SEARCHENGINES
Google Helpful Content Update To Target Content Written For Search Rankings
Google has announced a new big search ranking algorithm update named the helpful content update – yes, Google named it that. This update will start to roll out next week and will target content that is, um, not helpful to humans and people.
The helpful content update looks to weed out content written for the purpose of ranking in search engines that do not help or inform people. Google said this update will “tackle content that seems to have been primarily created for ranking well in search engines.” The update will “help make sure that unoriginal, low-quality content doesn’t rank highly in Search,” Google added. So if you are writing content with the purpose of driving search engine visibility and traffic, you might be hit by this.
It is my opinion that this update will change how SEOs perform content strategies going forward, much like Panda and Penguin changed how SEOs did content and link strategies, respectively, a decade ago.
Google Helpful Content Update Quick Facts
Here are the most important things that we know right now in short form:
- Name: Google helpful content update
- Launch Date: To be announced but likely the week of August 22nd
- Rollout: It will take about two weeks to fully roll out
- Targets: It looks at content that was created to rank well in search over help humans
- Search Only: This currently only impacts Google Search, not Google Discover or other Google surfaces. But Google may expand this to Discover and more in the future.
- Penalty: Google did not mention penalty but this update does seem to feel like a penalty for sites that will be hit by it
- Sitewide: This is a sitewide algorithm, so the whole site will be impacted by this update
- Not a core update: Many are going to say this is a core update, it is not.
- English Language but will expand: This is only looking at English-language content globally now but likely will expand to other languages.
- Impact: Google would not tell me what percentage of queries or searches were impacted by this update but Google did tell me it would be “meaningful.” Also, Google said this will be felt more for online-educational materials, entertainment, shopping, and tech-related content.
- Recover: If you were hit by this, then you will need to look at your content and see if you can do better with Google’s advice below
- Refreshes: Google updates the scores constantly here but there is a timeout period, and a validation period and it can take several months to recover from this update.
Smells Like Panda?
Does this sound like Google Panda to you? It does to me. But Google told me this update is in addition to Panda, which is already baked into the core algorithm for many many years. So Panda is still running but this update is a new one that might feel like Panda did when it launched but is different.
I do believe this update, when we look back at it years later, will be at the same stature of a Panda or Penguin in the way that it forced SEOs to rethink some of their SEO strategies. I think this update will do that with content marketing and SEO content strategies for some agencies.
Sitewide Algorithm
This is a sitewide algorithm, meaning if the machine learning algorithm determines that a relatively high amount of your content is unsatisfying or unhelpful content, that may lead to a site being flagged by this classifier and thus your whole site will be impacted.
Here is John Mueller on the machine learning aspect – in short, not a big deal:
Machine learning is just a tool – it’s used in lots of places; think of it more as an a/b test.
— 🥔 johnmu (personal) updated for 2022 🥔 (@JohnMu) August 19, 2022
This helpful content update will not be applied to individual pages but to the whole site.
So you think you can trick Google by moving the unhelpful content to a subfolder or subdomain, I am told that might not work. Instead, you should either remove that content or make it super helpful.
Here is how Danny Sullivan of Google responded to that:
We tend to see subdomains apart from root domains but it can also depend on many factors.
— Danny Sullivan (@dannysullivan) August 18, 2022
Can you use a noindex to hide the unhelpful content? Sure, John Mueller of Google said but…
noindex is fine. Consider if all we see are good signals for your site, that’s a good sign. That said, as a user I’d feel kinda weird, you land on a good page, and the rest is bad? Why would you do that? Short-term noindex is a good way to start, but usually it’s not a few pages.
— 🥔 johnmu (personal) updated for 2022 🥔 (@JohnMu) August 18, 2022
Google added “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. For this reason, removing unhelpful content could help the rankings of your other content.”
Updates Regularly But Several Months Validation Period
Google said the helpful content update system is automated, regularly evaluating content. So the algorithm is constantly looking at your content and assigning scores to it. But that does not mean, that if you fix your content today, your site will recover tomorrow. Google told me there is this validation period, a waiting period, for Google to trust that you really are committed to updating your content and not just updating it today, Google then ranks you better and then you put your content back to the way it was. Google needs you to prove, over several months – yes – several months – that your content is actually helpful in the long run.
