Is your website ready for Google’s ‘Helpful Content Update’ ?
Have you ever searched on the internet looking for an answer or solution to a problem, only to find the results haven’t answered your question or lived up to expectations? It’s so frustrating to find an article that seems like it was designed just to attract traffic, sometimes it can feel like it wasn’t even written for or by a person!
We’ve been there too, but thankfully Google is looking at ways to tackle this problem, namely its new ‘Helpful Content Update’.
What is the ‘Helpful Content Update’?
The ‘Helpful Content Update’ is an algorithm update Google is rolling out that will assess website search engine performance in a new way, ‘To better reward content where visitors feel they've had a satisfying experience, content that doesn't meet a visitor's expectations won't perform as well.”
In other words, content that is written to be helpful for real people will be boosted in search results, while content that the algorithm doesn’t consider to be useful or rewarding for its users will be devalued.
What does the update mean for you?
As any content that is considered low value or unhelpful by the algorithm can affect the ranking of your entire website, it could potentially have a pretty big impact on you. In fact Google said the following in their statement:
“Any content — not just unhelpful content — on sites determined to have relatively high amounts of unhelpful content overall is less likely to perform well in Search, assuming there is other content elsewhere from the web that's better to display.“
The update runs continuously so that it can check newly launched websites as well as update the ratings of existing websites as they edit and upload their content. The update has already started rolling out and will take a couple of weeks before it has been completely implemented, so you may be already starting to notice a difference and need to take action now.
What action do you need to take?
Although the update may already be impacting you now, it’s easy to make adjustments to help your site benefit from the new update:
1. Update unhelpful content from your website.
To improve a piece of content, consider how your existing or intended audience for your site would find the content and how they would likely react to it. If they’re likely to return to their search results to look for a better answer, consider what you could do to improve the content to really answer their questions.
2. Avoid creating content that prioritises search engines first
Write for your audience, the people behind the screens who will be reading your content, not for search engine crawlers. Address your audience’s needs and do your best to provide clear answers and explanations.
3. Create content that will perform well by following the rules of E.A.T.
E.A.T stands for expertise, authoritativeness and trust. By this we mean, when writing content, opt for topics that you have a lot of knowledge about. By writing good content around subjects you know well, you will build topical authority over time and in turn your readers will trust you and your information more. This method is a great way to help ensure that your content is meaningful and will be useful for search users.
4. Offer something new and be original
Google has also specified that “unoriginal” content will not rank highly in search results. This means that your content should offer a take that nobody else has offered yet. Instead try to highlight what makes your business or website stand out from the rest. What is your unique selling point that makes your website more beneficial to users?
Can I still use SEO techniques?
Yes, SEO can still inform your content strategy, but be mindful – you don’t want it to be your exclusive approach. In their statement, Google said about SEO:
“Our advice about having a people-first approach does not invalidate following SEO best practices”… “SEO is a helpful activity when it’s applied to people-first content. However, content created primarily for search engine traffic is strongly correlated with content that searchers find unsatisfying.”
We’re focused on creating high quality content that is genuinely useful for our client’s customers, so we don’t expect our clients to be at risk as a result of this update. However, we will use this update to continue informing the way we make great content so that you can experience the best results.
If you believe your website could be affected by this update, we can help. Book an SEO audit with us to understand how your website is performing and we’ll provide you with a clear plan so you can see the next steps to improvement.