Google introduces the Helpful Information Update in an effort to improve search results by surfacing original, high-quality content. What exactly does this mean? Read on!
Google published an official blog post announcing the release of its Google Helpful Content Update. The update went live on August 25, 2022, and it will take two weeks to finish. This upgrade is a component of Google’s bigger initiative to make sure people see the best material possible in search results.
Google aims to remove low-quality information from search results with this upgrade. The update is anticipated to be as significant as Panda, which focused on low-quality content, and Penguin, which focused on webspam.
Is It Affecting all Sites?
According to reports, the move would hurt sites that Google considers as having low-quality or thin material. This typically occurs when a website is built with no real user benefit in mind other than to get Google traffic. You probably will be impacted by this change if your website has a lot of thin or low-quality content.
However, not all sites will be effected. You shouldn’t be concerned if your website has excellent, interesting material; in fact, you may benefit from this improvement by seeing an increase in traffic. It’s crucial to monitor this google helpful content update and evaluate how it impacts your website in either case.
What Is People-First Content?
The term “people-first content” describes articles that are written more for searchers than for search engines. This entails producing unique, valuable content while implementing SEO best practices to guarantee that your content is quickly discovered by searchers.
To avoid being impacted by this move, Google’s guidelines discuss producing content that puts the needs of readers first. Creating people-first content might be difficult, but it’s well worth the effort if you want to see success with this upgrade.
What Should I Do If My Traffic Drops?
It’s crucial to stand back and evaluate your content if you notice a drop in traffic following an google helpful content update. You can ask yourself a few questions to determine whether your material is still relevant and compelling.
- Has the information been updated to reflect any modifications to my market or niche?
- Is the information still pertinent to the demands of my target audience?
- Is the content’s tone and style still appropriate for my target audience?
- Is the content interesting and easy to read, or is it dry and tough to get through?
- If you can affirmatively respond to each of these, your content is probably still on track. However, if you are hesitant about any of them, it may be time to make some modifications.
- Are you writing to a specific word count because you’ve heard or read that Google prefers a certain word limit? (We don’t, no.)
- Did you choose to write about a particular niche topic without having any real knowledge but rather mostly because you anticipated it would attract search traffic?
- Is your content promising to answer a query that has no answer, such as implying a release date for a product, movie, or TV show that hasn’t been confirmed?
Conclusion
A successful blog or website requires regular content updates. You can make sure that your content remains pertinent and interesting for your audience by regularly updating it.
Don’t be worried if you notice a fall in traffic following an algorithm upgrade. Instead, go over your content and see where you can improve it. Online SEO Support blog will assist you by posting relevant articles regarding this upgrade, allowing you to find pages that have been deteriorated as a result of this ranking signal, and our Content AI can provide clever thoughts on what searchers are seeking for with your chosen term.
Here is a link where you can read the complete update on the helpful content update: https://developers.google.com/search/blog/2022/08/helpful-content-update