Google rolls out ‘helpful content update' for creators; introduces new signal to rank web pages

With the aim to ensure that people see more original, helpful content, rather than those which are specifically designed to bring more traffic from search engines, Google has announced its new ‘helpful content update’ for creators.

Through a tweet, Google announced the blogpost enlisting the updates which are designed to help creators who create online content.

As per the blogpost by Google, with the helpful content update Google will focus on people-first content, away from the content which is created solely for search engines.

Next week, we will launch the “helpful content update” to better ensure people see more original, helpful content written by people, for people, rather than content made primarily for search engine traffic. Learn more & advice creators should consider: https://t.co/fgf2TPNIqD pic.twitter.com/xOuX2iVk2d

— Google Search Central (@googlesearchc) August 18, 2022

“SEO is a helpful activity when it's applied to people-first content. However, content created primarily for search engine traffic is strongly correlated with content that searchers find unsatisfying,” stated the blogpost.

The blogpost also mentioned that the tech giant, through this move, aims to better reward content where visitors tend to have a satisfying experience as compared to content that does not meet the expectations of the visitors.

Moreover, the blogpost also pointed out that in order to be on the right track of creating people-first content, one should have answers as to whether the content is useful for the site or business, does it fall in line with the primary focus or purpose of the business or will the readers have a satisfactory experience.

In terms of the checklist to ensure that the content is search-engine first, the blogpost emphasised on the need for re-evaluating the content across any site to determine whether the content was primarily to attract people or search engines, usage of automation to create content across many topics, summarising the content from other sites without any value addition or cover any topic without having expertise.

While the rollout of the update might take time of up to two weeks, the new update introduces a site-wide signal which will be considered amongst other signals for ranking web pages, as per the blogpost.