Google announced a Helpful Content Update - on December 5, 2022. The official Google list of announced updates, As always, this update should take about two weeks to roll out completely.
What is new?
Now the helpful content update (aka system) is a global update, impacting all languages and not just the English language. This will help Google’s systems detect more forms of low-quality content created for search engines and primarily not for people.
Google also told us this system was updated with additional signals to help Google identify more content created primarily for search engines versus people.
Timing. Google said this update appeared for a tiny amount of queries late on December 5th but on December 6th, it became a more notable update, being more visible.
Rollout.
Like most other Google updates, the rollout should take about two weeks to roll out complete.
Google wrote it “released the December 2022 helpful content update, improving our classifier and working globally across all languages. The rollout may take up to two weeks to complete.”
Many sites hit by the May update are seeing signs of recovery only a few days in!
Google’s helpful content update targets “content that seems to have been primarily created for ranking well in search engines rather than to help or inform people.”
This algorithm update aims to help searchers find “high-quality content,” Google told us. Google wants to reward better and more helpful content written for humans and to enable users.
Content is written to rank in search engines – what you might call “search engine-first content” or “SEO content” has been frequently written about lately and discussed across social media.
In short, searchers are getting frustrated when they land on unhelpful webpages that rank well in search because they were designed to rank well.
Google’s new algorithm aims to downgrade those websites while promoting more helpful websites designed for humans above search engines.
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 to do if you are hit.
Google has provided a list of questions you can ask yourself about your content. Read through those questions as here is a list by Search Engine Land, and in an unbiased manner, ask yourself if your content is in sync with this update.
Note if this update hits you, it can take several months to recover if you do everything right and make changes to your content over time.
Google told us that if a site is no longer seen as unhelpful, it might see a positive change as soon as the current update has finished. However, a place might not see a positive difference if there are other areas where it needs improvement. So always be working on making your site more helpful.
Why we care.
Suppose you notice any ranking and visibility changes in Google search over the next two weeks, especially if those were significant changes. In that case, you can likely attribute it to this update. Read Google’s advice, make the necessary changes, and hope for a recovery in the upcoming months.
We hope you all will benefit from this update, and if not, we hope you recover quickly.