Answer
Aug 07, 2024 - 08:29 AM
Google's focus on rewarding helpful content and their communication on this topic related to their updates, automated ranking systems, and core ranking systems is communicating clearly that businesses should "create content for people, not for search engines"....that they should "Focus on people-first content". When it comes to "people-first content", the only thing you need to focus on is ensuring that the content would be satisfactory for a user who is actually looking for that content.
In Google's original Helpful Content Update (which turned into the Helpful Content System which was distributed to their core ranking systems in March 2024) Google communicates about the type of content they're looking to reward. They say they want to "reward content where visitors feel they've had a satisfying experience". So, when creating content you need to think about the user and the specific needs that they have and the experience they have when they get to your page looking for that content. If their specific issue is not addressed and very quickly found within the "Main Content" of your pages....that's not a great experience.
When Google communicates what people-first content is....the first thing Google tells you to ask yourself is this question:
"Do you have an existing or intended audience for your business or site that would find the content useful if they came directly to you?"
When customers do come to you, they request content in the form of questions they ask....and if you fulfill answering those questions demonstrating the E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness) that Google is looking for....Google's core ranking systems are built to find and reward that content and the pages it is found on. It's looking to provide the best experience for the searcher when they get to the page, so that means that Google's goal is to fulfill the search intent. If the search intent is a short answer, Google's goal is to provide that short answer and pages that service that need. If the search intent is longer format, then Google will serve that.
These factors are important because "people-first" is focused on the searcher....and it means that an page with a 3 sentence answer can outshine a long blog post....if it meets the search intent. It's important to understand this because if you're creating content for specific word counts because you think Google cares....that falls under what Google considers creating content for search engines vs people...see what Google says about content length when they specifically say within their list of things you should consider to make sure you're not falling into the category of creating "search engine first content" vs what they're looking for which is "people-first content". See what Google says under their section of how you should "Avoid creating content for search engines first" where they tell you to ask yourself this question:
"Are you writing to a particular word count because you've heard or read that Google has a preferred word count? (No, we don't)."
Google knows that there are a lot people and companies trying to have a leg up in the "quality" of their content....and they fall into the common mistake of "more is more"....but Google recognizes that many times "less is more" because that is what the searcher is looking for.
If you understand what Google has actually said on this topic and what their quality assurance processes have in place regarding this topic, Google understands that shorter content should sometimes be considered the content that is the highest quality and they look to recognize and reward that content. In Google's Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines (where they guide a large network of people who are manually reviewing and judging the quality of Google's results, kind of like a feedback form in a restaurant, so Google can recognize/improve quality) they specifically communicate that length of content is NOT a factor in if Google will judge content based on it's length...and that sometimes the "Highest Rated" content is very short.
"There is no length requirement for Highly Meets results. Sometimes what makes a result satisfying is that it is short and easy to understand. Other results may be very satisfying because of the depth and richness of content.” - See Section 13.3 "Highly Meets (HM)" within the Guidelines
This gives you an opportunity to grow your organic traffic to the pages on your site through appropriate investment in that content, knowing that a quality/short response can outperform a longer blog post....Google does not care about the length, they only care about the intent of the search being fulfilled through the page they lead the searcher to. We encourage you to read our white paper on what people-first content is and a deeper dive on what Google has said, but let's dig into what good people-first content is doing within search results as Google continues to prioritize this content in the search results.
In general, Answerbase customers have thrived through the Google Helpful Content Update, the Helpful Content System, and then as Google incorporated it's Helpful Content System into their Core Ranking Systems in March of 2024....simply by effectively answering their customer's questions well. Many of those answers are just a few sentences long, and through Answerbase's connection with Google we can understand which of those questions are high enough demand to be indexed and then ensure that there are pages focused on those problems so they can effectively service searchers.
See the activity of those Q&A landing pages below of what happened with a broad range of Answerbase customers that Ahrefs reports back on and how they performed thorugh the Google March 2024 core updates as Google incorporated the Helpful Content System into their core ranking systems. Here is a report that was created July 1st and covers the previous several months as the update was rolled out.
See a chart from Google Search Console of an SMB Ecommerce merchant's overall traffic over the last 16 months (taken on June 5th). Keep in mind that this merchant is seasonal with peaks in the summer and dips in the winter, but you'll see the overall traffic when you compare year-over-year (YOY) the impressions and clicks have almost doubled.
Then, even more impressive, see specifically how the Q&A landing pages spawned by Answerbase have performed for that same period for that same SMB ecommerce merchant.
Again, both the impressions and clicks have almost doubled compared to last year and note that the click-through rate to the Q&A landing pages is 3x that of their normal site. Answerbase customers on average have thrives through all of the Google Helpful Content Updates, the introduction of the Helpful Content System and as they continued with their Core Rankings Systems Updates.
UPDATED CHART AUGUST 2024
Take a look at the continued growth in impressions and clicks and Google continues to evolve the SERPs to display and prioritize "People-first content".....you can see the charts for the Q&A landing pages updated here with a 16 month report taken the first week of August.
Answerbase has AI-enhanced tools to ensure that you're able to efficiently create "people-first helpful content" that both Customers and search engines are looking for, we encourage you to view an overview of what Answerbase's AI is doing on both product-level Q&A and category-level Q&A to get a taste of how Answerbase facilitates the creation of valuable content that leads to both increased conversions as well as organic position and traffic growth as noted above. See a deeper dive on Answerbase's tools for both of these types of optimizations here:
We encourage you to book a demo today to talk about what Answerbase can do for your business.
