Google Helpful Content Update

Google Helpful Content Update

Craig Aubry Craig Aubry

Helpful Content update | Roll-out 2020

In late 2020, Google released an algorithm update called the “Helpful Content” update. This update was designed to reward websites that provide helpful and informative content to their users while penalizing websites that provide low-quality, irrelevant, or untrustworthy content. In this article, we’ll dive into the details of the Helpful Content update and provide tips for creating high-quality content that meets Google’s new standards.

What is the Helpful Content update?

The Helpful Content update is part of Google’s ongoing effort to prioritize websites that provide high-quality and relevant content for their users. The update uses machine learning algorithms to analyze the content of websites and determine whether it is helpful and informative or not.

The “helpful content” update is designed to prioritize websites that provide high-quality, relevant, and informative content for users.

As always Google’s goal with this update is to provide users with the most relevant and accurate information possible when they search for a particular topic. This means that websites that provide high-quality content that answers user’s questions and solves their problems will be rewarded with higher rankings in search results, while websites that provide low-quality or irrelevant content will be penalized.

How does the Helpful Content update affect website owners?

If you own a website, the Helpful Content update may have a significant impact on your rankings in search results. To maintain or improve your rankings, you need to ensure that your content is informative, useful, and relevant to your target audience. This means creating high-quality content that is well-written, well-researched, and backed up by credible sources.

Google has provided some guidance on what it considers to be helpful content. According to Google, helpful content should:

  • Be written by experts in the field
  • Provide a comprehensive overview of the topic
  • Be easy to read and understand
  • Be accurate and up-to-date
  • Include references to credible sources
  • Provide a solution to the user’s problem

In addition to creating high-quality content, website owners should also focus on providing a positive user experience. This means ensuring that your website is easy to navigate, loads quickly, and is optimized for mobile devices.

The update uses machine learning algorithms to analyze the content of websites and determine whether it is helpful and informative or not.

Tips for creating helpful content

If you want to improve your website’s rankings in search results, there are several things you can do to create helpful content that meets Google’s new standards:

  1. Conduct keyword research: Identify relevant keywords and keyphrases related to your content and incorporate them naturally throughout your content.
  2. Write for your audience: Your content should be informative, useful, and relevant to your target audience.
  3. Use descriptive titles and headings: Include your target keyword or keyphrase in your title and headings to help search engines understand the focus of your content.
  4. Use meta descriptions: Write a clear and concise meta description that includes your target keyword or keyphrase and accurately summarizes the content of your page.
  5. Optimize images: Use descriptive file names and alt tags for your images that include your target keyword or keyphrase to improve their visibility in image search results.
  6. Use internal and external links: Include links to relevant pages on your own website as well as external sources to help search engines understand the context of your content.
  7. Format your content for readability: Use short paragraphs, subheadings, bullet points, and other formatting elements to make your content easy to scan and read.
  8. Optimize for mobile devices: Ensure that your content is optimized for viewing on mobile devices, as this is increasingly important for search engine rankings.
  9. Promote your content: Share your content on social media and other platforms to attract backlinks and improve your visibility in search results.
  10. Monitor your performance: Use analytics tools to track your website’s performance and identify areas where you can improve your SEO strategy.

Google’s “Helpful Content” update is a significant change to the search engine algorithm, emphasizing the importance of high-quality, informative content for websites.

Google’s goal with this update is to provide users with the most relevant and accurate information possible when they search for a particular topic.

Google’s “helpful content” update is all about providing users with the most relevant and useful information possible. To ensure that your website ranks well under this update, you need to focus on creating high-quality content that meets the needs of your audience. Here are some content examples and tips for developing better content online:

  1. Answer common questions: One way to create helpful content is to answer common questions that your audience may have. For example, if you run a cooking blog, you could create content that answers questions like “how to make the perfect steak” or “what’s the best way to cook pasta.”
  2. Create comprehensive guides: Another way to create helpful content is to create comprehensive guides that provide detailed information on a particular topic. For example, if you run a travel website, you could create a guide that provides everything someone needs to know about visiting a particular destination, from where to stay to the best restaurants to try.
  3. Provide data and statistics: Including data and statistics in your content can help establish your website as an authority in your niche. For example, if you run a health and wellness blog, you could create content that includes data on the benefits of exercise or the prevalence of certain health conditions.
  4. Use visual aids: Visual aids like infographics, charts, and images can help make your content more engaging and easier to understand. For example, if you run a marketing blog, you could create an infographic that explains how to create a successful social media campaign.
  5. Offer practical tips: Providing practical tips that your audience can apply to their own lives is another way to create helpful content. For example, if you run a home improvement blog, you could create content that offers tips on how to decorate on a budget or how to choose the right paint color for a room.

Websites that provide high-quality content that answers user’s questions and solves their problems will be rewarded with higher rankings in search results.

Tips for developing better content online:

  1. Understand your audience: To create helpful content, you need to understand the needs and interests of your audience. Use tools like Google Analytics to gather data on your audience’s demographics and interests.
  2. Conduct keyword research: Conducting keyword research can help you identify topics that are relevant to your audience and optimize your content for search engines.
  3. Focus on quality over quantity: Creating high-quality content that provides value to your audience is more important than churning out a high volume of low-quality content.
  4. Use data and research to back up your content: Including data and research in your content can help establish your website as an authority in your niche and improve your credibility.
  5. Optimize your content for search engines: Incorporate relevant keywords and keyphrases into your content and use meta descriptions, title tags, and headers to help search engines understand the focus of your content.
  6. Make your content visually appealing: Use visual aids like images, videos, and infographics to make your content more engaging and easier to understand.
  7. Stay up-to-date with industry trends: Keeping up-to-date with the latest trends in your industry can help you create content that is relevant and timely.

Creating comprehensive guides and tutorials that provide detailed information on a particular topic is a great way to create helpful content.

Creating helpful content is essential for ranking well under Google’s “helpful content” update. By understanding your audience, conducting keyword research, and focusing on quality over quantity, you can develop better content online that meets the needs of your audience and helps your website rank well in search results.