The Helpful Content Update - Reflecting on What Happened
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- čas přidán 13. 03. 2024
- The September 2023 Helpful Content Update caused thousands of websites to lose organic (SEO) traffic from Google in the span of a few days, and Google's March 2024 Core Update came with some new developments to Google's former "Helpful Content System." Learn about the patterns Lily Ray has seen in her work and her research surrounding this update and her advice for affected websites.
#helpfulcontentupdate #SEO #GOogle - Věda a technologie
Always love your updates. Super frustrating with HCU/October core update. What's more frustrating isn't that Google went after "over SEO'd" sites, but they ignored big media sites that do exactly the same thing.
I agree with you, but we'll see what happens with this update over the coming weeks/months! Thanks for watching.
Google has been rigged for years...it has always been a never ending cat and mouse game
Thanks for this video. So many good points. I have implemented changes to my site since HCU, but I would not say they’ve been bold. Two reasons: 1) I am getting search traffic from other search engines and I’m worried about losing that traffic on top of the 90% loss from Google. 2) Some of the sites that now outrank me actually wrote their content based on my original articles and others are forum posts that I can’t say are more helpful than mine. In fact, some of my articles have dozens of comments from users than I would consider just as helpful as Reddit. I think you would see more affected site owners taking bold action if the ranking changes made more sense. Maybe we will have more clarity in the coming weeks. Thanks again for sharing your expertise.
This was great. I have felt that many of the bloggers taking the same advice in small niches have pummeled the traffic. I appreciate someone else stating that openly.
Great video. You mentioned how most of the sites you have seen hit by these updates have a similar pattern, which is "best of" heavy articles and affiliate links. I do agree with that, but is that no also what many of the winners are also doing? Forbes for example, are pumping out so many of those types of articles...are they able to circumvent the update punishment base don content because their perceived authority is so high? Curious your thoughts on the distinction.
Yes, this is true. Those sites were not hit by the HCU. Remember that the majority of the website content has to be labeled "unhelpful" for a site to be impacted. That is likely not what happened with the larger sites.
@@lilyray That makes sense for the September 2023 HCU, which they explicitly said was a site wide classifier. But how does it square now they've explicitly claimed that the new version has changed from site wide to page level? If that's true, two things should be happening: those big sites should see those pages punished, and some sites that were hit by the site penalty should see some individual pages recovering. I've seen no evidence of either.
The sites hit were not just ads +/ affiliates. They were sites that compete for Googles commissions or ad revenue. Not saying a huge number of rubbish sites don't need to be dealt with...they do. But in the process there's an alterior motive for Google to take out the annoying competitors that are 'using' Google (as they see it) to intercede in markets Google wants. Travel is a good example.
I have a travel blog and I will admit is pre-HCU I was keyword chasing, not the worst offender but I did have a "quotes" article which I deleted immediately post-HCU. The odd thing, and what I've seen across the board with other sites, is that the keyword-chasing articles were the ones that still ranked post updates. Anyway, I deleted these articles and still fell an additional 50% in this latest March update. I had taken ridiculous efforts to improve, redo, prune irrelevant affiliates, etc, since September 2023 and this has made no difference.
In addition, my new super high-quality articles that I've put massive effort into have not ranked at all.
Yeah, it's all nonsense. Websites with high DA and backlinks rank, nothing else does. When you think about it, those signals are all Google can realistically use to differentiate a website that must be helpful (because it has big DA) than not. Anything more granular would be incredibly complex, and not realistic.
Sorry to hear this process hasn't made much of a difference for your site. You're not alone. Again, the HCU component of the core update seems like maybe it hasn't rolled out yet. I'd be curious to see what happens in the next few weeks.
Great 👍and useful video, thanks for sharing.
Great video, lots of basic stuff that has been put out on X over snippets of info for the past few months. Let's see where this goes!
Good helpful analysis. Interesting you see what I was suspecting about everyone using similar kw research. Presumably including the industrial scale spammers. Appreciate the helpful conciliatory approach.
