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Google Helpful Content Update To Target Content Written For Search Rankings

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2 years ago

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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.

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Here is John Mueller on the machine learning aspect – in short, not a big deal:

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:

Can you use a noindex to hide the unhelpful content? Sure, John Mueller of Google said but…

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.

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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:

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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:


Techmeme has a nice roundup of articles on this topic over here:

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.

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Forum discussion at Twitter, WebmasterWorld and Black Hat World.



Source: www.seroundtable.com

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Google Says Again, Sites Hit By The Old Helpful Content Update Can Recover

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4 hours ago

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May 6, 2024

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Google Torn Paper Logo

Google’s John Mueller said again this morning that sites hit by the old September helpful content update or even new core updates can recovery. He said on X and on LinkedIn that it is possible to recover but it is not a simple change you can tweak on your website, but rather it takes a lot of effort, over time, to recover.

John said that not only can you recover but you can grow. He said this morning, “Yes, sites can grow again after being affected by the “HCU” (well, core update now).”

Last week we covered how John said it may just take a lot of time to recover from that helpful content update. This is despite Google telling some people it can take weeks (then said several months) to recover.

I know the helpful content update is no more, it is now a core update. But many were expecting some of those hit by the September helpful content update to recover with the March 2024 core update – but that did not happen.

John Mueller from Google said on LinkedIn, “It’s just that some kinds of changes take a long time to build up, and that applies to all kinds of systems & updates in Google & in any other larger computer system.”

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He wrote on LinkedIn fully:

I realize this is from the title of Barry’s post, but to be clear, it’s not that “helpful content update” “recoveries” take longer than other updates. It’s just that some kinds of changes take a long time to build up, and that applies to all kinds of systems & updates in Google & in any other larger computer system. Saying that this is specific to the helpful content system, or to core updates would be wrong & misleading.

There is, however, the additional aspect of the “core update” being about how our systems assess content overall, how we consider it to be helpful, reliable, relevant to users’ queries. This does not map back to a single change that you can make on a website, so – in my experience – it’s not something that a website can just tweak overnight and be done with it. It can require deep analysis to understand how to make a website relevant in a modern world, and significant work to implement those changes — assuming that it’s something that aligns with what the website even wants. These are not “recoveries” in the sense that someone fixes a technical issue and they’re back on track – they are essentially changes in a business’s priorities (and, a business might choose not to do that).

He added on LinkedIn:

making a site more helpful (assuming that’s what you’re aiming for) doesn’t mean you have to add more content. There’s a lot that goes into making a helpful site – content is one part, and more content is not necessarily more helpful. Think about how you use the web.

He also posted this morning on X, “Yes, sites can grow again after being affected by the “HCU” (well, core update now). This isn’t permanent. It can take a lot of work, time, and perhaps update cycles, and/but a different – updated – site will be different in search too.” He added, “Permanent changes are not very useful in a dynamic world, so yes. However, “recover” implies going back to just-as-before, and IMO that is always unrealistic, since the world, user-expectations, and the rest of the web continues to change. It’s never “just-as-before”.”

Here are some of the new posts on this topic from John over the weekend:

So keep working on your site and maybe you will recover in the long run?

Forum discussion at X and LinkedIn.

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The Industry Mourns The Loss Of Mark Irvine

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1 day ago

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May 5, 2024

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Mark Irvine Rip

I am deeply sad to report that Mark Irvine passed away unexpectedly last night. Mark was deeply involved in the search marketing community, known as being a brilliant paid search specialist who always spent his time helping others over his long career in the space.

Mark has been in the search marketing industry for well over a decade, seven years at WordStream and the last four or so years at SearchLab. He was always a bright and welcoming smile at industry events, sharing advice with colleagues and friends.

Navah Hopkins worked with Mark for many years and she sent me the following message:

“Do less”

These were the words Mark would always say to me when we worked together. Yet he was incapable of doing less. He brought so much love and care to everything he did.

I was lucky enough to work with Mark directly for about 5 years, and counted him a friend since then. Beyond being a brilliant data scientist and a natural leader, Mark was one of the most human humans I’ve ever known. He understood people at a fundamental level and always made sure others around him could shine.

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Mark would often say that I was his dedicated PR team and even as I’m writing this detailing his accomplishments and his amazing (and all together too short) life, I can hear him laughing that I’m doing it again. Well – tough…just enjoy the love we have for you and sip those heavenly pumpkin spice lattes.

Mark was always put data first behind every major project at WordStream, Navah told me. He was a worldly person who traveled abroad to speak at many events. He was really good at connecting with people abroad. Mark was named the #1 PPC influencer in 2019 and was consistently was on that list year-after-year. PPCHero has recognized him as one of the top PPC Influencers every year since 2015, as did Microsoft and in 2019.

Here is Mark’s bio at SearchLabs.

He leaves behind his partner, Bobby Main and his mother, Virginia Hall.

Here are some early reactions to the sad news of Mark passing:

Forum discussion at X.

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Daily Search Forum Recap: May 3, 2024

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2 days ago

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May 4, 2024

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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 got their cost down to generate AI answers in search by 80%. Google is interested in alternatives to hreflang. Google may recrawl URLs multiple times per day or per month. Google is testing custom search filter templates in search. Google AdSense removed its privacy policy as a placement for withdrawal of consent. And I posted the weekly SEO video recap. And deeply sad to report that passing of Mark Irvine.

Search Engine Roundtable Stories:

Other Great Search Threads:

Search Engine Land Stories:

Other Great Search Stories:

Analytics

Industry & Business

Links & Content Marketing

Local & Maps

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Mobile & Voice

SEO

PPC

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.

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