In Google's original Helpful Content Update (which turned into the Helpful Content System which was distributed to their core ranking systems in March 2024) Google communicates about the type of content they're looking to reward. They say they want to "reward content where visitors feel they've had a satisfying experience". So, when creating content you need to think about the user and the specific needs that they have and the experience they have when they get to your page looking for that content. If their specific issue is not addressed and very quickly found within the "Main Content" of your pages....that's not a great experience.
When Google communicates what people-first content is....the first thing Google tells you to ask yourself is this question:
"Do you have an existing or intended audience for your business or site that would find the content useful if they came directly to you?"
When customers do come to you, they request content in the form of questions they ask....and if you fulfill answering those questions demonstrating the E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness) that Google is looking for....Google's core ranking systems are built to find and reward that content and the pages it is found on. It's looking to provide the best experience for the searcher when they get to the page, so that means that Google's goal is to fulfill the search intent. If the search intent is a short answer, Google's goal is to provide that short answer and pages that service that need. If the search intent is longer format, then Google will serve that.
These factors are important because "people-first" is focused on the searcher....and it means that an page with a 3 sentence answer can outshine a long blog post....if it meets the search intent. It's important to understand this because if you're creating content for specific word counts because you think Google cares....that falls under what Google considers creating content for search engines vs people...see what Google says about content length when they specifically say within their list of things you should consider to make sure you're not falling into the category of creating "search engine first content" vs what they're looking for which is "people-first content". See what Google says under their section of how you should "Avoid creating content for search engines first" where they tell you to ask yourself this question:
"Are you writing to a particular word count because you've heard or read that Google has a preferred word count? (No, we don't)."
Google knows that there are a lot people and companies trying to have a leg up in the "quality" of their content....and they fall into the common mistake of "more is more"....but Google recognizes that many times "less is more" because that is what the searcher is looking for.
If you understand what Google has actually said on this topic and what their quality assurance processes have in place regarding this topic, Google understands that shorter content should sometimes be considered the content that is the highest quality and they look to recognize and reward that content. In Google's Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines (where they guide a large network of people who are manually reviewing and judging the quality of Google's results, kind of like a feedback form in a restaurant, so Google can recognize/improve quality) they specifically communicate that length of content is NOT a factor in if Google will judge content based on it's length...and that sometimes the "Highest Rated" content is very short.
"There is no length requirement for Highly Meets results. Sometimes what makes a result satisfying is that it is short and easy to understand. Other results may be very satisfying because of the depth and richness of content.” - See Section 13.3 "Highly Meets (HM)" within the Guidelines
This gives you an opportunity to grow your organic traffic to the pages on your site through appropriate investment in that content, knowing that a quality/short response can outperform a longer blog post....Google does not care about the length, they only care about the intent of the search being fulfilled through the page they lead the searcher to. We encourage you to read our white paper on what people-first content is and a deeper dive on what Google has said, but let's dig into what good people-first content is doing within search results as Google continues to prioritize this content in the search results.
In general, Answerbase customers have thrived through the Google Helpful Content Update, the Helpful Content System, and then as Google incorporated it's Helpful Content System into their Core Ranking Systems in March of 2024....simply by effectively answering their customer's questions well. Many of those answers are just a few sentences long, and through Answerbase's connection with Google we can understand which of those questions are high enough demand to be indexed and then ensure that there are pages focused on those problems so they can effectively service searchers.
See the activity of those Q&A landing pages below of what happened with a broad range of Answerbase customers that Ahrefs reports back on and how they performed thorugh the Google March 2024 core updates as Google incorporated the Helpful Content System into their core ranking systems. Here is a report that was created July 1st and covers the previous several months as the update was rolled out.
See a chart from Google Search Console of an SMB Ecommerce merchant's overall traffic over the last 16 months (taken on June 5th). Keep in mind that this merchant is seasonal with peaks in the summer and dips in the winter, but you'll see the overall traffic when you compare year-over-year (YOY) the impressions and clicks have almost doubled.
Then, even more impressive, see specifically how the Q&A landing pages spawned by Answerbase have performed for that same period for that same SMB ecommerce merchant.
Again, both the impressions and clicks have almost doubled compared to last year and note that the click-through rate to the Q&A landing pages is 3x that of their normal site. Answerbase customers on average have thrives through all of the Google Helpful Content Updates, the introduction of the Helpful Content System and as they continued with their Core Rankings Systems Updates.
UPDATED CHART AUGUST 2024
Take a look at the continued growth in impressions and clicks and Google continues to evolve the SERPs to display and prioritize "People-first content".....you can see the charts for the Q&A landing pages updated here with a 16 month report taken the first week of August.
Answerbase has AI-enhanced tools to ensure that you're able to efficiently create "people-first helpful content" that both Customers and search engines are looking for, we encourage you to view an overview of what Answerbase's AI is doing on both product-level Q&A and category-level Q&A to get a taste of how Answerbase facilitates the creation of valuable content that leads to both increased conversions as well as organic position and traffic growth as noted above. See a deeper dive on Answerbase's tools for both of these types of optimizations here:
We encourage you to book a demo today to talk about what Answerbase can do for your business.