I've been analyzing the SERPS for all the keywords that I used to rank for and I think for my situation it's more about what websites are now taking the first page(s) places rather than my website being hit. For example, I used to rank for a keyword "best camping in California" and now the top 10 is all just big-name sites, Reddit, state park sites, etc. (And often the same site has 2 top spots). You would think this says that I had the searcher intent wrong, but as a user who often googles these types of keywords for my travel planning, I don't want to see a Reddit post from 10 years ago or a post by the Dyrt. I want to read from people who have actually camped at those campgrounds and/or a travel blog who maybe camped at a few but camps often and knows what to look for in a good campground and discusses that in their article.
Thanks for a video. We already deleted the bottom 10% of our post based on ratings by multiple humans. While some post might be less relevant based on their age, and so on, we have never been in the business of publishing useless content. But the takeaway from the video is to no-index or delete content that are no longer performing on Google. We will delete another 10% and just keep the very best. Hopefully, Google start loving us a little more after that.
This was a really well done video and I appreciate the care and consideration you showed to those affected. This update seems to have affected many of the sites in my network this time unfortunately after years of seeing minimal affects from the algorithm changes. I agree with what you're saying about Google needing to find a way to differentiate between so many sites with similar content. I really think they fumbled their methods of differentiating that content and hopefully that changes with future updates, but we'll see. For example, in one of my niches it seems like their method of deciding between which content to rank higher was to simply choose content that was from large, well-established news and media companies, even though it was more generic, while crushing the smaller bloggers with more expertise and better takes on those topics.
Thanks for being brutally honest.... we did sit around for a few months doing a pity party, but are now focused on getting traffic back by removing affiliate and advertising signals as much as possible. This sucks, because we've eliminated our income, but ultimately I think its the right move. After all, I personally hate ads and use an ad blocker. Why would I subject my readers to the same things that make me bounce? So, I've completely disabled all ads from our ad network partner and unpublished and redirected 120 posts that were 'best of' reviews with affiliate links to products we did not personally use. I am now focusing on creating media-rich 'how-to' content that is truly helpful and will be adding some e-com to send that signal to Google. Hard work, but hopefully the HCU classifier will be removed as a result and we can engage with our readers in new more helpful ways.
This is such great advice and awareness to share. Have been seeing you on X lately and glad to see you have a YT channel. Hoping you keep up more videos like this to share what you've been seeing.
And thank you for fighting for the creators. Definitely seeing the most recent update help us out, I know we aren't copying the same content as the top 3 sites, but we would rather be unique and helpful versus more of the exact same. Long-term focused approach, we'll see how it goes!
Thank you Lilly. Many helpful tips. Appreciate your hard work.
Great analysis Lily with the underlying theme being Google has released these punitive updates over the years to weed out those publishers looking to game the system in search of profile, which may work for a while, but generally doesn't end well. At 12:20 you mention "how is Google supposed to choose who gets to be #1, or 2 or 3..." and here we have to remember this is where other algorithmic factors kick in to determine who deserves visibility. So, recovery is possible (in time) if site owners go back and fix/remove those items which they likely knew were questionable in the first place. This said, SGE/AI assisted search is going to change everything again in the not too distant future in any case.
Some things I did within a month of the Sep HCU:
- No Indexing Poor Pages
- Deleting Some Pages
- Adding Extensive, Detailed About Page
- Adding Contact Info Throughout Site
- Author Name on Each Page linked to About Page
- Axed Vignette Ads completely
- Drastically Cut In-Page Ads
- Improved/Updated Old Content
Still yet to see any movement upwards. If there’s no increase in the next few weeks with the March Core, I’ll have to become an employee again (I am currently a full-time niche site owner)
did the same thing, Sep HCU hit 50%, Mar HCU another 20% so far
Glad i didnt waste my time doing all that pointless shit. Google decides they dont like your site and that's that. No coming back. Just like Panda/Penguin updates back a decade ago. Sad times...
Great video. Super helpful, thank you!
Thank you! This was so helpful!
thank you Lily, yours tipos always motivates me and its like a lighthouse for me to make sure what I should do in future.
Helpful content update.
