What is the impact of Google's new update?
On August 18, Google tweeted that they would be rolling out a new update. The 'Helpful Content Update' will already affect search results starting this week (week 34, 2022). The update targets bad content on Google, i.e. content that does not add value and help the user, but is created to rank high in search results.
Google's business model is built around being the most preferred search engine for us consumers. Therefore, Google's first priority is to ensure that users are met with valuable content that fulfills their search intent. Unfortunately, many companies that use Google have a less reverent goal. As a result, in recent years, far fewer relevant search queries have appeared on search results, which degrades the quality of Google's product.
The new major ranking algorithm (Helpful Content Update) can be seen as Google's attempt to stay relevant to the user and defend their market share. The purpose of the algorithm is to weed out the type of content that only aims to ensure a high ranking, but is not directly informative or valuable to the user. Google states that the update will "tackle content that looks like it was created primarily to rank high on search engine results pages" and that the update will "Help ensure that unoriginal, low-quality content doesn't rank high in search results".
Google has said for years that you should create content for the user first and not the search engines, and now comes the consequence. This means that if you write content Exclusively with the aim of driving traffic and visibility in search results, then you might be affected by this update.
Therefore, it's also a good time to take a look at your content strategy, as this new update (much like Panda did) will most likely change how we think about content for Google.
What do we know about the update now
The update is rolling out from this week (week 34, 2022).
Although the new 'Helpful Content Update' is being rolled out starting this week (week 34, 2022), Google estimates that it will take up to two weeks before the update is fully implemented. If you want to keep up with the update, Google will be updating us all regularly via their update page.
Initially, the update will launch for English search, and later roll out for other languages. This means that if your website is in Danish, you have a little more time to improve the quality of your content.
This algorithm is based on machine learning, a form of artificial intelligence (AI) that aims to evaluate and identify content not created for the user first.
This means that the algorithm will improve over time through self-learning and input from Google engineers. In addition, Google has announced that they will use so-called "quality raters" to ensure that the new update actually raises the level and quality of the content found in the search results. In other words, it is an update that will evaluate your content both based on specific predefined parameters and will continuously improve based on human input.
The 'Helpful Content Update' will look at a number of different signals and parameters. As usual, Google is very quiet about which signals are involved. What we do know a little more about is the type of content that could be affected. We also know what Google qualifies as good content. Based on this, we can hypothesize where to act.
As SEO and social media have an indirect positive influence on each other, there can be several benefits to combining the two in your strategy:
What types of content will be affected?
The algorithm is initially targeted at Google Search. Google is also reportedly considering whether it should affect other products, such as Google discover.
Google states that the algorithm won't target a specific type of niche, yet some content may be more affected than others. This is very much the case:
- Online training material
- Shopping
- Tech related content
- Art and entertainment
The reason these types of content can be hit harder than others is that they are historically and more often targeted by the search algorithm and not the user.
In addition, articles that aggregate reviews from other websites without adding new perspective or value to the user will also be affected. Google states; "This type of content isn't very valuable if you expect to get a fresh perspective. With this update, you'll see more results with unique content, so you're more likely to read something you haven't read before."
For a long time, the content world hasn't seen the need to reinvent the wheel or write more original content online if others have already created great content. This often leads to a lot of curated content (we're guilty of this ourselves).
However, content curation doesn't seem to be the main enemy of 'Helpful Content Updaten', but rather the type of content where text is copied directly without adding new value.
It's no surprise. We've long known that Google doesn't like duplicate content. What may be the difference here is a whole new form of content quality assessment that is far more advanced than what we've seen before.
Helpful Content is a sitewide algorithm
Unlike algorithms that look at one landing page at a time, the Helpful Content algorithm will assess your entire website at once. If Google finds that you don't have a high amount of helpful and value-adding content, your entire website's ranking will be affected.
Google hasn't stated how much of your content should be value-adding in terms of a positive or negative impact. Therefore, despite having what you consider to be a high amount of helpful content, your ranking may be affected.
The advantage for you with the Danish website is that you can follow how the impact will be for English websites. We'll probably all be a bit wiser in a few months and it will be easier to guess the amount of value-adding content.
Google itself says that "removing content that is not "helpful" can improve the ranking of your "helpful" pages".
What you can do to create better content
As the user-centric company Google wants to be, they have of course also a number of recommendations for How to create content that will be rewarded in the new 'Helpful Content Update'.
As we mentioned earlier, Danish content will only be affected later and therefore, unlike companies with English content, you have a little more time to update your content where necessary.
We won't reproduce the entire list, but here are a few of the recommendations and guidelines that Google itself provides:
- After reading your content, will a user feel that they have learned enough about a topic to achieve their goal?
- After reading your content, will a user feel like they've had a fulfilling experience?
- Do you comply with guidelines for Core updates and product reviews?
- Avoid summarizing what others say without contributing new value
- Avoid writing about topics just because they are trending, without any real relation to what your target audience is interested in.
There is a lot more advice and guidance on Google's own site, and we recommend that you familiarize yourself with it. Because if your site is affected by this new update, it could take months to get it back to where it was. You need to prove to Google that your site doesn't exist for the sole purpose of ranking high in search results, but that it exists to create value for its users, and that takes time.
Therefore, our recommendation is to get started as soon as possible.
Has the potential to change how we think about content
While it's too early for us to speculate on how significant this update will be, we can say right now that it will have an impact on your website if you don't put the user first in terms of content and search intent.
We therefore recommend that you keep a close eye on your website and reconsider your content strategy if you have any doubts about whether it complies with Google's 'Helpful Content Update'.
Here at InboundCPH, we are continuously monitoring what the Helpful Content Update will mean and what impact it will have as it rolls out for English websites. We are of course ready to advise existing customers as well as those who need advice about your website and what impact this new update may have for you.
If you need guidance, you can write to [email protected] or contact us via our contact form.
