Helpful Content Update- Algorithm Updates You Should Know

If you have ever talked to a person in SEO or digital marketing, you might hear about Google algorithm changes. These are changes Google does in order to try and give better results to their viewers. As a non-profit organization, you really don’t need to know every time Google makes a change, because they make changes almost daily. However, there are some algorithm changes you should know about as an organization. One such update that happened in 2022 that was aimed at creating a better search result was called the helpful content update.

How far and wide was the impact?

First, let’s discuss the impact. The Helpful Content update was a global update. Global updates impact all languages and not just the English language. They also impact every single country Google results are shown in.

What was the target?

So now you know that this update could affect just about any site, let’s talk about who they were targeting. The update was going after content that seemed more aimed at ranking a website in Google than helping the viewer. Hence the name of the update. Sadly, there are those in the digital marketing industry that care more about ranking a piece of content, than actually helping the viewer.

Why was this done?

In a nutshell, companies were writing articles to rank in Google and gain a lot of web traffic. The problem was that many articles were not helpful to readers trying to get their questions answered. Google is trying to lessen the experience of clicking on a search result just to be immediately disappointed. In my opinion, Neil Patel frames this update in one of the best ways “With this update, they are essentially saying, “if you want to rank high in our search results, you need to produce helpful content.”

Why do you need to be aware

True, this update has already happened at the end of 2022. However, should be aware of this update even if they are just starting to write content. The reason is this algorithm update has been one of the biggest signals that Google is looking to serve up the best content per search result. Even with AI now coming into the mix, you still need to produce the best answers and content you can from your perspective.

What should you do?

If your non-profit or organization is going to produce blog content or write content for a page on your website, it needs to have answers and put in a way that shows you actually know the answer instead of just putting up words hoping to get more traffic. My advice has been and always will be to write in a way that best answers your audience’s questions. If your non-profit does that, it should weather most algorithm updates.