How to Recover From a Google ‘Helpful Content Update’ Hit?

The biggest search engine ‘Google’ always strives to improve itself to serve its audience with better quality user experience & better quality content. This led to the launch of a new update i.e. ‘Helpful Content Update’. This Google update hit the business websites, school management software, learning management system (LMS), fee management system and other online portals as well. But, don’t worry, we are here to give you the solution.

What is a ‘Helpful Content Update’?

Helpful Content Update is an algorithmic update from Google that was announced in August 2022. The update was completely rolled out in December 2022. 

Helpful Content Update is commonly referred to as ‘HCU’. 

The sole aim of the update is to provide helpful, original, & accurate content to the audience based on their search queries. 

HCU has a site-wide impact. That means in any case, if Google finds some pages that have been influenced by HCU, then the whole website will have to bear the impact of it. 

We have witnessed some changes in a few websites that have been affected by the impact of HCU. The rankings of these websites have fallen extensively with the inception of the new update.  

Need for ‘Helpful Content Update’:

In order to rank higher in the organic search results, some websites started acquiring black-hat techniques for SEO. Instead of focusing on creating content from the user’s point of view, a large number of websites started creating content to manipulate the search results. 

It is a fact that Google is very keen on user experience. The giant search engine observed that a large number of websites follow bad practices. This created the need for a ‘Helpful Content Update’. 

What Should You Do to Avoid HCU?

Google’s Content Policy is simple to understand, which states that: Create Original, Helpful, and Quality content that embraces the needs of your audience. 

Always practice following the user’s first approach, and aim at providing relevant information so that the coming visitors can have a good user experience. 

Publishing content with the sole motive to rank higher in results will certainly send an invite to google for HCU.

I summarize HCU in one sentence, – ‘Create Helpful Content for the People, By the People’.  

But what about those websites that have been affected already by this update. What are the do’s and don’ts for them? 

Do not worry. We have shared some critical tips to recover your website with the significant impact of Google Helpful Content Update. 

7 Crucial Recovery Tips are: –

1. Put your Focus on the User’s Search Intent:

The biggest mistake SEO and Content Writers are making is that they are focussing on the wrong end. There is no sense in creating content that serves the search engine, not the end user. As I mentioned earlier, it gives a wrong signal to google. 

It is highly advisable to pay attention to the user’s search terms. What sort of content the user is looking for? Is your content capable enough to satisfy the user’s needs?

Push yourself into the shoes of the user, and ask these questions to yourself. This will bring clarity and purpose to you. 

2. Creating AI Content: 

Content created using AI-generated tools and article spinners can lead you into trouble.

Though AI-generated content is considered unique, it certainly does not add much value to the reader’s life. 

Many sites are still publishing content using these tools, but one day or the other, Google will shut them down. 

Remove all those pages and content immediately from the website that has been created using such tools. 

3. Work on Enhancing the User Experience:

Start publishing content that is useful for the user, and make the website and content easily accessible for your audience. 

Keep the website structure simple and easy to understand. This will enhance the experience of the users coming to your website. 

Website Loading Speed, and Performance also comes under the same section. 

If you have a School Website on wordpress, then you can use certain plugins like Ewww or Imagify for Image Optimization, and W3 Total Cache to minify the HTML, CSS & JS Files. These plugins will definitely give a big boost as far as User Experience is concerned. 

In case you have a Manual Coded Website, then you have to follow a manual approach for that. 

4. Remove Ads: 

A large number of ads act as a strong obstruction for the coming users. Ads are one of the greatest causes of delivering a terrible user experience. 

It is advisable to minimize the number of regular ads and pop-up ads. This makes the website more handy and user-friendly.  

Google has punished some websites incorporating excessive ads in the past as well. 

In addition to Helpful Content, Google heavily focuses on User Experience. 

It is suggested to remove or minimize the ads because nobody intends to see them. 

5. Remove Recycled Content:

Eliminate the recycled content that has been covered by everyone else. Editing the content published on some other website is not beneficial by any means. Recycled content can provide no real value to the audience. It’s better to avoid such practices.

In spite, Focus on the topics that have not been covered yet and create compelling and engaging content on them. 

6. Eliminate the Spun Content:

A few companies are still marketing AI-powered tools. But Google has nuked out 2 out of 3 types of content-generated spinners already.

The third one i.e. ‘Largely-nonsense AI’ will be impacted surely any time soon. 

Google policy is very strict as far as AI Content is concerned. 

Remove the spun content and all those pages whose content has been created using these tools. 

7. Remove Pages with Thin Content:

A Thin Page refers to a page that has 4-5 sentences at maximum. This type of content is not helpful for the user either way. 

Some people often hide or mitigate all those pages that encompass low-quality content. There is no point in keeping any such content that is not beneficial for the user or can harm your website. 

It is advisable to remove such pages from the website or create well-drafted detailed content for all of them.   

These were the 7 Recovery Tips for the sites affected by Helpful Content Update. 

Follow the above guidelines strictly. Remember, The Recovery from Google is not a cup of tea. It can take several months to diminish the impact of the HCU. 

Brace yourself, and Get to work now. Slowly and Gradually your website will overcome the bad influence of HCU.