How to recover from Google's "Useful
Content Update" hit?
The "Google Useful Content Update" (HCU) was initially released in August 2022.
The update was fully rolled out in December 2022.
Either way, if you think your website has been affected by HCU, you must have
noticed a sudden drop in organic search traffic.
HCU only likes low quality content or light content. The website that tends to post
content that is not "useful" to the end user is more likely to be affected by this
update.
Poor quality content is an invitation to Google to visit your website to give you a
reward. It is highly recommended to remove bad pages from your website or
update it with good quality content before Google punishes you.
Content-driven and business websites such as blogs, ERP administration websites
are more likely to be affected by this update.
HCU carefully reviews content to see if it has been optimized for users or for SEO
purposes.
Google certainly thinks that content should be well written, informative, and satisfy
future visitors. It should not be written for the sole purpose of ranking higher in
organic search results.
What is the Google Helpful Content Update?
As I mentioned earlier, HCU's goal is to nurture future visitors with relevant,
compelling, and high-quality content that meets their needs.
Google claims that content should be "For the people, by the people."
Content written exclusively for SEO tends to add real value to visitors. Therefore,
it is suggested to follow the basic white hat guidelines to help humans get the
results they need.
HCU sends a signal to the entire site. Let's understand this with an example.
Suppose Google inspects that 80% of the pages have been affected by HCU, then
the rest 20% will automatically be under the influence of HCU. The update affects
the entire website.
The main goal should be to provide valuable and engaging content for users.
What do I need to do to get the useful content update from Google?
If you noticed that your website might have been affected by HCU.
It is advisable to carry out a complete audit of your website. This will give you a
clear picture of the accident. Although this can be tricky for websites that have
hundreds of blog posts.
Here are the top 5 ways to recover from a useful
content update:
Focus on people first:
There is no point in writing content that is not fruitful for your audience.
Put your target audience in your priority compartment.
Always practice writing content that your audience can relate to or interact with.
Try to feed future visitors what they want. In this way, you can provide a pleasant
and satisfying experience for your users.
Remove AI generated content:
Content generated with AI tools like spinners tends not to add any real value in
the user's life.
In addition, Google is very strict with the use of these types of tools.
Google has also banned these AI-powered tools in the past.
If you have used such tactics, it is advisable to remove the falsely generated
content from the website and hire an SEO content writer who can update the
affected pages with new content.
Remove Excessive Ads:
Obstructive ads significantly hinder the user experience.
This is definitely the main cause of bad user experience.
The user who visits your website is looking for information that may be suitable
for its purpose. It is your responsibility to fulfill your purpose.
Displaying multiple ads on the website will definitely bring a terrible experience to
your user.
Emphasize the user's search intent:
It is important to pay attention to the intent of the search query. Will this give you
an idea of what your user is looking for? And why are you looking for it?
You must find the "what" and the "why" to offer a better user experience.
This way you can meet the needs of your visitors.
Delete bad pages:
Get rid of all those pages that you think might send an invite to HCU.
Pages with poor quality content or thin content cannot help the user in any way.
There is no point in hiding such pages from Google crawlers because they can
only harm you.
It is best to remove all low-quality and rotated pages.
To take with:
Here are the top 5 ways that can help you get out of the influence of useful
content update. Remember that recovering a website is not as easy as a cup of
tea. It may take several months for the effect of the update to abate. Get to work
now!
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