Is Your Website Optimised for the Google MUM Update?

With the launch of the Google MUM update, users are in for an improved search experience as the search giant aims to utilise the AI-powered algorithm to fulfil modern search demands. Released in June 2021, the Google Multitask Unified Model (MUM) update is designed to eliminate the need to conduct multiple searches to compare information and/or gain a deeper understanding of a particular topic. 

MUM Update Explained

When researching on Google, you will likely perform several searches before you are satisfied with the information you found. It is because the search engine still has some known limitations, and geographical and language barriers affect its ability to provide better search results. 

To make the search engine more intuitive, folks at Google released the MUM update. The update can understand and provide search solutions based on textual content and the interpretation of images, videos, and podcasts. 

It also understands 75 languages. This means it is likely capable of pooling and serving search results in multiple languages and from sources in different parts of the globe to answer complicated online queries. 

Why Business Owners and Online Marketers Should Care

Compared to all of Google’s previous updates, MUM is faster, further-reaching and more thorough. It can interpret meaning in a way that humans can. Most importantly, it can offer more nuanced answers to online queries by combining information obtained from textual content and those in image, video, and audio formats. 

Because of this, the MUM update is vital to anyone who wants to establish a solid presence online. It encourages them to rethink existing SEO strategies and go beyond creating web content that contains relevant keywords and ticks all of Google’s boxes. 

How the Google MUM Update Can Help

With Google MUM’s numerous capabilities, it is certainly a great help to marketers and searchers alike. For marketers, it enables them to better understand user intent, which they can use to create better and more holistic web content. For users, meanwhile, the MUM update gives them access to more accurate search results. 

It also provides other benefits, including: 

1. Serving as your very own expert and translator

With MUM’s ability to understand and find results in over 70 languages, using Google in the future would be akin to having your own industry/niche expert and translator. The search engine can provide everyone with more local and detailed information about a particular topic in a language they understand. It offers more access to international content, which was impossible before because of language barriers. 

With better access to international content, marketers and business owners like you can obtain more localised insights and responses. While this means more competition, it allows you to create better product/service offerings and web content, especially if you serve foreign markets. 

2. Providing answers to less straightforward searches

MUM is a thousand times more powerful than BERT, and it uses the T5 text-to-text framework. This will allow the search engine to provide answers to straightforward online queries much quicker and more efficiently. Best of all, this feature will enable Google to offer results for searches that don’t have a direct answer. 

3. Offering more relevant and diverse content

MUM is far more intelligent and better at understanding nuances than Google’s previous search algorithm updates. Because of this, users are likely to see more relevant and varied pieces of web content in search result pages. 

Also, Google’s latest update is better at answering comparison-style questions. For instance, if you’re wondering the difference between Tokyo and Bali’s weather, you’d have to perform individual searches for each location. However, with Google MUM, you can obtain the answer you need in a single query. You can also receive other relevant comparisons between the two popular tourist destinations. 

How to Prepare Your Site for Google MUM

With the Google MUM update set to make significant changes on how people search information online, it’s crucial to make the necessary adjustments to ensure your web content will remain Google-friendly. Here are a few tips you should consider. 

1. Ensure your content remains high-quality

Continue to create high-quality content that will add value to your target audience. At the same time, look for opportunities for tangential linking to improve your content’s chances of appearing for queries targeting comparison and related topics. 

2. Add media to your content

With Google MUM relying on other forms of web content to provide more accurate results, it certainly helps to support your textual web content with images, audio, and videos. This will help the search giant to notice you. 

3. Consider adding multilingual SEO to your overall strategy

Incorporating multilingual SEO in your strategy can help boost your content’s chances when competing with those in other languages. Also, it would make your content more visible and relevant. 

4. Incorporate structured data into your web pages

Keep in mind that Google MUM is AI-powered and would get stronger as it obtains more data from users and websites. Therefore, you should consider adding structured data to your web pages to give MUM an idea of what your content is all about. 

Keep Your Web Content Google-Friendly

With Google releasing yet another major search algorithm update, it certainly pays to be always prepared. Consider following the pointers discussed above and, more importantly, always stay tuned for the latest news about the search giant to ensure that your website is continuously optimised for Google. 

Meanwhile, if you need help optimising your site for Google MUM, we at Springhill Marketing can lend you our expertise. Please speak with us, and our team of seasoned SEO experts will create a strategy tailored for you.