2022 is shaping up to be a pivotal year for SEO and passage indexing, as Google is putting more emphasis on user intent and the changes in mobile scrolling. In order to rank ahead of the competition with these new changes, it’s crucial to focus on your website content.
If you want to outrank competitors, your content needs to go above and beyond. Now more than ever, long-form content is vital to your success. Here’s what’s changing in 2022, and how you should think about each change going forward.
– MUM/User Intent
– Passage Indexing
– Continuous Scrolling
MUM/User Intent
Google’s Multitask Unified Model, or MUM for short, will aim to answer the most complex questions that users search for — meaning, users will be able to get answers to multiple questions in just one search. This makes creating content to match user intent more important than ever.
Long-form content is the key to taking advantage of this change. Users are looking for the whole story: They want all the information in one place, and Google aims to give them exactly that. With long-form content, you can capture the whole story and tack on information that your audience hadn’t even considered.
Passage Indexing
With the implementation of passage indexing, Google will pull sections of pages on websites to the SERP to match a user’s search. Relevant passages are shown, with specific queries bolded on the SERP.
Long-form content benefits from this change, as it covers more topics and specific keywords that Google can present to users. Websites with specific and in-depth information expressed through optimized text will likely rank higher than those with short-form content.
Continuous Mobile Scrolling
This year, when a user goes to search for something via Google on their phones, there will be no pages to click on. The search results will be continuous, making it easier for websites ranked on pages two and three to get more visibility.
As users can readily view results, it’s imperative that your content stands out. Meta titles and descriptions will be important, as well as matching user intent. Like MUM, long-form content allows for more detailed information, making it easy for users to find relevant answers. Content that captures the whole story will likely stand out against other websites on the SERP.
While focusing on long-form content is important this year amid SERP changes, this does not mean walls of meaningless text only to increase your word count. The key is to add more value, not just words. The best long-form content is engaging to users, with optimized videos and images to accompany the informative content.
https://www.similarweb.com/corp/blog/marketing/seo/content-seo-year-in-review/
https://neilpatel.com/blog/continuous-scrolling/
https://neilpatel.com/blog/passage-indexing/
https://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-mum-new-technology-for-complex-search-queries/407725/#close
https://www.brightedge.com/blog/google-continuous-scrolling-how-will-it-affect-seo
