Google’s latest algorithm update, dubbed the Helpful Content Update, just went live. But why do you even need to worry about the update in the first place? Well, the answer is simple. Google holds the highest search engine market share. In fact, Google holds over 92% of the global search engine market share, according to Statista.
There are a lot of changes made to this new algorithm. It will affect search rankings and how users interact with websites. Here’s what you need to know about this update and what it means for you:
What Is the Google Helpful Content Update?
The Google Helpful Content Update is the latest algorithm update from Google. It is designed to reward sites that provide helpful, useful information and penalize sites that provide low-quality content.
It’s important to note that this algorithm was not explicitly designed to target websites like yours. However, if you have not made any changes to your website following the Penguin 3.0 update, then this could be a way for Google to penalize you for your lack of action after Penguin 3.0 was released back in 2016 (you can read more on how the latest Penguin update affected SEO here).
The core focus of the Google Helpful Content update is to make content people-first. This means that the content should offer real value to the readers. Google announced this update a few weeks back. However, it started rolling out the new update on 25th August 2022. The search engine leader says the update will be finished rolling out within a week or two.
Who Is This Update for?
In the words of Google, this update is for all search users. It’s also for all content creators and publishers who want to ensure they’re creating high-quality content that will earn them a spot in the SERPs.
It’s for businesses that want to ensure their pages are getting seen by people looking for them. If you are a business owner or a publishing house looking to stay on top of the search engine results, this update can significantly affect you. You might need to change and update your content based on what the algorithm wants, i.e., valuable content.
If you have in-house expertise with SEO, you might be able to handle everything yourself. However, with so many things to take care of, it can be challenging to take out time to understand the new update and implement it effectively. Hence, if you don’t want to get penalized or want to maintain your website’s domain authority and rankings, it is best to seek help from an SEO agency.
The SEO agency will keep you updated about the algorithm and help you make amendments to existing content on your website so that it is optimized for the new update. You can seek help from an expert SEO agency like Bright Valley Marketing to ensure your website stays on top. They can help rank your websites higher in search engine results, which is vital because data shows that the first five websites on the search results account for over 67% of total clicks. The higher your chances of closing deals with new and repeating customers.
How Can You Know If It Will Affect You?
There’s no way to know if you’ll be affected by the Google Helpful Content Update. No signs show when a site has been affected, so you can’t look for anything specific in your data or on your site to determine whether it’s been impacted. The only thing to know about how Google will use this information is that they’re looking at sites with too many ads in relation to their content and/or sites where users have reported low-quality content.
It’s also unclear how Google would use this data. It could affect advertising revenue, but it could also impact search rankings and organic traffic if there are enough websites with poor quality scores that are part of the same link network (i.e., all linking back to each other). In addition, if multiple websites from one domain don’t follow best practices (and thus receive poor scores), these domains will likely suffer ranking penalties and ad bans on any advertisers who purchase ads through them.
Moreover, while valuable content is highlighted, Google’s algorithms use over 200 factors to rank websites. Hence, you can never know what’s affecting you unless you take help from SEO experts who can track your website’s ranking based on different factors. They can collect valuable data about your website and analyze it to understand what’s impacting your website in what manner.
How Can Businesses Benefit From This Update?
The Google Helpful Content Update is a win-win for businesses and users. It offers a better experience to search engine users, which translates into more conversions and, ultimately, more money for your business.
The update’s primary goal is to give users relevant content to help them solve their problems rather than just giving them links to other websites. The result is improved user experience and higher conversion rates within your site’s organic rankings in SERPs (search engine results pages).
What Are the Potential Drawbacks for Businesses and Publishers?
The biggest drawback for most businesses and publishers is adjusting their content strategy. If you want your website to be a trusted source for helpful information, it will take more than just a few keywords stuffed in-between sentences. According to a recent study, an average website has around 2,400 words per page. The number goes down to 1,600 for niche websites. Whether niche or not, this is a lot of content.
You may need to hire more writers, editors, and designers. You might also need development help if you have an e-commerce site that sells products or services on top of your main website. And marketing experts are another one of those “must haves” because they can help build brand awareness around these new articles and guide businesses through this update process.
Conclusion
Now, you know that it might be a bit overwhelming to keep track of all these updates and changes. But the good news is that plenty of tools are out there to help you do so! You can also hire professional help, which is the most advisable thing as no one knows how the new update will affect any website.
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