{"id":3080,"date":"2022-02-14T09:14:00","date_gmt":"2022-02-14T09:14:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.jedok.com\/?p=3080"},"modified":"2022-02-14T15:23:05","modified_gmt":"2022-02-14T15:23:05","slug":"is-googles-mum-a-factor-in-search-ranking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jedok.com\/blog\/is-googles-mum-a-factor-in-search-ranking\/2022\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Google’s MUM A Factor In Search Ranking?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Google announced at Google I\/O earlier this year that it is investigating a new technology called MUM (Multitask Unified Model) internally to help its ranking systems better understand language.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MUM, dubbed “a new AI milestone for understanding information,” is intended to make it easier for Google to answer complex search queries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MUM, according to Google, is 1,000 times more powerful than its NLP transfer learning predecessor, BERT.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It employs the Text-To-Text Transfer Transformer model (T5) to reframe NLP tasks into a unified text-to-text format and develop a more comprehensive understanding of knowledge and information.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MUM can be used for document summarization, question answering, and classification tasks such as sentiment analysis, according to Google.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Clearly, MUM is a major priority within the Googleplex \u2013 and something that is important to the search team should be on the radar of the SEO industry as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Is it, however, a ranking factor<\/a> in Google’s search algorithms?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MUM As A Ranking Factor, According to the Claim<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Many people who read about MUM when it was first announced naturally wondered how it would affect search rankings (especially their own).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Google makes thousands of changes to its ranking algorithms each year, and while the vast majority of them go unnoticed, some have a significant impact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One such example is BERT.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Google called it the most important update in five years when it was released globally in 2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And, indeed, BERT had an impact on about 10% of search queries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another example of an algorithmic update that had a significant impact on the SERPs is RankBrain, which was released in the spring of 2015.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now that Google is discussing MUM, it’s clear that SEO professionals and the clients they serve should pay attention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Roger Montti recently published an article about a patent that he believes could provide more insight into MUM’s inner workings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you want to see what’s going on under the hood, this is an interesting read.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the time being, let us just consider whether MUM is a ranking factor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MUM as a Ranking Factor: Evidence<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

When RankBrain was released, it wasn’t announced for another six months. Most updates aren’t even announced or confirmed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Google, on the other hand, has gotten better at sharing important updates ahead of time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For example, BERT was first announced in November 2018, was made available for English-language queries in October 2019, and was made available globally later that year, in December.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We had even more time to prepare for the Page Experience signal and Core Web Vitals<\/a>, which were announced more than a year in advance of their eventual rollout in June 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Google has already stated that MUM is on its way, and it will be a big deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But, could MUM be to blame for the drop in rankings that many sites experienced in the spring and summer of 2021?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MUM’s Evidence Against Its Use As A Ranking Factor<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Pandu Nayak, Google Fellow and Vice President of Search, made it clear in his May 2021 introduction to MUM that technology isn’t a factor. In any case, not yet:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cToday\u2019s search engines aren\u2019t quite sophisticated enough to answer the way an expert would. But with a new technology called Multitask Unified Model, or MUM, we\u2019re getting closer to helping you with these types of complex needs. So in the future<\/strong>, you\u2019ll need fewer searches to get things done.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The timetable for when MUM-powered features and updates would be available was given as “in the coming months and years.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When asked if the industry would be notified when MUM goes live in search, Google Search Liaison Danny Sullivan replied in the affirmative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nayak recently explained how Google uses AI in Search and wrote,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhile we\u2019re still in the early days of tapping into MUM\u2019s potential, we\u2019ve already used it to improve searches for COVID-19 vaccine information, and we\u2019ll offer more intuitive ways to search using a combination of both text and images in Google Lens in the coming months.<\/p>

These are very specialized applications \u2014 so MUM is not currently used to help rank and improve the quality of search results<\/strong> like RankBrain, neural matching and BERT systems do.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

He also stated that any future MUM applications will be subjected to a rigorous evaluation process, with special emphasis on the responsible use of AI.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MUM as a Search Ranking Factor: Is Google’s MUM a Search Ranking Factor?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Bottom line: MUM is not used as a search ranking signal by Google. It’s a language AI model based on Transformer, Google’s open-source neural network architecture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Google will train MUM on large datasets, as it did BERT, and then fine-tune it for specific applications on smaller datasets. This is what MUM’s use for improving vaccine search results is testing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Google has mentioned specific uses for it in the (near) future, including:<\/p>\n\n\n\n