What Changed?

The helpful content update is a broad algorithm update that impacts Google’s search indexing. It is designed to promote content that is helpful and informative while demoting content that is inaccurate or unhelpful.

How Does It Work?

The update considers factors such as whether users click through to your website after seeing your result on the search results page, and how long they stay on your website once they arrive.

Tips for Making Your Content More Helpful

In general, website content that has been written for people instead of search algorithms or SEO rules shouldn’t be impacted by this new update. However, any time there is a major change in how search algorithms work, it’s a good idea to review your content.  

Here are a few tips to assess your content’s helpfulness:

• Make sure your content is well-researched accurate and up-to-date. Spelling mistakes and incorrect or outdated information will have a negative impact.
• Stay focused on your expertise. Make sure your content is focused on your firm, services, and people. This counts for blogs as well. Google rewards content where visitors feel they’ve found what they are looking for.
• If you have any forms or actions visitors need to take on your site, make sure you include clear step-by-step instructions. Lists and bullet points are great for this.
• Include images and videos to help illustrate your key points. People are more likely to engage with content that is visual as well as text-based. The more people engage with your content, the more Google will consider it helpful.
• Use keyword research to find out what people are searching for when they need your services. This will help you create content that is more likely to be clicked on in research results.

Since this update was just rolled out, the effects are still being studied and analyzed. However, it will have a major impact on search results going forward. After all, people can’t find your firm’s website if you don’t show up in the search results or if you show up on page 20 instead of page 2. Our advice? Take the time now to make sure your content is as helpful as possible and avoid any drop in traffic or search results rankings.

Additional information:

https://developers.google.com/search/blog/2022/08/helpful-content-update

https://blog.google/products/search/more-content-by-people-for-people-in-search/

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