SEO Cape Town Guide To The Helpful Content Update
Read the SEO Cape Town Guide To The Helpful Content Update in 11 minutes. Google recently launched a new and more impactful search algorithm update, which is called the Helpful Content Update. This new algorithm aims to improve the quality of search results by making it easier for people to find the most relevant information they’re looking for, rather than web content just optimised for that search query or keyword phrase in order to rank. Let’s have a look at what it means for SEO.
The new Helpful Content Update aims to solve this problem and targets websites that have a lot of fruitless or unsatisfying content.
We have profiled many updates through our SEO Cape Town Guides but this content update may prove to be one of the most significant changes made by Google, according to our SEO company, for content updates in over a decade.
SEO Cape Town Guide: The Launch of the Helpful Content Update
The new Helpful Content Update focuses on people-first content rather than search-engine-first content using a machine learning model. Google states that it intended to reward websites that offer users a more satisfying experience. If we imagined how Google may measure or quantify satisfying experience we would hypothesise that human engagement factors may be used such as dwell time for example in union with topical semantic relevance or perhaps latent semantic indexing terms in addition.
The updated Google algorithm has had a significant impact on what users see when they search for information, according to this
SEO Cape Town Guide. Google aims to improve the quality of information that it displays in its search results by making it easier for people to find expert-level helpful information. How does this impact our SEO?
SEO Cape Town Guide to People First Content – What Users Should Consider:
• Do you have an existing audience for your site or business that would benefit from the content that you’re presenting?
• Your site should also be able to demonstrate its first-hand expertise and provide valuable information. Do you have a dedicated focus on providing relevant and timely content?
• After reading all of the content, would you as a user leave feeling as you have actually learned enough about the specific topic you were looking for?
• A People-First approach can help boost the quality of your website’s content and improve its search engine ranking. Content that’s created primarily for search engines is often associated with poorly written and unsatisfying content.
• Are you simply writing about something just because it’s trending and not writing about content that targets your existing audience?
• If your content is not helping readers find the information they’re looking for, it might leave them feeling frustrated and searching for other sources online. This is very frustrating for both the writer and the reader.
• Are you writing to a specific word count to get a better search engine result?
In this SEO Cape Town Guide, we advise content should not attempt to answer a question that has no concrete answer. For instance, if you claim that there’s a release date for a movie or TV show that hasn’t been confirmed, then you might not be able to provide any useful information for the user.
Your content should not only provide an answer to a question, but it should also be relevant to the users who are looking for it, so within their context too, think local content vs international content. In this SEO Cape Town Guide, we advise focusing on one topic and building out an informational resource around that topic, semantically, relative to the user, locally.
Your site’s primary purpose or focus should be on providing relevant and engaging content that will help people achieve their goals in the context of the search query they used to search. After reading through your content, will someone feel like they’ve gained a deeper understanding of the topic?
How the new Helpful Content Update works according to this SEO Cape Town Guide:
This update introduces a site-wide signal that penalises the entire site rather than just a page over a few months. This system analyses web pages and identifies those that are low in value and then the entire site will be affected negatively over an extended period.
Unhelpful content that is irrelevant to the search query, regardless of its type, is less likely to perform well in search. This is because other sites may have a primary focus would be better suited, with a higher level of expertise.
A good example would be a long-term bicycle shop that decides to sell motorised scooters in addtion, all of a sudden in the hope to rank scooter-content . The site in question should not begin invest resources in the hope to rank for scooter related as these are completely different entities on Google’s knowledge graph.
One of the most common questions that people ask is, how long it will take for a site to improve if it removes unhelpful content?
Although Google suggests removing unhelpful content, this decision should be looked at carefully, removing content usually ends up in a ranking or traffic loss in some way that cannot be corrected in some instances. It should be an exercise of asking yourself what is the primary value proposition of your site, what has worked historically, and then ensuring that the overall content is focused on that going forward, at that stage you can begin to very carefully to remove content.
Even after the suspected unhelpful content is removed, it may be some time according to Google before the site will be positively rewarded as the signal is applied over a period of months before things to start to improve.
The process of classification is automated, and it uses a machine-learning model instead of manual or spam action. Instead, it’s just a new signal and one of many signals that Google uses to evaluate and rank content.
What is the Helpful Content Update according to this SEO Cape Town Guide?
In response to the increasing popularity of content that focuses on boosting search engine results rather than helping people, Google has launched a new content update to ensure that sites just optimising for content penalised algorithmically and the sites that offer in-depth relevant information, products, or services are better rewarded.
This process is completely automated, and it uses a machine-learning model to identify and rank content. The entire site is affected not just a page like with the Penguin Update, according to this SEO Cape Town Guide.
SEO Cape Town Guide to the Helpful Content Update: 7 things to know
Let’s look at some essential tips for people-first content.
1. A Website Should Have a Primary Purpose or Focus:
If you have an existing audience for your site or content and now want to attempt to reach additional audiences, ypu may want to rethink this according to the Helpful Content Update announcement. According to Google, people should be focused on their areas of expertise when developing content for search engines, something new is usually not expertise as expertise emanates from experience, which in turn requires time and a certain direction. Map out all the content relative to a keyword phrase that has historically worked, semantically throughout the site, according to this SEO Cape Town Guide.
