Google Helpful Content Update: What You Need to Know?

Digital Marketing is evolving now!

Now, marketers have a great deal to look forward to the recently launched Google Helpful Content Update (HCU), on 25th August 2022.

And is widely expected that this Google Helpful Content Update will act as a standardized measure targeting websites with high rates of uninformative and unsatisfactory content, which has finally been completed. 

But why is this significant?

To understand how to make your content perform better on Google SERPs, you must first understand how these trends will impact the content of your website.

This involves understanding what new criteria you must meet and how you can modify your strategy to maintain its position.

What is Google’s Helpful Content Update (HCU)?

The Google Helpful Content Update (Google HCU) algorithm’s new changes will allow people to get more authentic and useful content from search queries.

Instead of directing searches to websites that do not gratify or contain any helpful information, Google wants to enhance the visitor experience by ensuring that you receive content created by people, for people.

To better understand how the update works, according to developers the Google’s system will now detect content that appears to have little to no added value for specific keyword searches. 

This applies to any results that do not appear to be particularly helpful to users based on their search intent.

What Exactly Is Google Helpful Content Update?

The Google Helpful Content Update is a ranking algorithm update that seeks to reward content that offers a satisfying user experience while decreasing accessibility in search engine result pages (SERP) for information provided to score in search engines to attract clicks.

Helpful Content Update (Google HCU Update) doesn’t act as just a Core update but a new measure by Google to assess the website and then rank it as per a site-wide graded algorithm.

This implies that if the machine learning algorithm defines that the quality of content is ineffective though the quantity is good, it might get flagged as a classifier or impact the overall site visibility.

In this scenario, the sites that have a high proportion of unhelpful content will get be affected more than sites with a lot of helpful content posted to inform, persuade and attract readers.

On that note, we can say that the sites that will get affected by this update may need a few months to refresh or revamp their existing content.

The websites need to stick to best Google-friendly practices if they wish to regain their position on the first page of SERPs.

Remove unhelpful content and show the ranking algorithm that your website follows best practices for publishing people-first content to regain search engine visibility. Think of it as a trial period.

Further, this update concludes that content must be user-friendly instead of SEO-friendly on the brighter side.

Content creators need to ensure that post this update, all content that goes on the website has to be useful from the reader’s point of view and thus should assist users.

What Counts as Unhelpful Content?

Google clarifies that their HCU will only rank content that offers an informative reading experience to the users while the content that doesn’t meet the metrics won’t perform to that level.

Prior to this update, a large proportion of content is written to rank higher on search engines instead of helping its users.

Anyhow, the update brings a significant change in the history of SEO marketing.

How to Ensure Your Content is “User-First”?

With the Google HCU update now fully implemented, websites worldwide will begin to revise their content strategies.

While this may be difficult for some, it offers a chance to help people connect with your brand more effectively as you work towards your objectives.

To avoid falling behind or being penalized by these changes, consider the following approaches to creating ‘people-first’ content.

1. Concentrate on a single keyword

Keyword stuffing is indicative that you’re creating content to rank higher in search engines rather than just to help users get what they need and want.

However, with the new Google HCU Update notification, you’ll need to concentrate on total content transparency, which ultimately provides exactly what you promise and adhere to it.

This entails concentrating on a single target keyword per page and ensuring that the content is completely utilized for that keyword.

2. Demonstrate your first-hand knowledge.

Having profound skills and knowledge about the content you produce can help you build the trust you need to obtain a dedicated user base.

If you want to start writing about a product, demonstrate to your audience that ‘I understand what I’m talking about by adding images and in-depth information on the subject.

Using this strategy can assist you in ensuring that you’re not just explaining a subject matter to users, but also adding value to it.

3. Keep your main topic in mind at all times

The update suggests staying in your field of expertise with user-first content, where you can offer additional precise and useful information.

This involves keeping within your market segment so that both new and returning users have a consistent experience where they can easily find what they need.

