If you are versed in the world of search engine optimization, it is no secret that Google has recently released the Helpful Content Update.
The news spread like wildfire in the SEO community and left SEOs taking a deep look at their content anticipating what the outcome of the update will be.
In this article, we’ll dive into what exactly is the Helpful Content Update, who it affects, and does it mean the death of Search Engine Optimization.
What is Google’s Helpful Content Update?
Since 2011, Google has implemented several updates that changed the way SEOs approach their craft. The most notable updates were Panda, Penguin, Hummingbird, and Rankbrain. In August of 2022, Google released its latest update called Google Helpful Content Update.
The helpful content update aims to better reward content where visitors feel they’ve had a satisfying experience, while content that doesn’t meet a visitor’s expectations won’t perform as well. – Google
The Google Helpful Content Update targets brand websites that write content just to rank higher on the search engines instead of being useful to the reader through machine learning. Websites that promote poor content will begin to find it harder to rank on Google.
The update was not rolled out on a widespread basis but as of late has been announced to be fully implemented.
Who is Truly Affected by This Update?
It is not known for sure as of yet. The data hasn’t matured enough to see who has been affected. But for now, we can only assume what type of websites can be affected by this update.
Affiliate Marketing Websites
One website type that we can assume is affected by the Helpful Content Update is affiliate marketing websites.
Affiliate marketing is associated with individuals or brands that go out a promote and sell another brand’s product or service in hopes to get compensated in return. They can either sell the other brand’s product outright or generate leads to be sold to the company.
Many affiliate marketers create websites and blogs to generate traffic in hopes to get their visitors to click an affiliate link that leads to a product conversion.
The issue that affiliate marketers may run into is that in Google’s eyes if they notice a blog or website overloaded with affiliate links, it’s may not rank that site as high. The content on these website pages might be geared to drive a click to a conversion instead of serving as a useful resource to the website visitor.
Brands That Rely on AI Writing Tools
Artificial Intelligence is a very useful tool for content marketers. It allows you to cut the time to create content in half and ultimately push more content out into the wide world web. The more content you have, the better chance to rank and attract more traffic to your website.
The problem with using AI for your content is that it’s blatantly obvious that you are using artificial intelligence. The content might not be factually correct, there might be issues with sentence structure, etc. Noticeable mistakes can be picked up by a human reader.
According to Google, you might find your website being negatively affected by using Artificial Intelligence to push out more content just to rank higher on the search engines.
By no means that you should stop using artificial intelligence to assist you and your content marketing. But instead of pushing an article as a final piece of content, maybe paraphrase it or let it be a rough draft to write your own piece of content.
Websites That Simply Push Out Poor Content or Clickbait
Unfortunately, there are websites that choose to deliver poor content time and time again. Their articles are factually untrue or provide no value to the reader whatsoever. These sites can be labeled as click-baiting websites.
They post articles like “Here’s what 2 billion dollars can buy you around the world”. The idea behind their posts is for you to click on them and then be served with advertisements that companies choose to place on their site or convert on an affiliate marketing link, etc.
Generally, these types of articles can be considered native advertisements as well. You see a lot of these websites on native aggregators like Yahoo, Taboola, Outbrain affiliated websites.
How is This Update Being Perceived By Marketers?
As mentioned the outcomes for the Helpful Content Update are a bit premature. When browsing the r/SEO subreddit, most webmasters haven’t noticed much of a negative difference as of yet.
Several individuals have mentioned seeing a boost in rankings and keywords. Some have even downplayed Google’s updates and the hysteria around them. To paraphrase, experienced SEOs should know the impact of a Google update already, and learned not to panic whenever one is announced.
We’ll find out more about the impact in the coming months and we’ll update this section once the results do come in.
Update – 9/14/2022
Google has rolled out another core update and there have been complaints on r/SEO of people losing their keyword rankings. One particular person lost rankings for their website that automatically creates webpages based on keywords. It just proves the above point that you need to focus on writing your own content.
Is Search Engine Optimization Dead Now?
Now the sixty-four-dollar question is..did this new Google update kill search engine optimization as we know it?
In my opinion, I don’t think so. I think this update affects a company’s approach to content marketing more heavily.
Many of the best practices of SEO should still be continued. No keyword stuffing, header tags need up to par, meta descriptions and titles need to be compelling, getting healthy backlinks, etc. Any white label optimization method should do you more good than harm.
However, if you are a brand that takes no consideration of the quality of the content you produce, you might find yourself in trouble.
You’ll need a comprehensive content marketing strategy that centers around creating a resourceful experience for your customer. The visitor to your website should be able to go to your blog time again and be able to have their problems solved. If you push your brand before your customer to get more clicks you are doing your brand a disservice.
A secondary goal for your content is to simply produce stuff better than your competition. If your competition can explain a solution to a problem better than you can, you have an issue. They’ll attract your ideal website visitor 9 times out of ten.
Focusing on creating quality written content, alongside imagery, and videos and linking it to other resources will be the name of game going forward and will keep your brand safe from the Helpful Content Update. Writing for your customers is more important than writing for search engines.
