Are you prepared for Google’s “Helpful Content Update”?

There is a new Google search algorithm update coming and it may be time to clean up your web content. The Helpful Content Update looks to weed-out all content that is poor quality and keyword stuffed in order to create a better search experience for Google users.  We Will Clear some concepts about  Digital insurance solutions for Insurance providers.

What does that mean for you?  

Your rankings may be affected:

If your content is over-stuffed with keywords and does not answer a Google user’s queries, then your rankings may be impacted.

Check in with your SEO provider

Call or set up a meeting with your SEO provider to see what they are doing to mitigate any impact from the new update. If you’re on Trufla’s SEO program, then you can rest easy as our focus is always on balancing good-quality content with SEO keywords.  

Meaningful Content

Keep your web visitors in mind every time you write a new blog or create a new landing page. Does the content help them? Is it answering an important question? Is it easy to read? Does it seamlessly blend keywords into the dialogue? 

Google “Helpful Content Update” Snapshot 

Launch Date: To be announced but likely the week of August 22nd. 

Rollout: It will take about two weeks to fully roll out. 

Targets: Content that was created to primarily rank well but has poor value, and prioritizes websites whose content is analyzed to be most helpful to users. 

Penalty: While Google did not mention a penalty, however, it looks like sites that don’t follow good content practices will be impacted.  

Site-wide: This is a site-wide algorithm, so the whole site will be affected by this update 

Not a core update: Many are going to say this is a core update, it is not. 

English Language but will expand: This is only looking at English-language content globally now, but likely will expand to other languages. 

Impact: Google would not tell what percentage of queries or searches could be impacted by this update, but did mention that it would be “meaningful.” Also, they said this will be felt more for online-educational materials, entertainment, shopping, and tech-related content. 

Refreshes: Google updates the scores constantly, but there is a timeout period and a validation period and can take several months to recover from this update.