Google’s ‘helpful content’ update

What is the helpful content update? 

Big changes are on the horizon for your website’s search results as Google announced on 18 August that it’s going to be changing the way it ranks web pages on its SERPs (search engine results pages). 

The update is part of a broader effort by Google to ensure people see more useful, original content on their searches to help promote a more satisfying experience for the user. Although Google has always pushed for SEOs to write content for users, not bots, in recent years, there has been a steady increase in SEO focused content, something that Google now wants to shift away from. The combination of informative, useful content and application of the best SEO practices will now ensure that the content from your webpages will rank as high as possible in Google’s search results. This rids the top pages of AI-based content, which is largely unhelpful, and paves the way for a more satisfying user experience when researching or reading. 

What to focus on

If, like the Search & Social team here at Fluid, you’re obsessed with improving your search results and rankings, then you’ll want to know what to focus on, and what not to, when Google's new update comes into play. 

We recommend following these simple steps to ensure that your content isn’t devalued and de-ranked by google: 

• First and foremost, and this goes without saying, focus on people-first content that is designed to help and inform the consumer. Your content should demonstrate a depth of knowledge that ensures readers will want to come back to your site in the future.

• Ensure your content has a purpose and answers the question. There’s nothing more damaging to your search results than if a user has to leave your site and go elsewhere for the information they’re after.

• If you are producing content on a niche topic area, which generally rank higher on SERPs, ensure that you demonstrate first-hand expertise on the topic which shows that you are well-informed, well-researched, and not just producing the content to perform well in a search. 

• Don’t focus on the use of extensive automation to produce your content. This will ensure Google de-ranks your content from now on. Make it authentic.

• Don’t focus purely on search engine attraction techniques, it’s time to get a balance and focus more so on great content. 

• Don’t focus on a word count, Google has said it doesn't make a difference.

Why is Google updating the way it ranks sites? 

Google often makes updates to its search engine. Take the most recent significant one, the May 2022 core update in which Google changed the way its ranking process would work. This update was focused on producing more relevant search results and better matching searcher intent. The update created a large amount of volatility, with some websites losing huge amounts of organic traffic and some losing their featured snippets within the SERPs. Although it's not been confirmed by Google, the changes seen during the May update lead us to believe that it may have been a test update, ready for this upcoming core update. Much like it did with Core Web Vitals - Google tends to test large-scale updates first before rolling out a finished version.

This new update has a similar intention of changing the way the search results are displayed, however this time Google has been more informative about why and how it is going to do so. Google says its doing so to allow people to be better connected to helpful information, and not be bombarded with irrelevant information and websites that are usually towards the top of the search results due to flaws within the SEO process. This new update should amend these flaws and give access to relevant, useful content to everyone at first glance. 

Alongside this, Google is under threat from social media companies such as TikTok and Instagram as it has been reported that these sites are becoming increasingly popular for search queries. Due to this, Google is making a real effort with this update to ensure it is number one when it comes to finding out information. 

When does the update take place

The rollout of the update begins on the 22 August and will last up to two weeks. The update will begin with English language searches only, however Google says eventually they will expand to other languages. It has been reported that the industries affected significantly will be online education, arts and entertainment, shopping and technology-based searches. 

We'll be monitoring our clients search performance closely over the coming weeks to watch out for any wholesale changes. We're always committed to writing genuine content and hope to see improvements from this update. 

If you'd like to discuss SEO with the team, then get in touch by dropping me an email on [email protected].