It’s no secret that Google Search is constantly at work, putting the most helpful content into the hands of its users. And Google’s most recent update, the Helpful Content Update, has arrived on the heels of a long list of updates geared toward rewarding original, valuable, engaging content with higher search results and more visibility.
A lot depends on the content strategy approach of your digital marketing agency. High Level Marketing is an SEO-focused digital marketing agency. But our approach to content marketing is based on the needs of our client's customers. We write for people and optimize for search engines.
If you read this list and think it's primarily geared toward blogs and review sites, there's some truth to that. But pay attention to the first three bullets, especially the first one. "Is the content primarily to attract people from search engines rather than made for humans?" That sounds a lot like a content marketing strategy decision.
You've probably come across websites with pages using this strategy. They are filled with keywords, GEO targets in every headline, and content sections that seem to say the same thing using different keyword combinations. Their pages attract you with great headlines at the top of search results but leave you feeling kind of empty (if you didn't bounce after skimming the headlines.)
If your website has any of these warning signs, contact High Level Marketing. We will get your website and your business back on track to earn visibility and rankings the right way.
If you follow the trail of Google’s updates, you’ll notice each update is getting Google closer to its corporate vision “to provide access to the world’s information in one click." The Helpful Content Update will specifically target “content that seems to have been primarily created for ranking well in search engines rather than to help or inform people.”
Basically, Google wants you to stay in your lane. Publish original content in your area of expertise, avoid publishing or reposting content to get results based on trends, and above all else, publish content humans find engaging.
According to Google, as reported by Search Engine Land, the types of content impacted the most include:
To be clear, Google is not targeting those industries. They just happen to be areas with the most instances of “unhelpful” content. Google provided this search example to SEL:
“If you search for information about a new movie, you might have previously encountered articles that aggregated reviews from other sites without adding perspectives beyond what’s available elsewhere on the web. This isn’t very helpful if you’re expecting to read something new. With this update, you’ll see more results with unique information, so you’re more likely to read something you haven’t seen before.”
Many of the Google algorithm updates are applied on a page-by-page basis. The Helpful Content Update is one of the few significant updates that affect the entire website. Google’s classifier determines if your website is publishing or includes a relatively high amount of unhelpful content, or any content explicitly written for ranking in search engines, your entire website will be impacted- including the “helpful” pages.
Although the signal is weighted, Google has not published what percentage of unhelpful content will flag the classifier or how hard it will hit a site with a lot of unhelpful content versus one with a small amount.
That’s right. Once your website is hit by the Helpful Content Update, it could take months to recover after you’ve removed or updated the content. Our best recommendation is to review Google’s guidelines for building a high-quality website with people-first content. Then, aggressively eliminate or replace all content that does not meet Google SEO and content standards, and don’t put it back after Google reclassifies your website. Then, continue to publish quality content that is relevant, industry-specific, and positions you as an industry authority. Remember E-A-T? Hint: Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness.
Remember, Google put three significant updates in motion, broad core updates, Product Reviews Updates, and now the site-wide Helpful Content Update. It is unlikely, but your website may surge with one and drop with another. As Google explained to GSQ, those updates operate on different systems, so it’s possible but rare since the algorithms are all trying to reward high-quality content or reduce low-quality content in search results.