Are you a website owner worried about your Google ranking? Do you want to make sure your website is as visible as possible? If so, then you need to be aware of Google’s latest algorithm update, the Helpful Content update. This update prioritizes websites that have content that is helpful and relevant to users, so if you want to make sure your website is ranking high, then you need to make sure your content is up to par. Here’s everything you need to know about Google’s Helpful Content update and how you can still rank your website after this algorithm update.
What is the Helpful Content Update?
Google’s Helpful Content update was first announced back in May 2019, but it didn’t start rolling out until July 2022. This update is all about improving the quality of web results for users by prioritizing websites that have content that is helpful and relevant. Google wants to make sure that users are finding the most helpful and relevant results for their queries, so this update is a way of ensuring that more high-quality websites are visible in search results.
How Does It Work?
This update works by looking at two factors when determining whether or not a website should be shown in search results: engagement signals and content usefulness.
Engagement signals are things like click-through rate and time on site, which show how interested users are in the content on a particular website.
Content usefulness looks at things like how well the content answers the user’s query, how well-written and informative the article is, and if the article has been updated recently.
Both of these factors are important in determining whether or not a website should be visible in search results, but content usefulness is given slightly more weight than engagement signals.
This means that even if a website doesn’t have a lot of engagement, it can still rank high in search results as long as the content is relevant and useful.
Benefits of Having a Well-Ranked Website
1. More visitors: A higher ranking on search engine results pages (SERPs) will result in more people clicking through to your website. And the more visitors you have, the more opportunities you have to convert them into customers or clients.
2. Greater brand awareness: People are more likely to trust and buy from brands that appear at the top of SERPs. Having a well-ranked website can therefore help to increase brand awareness and build trust with potential customers.
3. Increased leads and sales: The average CTR rate for the number one result on the first page of Google is approximately 27.6%. This means that if you want to increase leads and sales from your website, you need to ensure it’s ranking highly on SERPs.
4. Competitive edge: In most industries, the vast majority of customers will use search engines to find the products or services they need. If your competitors’ websites are ranking higher than yours, they’re likely to win more business than you. So, if you want to stay ahead of the competition, it’s important to invest in SEO and ensure your site is ranking as highly as possible.
5. Lower advertising costs: Once your website is ranking well, it will continue to attract organic traffic long after you’ve stopped paying for ads or other marketing initiatives. This means that once you’ve achieved a good ranking, your marketing costs will decrease significantly compared to those of your competitors who are still relying on paid advertising to drive traffic to their sites.
How to Improve your Website Ranking with the Helpful Content Update?
Add New Pages
Adding new pages is a great way to take advantage of the helpful content update. By adding new pages, you can signal to search engines that your site is active and constantly being updated with new content. This will help improve your website ranking as well as help you attract new visitors.
If you have a blog or video channel, you may have a separate page or post for each video. While there is nothing wrong with having such pages, it is important that you include a transcript of the blog post or video, additional resources, or even a Q&A section. This will help give your readers more value while also helping to improve your website ranking.
Write for your Audience, not for Search Engines
One mistake that many website owners make is writing content solely for the purpose of ranking high in SERPs. However, this approach rarely leads to quality content that will be genuinely helpful to your readers.
Instead of thinking about what keywords to stuff into your content, think about what questions your target audience is likely to have and then answer those questions thoroughly. In addition to being more likely to convert readers into customers, this approach is also more likely to result in higher SERP rankings because it shows that your content is relevant and helpful.
Keep it All Up-To-Date
With the helpful content update, it’s important to regularly update content to ensure that it remains accurate. This is especially true in today’s fast-paced world where new information and developments are happening all the time.
For example, let’s say you operate a blog about SEO trends. A year ago, you wrote a post about the importance of optimizing title tags for better SERP results. But since then, Google has rolled out several algorithm updates that have changed the way title tags are evaluated. As a result, your advice is no longer relevant or accurate.
To prevent this from happening, set aside some time each quarter to review your content and update it as needed. This will ensure that your readers always have access to accurate information, and are more likely to see you as a thought leader in your industry.
Make Use of Multimedia
In addition to text-based content, consider using other types of media such as images, infographics, charts, and videos to help get your point across. This is especially effective if you’re targeting millennials or Gen Zers who are used to consuming media in short snippets and who prefer visuals over text.
For example, let’s say you want to write a blog post about the benefits of meditation for stress relief. In addition to writing out some points explaining how meditation can help decrease stress levels, you could also include an infographic with statistics or an embeddable video from YouTube showing how meditation works. Doing so will make your content more engaging and easier for readers to consume—and it might just help you rank higher in SERPs too because Google gives preference to multimedia content.
FAQs about the Helpful Content Update
Yes, the rollover was completed on 9th September 2022.
If your website has a lot of helpful, informative content, then you shouldn’t see too much of a drop in traffic or rankings. However, if your website relies heavily on low-quality content, then you may see a significant drop in traffic.
The helpful content update looks at content that was created to help humans learn about a topic they were searching for. Content that leaves people satisfied will be ranked well after this update.
If you experience a drop in your rankings, you will have to revisit the content on your website and update it to be more meaningful and helpful for people.
Yes. This means if most of your web pages contain low-quality, unhelpful content, your whole website might be impacted and you may see a drop in your rankings.
Did you find this article helpful in improving your website ranking after the recent Google algorithm update? Let us know in the comments below. Also, check out our other articles here:
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