On August 25, 2022, Google released a new update to its massive search engine algorithm. In this new edition, the focus of content marketing has changed from information explicitly written for search engines to a “people first” kind of slant. If you want to grow in search engine results, you need to cater your content to better serve the average consumer.
This update rollout aims to boost the rankings of engaging and well-written content designed for human consumption instead of helping those with blog posts that seem stuffed with keywords and intended for web crawlers.
The “helpful content update” will help the average search find highly relevant, high-quality content that speaks directly to their needs. So how do you change your content to adapt to this new update from Google?
1. Stick to the Main Topic
You want to ensure you don’t stray too far from your main topic. If a reader comes to your blog or website looking for information on one thing and sees something completely unrelated, they may not return. Try to keep a universal brand identity on your site that involves your content marketing strategy.
2. Showcase Your First-Hand Knowledge
To overcome the challenge of not having enough content, you need to provide examples of your experience in the form of stories that demonstrate how you have solved a problem for a customer or solved an issue in your industry. These stories should include real-life examples and capture attention by showing readers how they can benefit from your expertise.
If a hunter gives advice on underwater basket weaving, you may sound inauthentic to Google’s new update.
3. Avoid Multiple Topics in a Single Site
If you’re creating a site that has multiple purposes and topics, then this is fine. For example, if you have a site where the main focus is selling products but also offers information about how to care for those products, then combining both topics into one site isn’t an issue.
However, if your entire purpose is to provide information on one topic or niche—which most people do—then combining multiple topics into one site won’t help with SEO and can hurt it in some cases.
4. Give Quality Answers to Questions
You’re going to want to provide the answer. But don’t just give a partial solution. You want to make sure that everything you write is relevant to the searcher’s question and that it can be verified by someone other than yourself (like an expert). Again, you are trying to build authority and trust.
5. Create an Engaging Experience
The most important piece of content you can publish is everything that supports your reader’s experience. From the title to the tags, images, and links, you want to provide an engaging experience where readers want to spend time on your site.
6. Avoid Unanswerable Questions
Giving a single response to how best to lose weight will not help. We all know there are multiple different methods that people of different beliefs, backgrounds, and body types can utilize to lose weight. Google doesn’t want definitive answers to open-ended questions. Instead, they want helpful content marketing designed to help users find the different information relative to who they are as a user.
7. Stay Updated with Other Updates
Google is constantly updating its search engine algorithms. In fact, it releases a new major update every year or two. You can find out more about these updates at Google’s official blog. You want to know if there is a future update that will affect your business.
Getting Proactive About Your Content Marketing
If your site is starting to downgrade in rankings, it could be because you are caught up in the new Google algorithm update. In that case, your best option is to find a team of professional SEO experts who understands how to reformat your content to better fit this new change.
That is where our team at Griffon Webstudios can help. We keep a close watch on any changes from Google and immediately integrate those changes into our own content as well as our clients. Schedule a consultation with our team today, and let’s help boost your search engine rank.