4th December 2022 - Ben Murphy
Helpful Content Update
In August and December 2022, Google launched the first and second phases of their 'Helpful Content Update', an update that helps people discover more meaningful content written by people for other people in their search results. This update has made it easier to find the information you're looking for without wading through irrelevant spam-filled websites written with a 'search engine first' approach.
What is the Helpful Content Update?
The Helpful Content Update focuses on the following four main objectives:
Quality content
The update emphasises the quality of the delivered content. This includes checking for accuracy, providing clear direction, and avoiding easily misinterpreted content.
Relevance
Helpful content should be relevant to the user's search query or question to provide them with the best possible answers. The Helpful Content Update ensures that the content is pertinent to a particular topic.
Accessibility
Helpful content should be accessible to all users. This means that the content should be presented in a way that is easy to read, understand, and comprehend for everyone, regardless of language and background knowledge.
Human-centric
Helpful content should be written from the point of view of the user and not just search engine bots. Human-centric content puts the user first and provides meaningful information without manipulation or bias.
How will this impact SEO?
Google has stated that;
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, assuming there is other content elsewhere from the web that's better to display. For this reason, removing unhelpful content could help the rankings of your other content.
Google, December 2022
Benefits of 'people-first' content.
Improved website ranking
Helpful content is more likely to be ranked higher in search engine results pages, allowing your website to gain visibility and reach more potential customers.
Increased engagement
People-centric content allows users to connect easily with the information. This increases their chances of engaging with you, whether in the form of comments, shares, or links.
Improved user experience
Helpful content provides users with accurate and relevant information that is easy to digest. This leads to a better overall user experience, which can be improved further if the content includes multimedia elements like imagery, videos or audio files.
Final Thoughts
As a UX-focused SEO agency that aims to provide users with the best possible experience, we welcome this update and look forward to helping our clients create helpful and user-centric content.
References
About the Author
Ben Murphy
Ben Murphy is the Commercial Director and Co-Founder of Arriba. With over a decade of experience in SEO, Ben has led successful SEO campaigns for national and global brands, helping them achieve improved organic search results and better engagement.