You are providing true knowledge. Love from Pakistan ❤
great video and thoughts
Lily, exceptional video! During the video, you mentioned that one of the patterns of sites that were hit the hardest is that most or virtually all of their content was targeting "SEO keywords". In the data that you see, do you believe that the total % of "SEO keyword" content for a site is a major reason for a site getting hit with the HCU? If so, do you believe that diluting the amount of overall SEO type content with more non-keyword focused (news, updates, other types of content) could eventually lift the punitive HCU from a site?
I believe a site owner should of course update/correct individual SEO articles to improve the helpfulness of those as well. But curious if you believe sites like Forbes and others that publish tons of non-SEO content alongside lots of SEO content is a big reason they may have been spared. And could publishing more non-SEO focused content help site owners recover?
Yes, I think what you are saying makes sense. Too much SEO content was definitely the biggest factor I found on the sites I looked at. The other types of content you’re describing sounds like things legitimate brands/businesses do (the ones that do more than just make money off Google, heh)
Also thanks for the kind words!
Superb analysis and one of the best iv seen on the HCU. You are absolutely correct that the training generally is to carry out the same keyword research, clustering for new pages and then they say write correlated content (meaning it’s very similar to what’s already there).
I have a question on the “noindex” tag. And if you have a set of pages for compliance, trust, accreditations, testimonials etc That don’t really get searched or will drive traffic from rankings. Then would you noindex all of this (eg like t&cs, editorial policy, careers page etc)
And if these are in footer then would you set these all to no-follow links? Just interested how far you use the noindex tag?
Dang @lily - your disclaimer at the front really made me think about this differently - a lot of good people got hit, thanks for reminding us of this, but also you must have gotten some really tough responses to the things you said so far.
Heh, yeah this has been a particularly fiery update and I feel horrible for how many business owners have been severely impacted. I hope Google gives some recoveries this time around...
Good information, thanks, Lily 👍 seems a bit unfair that the small sites got no pre warning to remove any bad tactics from their sites… but Google is pre warning the “big boys” to remove any parasite SEO tactics they may or may not have been milking. Giving them a few months grace. One rule for the small sites and another for the big sites.
Great and useful video, thanks for sharing. 21:34
Hi Lily, why Google is ranking forums from 2012 infront of everything? What's helpful there?
I also noticed this, seems like we are back in 2010. Google discouraged them in past but now the opposite
If showing blogs doesn’t fulfil the user then google will test other ways to fulfill the users query, user generated content and forums is a great way to give people the answer and it isn’t for every search just some
They are overtuning diversity and experience to clean out AI garbage for the top of SERPs. Once they nuke the AI sites it will go back to normal.
I think this was tied to Google's Hidden Gems update, which I talked about in another recent video (spammy results on Google)
Very helpful. I've been studying this topic for weeks and this is one of the first videos that makes sense to me 😊
This was the best video on this that I have watched. Thank you.
We got hit on Oct 5th and we have been no-indexing content that was really stretching outside our areas of expertise. I feel like we should maybe consider being more aggressive.
Thanks for saying!
I was ranking 350+ keywords in top 3. Niche site (not blog) more than 2 years old. But on 8th march my 300+ keywords vanished from SERP but pages were indexed. Then on 12th march all pages got back to their old top position. But on 14th march they again vanished and not back since now. 70% of pages are ecommerce categories and filters don;t have AI content. My 9 years of experience don't have any clue in this.
I'm right there with you. I have multiple pages that are in the top 3 search results one day, and absolutely nowhere to be found the next. It yo-yo's back and forth. It's incredibly perplexing.
I reduced ads, removed around 600 articles with few visits from 2019, populated the author page more with social networks, updated content from lists and guides (which is what you mentioned about similar content). My UX is different from other sites.
Unfortunately I lost more traffic on March 9th. My site has these lists, but the vast majority of my content (about 75%) is about gaming news. I'm even considering reducing these less relevant game articles, but I would be writing with a focus on SEO and not the reader.
I'll keep trying, because I really like working with it, but it's difficult to see sites focusing on just game code content and lists overtake you just by translating and copying content that ranks.
