The only thing constant in life is change. And it applies to Search engine optimization as well. For example, in 2020, Google conducted some 600,000 experiments to improve its search engine.
The result was 4500 improvements in search that included changes in the user interface, and ranking system, among others. It shows plenty of volatility when you see that, on average, Google search changes about 12 times a day!
Google updates drive fears in the heart of every digital marketer and SEO team globally. Over the years, it has upgraded and fine-tuned its search algorithm to provide its users with relevant and better search results.
Every two to three months, Google updates which are known as “Core Algorithm Updates .” The major and important updates are usually announced in advance, but many updates get notified only after they are implemented.
This brings us to major update google announced on 18 August 2022. The Core Algorithm update, also known as the “Google helpful content update,” was released on 25 August.
Google has not announced what impact the update will have on SEO, but the fact that it is announced in advance shows that it is similar to major past updates, such as the Panda in 2011, the penguin in 2012, and the pigeon in 2014. The gut feeling is, however, that that is will be the biggest update of 2022 and change the way how SEO will work in the future.
This update will change how content is shared, and the SEO content strategies have worked till now.
Let us go back to 2021 to understand how this 2022 update is a consistent move on Google’s part.
The page experience update in June 2021 rocked everyone digital marketing expert though surprisingly, the focus was on user experience. The SEO rules and guidelines have always been to ensure the site remains on top, but the key factor for summit positioning is how the user receives the site.
Boring, irrelevant, and hard-to-navigate websites don’t do well, no matter how high the SEO metrics show. People stop visiting clunky sites as their attention span is fragile. However, when a site does not connect well with the user or provide useful information, then content written to just rank and not provide value does work in the long run.
Core web vitals
Website design, page speed, and content provide a great user experience. However, they affect user behavior, which in turn impacts the rankings. For example, loading performance leads to clunky websites with intrusive ads and pop-ups, all contributing to poor user experience. Another factor is the delay in the first input. This is the time lag between the user interaction and the processing done by the browser to provide the information. The information is processed in a few milliseconds when the site performs efficiently.
Page expertise and user experience go hand in hand
Google search that matches the site expertise helps improve user experience. Engaging with page content that is great enhances the user’s experience. Relevant content has evolved into articles, good images, and engaging videos. The content that is great and easy to read is informative and educational, engages future consumers, and instills confidence in brand loyalty.
Easy to load images, no auto-play of videos, and large and easy-to-find search bars all help to improve users’ experience and, in turn, the search rankings.
So far, some SEO marketers have been street smart and less than honest when trying to gain rankings using keywords or phrases. For example, one can find a furniture store coming up during new car searches. The desperation notwithstanding, the rankings do get hurt. All this will change in the new “Helpful Content Update,” as we will see later in this article. With the new algorithm update, Google will surely red flag such actions. The bottom line is that the content should be relevant to search results.
Detroit News saw its rankings plummet because of poor user experience. The last algorithm update by Google saw its performance improving. However, there is still scope to improve as the site is cluttered, and finding pertinent information takes time and several clicks. On the other hand, Macmillan Dictionary saw growth in its visibility as the search option at the top bar helps to find the information one is looking for apart from other positive user experiences.
Last year’s page experience update has its bearing on the new helpful content update that is getting rolled out.
Google Helpful Content Update
Google’s new foray is to improve content quality. It aims to get original, quality, and helpful content written by people to be more visible during search results. The idea is to reduce AI-generated content and poorly written content that is uploaded just for ranking purposes and does not provide any value to the user.
The new algorithm aims to resolve the intent of users and connect them with more meaningful information.
Many digital teams are eagerly looking at new developments. It will be an exciting time when clients’ current SEO rankings and after the new updates will be compared to see the results of the favorite keywords searches. In addition, the picture will be clearer in the short term to see what kind of content topics and writing styles Google prefers.
Core updates from Google are designed to improve overall search and keep pace with the web changes. These updates are not limited to any particular sites or pages but to algorithms that change how sites perform based on the new metrics. The impact of the broad-based changes results in some sites gaining in rankings while others drop.
