Good morning Search Marketer, bear with me, a rant…
There's been confusion — and even conspiracy theories — around Google's news that it will soon get better at being able to rank individual passages from web pages. The confusion lies in whether Google is now indexing individual passages separate from pages.
It isn't.
As I mentioned here last week, this was largely Google's own fault given it called this new technology "passage-based indexing". To make sure we got it right, we asked Google and got clarification from a Google spokesperson on how this works for our reporting on it last week. After seeing ongoing confusion, we asked Google to publish this publicly, which it did in a thread yesterday. In summary: "This change doesn't mean we're indexing individual passages independently of pages."
Conspiracy theories die hard, and almost immediately there were SEOs saying that Google's response can only mean it is, in fact, indexing passages.
I don't get it. Of all the things to think Google isn't being straight about, it's this?
This is a ranking change. Not an indexing change. So let's focus on the benefit of this new algorithm: Google's ability to parse out a relevant passage that may be far down a page and would not have stood a chance of ranking before. That means less preoccupation with creating content that's optimized around a single idea or keyword and more preoccupation with creating content that suits our customers. Yes, you can @ me.
Meanwhile, a bigger headache for Google, you've likely heard, is the DOJ. Read more about its latest moves and Google's reaction in Search Shorts below. Greg Sterling shares his thoughts on the case and will continue to follow this story.
Ginny Marvin,
Editor-In-Chief
