Google's Helpful Content Update: What You Need to Know

What this means for SEO writers and marketers:

• People-first content will perform better.
• Following SEO best practices is crucial for ranking.
• Core updates and product reviews will fill up the gaps.
• Content cleanups will become part of the standard SEO strategy.
• Topical authority and relevancy are becoming more critical than ever.

What markers need to avoid after the helpful content update:

• Content made solely to attract search users
• Unoriginal content (summarized or regurgitated)
• Unhelpful content that fails to answer the query
• Content that aims to hit a specific word count
• Extensive automation that hinders the user experience
• Running and building content mills for unrelated topics

When will the helpful content update roll out?

Google announced it’s rolling out the update some time next week.

Follow the Google search ranking updates calendar for the latest info.

Looming content recession

In a nutshell, Google will shake up the search playing field to weed out shoddy and repetitive content together with poor-quality websites.

Work with Google. The search engine needs to deliver a satisfying experience for search users. And as long as you publish helpful content and deliver a satisfying experience, you’ll be fine.

Remember, SEO is people. Content marketing is people. All things Google is people. So, produce content for people, not search engines.

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