Yep, none of this advice applies to gaming websites or news publishers. Unfortunately, the only way up is through backlinks, which in the gaming media industry are extremely difficult to obtain in a white hat way. No competitors will ever backlink you unless you're a news source, and investing in breaking news is a huge mountain. You'll need to pay massive amounts for quality journalism that only has a small chance of achieving a backlink goal. The old days of hitting trends for traffic via helpful guide content are over.
DualShockers, Gematsu and Nerdstash were hit by HCU. Even Powerpyx lost traffic. Only Gamerant, The Gamer and a few were the winners.
What to do in this niche scenario?
I noticed that DualShockers started writing anime content, but stopped in mid-February.@@heavensent7183
@@heavensent7183 The update starts off strange when it hits DualShockers, Gematsu and Powerpyx. Nerdstash, CharlieIntel and others were also hit by HCU.
Many gaming niche sites are suffering. Mine was surpassed by a site that only focuses on game code content and "best of" lists, copying kws and translating articles from other sites.
Hard times.
This is great (as always), Lily. Thank you!
Thanks for saying, Branden!
Thanks, Lily, for this video; it's helpful!
Lily - have you seen any review websites maintain their position? Looking for good examples..
What if the search results weren't affected but Discover just dropped to near zero numbers? Is that HCU? Is that something else? We're getting tens of thousands of visitors per day from search, but Discover just refuses to show any progress.
That could have been due to the HCU but also happens all the time outside of the HCU. It was especially bad during the October Core Update last year.
Best SEO on CZcams!!!
Aw, thanks
Great video Lily. At 21:06 you say that we know which websites those are. I am not really sure I know which ones you are talking about? Thanks :)
This might be a good place to start: detailed.com/google-control/
Great video, thanks
Thank you I will start no indexing my chat gpt pages
The one thing no one is talking about is Google revenues. Everyone is talking about their own sites. But Google has to make money. Either they are giving up their revenue from niche sites or they figured out a way to either maintain revenue or increase it. We need to answer this question if we want to understand the updates. Their goal is to make money…the don’t care how they do it, they just want to do it!
I have seen travel blogs with lots of ads and affiliate links and writing SEO focused content that are thriving. So it’s not that. I would love to know what are the criteria that make a site “unhelpful” because it’s definitely not clear. There’s no pattern, for what I am seeing. So frustrating.
Same for me.
How are news publishers who write lots of guide content supposed to navigate such a "helpful content update" with 50,000 articles? Herculean task.
Big data analysis.
@@lilyray to determine what exactly? How can news, feature, and guide content be unhelpful when it quite literally delivers a helpful report, guide instructions, or an opinion? Doesnt make any sense for the publisher vertical. Niche sites, sure.
Yes, I have not seen any documented recovery from sites impacted by the September HCU. So far, we saw a steep decrease in traffic starting this week. But we still hope the trend could reverse before the end of the current update.
I do wonder, I know you're saying that you've seen some sites that were hit brutally who didn't deserve this at all. Do you think it's because very few sites are "high-quality" and not chasing keywords, affiliate links, etc in today's current climate? I've seen a few sites that are AMAZING. I'm in travel so it's OG photography, first-hand info, good writing, formatting, UX, etc, get decimated and of course I wonder "why" every time, but then when you see a bad site get hit it's confirmation bias.
Maybe what I'm saying is that there are just so many more "bad" sites than good, it's easier to point and say that they deserved it, but it really does feel random once the quality sites that were killed off start piling up.
Seo and keyword chasing ruined the Internet. It is now a trash bin which you have to turn over to find the gem in the pile of garbage.
Hi, could you please share some examples of sites that have gained traffic? (No recipes sites please).
Good video. At 12:15, when you’re giving examples for when Google sees sites as the same, you mention same ad networks as a variable. Do you reckon that’s a thing?
I think a few small studies have been done about this. I imagine there are some positive correlations between the popular ad networks for bloggers, but there are thousands of other likely correlations you could point to as well. Not sure about causation.