For example, if your website focuses on technology, you need to stick to the technology niche only.

Making subject matter about cooking tips may confuse users and be of little use to them.

4. Avoid cramming too many topics onto one website

Define the big themes that your website will cover before you begin creating new content.

If you want to rank higher with the new Google HCU update, your website cannot be a one-stop shop for a variety of topics.

This not only confuses Google’s AI, which is trying to comprehend your website, but also the users who visit them.

5. Consider your audience’s reading experience

Aside from considering how you produce your content, enhancing user experience is an important aspect of creating people-first content.

One simple way to accomplish this is to take into account all that your users might like to see without having to consult other sources.

This can include not only text-based content but also photographic and video materials.

6. Give enough information and answer questions.

The HCU update determines whether your content is useful if it informs users of something new or gives them enough data to accomplish their tasks. 

When using the user-first methodology, the primary objective should always be to address questions that can solve a user’s problem without requiring them to make a purchase.

7. Never respond to a question unless you have confirmed the information.

A good website maintains itself by gaining the audience’s trust and authority.

Avoiding claims that aren’t factual or don’t have a clear answer is the best way to accomplish this.

This is particularly crucial when writing about an inconclusive or rumor-based topic. 

When making factual statements, include all citations to authoritative sources.

Assessing “User-First” Content

In this update, Google has listed a few critical questions you can ask before deciding whether the content works from the user’s point of view or not. 

For instance, if you are writing about ‘top SEO tools’ then, you need to know if the content answers 5W and 1H or not.

If it does, then you are probably on the right track. 

• Do you have an established or expected audience for your company or website that would benefit from the content if they did come to you directly?
• Is your content clear in demonstrating first-hand expert knowledge and depth of understanding (for example, expertise gained from using a product or service or going to visit a location)?
• Does your website have a real purpose or focus?
• Will your content be able to satisfy the audience that they have learned enough about a topic they came to read about?
• Will someone who reads your content feel satisfied with their experience?

Creating Relevant Content for Your Audience And Google

Google has been and still is one of the world’s largest and most trusted search engines. 

And, to keep its services relevant and reliable, the ideology behind it is constantly seeking new ways to connect people to the right information better.

Because of the algorithm’s frequent changes, your company must also keep up to ensure that your content remains ranked.

With the HCU features now fully released, you must find new ways to emphasize a people-first approach. 

This may imply altering your strategies, learning new terms, and producing content more frequently. As for tracking your progress, here is how to track search engine ranking easily.

Checkout this blog to know more about the Google Helpful Content Update and what content creators need to do? in detail

[Updated]

Officially Google confirmed that the December 2022 helpful content update is completely rolled out globally are all languages. There is an article from Search Engine Land explain it with more details. 

How Serpple helps you to stay competitive in Google Helpful Content Update?

With this update, we can see how prominently the blend of SEO and intent should work to make a website rank. 

In such a case, you surely need an accurate rank tracker that can provide you with 99.5% accurate SEO data.

Serpple is more than just a keyword tracker; it provides SEO professionals with a slew of extraordinary features, including insights into SERP metrics.

In other words, apart from tracking your organic rankings you can check out and try to win rich SERP features available on Google for your content. 

And, the Google Rank Tracker also alerts you if your keywords face cannibalism, if the same keywords rank for more than one content.

This advancing and accurate rank tracker is crafted to provide you with  all needed metrics to optimize your content and track its performance on the SERP using the Serpple Score feature with pintpoint accuracy.

Above stated features are a few drawing cards. There are a lot more insightful features and the most sought-after Competitor-AI and Keyword Research Module of the serpple platform that exceeds the expectations of users globally.

You can get all of your information in one place, experience visualizing your organic progress from its amazing user interface, and a lot more vital features that can be exported in CSV or PDF formats.

To make bones about the hidden features and the efficiency of this evolving SEO tool, Explore Serpple and share your views.

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