Google unveils a new search algo: The Helpful Content Update

[MJ DeMarco]

As the title indicates, Google is unwrapping a new algorithm.

What creators should know about Google's August 2022 helpful content update | Google Search Central Blog | Google for Developers

developers.google.com

Should you be concerned?
Happy?
Will 1000s of entrepreneurs awake to 90% less traffic and learn about the Commandment of Control the hard way?

Of course, I'm curious how the forum will fare. The forum content is ALL people generated. Yet, Google continues to rank forums lower and lower on content searches.

Feel free to discuss the impacts it had (or did not have) on your website.

 

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[NeoDialectic]

Seems like the press release is just boilerplate what they always claim their updates do. Push up useful results, push down non useful ones. Penalize sites that try to manipulate results with SEO. We will have to wait and see what actually changes this time around!

It is very annoying that Google pushes forums lower and lower. Forums are usually the best place to get a well thought out answer to something that isn't as simple as "what color is the sky".

Luckily, for now, just adding the word "forum" to your search helps bring up forums.

 

[xShepherdx]

To me, this seems like more of the same from Google.

If you create your own original content, it sounds like you will be fine. You may even rank higher once all the cut + paste articles/clickbait that may be ranking above you get penalized.

If you use an AI tool to write content for you or create stuff that's low-effort and low quality, you'll probably see a drop.

At least that's been my experience so far on the few websites I've owned in the last year or so (on both sides of the coin).

 

[eliquid]

This is really just an upgrade and push to further EAT and also try to reduce AI generated content.

We've been watching this a lot at SERPWoo and seeing how recent algo changes ( that Google did NOT publish ) the past several months have played out.

AI generated content is already getting hammered with indexing issues.

This will push reduction of ranking AI content over the top and further push EAT focused content.

Been seeing this in our billions of data points for a while now. I think it will be a bumpy ride that last a while. They've been building up to this on the sidelines for a while now.

 

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[Hong_Kong]

As the title indicates, Google is unwrapping a new algorithm.

What creators should know about Google's August 2022 helpful content update | Google Search Central Blog | Google for Developers

developers.google.com

Should you be concerned?
Happy?
Will 1000s of entrepreneurs awake to 90% less traffic and learn about the Commandment of Control the hard way?

Of course, I'm curious how the forum will fare. The forum content is ALL people generated. Yet, Google continues to rank forums lower and lower on content searches.

Feel free to discuss the impacts it had (or did not have) on your website.

View attachment 44793

"Is the content designed to attract humans rather than search engines."
AKA More targeting of AI generated content.

For me the goal of content should be to solve a problem for the reader.

What's interesting as well is more and more people are 'searching' on places other than search engines. For example if people are interested in cars, they might go to Instagram and search for Mustangs rather than search google. Problem solving content with strong distribution channels seems like the way to go.

Another advantage of problem solving content is that it is more shareable. If content provides value, it is more likely to be shared directly to someone else - reducing your dependency on search engines.

 

[MTF]

I'm going to paste my post from the random chat (or actually only the final part of it without explaining the news):

I wish Google stopped taking into account backlinks at all and was able to judge purely the content. It would put a lot of spammers out of business but would be great for content creators.

 

[Andy Black]

I tried to Googling the simple how-to steps for something a few days ago. It was frustrating sifting through loads of links to YouTube videos.

 

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[jdm667]

I tried to Googling the simple how-to steps for something a few days ago. It was frustrating sifting through loads of links to YouTube videos.

Exactly! If I want a video, I will go to YouTube. It's 2022 - I think everyone already knows that YouTube exists if they want to watch video. Sometimes you just want to read text.

 

[SEBASTlAN]

They make hundreds of algorithm tweaks every year so it's nothing new.

Ironically they are the ones who violate their own guidelines in terms of displaying other people's content and passing it off as their own (via SERP features).