Google wrote it will “continue refining how the classifier detects unhelpful content and launch further efforts to better reward people-first content.” “A natural question some will have is how long will it take for a site to do better if it removes unhelpful content? Sites identified by this update may find the signal applied to them over a period of months. Our classifier for this update runs continuously, allowing it to monitor newly-launched sites and existing ones. As it determines that the unhelpful content has not returned in the long-term, the classification will no longer apply,” Google added
So if you get hit by this update, it can take months and months to recover – that is – if you put the work in.
Helpful Content Update Signals
Google also told me that it aggregates a variety of signals about the page and site to determine the ranking of a page. Google would not say if links are part of those signals or not, but it does not seem so.
Google uses machine learning to identify such content – content designed to rank well in search and not be helpful to users. Google told me they validated these algorithms with quality raters and that using this system improves its search quality, just as Google validates any type of ranking improvement prior to launch.
Meaningful Impact – English
I asked Google how big of an update this will be and Google told me this is “a meaningful update across Search.” Google said that based on its testing, it will have a greater impact on online educational materials, as well as arts & entertainment, shopping, and tech-related content, not because those areas were focused on but because they might have higher amounts of content that this update targets.
Google added this is right now rolling out first to English searches globally. Google added it does “plan to expand to other languages in the future.”
What is online education, Danny Sullivan from Google said on Twitter “Generally tutorial, things meant to teach something, not really formal courses. But again, it’s not focused on any particular area. That’s just one example where we see notable improvement but there are others and any query about any thing might benefit.”
Google announced this a tab before it launched so that you can be aware and know if this impacted your site:
One of the reasons we announce these changes (and list them on our site with dates) is that site owners can check bigger visibility changes they’re experiencing (search analytics report) and go back to see what Google might have changed.
— 🥔 johnmu (personal) updated for 2022 🥔 (@JohnMu) August 19, 2022
Why The Helpful Content Update
Why is Google releasing this update? Well, based on the feedback the search company has been getting through the feedback link in Google Search, on social media, and on the internet – searchers are not happy with the quality of some of the content they discover on Google. We’ve been hearing about it for years, so this is Google’s answer to improve those quality issues.
Google Helpful Content Update Advice
Google also provided two sets of questions you can ask yourself about your content to see if it will do well with this helpful content update.
Google said “How do you avoid taking a search engine-first approach? Answering yes to some or all of the questions is a warning sign that you should reevaluate how you’re creating content across your site:”
- Is the content primarily to attract people from search engines, rather than made for humans?
- Are you producing lots of content on different topics in hopes that some of it might perform well in search results?
- Are you using extensive automation to produce content on many topics?
- Are you mainly summarizing what others have to say without adding much value?
- Are you writing about things simply because they seem trending and not because you’d write about them otherwise for your existing audience?
- Does your content leave readers feeling like they need to search again to get better information from other sources?
- Are you writing to a particular word count because you’ve heard or read that Google has a preferred word count? (No, we don’t).
- Did you decide to enter some niche topic area without any real expertise, but instead mainly because you thought you’d get search traffic?
- Does your content promise to answer a question that actually has no answer, such as suggesting there’s a release date for a product, movie, or TV show when one isn’t confirmed?
Google also said “How can you ensure you’re creating content that will be successful with our new update? By following our long-standing advice to create content for people, not for search engines. People-first content creators focus first on creating satisfying content, while also utilizing SEO best practices to bring searchers addition value. Answering yes to the questions below means you’re probably on the right track with a people-first approach:”
- Do you have an existing or intended audience for your business or site that would find the content useful if they came directly to you?
- Does your content clearly demonstrate first-hand expertise and a depth of knowledge (for example, expertise that comes from having actually used a product or service, or visiting a place)?
- Does your site have a primary purpose or focus?
