The helpful content update was a Google system, launched in August 2022, designed to show original, helpful content written for people over content made mainly to get search traffic. In March 2024 it became part of Google's core ranking systems, so there's no longer a separate "helpful content update": being helpful is now part of how every page is ranked. ADEL SEO helps local businesses get more enquiries from Google, Google Maps and AI search, with websites, SEO and Google Ads. Founded in Adelaide in 2014 by Wilson Tiong, who has been doing SEO since 2007.
Key takeaways
- Google announced the helpful content update on 18 August 2022.
- In March 2024 the helpful content system became part of Google's core ranking systems.
- Google's question is simple: was this page made for people, or mainly for search engines?
- For a small business, helpful means your own experience, your own prices and suburbs, and real answers.
What is the helpful content update?
Google introduced the "helpful content update" on 18 August 2022, as part of an effort to show people more original, helpful content written by people, for people. It targeted content made mainly to rank in search rather than to help the reader. (Google, August 2022)
Does the helpful content system still exist?
Not as a separate system. Google's guide to its ranking systems says the helpful content system "evolved and became part of our core ranking systems" in March 2024. (Google's ranking systems guide) In the same month, Google announced new spam policies against expired domain abuse, scaled content abuse and site reputation abuse. (Google, March 2024)
So if you read advice about "recovering from the helpful content update", it's out of date. Helpfulness is now judged as part of every core ranking, not in separate updates.
What does Google mean by helpful content?
Google's own guidance asks site owners questions like these (Creating helpful, reliable, people-first content):
- Does the content provide original information, research or analysis?
- Does it show first-hand experience, such as having actually used a product or done the work?
- Would someone leave feeling they learned enough to reach their goal?
- Was it written mainly to attract search visits, for example by copying what others say or covering topics only because they're popular?
In plain English: would a customer find this page useful if Google didn't exist?
What unhelpful content looks like on a small business website
These are the patterns we find again and again on older trade and small business websites:
- Written for an old Google. Content written for how Google worked about ten years ago: the same keyword repeated, nothing a customer actually asks.
- Copied location pages. One page copied for each suburb, with only the heading changed and the old suburb left in the text. Doorway pages are near-identical pages made only to catch searches for each place or term, which Google's spam policies warn against. See programmatic SEO.
- Generic text. Pages that could sit on any competitor's site, with nothing about who does the work, their experience, or the jobs they actually do.
- Blog posts written for volume. Posts on topics the business doesn't work in, written because the topic was popular.
How to write helpful content for your business
- Answer the question first. The opening should answer what the searcher typed, in plain English.
- Use what only you know. Your prices, the suburbs you cover, the jobs you do most, the mistakes you see, the questions customers ask on the first call.
- Show who's behind it. Names, experience, licences and real photos.
- One page, one job. A page for each main service, not one page for everything.
- Write less, better. A page as long as the pages that already rank, and no longer.
That's our approach to SEO content writing: writing pages from your own facts and experience, planned around what your customers search, and checked before and after they go live. See SEO content writing.
Is AI-written content unhelpful?
Not automatically. Google says it rewards helpful content however it's produced, and that using automation mainly to manipulate rankings is against its spam policies. (Google on AI-generated content) The risk with AI-written pages is that they repeat what's already online and say nothing only your business could say.
Helpful content update FAQs
What is the helpful content update?
A Google system launched in August 2022 to reward original, people-first content over content made mainly for search engines. Since March 2024 it's part of Google's core ranking systems.
Is the Google helpful content update still running?
Not as a separate update. Google folded the helpful content system into its core ranking systems in March 2024.
How do I know if my site was hit?
Look in Google Search Console for drops in clicks that line up with the dates of a Google core update, then check the pages that dropped against Google's helpful content questions. Google lists its updates on its ranking updates page.
How can I write SEO-friendly content?
Answer the question first, use your own experience and facts, give each service its own page, and write for the customer, not the search engine. See what is on-page SEO?