2022 – The Helpful Content Update
Google continues to reward good-quality, well written, and relevant content with its “Helpful Content Update”, released in the fall of 2022. Google is identifying “People First” content to elevate in its rankings. Below is an explanation from Google developers of what “People First” content looks like.
- Do you have an existing or intended audience for your business or site that would find the content useful if they came directly to you?
- Does your content clearly demonstrate first-hand expertise and a depth of knowledge (for example, expertise that comes from having actually used a product or service, or visiting a place)?
- Does your site have a primary purpose or focus?
- After reading your content, will someone leave feeling they’ve learned enough about a topic to help achieve their goal?
- Will someone reading your content leave feeling like they’ve had a satisfying experience?
- Are you keeping in mind our guidance for core updates and for product reviews?” ~Read About The Update On Google.com
Helpful Content And Your Customer’s Journey
If you are following our recommendation, which is to create content specifically for your customers as they go on their journey with a problem that you can solve, you will already be following these guidelines. The BOLDCRAFT Marketing Framework was architected as this update was unfolding, and follows Google’s recommendations for content.
In the early AWARENESS Phase, when people are just becoming aware of their problem, they will be doing searches around its periphery. Once they have learned that there is a solution for their problem, they will start to look at options, and need to pick one. They are in the CONSIDERATION Phase. Especially during these two phases of the customer journey, people will be performing searches. They might do a search on Google, or perhaps a search within a social media platform.
BOLDCRAFT Channels 10 and 20 are Articles (Blog, etc.) that you publish on your website that is intended to be found organically by your potential customers through search engines such as Google.
To read more about these channels and how to identify what content you should be creating, follow the below links:
What Neil Patel Says
SEO expert Niel Patel prepared an excellent video summary of how to best respond to the update. You can view the summary in the below video. He identifies seven ways to make your content more helpful:- Only write what you know
- Focus on a specific niche
- Make sure your content is executable
- Continually update your content
- Add your secret sauce
- Appeal to all different types of readers
- Do keyword research
Conclusion
If you want to be found organically, and to increase the ranking of your website by Google, ensure that you are creating content that is specifically helpful to people around the topic of your services or niche as they are learning about their problem, and exploring solutions. Find important keywords and phrases to use in your content with Tools such as Neil Patel’s Uber Suggest. Present yourself as an expert, and if you are not an expert, skip that topic. Provide actionable information. Use a mixture of imagery, text, and video. And finally, do a bit of clean-up, and remove content from your website that is off-topic.
