Helpful Content: A Term from Google. The goal of Google's Helpful Content Update is to reward organizations that create high-quality, substantive content with good rankings in the search engine. The helpful content updates that Google implements focus on recognizing content that does not add (new) value to the web.
To determine whether your content is helpful, Google has outlined several questions you can ask yourself while creating content for your website.By evaluating your own content against these questions, you can determine whether the content you create is useful and reliable. Below, we’ve summarized these questions for you:
1. Questions about content and quality
- Does the content provide original information, reporting, research, or analysis?
- Does the content offer a substantial, complete, or comprehensive description of the topic?
- Does the content include insightful analysis or interesting information that goes beyond the obvious?
- If the content is based on other sources, does it avoid simply copying or rewriting these sources, instead offering substantial added value and originality?
- Does the main headline or page title provide a descriptive, helpful summary of the content?
- Does the headline or page title avoid being exaggerated or shocking in nature?
- Is this the kind of page you’d want to bookmark, share with a friend, or recommend?
- Would you expect this content to appear in a printed magazine, encyclopedia, or book, or to be referenced in one?
- Does the content provide significant value compared to other pages in the search results?
- Does the content have spelling or style issues?
- Is the content well-produced, or does it appear sloppy or hastily created?
- Is the content mass-produced, outsourced to a large number of creators, or spread across a network of sites so that individual pages or sites do not receive sufficient attention or care?
2. Questions about expertise
- Does the content present information in a way that inspires confidence, such as clear sourcing, evidence of expertise, or background information about the author or site (e.g., links to an author page or the site’s "About" page)?
- If someone researched the site producing the content, would they trust it and recognize it as an authority on the topic?
- Was this content written or reviewed by an expert or enthusiast with proven knowledge of the topic?
- Does the content contain easily verifiable factual errors?
3. Ensure a great page experience
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4. Focus on people-first content
People-first content means content that is primarily created for people—not to manipulate search engine rankings. How can you determine whether your content is people-first? If you answer "yes" to the following questions, you’re likely on the right track:
- Do you have an existing or intended audience for your business or site who would find the content useful if they came directly to you?
- Does your content clearly demonstrate first-hand expertise and in-depth knowledge (e.g., expertise gained from using a product, providing a service, or visiting a location)?
- Does your site have a primary purpose or focus?
- Will someone feel they’ve learned enough about a topic to achieve their goal after reading your content?
- Will someone who reads your content feel they’ve had a satisfying experience?
5. Avoid search engine-focused content
We recommend focusing on creating people-first content to succeed in search rankings, rather than content designed primarily to rank in search engines. If you answer "yes" to any of the following questions, it’s a red flag that you should reevaluate your approach to content creation:
- Is the content primarily created to attract visits from search engines?
- Are you producing a lot of content on a variety of topics in the hope that some of it performs well in search results?
- Are you using extensive automation (AI) to generate content on various topics?
- Are you summarizing what others have to say without adding much value yourself?
- Are you writing about things simply because they are trending, rather than because they are relevant to your audience?
- Does your content leave readers feeling like they need to search again for better information?
- Are you writing to a specific word count because you’ve heard Google prefers it? (Google does not.)
- Have you decided to target a niche topic without genuine expertise, primarily because you think it will attract search traffic?
- Does your content promise to answer a question that has no answer, such as suggesting a release date for a product, movie, or show that hasn’t been confirmed?
- Are you changing the date on pages to make them seem fresh when the content hasn’t changed substantially?
EEAT and Helpful Content
Creating helpful content can help you build EEAT (Expertise, Experience, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness) in your specific field.
EEAT is a guideline from Google focused on the quality of your content, your website, and your reputation. It evaluates whether you are recognized as an expert in your field. In general, EEAT centers on your content and reputation: Are you an expert, and are you perceived as one?
If you lack EEAT in your field, there’s little reason for Google to index your pages.
Google’s systems are designed to use many factors to rank quality content in search results. Once relevant content is identified, these systems prioritize content that appears most “helpful.”