- After reading your content, will someone leave feeling they’ve learned enough about a topic to help achieve their goal?
- Will someone reading your content leave feeling like they’ve had a satisfying experience?
- Are you keeping in mind our guidance for core updates and for product reviews?
SEO Community Reaction
Here are some other stories written in the community on this topic:
Here are some of the reactions I found from the SEO community on this new algorithm update:
SEOs will look back at this update and it should be like a Panda, Penguin, Florida update type of update – it may change how content SEO is done going forward. More at https://t.co/yEFetlJJRO https://t.co/eNRjkrWnW6
— Barry Schwartz (@rustybrick) August 18, 2022
So, will this be like Son of Panda?
— SEO-Theory.Com (@seo_theory) August 18, 2022
The “Helpful Content Update” will start rolling out next week & it will take about 2 weeks to complete. Like the Product Reviews Update, it’s focused on English content globally. The signal is a classifier that will be continuously running. https://t.co/qRXqaUCS2F pic.twitter.com/65TUQow7gF
— Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) August 18, 2022
More on the HCU: Google explained to @rustybrick that the update will only impact Search for now (and not Discover or other surfaces). It might in the future, but not for now. That’s an important point. https://t.co/c0KfcmHw0j pic.twitter.com/DaUJNgyrz2
— Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) August 18, 2022
Niche site twitterzzzz https://t.co/82iFbuBOOE pic.twitter.com/j9beEeV0d5
— TomJ 🍀 (@WolfofBaldSt) August 18, 2022
Google to upgrade anonymous Reddit threads in most search results. 😉 https://t.co/JIhBDrhaJ7
— Tadeusz Szewczyk (Tad Chef) (@onreact) August 18, 2022
Does this mean they didn’t focus on helpful, useful, authentic content before?
— Pritesh Patel (@priteshpatel9) August 18, 2022
Right now, in some SEO departments pic.twitter.com/VsJmnZtN8p
— Pedro Dias (@pedrodias) August 18, 2022
Niche site twitterzzzz https://t.co/82iFbuBOOE pic.twitter.com/j9beEeV0d5
— TomJ 🍀 (@WolfofBaldSt) August 18, 2022
Best of luck everyone! https://t.co/aRa76wORvg pic.twitter.com/BKkfjpOZUS
— Keith (Niche Site Stuff) (@MintedEmpire) August 18, 2022
Love this 🔍 https://t.co/JnfDroFGte pic.twitter.com/KMOqiOaHWu
— Brian Freiesleben (@type_SEO) August 18, 2022
Techmeme has a nice roundup of articles on this topic over here:
Google plans to prioritize “content made specifically by and for people” in Search in English globally, covering shopping, tech-related content, and more (@zombie_wretch / The Verge)https://t.co/GvTMLtxiYOhttps://t.co/S337JjuWO5
— Techmeme (@Techmeme) August 18, 2022
At a minimum Google going public with something like this should send a massive wake up signal to us as to what it thinks it can do & if they don’t get right this time they eventually will.
— Mordy Oberstein 🇺🇦 (@MordyOberstein) August 18, 2022
“This classifier process is entirely automated, using a machine-learning model. It is not a manual action nor a spam action.”
Google using AI to find spammy AI content.
🔥 Fight fire with fire. 🔥 https://t.co/m94Akimnwi— Roxana Stingu (@RoxanaStingu) August 18, 2022
I have a feeling this new update is going to help make Google’s index even more exclusive – I think some sites might be seeing even more pages that Google won’t add to the index despite being technically indexable. https://t.co/gt5FdZhKmu
— Nati Elimelech (@Netanel) August 18, 2022
I really do feel this could wipe out affiliate marketing as we know it for the smaller guys https://t.co/qbocLZimYp
— Ryan Murton (@ryan_murton) August 18, 2022
How much of the content created for clients is actually more helpful?
