Google Helpful Content System Update 2023: All You Need to Know

Much of the useful information that we look for is available on the internet. But which website to look for our queries is a difficult task because the internet contains millions of websites that aren’t known to us. This is where a search engine plays a major role in bridging the gap between users and websites. Google is the most used search engine worldwide. The main reason behind its popularity is that it shows the most relevant websites according to our queries.

Google uses complex algorithms to rank websites and their contents. Every year it releases some ranking updates that make slight changes to its algorithms. It is done to provide users with updated and relevant websites which contain all the information they are looking for. Google has recently released its major ranking update called “Google Helpful System.” This update put more emphasis on helpful and user-centric content. Google has already rolled out helpful content updates on 17 September and it will take 2 weeks to complete roll out. So whether you are a normal user or a website owner, this article will help in understand Google’s latest Helpful Content System update more clearly.

What is Google’s Helpful Content System Update?

In September 2023, Google reached a significant milestone as it celebrated its 25th anniversary. To mark this Silver Jubilee, Google has introduced a new Ranking update to its search algorithm called “Helpful Content System“. Being one of the best search engines in the world, Google has introduced a helpful content system update to enhance the quality of its search results and provide a beneficial user experience.

The update produces signals for Google’s automated ranking systems to reduce the number of spammy websites and low-quality content while ensuring that people see original, relevant, and helpful content in the first place. One of the catchphrases that has gone viral with this update is “Content made by people, for people.” This phrase clearly defines the intent of Google towards the ranking of websites.

This ranking update comes with a new classifier that will identify and analyse the quality of content and articles posted on websites. It will detect whether they are helpful for the audience or just produced to rank in the top searches and get more search traffic. The classifier introduced by Google to analyse websites is fully automated based on a machine learning model and will be applicable at the global level for almost all websites irrespective of their languages.

What Will be The Effect of This Ranking Update?

On Users

1. Helpful and Relevant Contents: Users will get to experience improved and relevant search results from websites that are genuinely helpful to their queries and provide valuable information in their content.

2. Less Spammy Websites: This ranking update will aim to reduce the visibility of spammy and fake websites made for just monetization and spreading false information. This will help all users experience a safe online environment and prevent them from landing on such malicious and spammy websites.

3. People First Content: Basically website content is of two types, one is users intended and made for users’ point of view, while the second one is made to be ranked better in search results and focuses more on SEO. So, those websites that give true value to the users will be ranked higher.

4. Better User Experience: The update will encourage those websites that provide a better user experience, which includes faster load time, mobile-friendly view, easy navigation, etc. So the overall browsing experience of users will be enhanced in the coming time.

5. Original Content: Users will encounter more of the original content which is unique, serves better to queries and gives fresh information. On the other hand, those website that copies content from other websites will have less viewership.

On Website Administrators

1. Sitewide Applicability: The helpful content system update will be applicable to the complete website not just its specific contents. For example, if a website contains more helpful content than unhelpful content, the overall ranking will be on the positive side and vice versa.

2. Better Quality = Better Ranking: Your efforts will not go in vain. The more effort you put into the content of your websites and make it user-centric, the better ranking your content will get. This will also motivate site admins to keep up their hard work and create optimized content for their users.

3. Third-Party Content Ranking: The helpful content system update will emphasize more on promoting and ranking original content rather than third-party content.

4. People-First Content: If you are producing content that is user-centric and focuses more on providing valuable information to your viewers rather than content that is made for search engines, then your chances of ranking higher will increase.

5. User Experience of Website: Websites that offer good user experience along with their valuable content will have more visibility in Google search. This includes how fast the loading time is, mobile friendliness, etc.

6. Impact on SEO Scams and Fake Updation: The helpful content update will have a severe impact on websites that use unethical practices to draw more search traffic. Things like SEO scamming and fake updation of content will now have bad consequences on the overall website.

How You Can Improve Your Website Ranking?

Do’s

1. Create helpful, valuable and user-centric content that contains all the information the users are looking for.

2. Remove unhelpful or irrelevant content from your website as it will impact the overall ranking of websites. If can’t do that, then simply use “no index” to prevent Google from indexing that content.

3. Optimize and improve your website’s performance and user experience. This will have a better impact on users and will ultimately increase the website’s ranking.

4. Create people’s first content. If your website’s content answers user’s queries then it will be classified as helpful content and will have a good impact on your website’s ranking.

5. Create original and unique content. The more effort you put into your content the better heights your website will reach in terms of viewership and search traffic.

Don’ts

1. Don’t use extensive automation as it goes against Google’s guidelines and will be marked as spam.

2. Don’t divert from your main content. If your website is related to tech and gadgets, then stick to those things only. All of your content should be based on technology and gadgets.

3. Don’t create content for just search engines. Content that is made primarily for ranking higher in SERPs and ignores helpful content for users will be ranked lower.

4. Don’t create content only for monetization. content that has irrelevant and unuseful information which contains mostly advertisements to make people click on ads and pop-ups will have a negative impact on the overall website.

5. Don’t dive into some niche topics that are not researched properly. Just because a topic is trending doesn’t mean that you can write about it and attract viewers unless your website’s primary focus is related to that and you have enough knowledge to write about it.