Answer
Sep 30, 2024 - 12:12 PM
It's been interesting watching the world respond to Google's "Helpful Content Update" which started in 2022 and then as Google created the "Helpful Content System" as part of their automated ranking systems....and then after March 2024 core update when Google incorporated their Helpful Content System into their core ranking systems. Google documented the progression within their documentation here. It's also been interesting watching the SEO community respond to these updates, as we've seen quite a bit of commenting about how "Google is ruining search". While Google should obviously fix something if there was any collateral damage of these updates.....Google's communicatation about what they're doing and wanting to do seems very healthy....as they try to create incentives for companies to create "people first content" vs "search engine first" content. Content that actually satisfies the search intent of visitors......vs just playing the "SEO game" of keyword research, competitor analysis...and then trying to play the "me too" game of just trying ot get into the top 10 of search results by "out SEO'ing" other sites...but not actually adding anything new or valuable in the content.
Google has started to give some insights on how they look at SEO in the new world....a couple very important notes off of what we've seen:
Now.....if you were an affiliate site dependent on the traffic and completely gaming the system and got crushed and add no value to the world on a topic other than your "SEO expertise"...then maybe you'd need to consider to "do something else". But....if you service customers by offering valuable product(s) and service(s)....then you need to figure out a long-term game of how to shift your content creation/publishing approach towards what Google wants with helpful/original content....and take a longer term approach of getting your site in order and recognized as being valuable in this new world of SEO. Answerbase can help with this, and we have the data to back it up.....see what has happened to the content produced and published through Answerbase as Google has incoroproated it's helpful content system into their core ranking systems...and continues to steer in the same directly through subsequent core ranking updates.
Answerbase has seen our overall customer base take a huge lift over this time period, see what happened to our customers through the March, August and December updates...here's a couple samples:
and another one:
You'll see consistent lift after the March Core Update and then significant lifts in the August and December core updates. We actually had to triple our cloud infrastructure after the August update started rolling out....and then again notable increases in infrastructure after the December core update....as the demand for this content/distribution has gone through the roof.
We actually started to see the August core update lift on July 18th across our customer base (it was like a switch)...see this customer and what happened on July 18th as Google's "August Core Update" started to roll out and continued.
Q&A content is "people first" at it's core....and the best case scenario that we've seen is that through these updates.....our customers how are leveraging the real knowledge within their organization to provide great answers to customer questions.....they are thriving. One customer sees their Q&A content driving 50% of their organic traffic at this stage.
What's interesting, is even customers who were lower performers compared to our average (on average before March 2024 update, Answerbase was responsible for about 8.6% of our customer's organic traffic).....and those lower performers now have a significant amount of their organic traffic driven by their Q&A content. See this customer where the Q&A was only responsible for around 1-2% of their organic traffic and now it's 20% of their organic traffic.
So, Google is simply doing what they've said they would do all along....steering towards quality "people first" content. The issue is, most SEO processes are falling short of the world after the HCU....because their processes are not identifying and sourcing content ideas that are truly "people first".
What Can Websites Do if they WERE Hit by the Helpful Content Update?
Well, Google has clearly communicated that it's not just one thing....you really may have to rethink how you're approaching content creation as a whole. When John Mueller from Google approached this topic there are a couple quotes that really drive it home. See what he says here:
“There is, however, the additional aspect of the “core update” being about how our systems assess content overall, how we consider it to be helpful, reliable, relevant to users’ queries. This does not map back to a single change that you can make on a website, so – in my experience – it’s not something that a website can just tweak overnight and be done with it. It can require deep analysis to understand how to make a website relevant in a modern world, and significant work to implement those changes — assuming that it’s something that aligns with what the website even wants.”
So, it's not just about "trying harder".....you need to really rethink what you're doing and why. We suspect if you've been hit by the HCU your team (or one of your agencies) were creating a decent amount of content where (if you're honest with yourself) the focus f the content creation was heavily weighted towards "will this rank?" vs "do my current visitors care about this?". Answerbase is happy to help you recover and connect you with agencies who know how to survive in a "post HCU SEO" world. Contact us today and we'll help make sure you're taken care of.
