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Last week, Google announced the helpful content update has undergone the final stages and now the update’s rollout is finally complete, Search Engine Land reports. The update was launched on August 25th, 2022 and spanned just a bit over two weeks, wrapping up last Friday, September 9th, 2022.
What is the update and how does it work?
Google’s helpful content update is a sitewide algorithm, meaning that this update will be impacting your entire site. The Google helpful content update is targeted to search engine content on websites, meaning content that is written with the primary intention of ranking in Google search. For the time being, the update is only meant to impact Google Search. But, depending on its performance, expanding the update into Google Discover and other spaces within might be an avenue in the future. In short, this update makes sure that content ranking on Google is something that is written to help your readers, content that they can learn from.
Using the update to improve content
If you’re worried your site may have been impacted by the update, take a look at Google Search Central’s collection of questions to help content creators avoid creating search engine first content. These questions are intended for users who have noticed changes in their site due to the update but they are also there to help you make sure the content you’re producing is helping people and users.
The helpful content update isn’t targeted to anyone type of content or geared toward a specific niche. Google reported that the main types of content that will experience the effects of the update are related to technology, virtual educational tools, entertainment and creative arts, and shopping.
You might be in a position where your content falls within one of these categories, which has left you wondering why isn’t everyone experiencing the same hit. Well, the answer to that lies in the history of the web. In the past, most of the content that is written for search engines, as opposed to users, falls within these categories.
Nevertheless, if you did happen to take a hit because of the update, you can use this as a chance to optimize your content for users by reading over the questions from Google above.
What is everyone saying about Google’s helpful content update?
To begin with, Google’s reasoning for this update lies within the usage of the search engine. They want to reward sites that prioritize user-based content because that benefits the people and the search engine. Better results mean better understanding, right? No one enjoys rifling through pages of search results and ending up on hard-to-use landing pages without useful answers.
Since the helpful content update has only been running for a few days, people haven’t seen huge fluctuations. Before its launch, Google provided a concise discussion concerning the specs of the update. Many say there wasn’t nearly enough detail or time to consider possible site content issues. Although Google did say that this was a pretty significant update, only time will tell how impactful it is.
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