Get ready for Google's helpful content update
If this has been floating in your peripheral vision, consider this your warning klaxon. Though there’s no official date for when the Big G’s next update’s going to drop, knowing how this guy works, it’ll come as a sideswipe at 5.01 pm on a Friday afternoon.
So, to protect your weekend, content and marketing budget, it’s time to dyb-dyb-dyb and start prepping.
So what’s this all about then?
Back at the beginning of May, the Search Behemoth graced us with a product update. In this, they explained how the next few weeks would bring new features and changes to the algorithm that will prioritise serving human-made information to other humans.
Alongside a new ‘Perspectives’ filter, which will allow searchers to get an answer based on the ‘lived experience’ of others, the update put the new ‘helpful content system’ front and centre.
Though there are no specific rules to how this system will mark pieces up or down, there are some general guidelines, such as:
It will “better reward content where visitors feel they've had a satisfying experience”
It will identify and deprioritise “content that seems to have little value, low-added value or is otherwise not particularly helpful to people”
It will more deeply understand and serve “content created from a personal or expert point of view” that has been created with a “people-first” not “search-first” approach
Doesn’t sound helpful to me!
In the short term, these changes might sound more like a headache than a help. But long term, they’ll start to reward those businesses that do content properly.
Designed to tackle the ‘AI copy farms’, this update will use generative AI to better understand people’s search intent and rank content written by people over content written by AI.
Or, as Big G more eloquently puts it:
“As we transform Search with new AI-powered capabilities, we’re not only continuing to focus on providing quick insights, but also connecting you to the people and perspectives that will help you understand what’s best for you.”
Ok, what’s the plan?
Before we dive into our action plan, a disclaimer. The changes haven’t happened yet. So it’s difficult to know exactly what they will look like and how they’ll affect search rankings.
As ever with trying to second-guess the algorithm, these tips are given based on the vague information Big G has given us and are designed to address “just one of many signals Google evaluates to rank content.”
In short, if you make these changes and don’t hit the number one spot for your primary keyword, don’t come at me. Instead, let me know what the problem is so I can try to fix it.
Anyway, onwards and (hopefully) upwards…
Firstly, look at what you’ve already got
Why? “Any content—not just unhelpful content—on sites determined to have relatively high amounts of unhelpful content overall is less likely to perform well in Search… For this reason, removing unhelpful content could help the rankings of your other content.”
So it’s as good a starting point as any. You just need to consider two aspects of your existing content:
The content itself
The user experience of the page
When it comes to analysing the page experience, there are a few key metrics you can look at:
Bounce rate. This is a good indicator of whether people are getting what they need from your page or not. Filtering and exporting a list of pages with a bounce rate above your site’s average is an easy way of highlighting those which may need to be ‘helpful-ised’.
Security. Running an HTTPS report is a good hygiene check anyway. Plus, if a page isn’t secure, it isn’t maintaining users’ privacy. This adds up to a bad page experience.
Mobile usability. Again, a good health check to run regularly, particularly if your site is pretty old or brand spanking new. Most people experience web pages via mobile, so it’s imperative that it delivers on the small screen.
Alongside these metrics, it’s also important to review any ads and interstitials (pop-ups) you’re using. Are they actually drawing the results you want or are they just intruding on people’s screen space?
Using heatmap tools or tracking user behaviour through your CRM or Google Analytics 4 (which is specifically designed to make this easier) will also give you a fuller picture of your page experience.
If you can get customers or prospects to feedback to you directly about their experiences of using your site, even better.
Now you need to consider the content itself. Though there’s no objective measure for this, there are certain characteristics your content needs to get off with Big G’s algorithm.
Being people-first
Containing original expertise
Being helpful and knowledgeable
To break it down even further, here are a few key questions you can ask.
Did you create your piece based only on keyword research?
There’s nothing wrong with this (to be honest, it’s the starting point for many of my articles). But, if the keywords you’ve optimised content for are short-tail and not queries your customers are likely to search for, then your piece may be classified as ‘search-first’ rather than ‘people-first’.
Does the content include expertise only you could add?
Personal experience in a thought leadership piece. Data from research your business has commissioned. Quotes or insights from topic specialists. All of these count as expert perspectives which will be uniquely helpful to your audience and make your piece stand out in search.
Does it look like any other piece?
If you’re competing for the query ‘what are carrots good for’, does your piece give information that no other top-ranking links do? If your content looks almost identical to the top 10 options, this isn’t adding any unique value and won’t fly after the helpful content update.
Does it make sense?
If it’s complete gobbledegook, then it's got to go. More than that, you need to consider if the content fits with your business, audience needs and expertise. If it’s left field and doesn’t fit within your specialism, it’s likely to only scratch a topic’s surface and not offer any genuinely helpful info.
Is it actually helpful to your audience?
This is the bottom line. Offering real value to your target audience should be your main goal if you want your content to perform well under the new update. This doesn’t mean you have to break the mould, just offer helpful information your reader couldn’t get anywhere else.
Great, but what about new, shiny stuff?
If you’re itching to crack on with some new content, here are a few ways to ‘help-proof’ it.
Pin down your niche topics
News organisations already know that Big G reviews a business’s real-world expertise when considering whether to rank it or not. So before you start composing blog titles, you need to think about what topics you can ‘own’.
What are you an industry authority on? What does your audience trust you to talk about? What do you have experience in? The topics that form the pillars of your content strategy should be informed by SEO and driven by your expertise.
Unlock your experts
Bust them out of the lab, dust off their white coats and get as much out of them as you can. At the end of the day, they’re the horse's mouth your audience will be desperate to hear from, so getting them to lead your content will make it truly unique and helpful.
Plus, adding an author to your content is likely to become a marker of how trustworthy it is. So don’t just stick any old byline on your pieces. Each of your blogs, videos or posts needs to come from a reputable, real source to be a search success.
Ask the audience
A revolutionary thought, I know. But if you really want to find out what will be helpful to your audience, then it makes sense to ask them directly. Surveys, interviews or chatting with your salespeople are all great ways to get hold of this data.
Be sure you’re asking open-ended questions and get a range of feedback. Prospects that have gone cold, new customers and loyal old-timers are just some of the people you could ask. This will give you a wealth of new content ideas and some invaluable insights for your next sales campaign.
Dare to be different
Choose an angle and stick with it. If there are ten articles with the title ‘where do elephants come from’ (there aren’t, by the way) then don’t follow the crowd. Be brave, give an alternative perspective or go ham on your tone of voice.
Focus on formatting
Getting your technical bits and pieces right will please Big G. Clear and easy-to-access information will help your audience get everything they need. Formatting is essential to this.
Informative headers and straightforward first sentences will give readers everything they need. Standout quotes and accurately sourced or unique data will be the cherry on top.
Sit and look pretty…for now
As with any Google update, it’s tricky to know when it will land and what it will look like. So take note of key metrics on the edited content pages and review them in a month or so to see how they’re doing.
If they’re stable or improved, excellent news. If they’ve dropped, then it’s probably worth looking at what’s hindering and what’s helping. Either way, I’d love to know what impact these changes made. So please feel free to drop me a line to see how we can help each other out.