Google has started to give some insights on how they look at SEO in the new world....a couple very important notes off of what we've seen:
- Original Content that Adds Value to the World: Google has very specifically warned about overusing tools like Google Trends and People Also Asked questions ....where you just have some writer who has no original insights on a topic that adds value to the Internet play this "content marketing" game of keyword research, competitor research, and try to "Out-SEO" somebody in the top 10. Google is saying clearly that your content that you publish should be adding value not only to your site but also to the world, and they're judging you on the website level for doing that. Not only positively, but also if you're not doing it that it can impact you negatively. Consider if this may b e a reason why you've been hit. We encourage you to read this LinkedIn Thread about this topic and understand the big picture of what Google is saying here....you need to be publishing things that are new and add value to the world.
- How "SEO" Should be done Moving Forward: Any content you publish...the first quesiton you ask should not be "what are the keywords I want to rank for?"....it needs to be "What information does my customer care about that is not yet taken care of on my site?". You need to switch to a "people first" mentality....identify and create that content and then "SEO" that content. Google states this very clearly in their guide of how to create helpful content...and where SEO fits into the picture when they say "SEO can be a helpful activity when it is applied to people-first content, rather than search engine-first content.". Start with what your visitors/customers care about and make sure all those information gaps are fulfilled...and then "SEO" that content for lift in the short tail.
Now.....if you were an affiliate site dependent on the traffic and completely gaming the system and got crushed and add no value to the world on a topic other than your "SEO expertise"...then maybe you'd need to consider to "do something else". But....if you service customers by offering valuable product(s) and service(s)....then you need to figure out a long-term game of how to shift your content creation/publishing approach towards what Google wants with helpful/original content....and take a longer term approach of getting your site in order and recognized as being valuable in this new world of SEO. Answerbase can help with this, and we have the data to back it up.....see what has happened to the content produced and published through Answerbase as Google has incoroproated it's helpful content system into their core ranking systems...and continues to steer in the same directly through subsequent core ranking updates.
Answerbase has seen our overall customer base take a huge lift over this time period, see what happened to our customers through the March, August and December updates...here's a couple samples:
and another one:
You'll see consistent lift after the March Core Update and then significant lifts in the August and December core updates. We actually had to triple our cloud infrastructure after the August update started rolling out....and then again notable increases in infrastructure after the December core update....as the demand for this content/distribution has gone through the roof.
We actually started to see the August core update lift on July 18th across our customer base (it was like a switch)...see this customer and what happened on July 18th as Google's "August Core Update" started to roll out and continued.
Q&A content is "people first" at it's core....and the best case scenario that we've seen is that through these updates.....our customers how are leveraging the real knowledge within their organization to provide great answers to customer questions.....they are thriving. One customer sees their Q&A content driving 50% of their organic traffic at this stage.
What's interesting, is even customers who were lower performers compared to our average (on average before March 2024 update, Answerbase was responsible for about 8.6% of our customer's organic traffic).....and those lower performers now have a significant amount of their organic traffic driven by their Q&A content. See this customer where the Q&A was only responsible for around 1-2% of their organic traffic and now it's 20% of their organic traffic.
So, Google is simply doing what they've said they would do all along....steering towards quality "people first" content. The issue is, most SEO processes are falling short of the world after the HCU....because their processes are not identifying and sourcing content ideas that are truly "people first".
What Can Websites Do if they WERE Hit by the Helpful Content Update?
Well, Google has clearly communicated that it's not just one thing....you really may have to rethink how you're approaching content creation as a whole. When John Mueller from Google approached this topic there are a couple quotes that really drive it home. See what he says here:
“There is, however, the additional aspect of the “core update” being about how our systems assess content overall, how we consider it to be helpful, reliable, relevant to users’ queries. This does not map back to a single change that you can make on a website, so – in my experience – it’s not something that a website can just tweak overnight and be done with it. It can require deep analysis to understand how to make a website relevant in a modern world, and significant work to implement those changes — assuming that it’s something that aligns with what the website even wants.”
So, it's not just about "trying harder".....you need to really rethink what you're doing and why. We suspect if you've been hit by the HCU your team (or one of your agencies) were creating a decent amount of content where (if you're honest with yourself) the focus f the content creation was heavily weighted towards "will this rank?" vs "do my current visitors care about this?". Answerbase is happy to help you recover and connect you with agencies who know how to survive in a "post HCU SEO" world. Contact us today and we'll help make sure you're taken care of.
