Google to update the helpful content system algorithm in ‘coming months’

Google will roll out a new update for the helpful content system in the coming months. This update will allow Google Search to “more deeply understands content created from a personal or expert point of view,” the company wrote.

What is changing. Google said:

• “We’re also improving how we rank results in Search overall, with a greater focus on content with unique expertise and experience.”
• “We’ll roll out an update to this system that more deeply understands content created from a personal or expert point of view, allowing us to rank more of this useful information on Search.”

This update will help Google Search show more “hidden gems” within the Google search results, Google explained.

More on the helpful content update. Google’s helpful content update specifically 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 useful content that was written for humans and to help users.

Searchers get frustrated when they land on unhelpful webpages that rank well in search because they were written for the purpose of ranking in search engines. This is the type of content you might call “search engine-first content” or “SEO content.”

Google’s helpful content algorithm aims to downgrade those types of 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.”

Why we care. This new update has not rolled out yet, but it will in the “coming months.” We will notify you when the update does launch and what to expect from this update for your sites, content and your clients. Until then, keep creating helpful content and you should (hopefully) be fine in the long run.