Have you ever heard of theHCU update? This update toGoogle's algorithm has a significant impact on how your site is ranked by search engines. If you want to maximize your company's visibility in Google's search results, it's important to understand how this update may affect your site and take the necessary steps to ensure that your business is not drastically impacted in the coming months.
In this article, we will give you all the details about theHCU update and provide you with tips on how to ensure that your site remains compliant with this update. Don't miss this opportunity to better understand how to improve your natural referencing with the helpful content update.
What is Google Helpful Content?
Google has just launched an update to its algorithm called " Helpful Content update "(HCU). According to Google, this system "aims to better reward content where visitors feel satisfied with their experience, while content that does not meet visitors' expectations will not perform as well." Operating in different languages, the system uses a classifier to automatically identify low-value content through a machine learning model.
This update is not a big surprise. Users want information they can use immediately for almost everything. Google's update was its way of saying " stop thinking about keywords only and start providing useful information".
Websites with large amounts of unnecessary content will perform worse in searches. The Helpful Content Update for December 2022 includes adjustments to this system, although the exact nature of these adjustments has not yet been made fully public.
Functioning of the useful content update system
The useful content system is automated and works worldwide and in all languages. It is not applied manually or as a spam action, but rather as one of many signals used by Google to rank content. This means that if a site is ranked as not providing useful content, some of its useful content may have difficulty ranking even if it is useful and relevant to a particular query.
How will this impact your content strategy?
Since Google's first helpful content update arrived in early September and the other languages followed in December, your website may have already been impacted by it. If you notice a drop in traffic in the coming weeks, take this as a warning that things could get worse in the coming months. If you see improvements, that's great: Google doesn't think you're a content factory... at least, not yet!
We're using a cautious tone, as the new update may include stricter criteria for what the classifier considers "useful" since we're only measuring the full extent of the changes after the December update. However, we can already anticipate how this will impact content strategy.
Paradigm shift
It's time to stop obsessing over specific keyword rankings and start answering important questions and solving problems for users who are struggling with real-world challenges. These people need answers fast. They want to know who can solve their problems while they sit in front of Google search results. If you can solve the user's problems, you're on the right track.
Think of Google's " People also ask ". Brands that optimize their content to concisely answer specific questions are rewarded with a first page location. A winning content strategy focuses on truly understanding your audience and helping them solve their biggest challenges; in 2023, " traditional SEO " is forgotten!
According to Google
The signal generated by theupdate is weighted, which means that sites publishing a lot of useless content will have a more detrimental impact on their search rankings. If your site contains content that does not meet users' expectations or does not provide value, it is recommended to remove it to improve your site 's overall ranking in Google search results. The helpful content update works continuously and monitors both new and existing sites. If unnecessary content is removed, in the long run, the classification will no longer apply. Google also regularly updates how the system detects low-value content, so it's important to follow the latest updates and comply with them to maximize your site 's chances of ranking well in search results.
How do I know if my content is useful or not?
To create useful and reliable content, it's important to make sure it's original, provides value to users and meets their expectations. You can evaluate the quality of your writing by asking yourself questions such as: "Is my content original and does it add value for users? Does it meet users' expectations and provide the information they are looking for?"
It's also important to make sure that your content is reliable and professionally presented, without spelling mistakes or other stylistic errors. To get an honest assessment, you can ask trusted third parties for their opinion.
It's also important to make sure your content is human-centric, not search engine-centric, and to update it regularly to reflect developments in the field. By following these tips, you can improve the quality of your content and thus generate a positive signal for Google's useful content system, which aims to ensure that users have access to original and useful content in search results.
The importance of experience in content quality
We talked about it in our article "Why my Wordpress site does not appear on Google?"It is common in Google 's explanations to use the E-A-T concept (Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness) to assess whether the search results provided are relevant and useful. However, this evaluation does not take into account the experience of the content author. In order to better evaluate the quality of the results, an additional criterion has been added: experience.
It's important to know if the content was created through some hands-on experience with the topic (e.g., actually using a product, visiting a location, or discussing someone's experience). For example, if you're looking for information on how to file your taxes correctly, you'd probably prefer to find content created by an accounting expert. On the other hand, if you're looking for opinions on tax preparation software, you might prefer to find a different type of information on a discussion forum among people who have experience with different services.
This concept, now known asE-E-A-T (or " Double E-A-T " if you prefer), is now included in the new guidelines for evaluating search results released by Google. These guidelines also provide clearer guidance on the importance of having original and useful content for users, as well as the diversity of sources and formats available.
It is important to note that these guidelines are not intended to radically change the way we think, but rather to better reflect the way users search for information and the diversity of quality information available. They also give creators a better understanding of how to evaluate their own content so that it can be more prominently displayed in Google's search results. To learn more, check out our page on creating useful and people-first seo content .
In summary, the addition of experience as a criterion for evaluating the quality of search results is intended to better reflect the way users search for information and the diversity of quality information available. This can be particularly useful for topics where the quality of information is crucial, such as financial or health issues. On your end, it's important to keep this in mind when creating your content to make it more likely to rank well in search engines by Using your search data to improve your SEO.
How to comply with this update?
Here are some recommended practices for keeping up with Google's helpful content update:
- Use the search engine's own guidelines: Google Search Central has published a guide to creating useful, trustworthy and people-first content. It emphasizes the importance of original research and insights, expert authorship and clear, professional presentation. At the same time, it warns against producing low-value content whose sole purpose is to climb the search results.
- Perform a comprehensive persona analysis: you need to understand your audience and what keeps them engaged. Yes, this requires keyword research, an understanding of what competitors are doing, and the actual intent of the buyer. But if a brand expects its audience to scour the site for a potential solution to their challenges, it needs to think twice.
- Do an audit of your site: you need to make sure that each page of your site has useful and quality content for the users. If you have pages that do not meet these criteria, it is recommended to review and improve them.
- Maintain a high level of quality throughout your site: theHCU update applies to your entire site, which means that even if some of your pages have quality content, if other pages on the site are useless or of lower quality, it can affect the overall visibility of your site in search results. Therefore, it is important to maintain a high level of quality throughout your site and ensure that each page adds value for users. Services like our Search Engine Optimization subscription can help you manage all these tasks.
In summary, do I need to comply with the helpful content update?
In short, yes! 2023 marks a new turning point in the fight against low-value content. A new train is starting and it's crucial to comply with Google 's new guidelines and recommendations so that your business isn't left behind on the train platform. This is a blessing in disguise as the helpful content update finally offers businesses the opportunity to create useful, trustworthy, people-centric content and build authority in their respective industries.
