In early August, Google announced a new ‘Helpful Content’ update, one of their biggest algorithm updates in over a decade. The launch of this update, which was confirmed as starting on the 19th, has the potential to shake up the SEO landscape in the same way that Google Penguin did back in 2012.
The Helpful Content Update aims to reward content that serves a purpose and is written primarily for users rather than search engines. If a site previously used ‘spammy’ tactics (like keyword stuffing), it may now be penalised more heavily than it would have before.
This is nothing new. In fact, Google has been slowly but surely moving towards a user-first model for some time now – this is just its latest evolution.
That being said, if you have previously produced content for search engines you’ll need to review existing content as well as revamping how you go about writing fresh pieces.
Identifying any potential issues before they become a wider problem will be key in mitigating any potential changes Helpful Content brings. This blog explores what we already know about Google’s Helpful Content Update, how it might affect organic SEO content and what you can do about it.
What Is Google’s Helpful Content Update?
Google’s Helpful Content Update is designed to target content that has been written to rank on search engines while sacrificing readability. With this algorithm update, Google wants to reward sites that produce content written for people, rather than content written for Google.
When people are searching on Google, they usually want to find information that helps them answer a question or query. If the term they’re searching for brings up content that might be deemed ‘unhelpful’, it impacts their overall Google experience. It’s this prevalence of spammy or poorly written content that Google is actively moving away from.
With the Helpful Content Update, it’ll likely penalise websites that are ‘unhelpful’ (spammy or keyword-stuffy) while ‘helpful’ websites that are designed for people will start to rank better. Google highlighted that it’s part of an ongoing effort to reduce low-quality content while making it easier for people to find content that’s useful.
When Will The Helpful Content Update Be Released?
The Google Helpful Content Update will be rolled out this week (commencing 22 August 2022). Google said that the full rollout of this update will take two weeks to implement, which will affect English-language searches globally. It will then be rolling it out across other languages in the future.
How Will This Update Affect Content For Organic SEO?
Quite simply, we expect organic content that is written for users first to benefit and content written primarily to rank to be penalised. We’re not entirely sure what the penalties will be yet, but it will most likely impact rankings.
It’s worth noting that the Helpful Content Update will be sitewide, rather than focusing on individual pages or sections. If Google crawls your site and finds that you are producing lots of unhelpful content, then you may find it ranking lower in the Google search results, regardless of where that content sits on your site.
If you think you have a lot of unhelpful content on your site, the advice is to rewrite it, noindex it or remove it altogether.
What Can You Do To Prepare For Google’s Latest Update?
As Google announced the update recently, it means that sites have less time to prepare their web pages and content to be ‘Helpful Content’ ready. There are things that you can do to mitigate the impact that the update will have on the pages and content that are ranking on Google.
Google has given us some questions to ask when you are creating content so that it provides a satisfying user experience. When creating content for organic SEO with the Helpful Content Update, you should make sure that any content you produce is for people and not search engines.
Are you producing lots of content on different topics in hopes that some of it might perform well in search results? Is the content primarily to attract people from search engines, rather than made for humans to read?
By answering some of these questions, it’ll help you create people-first content that follows SEO best practice from Google. It means that you can produce organic SEO content for people that is helpful without it affecting your site rankings.
Is Recovering Your Content Rankings Possible?
In theory, yes. After previous algorithm updates, it’s been possible to recover rankings, although it can take some time. For example, when Panda was released in 2012, some of the biggest brands in the world were hit (see below).
The way that Google penalises content with this update is automatic through the use of a signal. If Google signals that your site’s content is created to rank for search engines, then it will act as a penalty. As the algorithm will run in real-time, it means that new websites that are created for SEO will have the signal applied from the start.
However, you can get the signal removed if you improve the quality of content that you produce to be helpful to users. If the algorithms identify that your blog posts and web pages are created for people over search engines, then the signal strength might be reduced or lifted completely.
Providing A Free Helpful Content Update Content Audit For Your Site
Google’s Helpful Content Update is the biggest content update to be released since Panda and Penguin in 2011 and 2012 respectively. Preparing for the launch of this update will ensure that any rankings you’ve secured for individual pages or pieces of content will be unaffected.
It’s important that your site is in the best possible shape with Google’s Helpful Content Update release. We can provide a free content audit, which will ensure that any written content you produce is aimed at people while generating good organic SEO traffic to your site.
Please get in touch with our expert team at Ricemedia today to ensure that your organic SEO content is not significantly impacted by Google’s latest update.