@@lilyray OK Thanks
So what do we do😭 Delete all content and rewrite? But if not base the writing on SEO, on what? Nothing was removed from Google for me but the drop keeps going. I have 200+ posts, but nothing is best performing they all went down, and now I went from 70k to 20k...I don't understand how do I decide? Do I just abandon this blog? Some content that dropped is replaced by fully AI-generated posts and blogs, I should stop fighting for such keywords? I'm updating now ALL my posts digging in, and my CZcams is getting more traffic from Google now, but with no-index I don't fully understand how to decide on that? What to read on that?
I can relate to all of this. After seeing traffic and rankings I worked hard for 5 years to build decimated in the last 6 months, I'm left to think my entire approach the whole time was considered "not helpful" by Google. Since almost all my articles have been affected, the idea of voluntarily de-indexing my content from Google doesn't sit well. I still don't have a clear idea what's wrong with it, and therefore how to fix it.
Drops have been kinda rough in my segment. But I see my engagement rates and engaged sessions improving. Should I start encouraging stakeholders to look at the quality of the traffic vs the quantity of the traffic? Ideally I would like to live in a world where both are up, but its going to be a longer journey to get some of that traffic back.
That's a good one. So do you think listicle type of content will be a negative signal to Google??
Just came across your video. Thank you! This was so helpful in explaining HCU. I am a new blogger and saw a huge increase in traffic last time but this time it dropped.
I’m glad google is cleaning up some of these sites. There are so many blogs that are not useful at all. But at the same time it does suck when it affects you and you’re actually TRYING to be helpful 😂
So good! I’m a diy blogger, who was hit hard by HCU. I have a lot of Amazon affiliate links on most of my tutorial posts, listing all of the supplies they will need for the project. Is it worth my time to go in and remove those links on all of those posts? And if so, how many should I keep?
Most sites that incrrased traffic during HCU are having these exact issues explained in this video. And that's a problem I have with these explanations, as in almost any update you can find sites that have a ton of issues or are purely spam sites and they still gain traffic. None of this somehow apply to them.
What you say makes sense, but I suspect you're seeing only a self-selecting set of site owners. Those that reach out to you are probably the most SEO-forward. In other words, the most likely to be trying SEO techniques. But this update has hit so many valuable sites where they've never done or been interested in SEO, and it wouldn't and doesn't occur to them to reach out to someone in your position, so you're not hearing from them.
My analyses always include much, much more data than just the sites I work on.
Lily Ray is awesome.
Wonderful video, thank you. I do have a question.
Is keyword research even still relevant? For years, we have been taught to search for keyword phrases that our target audiences are using and to write content about that.
But is that still relevant? If, as you said, so many people are all going after the same keyword phrases then the content will be similar to others and yes, how does Google choose 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc.
So, what's the new game? What's the new process? Or is there one?
Would love to understand this as well, thanks :)
Is there a tool that evaluates that? Going in at number 7 organically in Sept now 70. Or should I just wait it out? Did you do consultation for this?
Let´s run away from Google and its frequent panic attacks.
Rankings on all our sites (65) have hit top 3 on Google after the core update. I think they are including GSE factors and punishing too much AI. Most of the sites were already top 3, but over 20 have jumped.
From your perspective, how is HCU effecting sports media websites? I currently own one and we published a lot of listicles such as team power rankings, best players of all time, game previews etc.
I love this.
helpful only to Google
Marketers ruin everythinggggg lol
So basically just don't try to make any money, cuz that's unhelpful
Excellent video! Interesting that John Mueller had been talking a few months ago about how sites were all starting to look the same and follow the same template almost.
I hadn’t thought much of it until your video, but you’re right. I’d started using Spruce-style how tos before I got smashed a while back. Still need to redo some of those.
You’ve lit a fire under my 🍑 to do it! 21:34
A content, let's say, "Best Barbecue Grill 2024" with 4 recommendations. Now, the creator has no any real-life experience with any of the grill mentioned. So, is this content helpful or unhelpful?
Rest of the things like page speed, clear author bio, better UX and everything is fine. But the creator has no real-life experience with any of the products recommended.
nearly missed tis useful nfo cos the thumbnail makesit look like some teenagers fashion channel
It’s life . To many businesses cashing the same $$$. There has to be regulation sooner or later .
You talk and talk and talk, repeating and repeating the same....no info.
LILLYYYYYYYYYYY