4000 words without any original insight that is just an amalgam of existing top-ranking content will hopefully die https://t.co/XEWB1NsCE8
— Andy Beard (@AndyBeard) August 18, 2022
Sounds like media sites are about to get smacked. https://t.co/joEUMOeFkB
— Mic King (@iPullRank) August 18, 2022
Excited our “helpful content update” launches soon. Been watching team work hard on it, part of a broad continuing effort to bring more authentic info into Google Search. I’m on vacation this week but will try in few hours to answer questions I see, though our posts cover a lot. https://t.co/aj86MoXWqI
— Danny Sullivan (@dannysullivan) August 18, 2022
I read several things from it:
▶ This update does not only affect individual content but has an impact on content of entire websites, which suggests that E-A-T plays a major role.
▶ The recurring reference to the expertise also suggests that it will be an E-A-T focused update.— Oᒪᗩᖴ KOᑭᑭ ✌️🔥 (@Olaf_Kopp) August 18, 2022
Worth noting the person who was clever enough to create a decade long annuity by outsmarting the algorithm ended up creating a warchest which allowed them to invest far more than that competitor who waited a decade on rankings could.
— aaron (@aaronwall) August 19, 2022
This update might be a version of that.
It will be interesting to see the ranking impacts as it rolls out in the coming weeks.
If you’ve been focusing on writing content for search engines instead of users, you might want to reconsider that strategy!
— Lily Ray 😏 (@lilyraynyc) August 18, 2022
“SEO content” is deadhttps://t.co/H0x9UmMmOp
— Rohan Ayyar (@searchrook) August 18, 2022
We will keep you posted on when it launches and I hope this does not devastate the SEO community like the Panda or Penguin update did – but it sounds like this one will be a big one and will cause a fundamental shift in how SEO content development is done by many SEO agencies.
I should note, Google does plan on pushing a new product reviews update but I suspect they will hold that fifth product reviews update until this helpful content update is done rolling out.
Forum discussion at Twitter, WebmasterWorld and Black Hat World.
Source: www.seroundtable.com
SEARCHENGINES
Google Interested In Hreflang Alternatives
Gary Illyes from Google said he has heard from the SEO industry that hreflang can be “annoying” and complex and confusing. So he is open to ideas on how to replace it and make it work for both small and really large websites.
He wrote this on LinkedIn saying, “Things I’ve learned and heard in Sofia at the SERPConf event.” He said one of those is that “hreflang is annoying.”
Gary wrote, “I don’t disagree,” that I guess he understands why SEOs and creators find it annoying.
So he said that he open to new ideas. He wrote, “I’m still very open to coming up with something less annoying, but it needs to work for small sites and mammoths as well, while delivering at least the same amount of information.”
So if you have ideas, let Gary know, he wrote, “Ping if you have ideas.”
You can use hreflang to tell Google about the variations of your content. This helps Google understand the various pages and how they are localized variations of the same content. But the implementation can be confusing and detailed, why he said it can be annoying. Several years ago, John Mueller said hreflang can be the most complex aspect in SEO.
Forum discussion at LinkedIn.
SEARCHENGINES
Daily Search Forum Recap: May 1, 2024
Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web.
Google Ads posted its first feature announcement in over two months, it is on PMax updates. Bing Webmaster Tools fixed a notification bug. Google SGE renamed its AI overviews to AI Answer. Most SEOs have not filled in the Google March 2024 core update feedback form. A Google search for flag GIFs can lead to Nazi flags.
