In Mid-August 2022, Google announced that they would be rolling out the “Helpful Content” update. This appeared to be a reasonably positive idea based on the name alone. But what is “Helpful Content,” and how will it affect the internet landscape?
In Danny Sullivan’s Google blog post, he expressed that this update to Search would “tackle content that seems to have been primarily created for ranking well in search engines rather than to help or inform people.” When it comes to content, we’ve been expressing for years now how increasingly important it is to write content for humans, not robots. And that targeting natural language and answering legitimate questions is more important than chasing specific terms because of volume.
But is that enough to satiate the moniker of “helpful content?”
What Is Helpful Content?
This new update to the Google Algorithm began its release on August 25th and is slowly applying itself across various verticals. Usually, an algorithm update takes around two weeks to finish and solidify itself into our lives. Unlike some other changes, Helpful Content is more likely to become a standard in our lives that affects Search, rankings, and position zero for the foreseeable future.
According to Google, this update aims at helping searchers find “high-quality content.” One of the better examples we’ve seen is the case of Q&A websites that scrape the web for answers but provide little substance. I’m sure we’ve all had those moments where we want to know when a new season is coming for a favorite show, whether a series was canceled, or perhaps if an actor/actress is reprising a role… only to find a long scroll website full of ads that ultimately answers you with “We don’t know but thanks for checking.” Low-Quality content like this causes us all to waste time and get frustrated.
The Helpful Content Update seeks to downgrade lower-quality content and supply users with meaningful information. As with many Search updates, this will likely be refined further over time… either through other updates or through Machine Learning (much like RankBrain).
So, what is High-Quality Content?
When Google first announced the update, many people in the SEO industry thought, “My content/our client’s content is helpful, so we’ll be fine.” A poll conducted by Aleyda Solis on Twitter asked SEOs whether they were concerned about this update. When the results revealed that ~44% of responders thought they were fine… well, it makes you question if we’re all wearing rose-colored glasses or not.
If you’re convinced your content is fine, but everyone else is convinced their content is fine… then what content ISN’T fine? We had to re-evaluate and ensure that our process and direction for content is refined and continue to live up to the High-Quality moniker. At the start of the year, we wrote about SEO Tips for 2022. The first thing I brought up was content, informative blogging, natural language, and looking at the actual questions people are asking instead of spinning content to chase trends or volume. Our focus has always been to write content for the people we want on our client websites, to inform and educate, and to build a useful knowledge base for clients.
As to the specific metrics, signals, terms, etc. this Google Update is looking for? Well, that’s just something we’ll never know perfectly… and that’s just the nature of these shifts. But over time, reviewing industry news, looking at our own analytics, and conversing with other professionals, we can understand these algorithms and how they continue to affect what is or isn’t best practices.
Right now, we know that means a few things:
- Writing for People, Not Machines
- Relevant Topics
- Providing value, not summarizing someone else’s work
- Answering questions, not just vague responses
- And providing Authoritative Content
What is the next step?
At this time, only around 20% of people in the SEO industry have reported what they believe are the effects of the Helpful Content Update. Of course, we should take this with a grain of salt. It’s possible that the results are minimal, or they are only affecting particular types of sites… or it could be misreporting from industry professionals given the vast array of potential causes for rankings changes, traffic fluctuations, and so on.
At Efferent Media, our next step is continuing to monitor content and adjust as needed. Over the years, we’ve been directing client blog content towards natural language queries, basing topics on actual client/customer questions, looking at related queries in Search and providing answers for them, and tailoring topics to be informative and relevant. The idea of “Helpful Content” has been on our radar for years, and we’d like to believe that is exactly what we’ve been offering our clients.
When taking on new clients, we’ve always considered content evaluations and refreshes a critical step. Cleaning up spammy or unnecessary content, fixing prior marketers’ mistakes, and improving content for usefulness and readability have always been part of our process. Now, even more so, client content must be not only relevant but also helpful. Whether this means cutting redundant pages, improving FAQs, or deleting sub-par old blogs in favor of newer content will depend on individual needs. No single answer fits every single client.
Efferent Media’s Content Marketing Efforts
Providing content marketing and authoritative blog content is an integral part of our strategy, not an afterthought. Highlighting your business and expertise while answering the needs and queries of your audience requires knowledge, understanding, and research. Our expert content marketing team can do the work for you and provide quality content. For more information on blog writing, content, or general SEO services, call us at (631) 867-0900.