Those sites that experience a drop will invariably try to fix the problem. Surprisingly, it may also happen that there is nothing to fix anything at all. The page’s performance may drop after a core update, but the page may not have anything wrong with them. They may not have violated the webmaster guidelines, unlike others who violate them and are subjected to algorithmic or manual action.
What to expect with SEO in 2022 and beyond?
The new core update will show accurate and related content.
Query to throw associated content
It will ensure irrelevant content with misleading titles will not positively affect the page result. Even before the update, google was improving in recognizing which content information is reliable and relevant. As we advance in 2022 and beyond, SEO and digital marketers will encounter a new SEO landscape that will be more competitive in giving users high-quality, useful content.
Contents that do not have much quality and are used only for linking purposes to fish for more audience will no more be effective as it was earlier. Google will also check the link on the content to see the reliability of the link given in the content.
Personalized results
The algorithm collates all accumulated activities and information from all the users on the internet. Based on that, the most reached topics are reflected in the traffic. The update will allow improvement in searching each user with the visited pages’ history and their frequent queries and information mapped and matched accordingly. Like how YouTube shows recommendations and suggest videos to users according to their interest, search results will also match pages based on user’s interests.
Snippet
The little section that one gets to see on top of a search result shows a short description of images of the search results. Sometimes it is helpful but often misleading, and the information provided is incomplete. Going forward, the snippet feature will disappear from the search result.
Voice Search
New ways of searching will be the norm. Keyword search will give more practical results. With the voice recognition feature on many mobile devices and the availability of internet software, casual conversation types queries will be more used by internet users. For example, keywords such as best wooden furniture in type mode will be replaced by where can I get good wooden furniture in a voice search.
Keywords usage
The repetition of keywords will not be required in articles or blogs. There is no point in spamming the content with the same keywords. It will not help in traffic increase. Google is now more efficient in recognizing high-quality content that uses synonyms and related words from the keywords and considering them for ranking. Using the same word repeatedly will also be detected as spam.
Videos and images will be a part of the optimization
Using videos and pictures on content is practical and beneficial for writers and readers. The videos and pictures included in web content help the article to rank higher and, in the process, increase traffic.
Search results will have more local SEO
Post the pandemic, the social behavior of people has changed. People want to limit social contact or travel far for any service. You will find people searching for the “best Chinese restaurant near me “when they like to go out dining. Online marketing in 2022 and beyond will find local SEO more effective than before.
What will be the impact of the Google Helpful Content Update? – A Glance
The new Google helpful content update will be rolled out completely in two weeks from the launch date (August 25). It will focus on content created with a clear expectation of ranking rather than helping humans. Currently, the new update will impact only the Google search but may expand to Google Discover and other Google surfaces in the future.
Though this new algorithm does not specify if there is any penalty, the algorithm update itself is a penalty for many sites that will be hit by it. The broad algorithm updating will target sites as a whole and not individual content. Presently, it is limited to English, but later it may expand to other languages.
One should not expect Google to give exact percentages of searches impacted after the new rollout, but it will be meaningful nevertheless. Sites related to tech-related content, online educational material, and entertainment will be impacted to a great extent.
Site owners affected by the update need to look at their content and rework their content marketing strategies.
The flip side to these new changes is that even though Google automated the evaluation and updating system, one can see the scores getting updated constantly. However, there will be a cut-off period, and validation will take several months for recovery to take effect.
The updating by google is done constantly, and scores are assigned with the algorithm looking at each content without fail. The waiting period for downgraded sites will take months. This is because Google wants to confirm if the site is committed to updating its content regularly that is useful and relevant for the user and not a one-day affair. Once google is satisfied with the new behavior, google ranks the site better and restores its former glory!
Final Thoughts
People who have been in the world of digital marketing for quite some time now will notice that there have been several articles on the demise of Google search. SEO and digital marketing agencies have been over-optimizing their content for quite some time. One will find over spamming with the same stuff in search results to please the search engines and, sadly, not the searchers.
The new Helpful content update is poised to shake the internet, and it will concern content creators. The update will signal to users that sites that are uploading bulk content have little or zero value regarding useful information. The new algorithm will automatically classify helpful or useless content for sites focusing on people’s first content. The initiative will benefit all content creators, writers, and readers and provide the right value to the content.