These Blog Articles Are NOT Helpful

Helpful content is providing unique and specific answers.

Google’s most recent “helpful content update” shows how you can improve your chances of sharing content that ranks highly.

When you create content every week, it’s challenging to come up with fresh ideas and valuable tips to answer the questions your audience is asking.

Here’s what you need to know to create content that will rise to the top in Google searches.

Google’s Helpful Content Update (12.5.22)

Google’s helpful content update is meant to downgrade poor content that seems to be created primarily for ranking well in search engines rather than to help or inform people. They don’t want to serve this unhelpful content to their users.

They designed this algorithm update to help searchers find high-quality content. Google wants to reward better and more useful content that was written for humans and to help users.

Google said this is an “ongoing effort to reduce low-quality content and make it easier to find content that feels authentic and useful in search.”

What Types of Content Might Be Considered NOT Helpful?

While the algorithm does not target any specific niche, Google said these types of content may be impacted the most:

• Online educational materials
• Arts and entertainment
• Shopping
• Tech-related
• Aggregated lists

This is because content written in those areas has historically been written more for search engines than for humans.

What is an example of a search where the helpful content update would make a difference?

If you search for information about a new movie, you might have previously encountered articles that aggregated reviews from other sites without adding perspectives beyond what’s available elsewhere on the web. 

This isn’t very helpful if you’re expecting to read something new. 

With this update, you’ll see more results with unique information, so you’re more likely to read something you haven’t seen before.

What Stops Working Because of the Google Update?

• AI-generated content 
• Content made for ad monetization and clicks
• Aggregated lists without original additions
• Content stuffed with keywords for SEO, not people

How to Write Helpful Content According to Google

Create content that is more likely to be promoted by the helpful content update when you write for humans and not for search engines. 

How to avoid search-engine-first content

To avoid search-engine-first content, focus on creating content that is original and engaging. 

Use keywords that apply to your topic, while also avoiding keyword stuffing. 

Focus on optimizing your content for readers first, as search engine algorithms are constantly evolving. 

Ensure that your content is informative, well structured, and provides value to readers in order to achieve higher rankings. 

Finally, diversify your content by incorporating different formats, such as videos, infographics, and podcasts.

Watch out for content that is

• Stuffed with keywords
• Trending topics without depth
• Written by AI
• Summaries or aggregated lists
• Void of actionable advice or information
• Repetitive to reach a particular word count
• Not delivering on the promise in the title

Create human-first content:

Creating content that puts the human experience first is an effective way to engage with your audience. 

When writing, think about how the content you’re producing will benefit your readers, and how they can use it to enhance their lives. 

Focus on creating content that is easy to read, with a clear message and helpful advice. 

Ensure your content is well-researched, up-to-date, and accurate. 

When possible, include visuals such as images, videos, or infographics to enhance the content and make it more visually appealing. 

Finally, make your content friendly and engaging, and encourage your readers to interact with you.

Include these in your content to make it interesting to your readers:

• Written for your specific audience
• Provides solutions to their problems
• First-hand experience
• Authentic expertise
• Unique and specific answers
• Action steps to move forward

How To Adapt Your Content to Google’s Helpful Content Algorithm

Authentic, satisfying content comes from expertise. Develop deeper, more helpful content by talking about differences and providing real answers.

Expertise and experience

Having a deep understanding of a subject can help you create content that is engaging and meaningful. Through research, experience, and practice, you can develop the knowledge necessary to create content that is both authoritative and satisfying for your audience. 

Remember that content not only needs to be accurate but also needs to be interesting and relevant to your readers.

That means 

NOT aggregating data WITHOUT unique insights.

NOT simply re-writing existing content without adding fresh ideas.

Provide helpful answers to the “People Also Ask” (PAAs)

The snippets and questions you find when you search for a topic in Google make good starting points for a new piece of content.

Give value

Share solutions for your target audience’s pain points and challenges.

Don’t forget to have a support system in place so your audience can reach out to you with questions or for additional help.

Review Your Existing Blog Posts

Do your past articles provide satisfactory answers to your prospective client’s questions? 

Can you improve or update past posts to make them more valuable?

Improve Existing Content

• Find your lowest-performing content
• Discover what your old content is missing that Google is looking for
• Improve the data and answer specific questions
• Share the post as new and improved

What Criteria are Present in Helpful Content?

Original, authentic, and human

• Your stories, experience, and expertise
• Customer experiences

Action-oriented

• Don’t just name the problem, offer a solution
• Outline and encourage the next steps

Answer a question for your audience

• Use a Question/Answer format on your blog post
• Answer the PAAs for your topic

Use reliable data sources

• Check any data you use with more than one source when possible
• Provide links and cite sources

Unique insights

• Tackle a common belief with new insight
• Imagine the opposite of an accepted practice in your industry and explain how it could be true or work in your favor

Be concise

• Try not to repeat information
• Keep your content organized and easy to read and understand

Use good grammar practices

• Employ Grammarly or something similar to help you avoid mistakes and typos

A Little Extra SEO

Organize the format of your blog posts to make them easy to read and understand. Use headings, subheadings, and a table of contents for longer posts. 

Use subheadings

• Help readers find answers 
• Better comprehension
• Improve SEO
• Optimize for featured snippets

Need Help Creating Helpful Content?

• Get additional coaching
• Production done for you
• Schedule a chat with me at consulting.agkmedia.studio 

Takeaway Tip

To organically rank high in Google Search Results, create helpful content that answers your target customer’s questions and actively solves their problems.

• Stay in your area of expertise
• Be authentic and share personal stories
• Provide value and action steps

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