In addition, Google suggests asking yourself the following questions:
• Are you writing content that is mainly focused on attracting people from search engines rather than made for humans? If so, are you trying to create content that will appeal to your existing audience rather than attracting new ones?
• Is it because you didn’t have any expertise in the niche area you entered, or is it because you were hoping to get search traffic for new topics that you are not an expert on?
2. In this SEO Cape Town Guide We Advise to Demonstrate First-Hand Experience:
Your content should demonstrate in-depth knowledge and first-hand experience. For instance, if you have used a product or service, you would likely have a good understanding of its capabilities and have expressed that understanding through detailed content.
According to Google, people should avoid writing about products or services that they haven’t tried before or that they are not at an expert level in terms of experience. This advice is usually not followed by people who create content for search engines and they attempt to achieve a catch-all strategy with very shallow content. These types of articles are usually accompanied by affiliate links, as an example.
Make sure that your writing is clear and original. Having experience with a certain service or product can help you write more effectively.
Google suggests asking yourself a related question: Are you summarizing what others are saying without adding value?
3. Don’t Combine Multiple Topics into One Site:
Google is suggesting that a website should be a niche so that it can achieve expert authority on a topic. This is a way of saying that websites should not be a jack of all trades but rather a master of one topic. In this SEO Cape Town Guide, we strongly support this notion and have seen this as a trend for some time, well before the announcement.
4. Provide Sufficient Answers to Searcher’s Questions:
Provide the necessary answers to the questions that your searchers have about your content. They may feel that they have learned something new that will help them achieve their goals.
According to Google, content can be helpful when it can help people accomplish a task or teach them something. Creating content for search engines is often very time-consuming and can involve writing a lot of articles without saying anything of value, we call this spun content.
When writing content for people, it’s important that you help them find your website and resolve any questions they might have.
In addition, Google suggests that you should ask yourself the following questions: Are your articles leaving readers feeling like they need to go back to other sources for more information?
You’re writing to a certain word count because you’ve been reading or hearing that Google has a preferred one. But it doesn’t mean that it’s the case. In this SEO Cape Town Guide, we advise taking a look at what is ranking already.
5. Important SEO Cape Town Tip Is Don’t Neglect the Overall Reader Experience:
Although it’s possible to meet these criteria, it’s not always possible to provide a satisfying experience. For instance, if a product review doesn’t contain videos or photos, then it might not be a good idea to read it.
While many people may appreciate the textual content of a product, a visual demonstration of its capabilities would be beneficial. In this SEO Cape Town Guide, we advise using various forms of media in content around topics, think copy, images, videos and summary tables, lists, and FAQs.
6. Don’t Answer a Question that has No Confirmed Answer:
For instance, say that there’s a release date for a movie or TV show that hasn’t been confirmed yet, then you might not actually be able to provide an answer.
Google advises websites to provide users with the necessary information to satisfy their needs and wants. It also doesn’t encourage them to leave their search engine looking for more, so in this SEO Cape Town Guide, we advise following that advice.
7. Follow Google’s Guidelines for Other Major Updates:
When it comes to keeping up with Google’s guidance on core updates and product reviews, you should keep in mind that these are also covered by Google’s Helpful Content Update advice.
If you’re already following Google’s advice when it comes to product review pages and core updates, then you’re probably already in the right place to benefit from this new content update.
SEO Cape Town Final Notes
In response to the increasing number of complaints about unhelpful content, Google has released a new update that will help users find more relevant content in English for now.
Google also stated that it will continue to improve its efforts to identify and remove these types of content as time goes by. The main takeaway here, in the SEO Cape Town Guide to The Helpful Content Update, is to become a resource around a singular topic.
In the coming months, we will continue to improve how we detect and reward content that is appropriate for people. We will also launch new efforts to improve the recognition of unhelpful content.
To ensure that your new content will be successful, you need to follow our guidelines and strategies to create content that will be engaging and relevant to your target audience. This approach is different from search engine optimization, as it focuses on creating content that will genuinely connect with your audience.
Before you start creating content, it’s important that you identify your ideal audience. This will allow you to create content that will be relevant to your site and business.
Your content should demonstrate a depth of knowledge and first-hand experience. For instance, if it’s about a product or service, it should show that you’ve used it.
The Google content update is expected to have a significant impact on the way SEOs provide their clients with advice when it comes to building content.
Google regularly releases updates to its search algorithm.
In 2020, it made 4,500 changes to Google Search, while in 2019, it made 3,200 changes. On the other hand, in the previous year, Google made 5-6 broad-core updates. We can expect more of these during the last months of the year and many more to come in the future. In our SEO Cape Town Guide we advise rather be what Google wants your site to be rather than waiting for our trying to outsmart Google.
As the update is released, make sure to analyse your current situation but rather wait at least two weeks before changing content according to the advice given by Google. We often see rollbacks of updates, so in this SEO Cape Town Guide to no knee-jerk reactions.
It can be hard to keep track of all the updates and changes that are happening. Fortunately, there are plenty of tools that will help you do so, and you can also hire a professional SEO company to help you navigate through the changes or read guides like this SEO Cape Town Guide.