What will Google’s Helpful Content Update mean for your website? The answer is complicated, but one thing is for certain-website designers and SEO specialists should take note of this algorithm change. While Google first released their Helpful Content System in 2022, it’s their latest update that has truly shaken up the digital landscape.
This seismic shift to Google’s algorithm has revolutionized the way websites are ranked. Gone are the days when optimizing websites with keywords, URLS and backlinks would suffice to rank high in Google’s index. Instead, Google hopes to “provide a satisfying and valuable customer experience” with their new ranking.
Providing a customer-focused online experience is something many businesses are probably already thinking about. It means providing content that is relevant, of interest, and engaging. Ideally, this is a perspective content creators should already be employing.
Reflecting on these questions is key to gaining both improved user satisfaction and search engine ranking.
Luckily, in the wheelhouse of tools that help to increase user satisfaction and ranking, there are several that stand out. These include FAQ Content, Optimization and Tagging.
FAQ Content is helpful in several ways. Not only can it boost SEO, but it can also provide a backdrop for customers to get answers to commonly asked questions. This has the added benefit of building consumer trust and improving user experience.
Website optimization helps drive traffic, as well as improving user experience. Typically, website optimization is a host of actions that can improve site traffic. These include optimization for user experience, SEO website optimization and website optimization for conversions.
According to HubSpot, Google handles over 1.2 trillion searches every year. With Google’s Helpful Content Update, it can reasonably be assumed optimizing for user experience has never been more important.
Several ways to do this include pinpointing your market, anticipating the consumer’s journey, creating a seamless mobile experience, and improving UX with A/B and multivariate testing.
Lastly, tagging is an effective way to increase traffic by using keywords or phrases that describe your website’s content. Traditionally, tags have been geared toward SEO. With Google’s new algorithm, however, it has never been more important to craft tags that are geared toward your intended audience.
When thinking about sharing content, you might even want to consider using content repository systems (CRS). These are a central place or database that is used to store and manage digital content, including media items like documents, photos, and videos. With CRS, you can easily distribute content across multiple platforms.
Google’s Helpful Content Update has shaken up the online world. But with tools already at our disposal, from FAQ Content, tagging, optimization, and even CRS, it is possible to produce content that not only ranks high in Google’s algorithm but also provides relevant, useful information for users.