Google has announced a sitewide algorithm update known as “Google Helpful Content Update.” It will devalue tons of the already existing content over the internet. Stressful, isn’t it?
The Google algorithm update has rolled out on the 25th of August this year. It has already steered a panic wave among website owners, SEOs, and digital marketing companies. In fact, everyone with a digital presence will be affected.
When we were composing this blog, three weeks had passed since the Google ranking algorithm launched. Netizens are going through the feeling of stress and curiosity.
Because the helpful content update has the sitewide effect. That means it can impact all your web pages.
Google’s helpful content update also introduced a new signal. It will be used to rank your pages on search engines.
But, if you keep everything in order nothing to worry. Here, we will explore these 8 Tips To Recover From Google’s Helpful Content Update And Get 120% Growth.
Yes! You have heard it right.
Here, you will learn how to recover from Google’s helpful content update. We will also share some case studies on how our expert SEOs have amazingly managed the situation.
But, before moving to that, let’s explore some more aspects of Google algorithm update latest and Google Ranking Factors.
Has Google Changed Search Results?
After three weeks of Google core update, there is speculation that it has not produced any major changes in Google search results.
Google stated the helpful update is a continuous effort. The impact is minimal because the main intent is to refine the site-wide signal over time.
Also, Google’s Search Liaison, Danny Sullivan, explains
“Update isn’t done. It’s also part of a continuing effort, as we’ve explained. We’ll keep refining how it works. Directionally, the guidance we’ve given is what SEOs and creators should be considering.”
Sullivan continues
“But updates don’t necessarily mean a big giant shift. If you have good content, you’re generally fine…
Those who have content with issues, there can be reasons why they might not want to be particularly vocal about a change…”
So, there is a certain curiosity about how the content update will affect websites and search results. And most importantly, who will get the worst impact of Google’s helpful content update?
How Helpful Content Update Affect Google Search Engines Results
According to Google, Helpful content update follows an automated system. It will evaluate the content regularly. So, the Google helpful content update algorithm will constantly observe the content and provide scores to reward content.
That doesn’t mean if you fix or update content today, you will recover your web pages tomorrow. According to Google, there is a validation period and a waiting period.
During this period, Google checks whether content creators are serious about the content. It is not just updating the content. Google then ranks you in search results and places your content back in its original position.
A helpful content update aims to prove that your content is primarily helpful in the long run. For several months, and might be for years.
That means it will take several months to recover if you get affected by the helpful content update. Moreover, it’s too late to make the content update as Google has already started its processing to allot content scores.
John Miller from Google states
“I think we said it takes on the order of months to update. I’m pretty sure the starting data will need to be complete before the roll-out next week. It’s good to clean up, but I doubt it would affect the initial launch now”.
But no worries; we will tell you how you can still win the race with Google’s helpful content update.
What is High-Quality Google Content?
It seems Google is not appreciating the “search engine first” approach to producing content. They think it’s not an ideal way to get search engine traffic. That’s why Google announced changes in Google search.
Whether you don’t like it, but Google thinks it’s a platform for online education to offer a satisfying experience. So while creating content, you can keep three things in mind:
1. Focus on Content Quality
Avoid SEO ranking factors at any cost. If your content promise 10 ways to ace an interview, don’t try to slip in the low-quality content. Anything irrelevant or stuffed keywords will just provide a poor user experience. Stop producing unhelpful content. The relevant search must produce content to offer a satisfying experience.
2. Understand Your Existing Audience
Content writers and SEO experts already know the audience’s needs for your business. If you are creating content on how to write a cover letter. The primary purpose of writing content must provide firsthand expertise on cover letters. Utilizing SEO services & techniques may attract people but not search giants like Google. It seems Google wants sites identified with their quality. Not with extensive automation to produce content.
3. Emphasize More On Content Quality Rather Than Word Count
This is your chance to produce original helpful content written. Creating unhelpful content doesn’t matter; creating satisfying content is the key. If you write content with a search engine first approach, your audiences will never appreciate it. Create content that fulfills visitors’ expectations and demonstrates first-hand expertise.
Google’s new systems automatically identify content. That means if content creators promise existing or intended audiences quality content nothing to worry about. Improve search traffic that demonstrates firsthand real expertise. Unhelpful content marketing services won’t ever do wonders.
How This Will Affect Your Existing or Intended Audience
If you want to be the quality search traffic, you must acknowledge how Google will neglect search engine first content. Extensive automation will not perform well in search engine results. Content creators should stop the habit of using automation to produce content.
Helpful content written will always promise ranking web pages. If your content promises authenticity, you will always maintain your dominance on search engine pages.
