Safeguard Your Website From Google’s Helpful Content Update Impact

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Introduction

A few days back, Google announced a new content update for website owners and content creators. It will roll out this week. These new updates aim at facilitating genuine content to its users. The new Helpful Content Update emphasizes putting more effort into developing good and informative content by humans.

Besides that, Google's revenue from the search engine is increasing significantly, giving tough competition to its competitors like Bing, Amazon, DuckDuckgo, etc. To maintain the top position in the market, they must innovate. With "Helpful Content Update," Google is doing exactly the same and making search more user-centric.

From the end-users standpoint, it seems that helpful content updates will help them find the most relevant content. Wherein websites that are using irrelevant SEO tricks or machine-generated content may witness tough times ahead. Though there is no clear indication from Google, how will the current ranking be affected? But, they stated the changes would be positive.

To keep up with the new update website owners should consider the following points

1. Adopting People First Approach:

The ultimate aim of helpful content is to reward content wherein readers feel they have qualitative content. But the content that does not meet the users' expectations will not perform well. So ensuring content quality is essential.

So, are there any parameters that can ensure you create qualitative content per the new updates? Well, you can follow Google’s long-standing advice and approaches to create content for readers. Your first and primary approach has to be creating people-first content while implementing best SEO practices and addressing readers' needs.

Implement the following recommendations to determine that you are on the right track and create people-first content.

Write qualitative content about your product or services considering your intended audience base.
Describe your business adequately, so your targeted audience can identify your potential.
Avoid unnecessary keyword stuffing and machine-generated content.
Avoid posting content with inappropriate information or thin content.
You must avoid cloaking as it presents different content than the users' expectations.
Avoid using irrelevant keywords casually. You must add keywords that add value to the content.
Emphasize more on Google’s core updates and product reviews.

Once Google's updates roll out, it may penalize you if you are doing keyword stuffing. It is critical now that you improvise your content writing practices and create content by humans with the best SEO practices for humans.

2. Do Not Create Search Engine First Content

Though Google emphasizes more people-first content, that does not mean it disapproves of best SEO practices as per Google's own SEO guide. It is an essential and beneficial practice when it refers to people-first content. Readers do not feel connected with the content primarily created for search engines.

In the following lines, there are a few tips to avoid a search engine-first approach and write valuable content.

Create content for the targeted audience rather than drawing peoples' attention from search engines.
Avoid creating and posting too much content on the different subject matter in the hope that it may perform better than others.
Give up on using machine-generated content as it significantly downgrades the content quality.
Do not summarize the content without adding valuable information.
Do not write content just because it's trending; focus more on your audience and provide them a relevant content written by you. The reader must not feel to search more after visiting your website.
Please do not stick to a particular word count, as Google does not recommend it.
If there is no answer, solution, or valid information, then do not mention such information in your content.

Reevaluate your content writing strategies as it is crucial to remain relevant and competitive. Implementing the above tips will help you perform better as per the new helpful content update.

3. How will the update work?

Google's helpful content update will roll out this week, and it will take around two weeks to roll out fully. These updates will change site-wide ranking dynamics in the following manner.

Google will automatically identify and remove the content with no or irrelevant value. So, your other content may rank higher if it is informative and helpful.
Particular websites identified with these updates may take up to a month to find a signal applied to them.
After removing the unhelpful content, Google will continue to monitor the websites. Upon finding the absence of unhelpful content, Google will not apply the classification.
This classification process is automated and powered by Machine Learning. It is a new signal that Google evaluates and ranks the content as one of the many signals.
It also means that unhelpful content still ranks if it is classified as people-first content and addresses the readers' query. Ensure you remove unhelpful content and follow Google's Guidelines.
The new content update will impact the English language, and in the future, it may impact the other languages too.
Google states that they will continue refining their classifier, identifying unhelpful content, and rewarding the people-first content.

4. Safeguard Your Website From The Impact of Google's Helpful Content Update

If you follow and implement the list of actions as per Google's guidelines, your site ranks may reverse and appear on top. So, here is the checklist if the new update hits your website in the future.

Do not use A.I. or auto-generated content. It is unhelpful content and lacks the necessary value; it is just the rephrased version of the content that already exists.
Consider your target audience first and create content accordingly with utmost accuracy that can answer users' queries.
Avoid rephrasing content, and focus more on originality.
If the existing content on the internet lacks value, then add additional value and publish the content. Ensure you highlight the valuable information.
Avoid giving clickbait titles and descriptions; address users' fear, doubt, and questions to satisfy their needs.
Incorporate unique ideas and information and outclass the word count as it is just a misconception.
If you publish content with a higher word count, ensure you provide value and easy navigation.
Sites with 1000 to above 2000 words of content with generic information may witness a sharp ranking drop with the new update.
With the helpful content update, Google may extend the scope of E.A.T.: Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness.
Do not write speculative content, as with a new update, it will not rank, and Google will reject it.
Although SEO will remain the best practice, Google is just giving more importance to content authenticity. The content developed only for ranking purposes will penalize by Google and reward the content that gives valuable information and should have a high correlation with your website.

You must understand why Google should publish your content if someone had published the same earlier. If you know the precise answer, don't get scared of Helpful Content Update.