The Helpful Content System:
People-First Strategy
Google's Helpful Content System is an automated, site-wide signal designed to reward content where visitors feel they've had a satisfying experience, while demoting content that seems to have been created primarily for search engine rankings.
How the System Works
Unlike many other ranking factors that work on a page-by-page basis, the Helpful Content signal is site-wide. This means if you have a significant amount of "unhelpful" content on a sub-folder, it can drag down the rankings of your truly high-quality pages.
Crucial Insight
Removing unhelpful content from your site is often the fastest way to recover from a core update. The signal is weighted; sites with a lot of unhelpful content will see a stronger negative effect.
The Self-Assessment Checklist
Evaluate your content using these specific questions derived from Google's own quality evaluator guidelines.
Content & Quality
- Does the content provide original information, reporting, research, or analysis?
- Does the content provide a substantial, complete, or comprehensive description of the topic?
- Does the content provide insightful analysis or interesting information that is beyond obvious?
- If the content draws on other sources, does it avoid simply copying or rewording those sources and instead provide substantial additional value and originality?
- Does the main heading or page title provide a descriptive, helpful summary of the content?
Expertise & Trust
- Does the content present information in a way that makes you want to trust it, such as clear sourcing, evidence of the expertise involved, background about the author or the site that publishes it?
- If you researched the site producing the content, would you come away with an impression that it is well-trusted or widely-recognized as an authority on its topic?
- Is this content written by an expert or enthusiast who demonstrably knows the topic well?
- Is the content free from easily-verified factual errors?
Presentation & Production
- Is the content free from spelling or stylistic issues?
- Was the content produced well, or does it appear sloppy or hastily produced?
- Is the content produced by many creators, or spread across a large network of sites, so that individual pages or sites don't get as much attention or care?
- Does the content have an excessive amount of ads that distract from or interfere with the main content?
- Does content display well for mobile devices when viewed on them?
Avoid "Search Engine-First" Content
If you answer YES to these questions, you likely have a search-engine first approach that needs pivoting:
- 🚫 Is the content primarily to attract people from search engines, rather than made for humans?
- 🚫 Are you producing lots of content on many different topics in hopes that some of it might perform well in search results?
- 🚫 Are you using extensive automation to produce content on many topics?
- 🚫 Are you writing about things simply because they are trending, and not because you'd write about them otherwise for your existing audience?