit from this? Time will tell.