Search Engine Roundtable Stories:
-
Google Ads Posts First New Feature Announcement In Two Months – PMax Updates
Google Ads has posted its first new features announcement in its help section in over two months. This was to announce several Performance Max campaigns features, which we will get into below. But like I reported earlier, Google has not posted anything in this section for two months prior to posting this new announcement. -
Googling “Flag GIF” Leads To Nazi Flags In Google Search
If you search for [flag GIF] on Google, click on the “waiving” refinement, you are taken to images of Nazi flags. I waited a full week to report on this, a full week from when Google acknowledged the issue and it is still an issue. -
Bing Webmaster Tools Notifications & Insights Bug Fixed
Fabrice Canel from Microsoft confirmed Microsoft has fixed a bug with Bing Webmaster Tools showing inaccurate and/or irrelevant notifications in the notifications and insights section. Fabrice wrote, “Happy to report that the fix has been implemented and the issue should now be resolved for your site and all sites once data is refreshed.” -
Google SGE AI Overviews Has A New Title – AI Answer
Google is now labeling or using the title of its SGE, Search Generative Experience, “AI Answer.” This replaces the title “AI Overviews” and “Al overviews are experimental.” This change happened on Monday, I believe. -
Most SEOs Did Not Send Feedback To Google On The March 2024 Core Update
Google opened up its feedback form after it announced the Google March 2024 core update was completed and it seems most SEOs did not send Google feedback. Why? Maybe because many don’t believe Google will use that feedback to help them? Maybe because SEOs don’t want to share specifics with Google? -
Sundar Pichai 20 Year Google Anniversary
Google’s CEO, Sunday Pichai, on April 26, 2024, posted on Instagram that he is celebrating him 20 year anniversary of working at Google. He started on April 26, 2004 and is now running the place.
Other Great Search Threads:
- ave you seen this before…. Seems like looker studio google has got lot of spam links injected …i just encountered this while checking something… its tons of content… made a search with site: hea, Raman on X
- Gartner: “By 2026, Google will lose 1/4 of queries to AI” Datos: “Really? Let’s investigate that claim with data from millions of real Internet users.” https://t.co/5QErT9g9IF Embarrassing that th, Rand Fishkin on X
- The favicon guidelines are at https://t.co/9z0HOt9H5f – not all sites have unique favicons, so I wouldn’t immediately call that spammy. For images in general, a legal path may be open via the DMCA process., John Mueller on X
- Well, moved to Munich, Germany., John Mueller on X
- The more server logs and crawl patterns I see, the more I’m sure the world needs more SEOs. Of the good kind. You see, part of good tech SEO is fixing spiders traps, optimizing crawling, speeding up sites. 1/6, Joost de Valk on X
- This Google Ads thing is becoming really expensive. Fee increase from 2% to 2.5% for Italy. Fee increase from 2% to 3% for Spain. Fee increase from 5% to 7% for Turkey., Thomas Eccel on X
- We’re committed to ongoing and planned enhancements and listening to great ideas as yours to help us maximizing our crawl efficiency and minimize crawls. There’s no AI or PhD that can outperform the IndexNow signal when it is properly configured. We f, Fabrice Canel on X
Search Engine Land Stories:
Other Great Search Stories:
Analytics
Industry & Business
- Google takes lion’s share of UK ad market as publishers lose out, Press Gazette
- Apple poaches AI experts from Google and builds a secret AI lab, QZ
- Friends From the Old Neighborhood Turn Rivals in Big Tech’s A.I. Race, New York Times
- Google Founders’ Hand-Picked CEO Nears Billionaire Status Too, Bloomberg
- Google needs a more formalized way to kill products, 9to5Google
- Local Memo: Rank Isn’t the Primary Decision Factor for Consumers in Many Industries, SOCi
- San Francisco homeless people to receive $1,000 a month from Google, The San Francisco Standard
- Google sued by US artists over AI image generator, Reuters
- Meet the Woman Who Showed President Biden ChatGPT—and Helped Set the Course for AI, Wired
- Microsoft and OpenAI sued yet again by Chicago Tribune and New York Daily News, Engadget
- Microsoft Concern About Google’s Lead Drove Investment in OpenAI, Bloomberg
Links & Content Marketing
Local & Maps
Mobile & Voice
SEO
- AI Is Poisoning Reddit to Promote Products and Game Google With ‘Parasite SEO’, 404 Media
- How to combine SEO and CRO, Blue Array SEO
- 3 Steps to Get Ahead in an AI-First Search World, BrightEdge
- Carving a Career in SEO — How NOT to Get Taken for a Ride, Moz
- How Did Authority Bloggers Beat the Google Update?, Chris Garrett
- SEO A/B testing: realizing the value of a good experimentation program, Search Pilot
- SEO for Developers: 10 Best Practices to Know, Semrush
- SGE: New data and the future of SEO and SERP…, STAT Search Analytics
- User Search Journeys: Advantages and Use Cases for Agencies, seoClarity
- What is bounce rate and how has it changed?, Wix SEO Hub
- Why Google SEO Traffic is More Appealing Than Social Media, Adam Riemer
- Yoast SEO 22.6 brings more enhancements, Yoast
- What to do about Google’s Reddit habit?, SERP’s Up SEO Podcast
PPC
Search Features
Other Search
Feedback:
Have feedback on this daily recap; let me know on Twitter @rustybrick or @seroundtable, on Threads, Mastodon and Bluesky and you can follow us on Facebook and on Google News and make sure to subscribe to the YouTube channel, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts or just contact us the old fashion way.
