Has Google’s 2023 Helpful Content Update Made SEO-First Content Obsolete?

Google Helpful Content Update Feature Image

Google is well-known for its enigmatic SEO updates and deceptive algorithm evolution strategies. The company’s Machine Learning-based SERP ranking standard long held keyword—based searchability as its cornerstone. As a result, companies have always focussed on strong SEO performance by fighting for every major keyword in their niche.

However, rapid changes are fast-oncoming since Google came up with its Helpful Content System in 2022. HCS is set to transform the entire content strategy market towards a more effective paradigm. Unfortunately, this means that many companies that utilize SEO-first content may take heavy blows in the near future. How can you avoid seeing your website tumble into the abyss? Read on to find out all about the helpful content algorithm update!

What is Google’s Helpful Content Update?

Google has held keywords and SEO-based algorithms as the lynchpin of its web ranking strategies for well over a decade now. I remember my first job had me stuffing a keyword in every sentence just because I could. Was the content I wrote back then any good? Not really, not from the perspective of the MBA aspirant to Cornell or Harvard who I was targeting with my company’s coaching and assignment guidance services. But it got the job done and I was too young to bother with questioning how things worked back then.

Fast-forward to today and we see a Google that looks nothing like the one from 10 years ago. Now, we have 2% saturation for keywords and readability standards to make content universally accessible. Even further, Google is going forward with its Helpful Content Updates that started in 2022. And its got me rubbing my hands clean like I’m about to fine dine!

Helpful Content? For Whom?

As per Google Search Central’s pages on the helpful content update,

“the helpful content system aims to better reward content where visitors feel they've had a satisfying experience, while content that doesn't meet a visitor's expectations won't perform as well.”

It further elaborates

“Any content—not just unhelpful content—on sites determined to have relatively high amounts of unhelpful content overall is less likely to perform well in Search, assuming there is other content elsewhere from the web that's better to display. For this reason, removing unhelpful content could help the rankings of your other content.”

I know what Google is talking about. I’ve spent many a day researching info only to produce shoddy content that basically forks info from 3 different sources. This type of content is an abomination that would be nothing short of heresy for those who love a good read. Hell, on some occasions, I still have to ----------- even though I hate it. This kind of content is called SEO-first content. It is the kryptonite to every writer’s dreams of creating good reading material. That is why I love what Google is doing here and want them to go at this even harder than they already are. And judging by the September Helpful Content Update, they are setting sights on all major content quality offenders.

How is Google’s Helpful Content Update a New Breath for Content Development?

Remember when several years back when Google came down hard on plagiarism and changed the content game almost overnight? It made a lot of difference in how companies approached their content development. While the plag flag was not a big bulwark against shameless content exploitation, it certainly put soulless content-mongers on notice. And then everyone began scrambling for “plagiarism-free” content. It became part of resumes and interviews – people were legit-ing their content as fast as possible.

The Biggest Downranked Content from Google's September 2023 Update

Google’s recent Helpful Content Update started on September 14 and ended on September 28. This was the first major update since the helpful content update 2022 in December and took several shots at SEO-first content and third-party content. It mentioned an enigmatic “classifier improvement” which was later explained an improvement in its content sorting.

Third-Party – with Caution!

Here’s what Google said verbatim

“If you host third-party content on your main site or in your subdomains, understand that such content may be included in site-wide signals we generate, such as the helpfulness of content. For this reason, if that content is largely independent of the main site’s purpose or produced without close supervision or the involvement of the primary site, we recommend that it should be blocked from being indexed by Google.”

Hosted third-party content is often outdated and lazily put together word salad. It is only there to swell up the website’s SEO/domain authority value. Other content “produced without close supervision” looks industry-savvy but is really not. It is compiled by some overworked and underpaid writer (like me in years past!). That guy doesn’t really know much more about the subject than his colleagues.

So, while Google explicitly talking about third-party content here, it is also talking about SEO-first content. SEO-first content is always paraphrased till plag-free, meaninglessly link-heavy and SEO keyword-stuffed. Think of it as going to a library that has 100 books but about the same thing, offering the same info in different styles and by different publishers. That’s a pretty lame library and I personally wouldn’t want to got here again. This is what Google is trying to eliminate by essentially de-ranking content that serves only SEO purposes for the publishing company. Nothing like corporate vs corporate to wipe out un-savvy corporate if you ask me!

What Does Google Define as Helpful Content?

To be honest, there is no straightforward answer to this question. Google loves play Wizard of Oz with its updates and even the best-in-class SEO experts like Neil Patel on Google Helpful Content Update can only offer sage advice. Nevertheless, NP and others like Gary Vaynerchuk are on the money when they mention one thing - value.

Ultimately, both Google and its users, including private individuals as well as company owners, want quality information in return for their search queries. Striving to not just deliver quality insights but also generate a brand identity and voice is what sets good content apart from patchwork SEO-first rehashed garbage.

Companies that try to build a genuine connection with audiences, involve themselves in the industry directly and work to solve client problems are what we all want. Yes, profit is primary and no one scrolls past the first Google results page. But getting there takes more than pumping your site full of generic crap that is going nowhere and doing nothing to add value to your client’s lives. And now, helpful content update 2023 by Google is rightfully going to explicitly devalue such content.

Also, FAQ content is getting scaled down. More specifically,if your website or domain is not of very high authority or value, you will not get benefit of getting an FAQ space on your website. This means the value of that schema format is now going to go down. The emphasis is clearly on creating valuable content that is expert vetted and offers good insights.

5 Cardinal Rules for Making Good Content and Avoiding Getting Downranked by Google

The fundamentals of quality content development and marketing magic has never changed. Be relevant, be authentic, stay involved and make lasting connections. This is where getting the right content writer – someone who knows the pulse of the market.

Moreover, they understand how to give it what it wants. Google is probably going to bring the full force of its AI capabilities via its Google Bard project in the next few years. So, getting ahead in content means staying informed and taking initiative.

What you need is a value-oriented, data-driven and most importantly, human-centric approach. If this sounds like your thing, be sure to check out my website if you want top-notch content services.

Google's Content Writing Formula for 2024 and Beyond!

Now, Google has issued a short but well-defined list of questions you can ask yourself before you make content. Here’s the link and also a short list sum up for you below. Be sure to follow my LinkedIn and Facebook pages for the next blog where I will elaborate on these themes and explore the future of Content Marketing on Google.

First Off

Always follow Google’s E-E-A-T - experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness.

• Make sure your website is designed for a well-defined audience and further specify your content marketing bracket. [Experience]

• Get experts to review industry-specific content and verify details. [Experience, Expertize, Authoritativeness]

• Do not alter publishing dates for content [Trustworthiness]

• Diversify content quality inputs – audio listening options, video sum-ups, HD images etc. [Expertize]

• Update your old/third-party content with new material to stay fresh and Google-friendly [Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness]

P.S Send an email to discuss topics like these or just send me a chat message on social media. I’m always happy to help!