Google has announced it will be launching a new algorithm update next week called the useful content update. It aims to incentivize content written for people and devalue content written primarily for SEO.
Unlike the recent product reviews update, which targets specific types of pages, the helpful content update is: whole site. That means it has the potential to make an impact all pages.
The handy content update also introduces a new signal Google will use to rank web pages.
While Google is issuing a warning about these algorithm changes, a week is not a long time to prepare. However, you could argue that all sites should be written primarily for people.
Here is all the information available now.
Google Helpful Content Update
Google released the following announcement on Twitter today:
“Next week, we’ll be launching the ‘Useful Content Update’ to help people see more original, helpful content written by people, for people, rather than content created primarily for search engine traffic.”
The tweet links to a blog article with more information, including details on how websites can continue to succeed after the helpful content update rolls out.
What does the helpful content update do?
This update introduces a new ranking signal that will negatively impact sites that publish large amounts of content with little value, have low added value, or are not useful to searchers.
“Any content, not just useless content, on sites that have been found to generally have a relatively high amount of useless content will perform less well in Search, assuming there is other content elsewhere on the web that could be better served. For this reason, removing useless content can help the ranking of your other content.
What should I do if the helpful content update affects me?
If the useful content update hits you, Google recommends removing useless content from your website.
Sites affected by the update could see the effects lasting for several months, Google says. Google’s blog post continues:
“Our classifier for this update runs continuously, allowing it to monitor new and existing sites. Since it determines that the useless content has not returned in the long run, the classification no longer applies.”
Other Notes About Google’s Helpful Content Update
Finally, here are some final notes on the helpful content update:
- The update is not a manual action. The process is automated using a machine learning model.
- Human-centric content can still rank even if it’s published on sites with large amounts of useless content.
- The signal is weighted, meaning some sites are hit harder than others.
- For starters, only English searches are affected.
Source: Google
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