What Does Google’s Helpful Content Update Mean For Your Site?
Google’s Helpful Content update is shaking up the content marketing world but what does this mean for your website? How can you make sure that your content is helpful and meets the needs of your audience? Jump in with us as we answer your questions.
What is Google’s Helpful Content update?
Google wants to make sure that searchers are finding the most helpful and relevant results for their queries – and this update is one way that they’re doing that. Specifically, it covers two main areas:
First, Google is looking at how much time users spend on a particular piece of content. If they click through to your website and then quickly return to the search results, that’s a sign that your content wasn’t helpful. On the other hand, if users stick around and spend time on your site, that’s a good sign that they found your content helpful.
Second, Google is looking at how many people are sharing your content. If your content is being shared widely on social media and other websites, that’s a good sign that it’s helpful and relevant.
So, what does this mean for your website?
There are a few implications that this update poses for how you go about your content marketing – here are a few of the most important.
It affects SEO
The update has implications for SEO in a few different ways. Relevance, usefulness and shareability, which sit at the heart of this update, are the key outcomes for any successful SEO strategy. If you want to make sure you’re compliant, therefore, it’s critical to go back to the drawing board and take a look at which metrics you’re prioritising. Now, more than ever, it’s not just about stuffing relevant keywords into your content.
It may or may not come with a penalty
This update is all about making your site as user-friendly as possible. Google wants users to have a good experience when they visit your site – and that means providing helpful, relevant, and engaging content. If your content isn’t helpful or relevant, you could see a drop in your rankings. At this point, it’s unclear whether or not there will be a formal penalty associated with this update – but it’s something to keep an eye on.
It affects individual pages AND your entire site
This update isn’t just about individual pages – it affects your entire website. Google is looking at how users interact with your site as a whole, not just individual pages. That means that you need to make sure that every page on your site is helpful and relevant. If even one page falls short, it could have an impact on your entire site.
It comes with new classifiers
With this update, Google is now using new ways to identify if your content is useful. In particular, they’re looking at how much time users spend on your site and how many people are sharing your content, and this is a shift from their previous focus on things like keyword density and backlinks. It’s even using a machine learning model on top of its existing guidelines and ranking factors.
It’s prioritising a people-first model
This update is just one part of a larger trend that we’re seeing from Google – a shift towards a people-first model. They want to make sure that searchers are finding the most helpful and relevant results for their queries, and this update is one way that they’re doing that. This shift towards a people-first model has implications for your entire website, not just your content. It is a drastic shift from an SEO-first approach, which many businesses have gotten used to.
Make sure your website is useful and relevant with expert-led SEO content support!
Google’s update is a big shift for businesses – now, more than ever, it’s important to make sure that your website is useful and relevant. Today, the search engine wants users to have a good experience when they visit your site – and that means providing helpful, relevant, and engaging content.
If you need help making sure that your website is up to Google’s standards, RankRocket can help. We’re a content marketing firm that uses AI writing and human creativity to create content that’s not only helpful and relevant but engaging and shareable. Get started by placing a bulk order with us today!