SEARCHENGINES
Daily Search Forum Recap: April 30, 2024
Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web.
Microsoft Advertising has officially added Copilot to help advertisers using AI. Tuta complained to regulators over its ranking drop with the Google core update. We saw the same person rank in Google Search with multiple entities. Google renames product sites to product websites. Google Search App has a neat screenshot feature. I am offline today, all these stories were pre-written and scheduled, including this newsletter.
Search Engine Roundtable Stories:
-
Copilot Now In Microsoft Advertising Platform
Microsoft announced the general availability of Copilot in the Microsoft Advertising Platform. This means you can now use Copilot (Microsoft’s AI) natural language conversational chat, asset recommendations, and image asset creation in the Microsoft Advertising platform. -
The Same Person With Multiple Entities In Google Search
Last week, Shameem Adhikarath shared an example of an individual that shows up twice as two different entities in Google Search. It is like maybe Google was fed two distinct entities for the same person and now Google is showing both of them, with the same name and same query. -
Tuta Complains To EU Regulators Over Google March 2024 Core Update Ranking Drop
Tuta Mail, a popular encrypted email service, complained to European Union tech regulators that Google dropped its rankings for all sorts of keyword phrases with the Google March 2024 core update. Tuta is upset they no longer rank for [encrypted email] after this update. -
Google Search App “Send A Link To This Page” When You Take A Screenshot
One of my pet peeves is when people send me screenshots of pages they want me to read and do not include the URL to that page. Well, the Google Search app is trying to solve that issue by telling the person who took a screenshot to “Send a link to this page” by clicking a big blue “Share” button. -
Google Renames Product Sites To Product Websites
Google has renamed the Product Sites search filter to Product Websites. These only really show up in the European regions and starting last week, Google renamed “Sites” to “Websites.” -
Slimmer Google Dog Tag
We have seen numerous dog tags for Dooglers, Google dogs, before. But this one looks slimmer than the old dog tags. I found this new photo of a Doogler and you can see the small Google collar tag. -
Programming Note: Offline For Last Days Of Passover
This is a programming note that I will be completely offline for the last days of the Passover holiday. The last days of Passover are on Monday and Tuesday, April 29th and 30th. Any stories published here will be scheduled and written beforehand and not posted live.
Other Great Search Threads:
Search Engine Land Stories:
Other Great Search Stories:
Industry & Business
- xAI, Elon Musk’s OpenAI rival, is closing on $6B in funding and X, his social network, is already one of its shareholders, TechCrunch
- Google plans $3 billion data center investment in Indiana, Virginia, Reuters
- Google to expand hardware R&D team in Taiwan, Nikkei Asia
- Investors Cheer AI Spending Boom in Big Tech—Just Not at Meta, Wall Street Journal
- Sundar Pichai Celebrates Googleversary, completes 20 years at Google, News9live
Links & Content Marketing
Local & Maps
Mobile & Voice
SEO
PPC
Search Features
Other Search
Feedback:
Have feedback on this daily recap; let me know on Twitter @rustybrick or @seroundtable, on Threads, Mastodon and Bluesky and you can follow us on Facebook and on Google News and make sure to subscribe to the YouTube channel, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts or just contact us the old fashion way.
Note: This was pre-written and scheduled to be posted today, I am currently offline for Passover.
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