{"id":5672,"date":"2022-08-22T21:48:19","date_gmt":"2022-08-22T21:48:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/craighordlow.com\/index.php\/2022\/08\/22\/seos-feel-content-ahead-of-google-helpful-content-update\/"},"modified":"2022-08-22T21:48:19","modified_gmt":"2022-08-22T21:48:19","slug":"seos-feel-content-ahead-of-google-helpful-content-update","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/craighordlow.com\/index.php\/2022\/08\/22\/seos-feel-content-ahead-of-google-helpful-content-update\/","title":{"rendered":"SEOs feel content ahead of Google helpful content update"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>We\u2019re expecting the <a href=\"https:\/\/searchengineland.com\/googles-new-helpful-content-update-targets-sites-creating-content-for-search-engines-first-387237\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Google helpful content update<\/a> to launch this week.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Does the announcement have you concerned? Aleyda Solis posted a <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/aleyda\/status\/1560384809070903298\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">poll on Twitter<\/a> to ask SEOs. The final results:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>No! My content is helpful:<\/strong> 44.1%<\/li>\n<li><strong>Unsure tbh! Let\u2019s see:<\/strong> 46.6%<\/li>\n<li><strong>Yes! Will prune\/improve:<\/strong> 9.3%<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I\u2019m surprised that so many people think their own content is helpful. But we\u2019re all biased to think our content is great.\u00a0After all, we\u2019re producing it! That\u2019s exactly why it\u2019s important to have an objective, data-based way to assess content (i.e., metrics).<\/p>\n<p>Just remember: Google\u2019s new algorithm uses machine learning to detect \u201chelpfulness\u201d of content. So much content today is produced \u2013 and much without \u2013\u00a0so it will be interesting to see whether Google can truly distinguish between helpful and unhelpful content.<\/p>\n<p>So make sure you review all of the questions and guidance Google has shared around the Panda, Core, Product Review and helpful content updates. I\u2019ve compiled this all for you in <a href=\"https:\/\/searchengineland.com\/what-is-helpful-content-google-387360\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">What is helpful content, according to Google<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m solidly in the \u201cunsure\u201d camp right now. There are certainly a few sites I\u2019ll be watching in the days following the rollout to see whether Google can detect the true depth and helpfulness of content.<\/p>\n<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_81 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-grey ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<div class=\"ez-toc-title-container\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<span class=\"ez-toc-title-toggle\"><a href=\"#\" class=\"ez-toc-pull-right ez-toc-btn ez-toc-btn-xs ez-toc-btn-default ez-toc-toggle\" aria-label=\"Toggle Table of Content\"><span class=\"ez-toc-js-icon-con\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/craighordlow.com\/index.php\/2022\/08\/22\/seos-feel-content-ahead-of-google-helpful-content-update\/#Will_the_helpful_content_update_be_as_big_as_Panda_Penguin_or_Florida\" >Will the helpful content update be as big as Panda, Penguin or Florida?<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/craighordlow.com\/index.php\/2022\/08\/22\/seos-feel-content-ahead-of-google-helpful-content-update\/#What_to_do_now\" >What to do now?<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Will_the_helpful_content_update_be_as_big_as_Panda_Penguin_or_Florida\"><\/span>Will the helpful content update be as big as Panda, Penguin or Florida?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>We don\u2019t know yet how big Google\u2019s helpful content update will be. But we know it will have a \u201cmeaningful\u201d impact when it hits.<\/p>\n<p>Marie Haynes shared some thoughts about <a href=\"https:\/\/searchengineland.com\/google-helpful-content-update-what-to-expect-387328\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">what to expect<\/a> earlier today, comparing it to Penguin in 2012.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Our own Barry Schwartz has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.seroundtable.com\/google-helpful-content-update-33949.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">compared it to Panda<\/a> from 2011. And <a href=\"https:\/\/searchengineland.com\/google-panda-update-guide-381104\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Panda<\/a> was probably the largest update following Florida in 2003, which was one of the earliest and most impactful changes to Google and SEO.<\/p>\n<p>But just as a quick reminder \u2013 or in case you weren\u2019t working in SEO a decade or longer ago \u2013\u00a0those updates did a lot of damage. <\/p>\n<p>For those on the losing end, traffic vanished overnight. People lost their jobs. Businesses shut down. It was serious. It was estimated that <a href=\"https:\/\/searchengineland.com\/four-sites-impacted-by-googles-farmer-update-speak-out-67916\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Panda had a $1 billion impact<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>On the other side, it\u2019s quite possible the helpful content update will be more like past pre-announced updates (think: Mobilegeddon, which was anything but apocalyptic for most websites, or the Page Experience Update, which got tons of hype but was basically an insignificant update).\u00a0<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"What_to_do_now\"><\/span>What to do now?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>For now, we wait.<\/p>\n<p>After the helpful content update launches, as with any <a href=\"https:\/\/searchengineland.com\/library\/google\/google-algorithm-updates\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Google algorithm update<\/a>, the first rule is don\u2019t panic.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Google said it will take two weeks for the update to roll out completely. Make sure you collect enough data to know whether any changes to your traffic are just temporary or are sticking.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>You want to respond, not react, to an update. If you react too quickly, you can end up doing more damage, whereas if you collect and analyze your data, read and learn everything you can about the update, you can respond more deliberately and smartly.<\/p>\n<p>Were you already planning to improve or remove content from your site? If so, it\u2019s likely because that content isn\u2019t good or is outdated. So go on \u2013 update it or delete it. This update shouldn\u2019t change your plans.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Here are a couple of articles that may help you:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/searchengineland.com\/seo-deleting-content-in-bulk-386845\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Why and how to delete content in bulk for SEO<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/searchengineland.com\/content-consolidation-seo-386518\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">How content consolidation can improve your SEO performance<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Remember, the helpful content update is a sitewide signal. That means if you have too much unhelpful content on part of your website, it could hurt your ability to rank \u2013 even if you have helpful content.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>This is where some people in the \u201cMy content is helpful\u201d crowd need to be careful. <\/p>\n<p>Is <strong>all<\/strong> of your content helpful? Or just some of it?<\/p>\n<p>The post <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/searchengineland.com\/seos-react-google-helpful-content-update-387415\" target=\"_blank\">SEOs feel content ahead of Google helpful content update<\/a> appeared first on <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/searchengineland.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Search Engine Land<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We\u2019re expecting the Google helpful content update to launch this week.\u00a0 Does the announcement have you concerned? Aleyda Solis posted a poll on Twitter to ask SEOs. The final results: No! My content is helpful: 44.1% Unsure tbh! Let\u2019s see: 46.6% Yes! Will prune\/improve: 9.3% I\u2019m surprised that so many people think their own content is helpful. But we\u2019re all biased to think our content is great.\u00a0After all, we\u2019re producing it! That\u2019s exactly why it\u2019s important to have an objective, data-based way to assess content (i.e., [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"h5ap_radio_sources":[],"cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5672","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-best-seo-blogs"],"featured_image_src":null,"featured_image_src_square":null,"author_info":{"display_name":false,"author_link":"https:\/\/craighordlow.com\/author\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/craighordlow.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5672","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/craighordlow.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/craighordlow.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/craighordlow.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5672"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/craighordlow.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5672\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/craighordlow.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/craighordlow.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5672"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/craighordlow.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}