It’s official, Google are rolling out a new update over a two-week period from the 22nd August. It’s called the “helpful update” because Google’s aim is to ‘work better at connecting people to helpful information’.
I’ve always taken a people first approach with my copywriting and SEO tweaks for the business website’s I work on. Google have always said that the content you have on your website should be helpful to your target audience – i.e., high quality information that answers the question they’ve gone to Google to find the answer to.
But now Google have gone a step further with this new update as part of a ‘broader effort to ensure people see more original, helpful content written by people, for people”.
Why The Need For A New Update?
Google are always changing things behind the scenes, but every so often they release a new ‘official’ update (i.e., one they tell us about!). Google is a search engine first and foremost; its job is to match its users to the information they’re looking for. If it doesn’t do that well, people may go to an alternative search engine for better results (maybe).
So, Google doesn’t want to send its users to websites that have low quality content that doesn’t really answer the question. Clickbait articles that entice you in with new information about something (like the release date for a popular TV series) but doesn’t actually give you that information, is a good example.
A lot of so called ‘gurus’ have been teaching people how to get around Google’s algorithms designed to catch out this low-quality content and rank it poorly to get more traffic to their websites, and so this latest update is Google’s attempt to crack down on that even more.
Essentially, Google doesn’t want to see content that’s created for search engines to make a website rank higher but content that’s created specifically for the people that are going to be reading it. So, they’re rolling out the “helpful update” to enable the higher quality content to rise to the top of search result rankings.
What Does Google Consider ‘Content Created For Search Engines’?
Basically, if you’ve focusing on getting better search result rankings than focusing on what your target audience need to know, but here are some helpful pointers Google have stated in their update article:
You write to a particular word count – maybe you write a lot of 400-word blogs because you’ve heard that’s what Google wants to see (it doesn’t)
You’re writing on lots of different topics – Google wants to see expertise in content, so fewer but more in-depth articles on just a few topics is what it prefers
You’re summarising what others are saying – Google wants to see your own spin on things and that you’re adding more value to what is out there already rather than just repeating it
You’re writing to current trends – if you’re hopping on bandwagons to try and get more traffic to your website, Google can see that! Stick to your bread-and-butter business topics.
You’re writing about something you don’t really know about – it’s all about in-depth expert information, so if you don’t know enough about a topic – steer away from it!
You’re leaving questions unanswered – Google doesn’t want its users to feel they haven’t found the best information for their topic and click back to search results for another website. So in-depth content that answers the question(s) is vital.
So, as you can see, a lot of what Google doesn’t want to see is a lot of what blogging experts, affiliate marketers and some SEO gurus have been advising people to create for their websites to get more traffic. Those websites are going to face a huge drop in rankings when the update is rolled out.
Luckily, Google has given us some pointers on the content it does want to see, so let’s take a look at what they are.
The Content Google Wants To See With Its ‘Helpful Update’
Google has always advised that you follow their advice and guidelines, so give those a read. They want to see ‘people-first’ content that focuses on satisfying content made for people, not search engines. This content should answer the search query so well, the visitor feels they’ve leaned all they can from it and leave your website feeling happy and satisfied (and hopefully following your calls to action too).
Specifically, Google have highlighted the following points:
Write for your intended audience – would people come directly to you for the information anyway? i.e., you’re a marketing consultant so they know to expect marketing content from you, etc. Essentially, this means stick to your niche and expertise.
Your content clearly demonstrates first-hand expertise and a depth of knowledge – i.e., you should be writing directly from your own experiences, training, knowledge, and expertise. If you’re having to search Google to find the answers to create the content, you shouldn’t be writing it.
Your site has a primary purpose or focus. This point is aimed at those websites that write about all kinds of things just to get traffic. As a business website with the focus of helping your intended audience to convert them into clients, your website has a purpose. Just make sure the content focuses on this.
Your content helps people to learn – Google wants visitors to come away from your content feeling like they’ve learned enough about a topic to achieve a goal. For example, you’re a plumber and you have content on your website that teaches people how to safely unblock pipes. You might be afraid of losing customers by doing this, but by sharing your expertise and helping them out with this, they’re more likely to remember you and contact you when they need help with something they can’t fix, like a broken boiler.
Hopefully, you’ve found this blog about the helpful update to be helpful! My best advice is to imagine the reader is there in front of you asking the question – and write content as if you’re explaining the answer to them in person. Do that and bear the above points in mind and you should find the helpful update will help your content to rank higher than those spammy, low-quality websites that have been beating us for far too long!