Google will not only monitor newly launched sites but will have a keen eye on the unhelpful content. Producing lots of content will not solve the issue. You must target the “searchers first,” not “search engine first.”
Marketing agencies perform well in search results but produce unhelpful content will be highly affected. The new site-wide signal focus on creative and informative content having relevant for years. It’s not just a new signal; it has the potential to affect all your web pages. This is how you will get affected:
- If the classifier detects unhelpful content, your website will be affected in terms of ranking.
- Some websites may see more damage as the update has a weighted effect.
- All the websites having unhelpful content and disproportionate word count will be affected.
- The new update is continuously running and monitoring existing and new sites.
- The primary purpose or focus of the automated model is to discourage unhelpful content. The machine learning model is constantly learning and changing.
- For certain times new updates will only affect the English searches.
- After getting affected, the websites can recover. You must remove the
- “unhelpful content” and make specific changes.
In the meantime, explore the best Local SEO Services.
How Do I Restore Google Helpful Content Update?
Since its release date, Google updates have been the hot search engine news for up to two weeks. If you get affected by Google’s helpful content update, your rankings will drastically drop. However, you can reverse it by following the set of actions.
Return to SEO Basics
Your marketing strategy must be based on examining your target audience. You need to create not just unhelpful content but informative content having relevance.
If you research buyer’s habits or how people use Google search, you will not be affected by helpful content updates. If your blog post is about tech-related content, then your content must promise the same. Always avoid duplicate content in SEO.
Avoid Relying Too Much On AI
Avoid machine learning models or relying too much on AI. It won’t offer much value to your content. Human knowledge, for example, expertise, is essential and critical. Human editing is important for optimizing content.
You can use tools like actual data, competitors, or social listening while creating the content. Also, keep the preferred word count. In addition, you can use tools like “SERP features” and “Answer The Public” to display the FAQs and queries related to your topic.
Include Unique Value
Google prioritizes content that is uniquely written with firsthand experience. Content must show your expertise and knowledge. Not only for search engines, but it is also important for your readers. People visiting your website want to know your opinion on a particular topic.
Tons of information is available on the internet on the same topic. However, your thoughts, case studies, data, real-life examples, particular word count, and expertise offer quality to your content.
Use Data To Identify Content That Needs Improvement
Once the broad algorithm rolls out, identify the content that needs improvement or is poorly affected. You can use the SEO tools like Semrush or Ahrefs. Google’s Search Console and Google Analytics are also helpful in identifying pages that suffered a significant traffic drop.
Utilizing data from these tools, you can create a spreadsheet of problem pages and improve the content quality.
You can clearly see the sharp rise in organic traffic in Jan 2022, adopting the steps given above.
Check Your Web Pages Having Relevance
Always remember Google core update is for searchers and not for search engines. Ensure your web pages and posts are up to date. Search the existing problem pages and correct any inaccurate information and correct date orders.
Besides that, ensure you are covering a particular topic in-depth. Long-form blog posts which drill down the topics to the core tend to perform better than lightweight content. Check out the pages which are outranking and correct them manually.
Offset Traffic Loss By Publishing New Content
You have an option to publish new content on your website to recover from Google’s helpful content update. By posting more new content on your website, you are offering more chances to Google to perform content indexing. Moreover, you are providing more content to users for their benefit.
“Keyword Research” plays a crucial role here. You need to find out what people are searching in your domain and what phrases they are using. Identify keywords that realistically rank and use this data to create content. You can utilize tools like “Ahrefs” or “Moz” for this.
By following the steps above, we successfully achieved around 120% growth, as shown in Google analytics.
Evaluate How Your Competitors Affected
If one of your web pages is scoring low while your competitor’s page is rising, it’s not magic. It’s only because your competitor is doing better SEO. Many SEO tools are available today to find “keywords” in your competitor’s content.
How others have linked with the competitor’s pages and who mentions the particular brand. You can again use Semrush to perform a competitor’s analysis.
However, not solely rely on the tools. Google always rewards content which is having a human touch. That’s a way to closely inspect the pages that are outranking and then research and gain insight to improve content quality.
Improve On-Page and Off-Page Authority
On-page authority refers to how trustworthy your content is on its own rights. Google released the “Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines Document” in 2015. It outlines what an “authoritative” piece of content is. The document contains a series of expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness benchmarks known as E-A-T.
You can also look for the off-page authority of the content. Improve trust through links. Also, build authority using brand names. Social media shares also improve trustworthiness. While performing SEO, focus on quality over quantity.
