Google is our go-to for answers to all sorts of questions. We hit Google search for everything from asking how to make a paper boat to tips on climbing a mountain or learning about cryptocurrency. You can even sing a song to get the lyrics through voice search and scan an image to get similar results through Google Lens.

Google improves its search algorithm to deliver the best search experience to its users for every simple and complex query.

In May 2021, Google took a giant leap forward to simplify complex queries and enhance search performance by introducing the new algorithm called Google MUM, a Multitask Unified Model.

What is MUM, how does it work, and why should you care about it — let’s find out the answers you want to know!

Google’s MUM Update

MUM is a multilingual, artificial intelligence-based algorithm that helps users find content relevant to their search intent across different languages and kinds of media. To put it simply, it is designed to analyze and generate content as a human would. Its main goal is to address complex queries. Currently, it requires an average of eight searches to resolve them. MUM works towards eliminating it.

MUM is a 1000 times more powerful and advanced version of BERT, Google’s previously rolled-out algorithm to better match queries with relevant results.

Following are the features of MUM, which indicate a new area for SEO -

Things to Know - It will show users logical pathways related to the intent behind their search.

Topic Zooming - It allows users to broaden or narrow the scope of their search. Users can start with a simple search and scale the specificity of their search based on their needs.

Visual Search - Visual search will increase the presence of images and videos in regular search results.

Impact of MUM on SEO

No Language Barrier

Websites that do not adopt multilingualism appear least in SERPs. The MUM algorithm can process up to 75 languages, breaking the language boundaries.

Understanding of Different Formats

The MUM algorithm will look beyond the text and focus on video, audio, and image content to find more helpful information for the user's search queries.

Pronounced Importance of Contextual Answers 

The context of the query will define your SERP rankings. Two different people with the same question will get different results because of their search history, location, stage of the buyer journey, and overall content preferences.

The content and backlinking remain to be the most influential ranking factors. Also, the importance of quality has even more dominance. One should concern themselves less with keyword frequency and more with providing valuable answers from different perspectives.

MUM will result in a few immediate changes but more significant changes in the upcoming years. Hence, you need not make radical changes to your existing SEO strategy. However, you need to pay close attention to customer journeys as MUM’s primary intent is to produce good results for the users' queries.

Nonetheless, it’s time to comprehend your SEO strategy better. Take Iron Marketers help to develop a competitive SEO strategy to align with the industry standards.