GOOGLE IS CONTINUALLY working to better connect users to the information they need. Recently, it released a new content algorithm and core update that could significantly impact your eyecare practice. So what are these new updates, and what do they mean for your business?
What’s new? Google’s “core updates” are designed to ensure that the results users get when searching a topic are relevant, legitimate, and helpful. The most recent, which rolled out in September, followed the helpful content algorithm update, which rolled out in August. These target poor-quality content with the aim of ensuring the sites that rank include information that is helpful — and are not just written to ensure a strong ranking.
What is the helpful content algorithm update? This specifically targets content created primarily for ranking well rather than to inform. Combined with the core update, Google’s focus remains on providing users with search results based on:
- Information over clicks
- Relevancy over ranking
- High-quality over unoriginal content
What is search engine first content? The helpful content update ranks original, helpful content higher than “search engine first” content, which is written for the sole purpose of ranking higher. The update combats this by downgrading websites, including search engine first content, and promoting sites with human-first content.
How will it affect your business? Ranking high on Google is essential to attracting users to your website. Google’s updates are sitewide, meaning they will affect your entire site if flagged, not just specific web pages. If the algorithm flags some of your content as unhelpful or search engine first, your entire site will be impacted and downgraded. The algorithm is constantly reviewing and evaluating your content, so it’s best to understand how it will determine the quality of your content. Here are some questions to consider:
- Is your web content written to attract people to your website or to provide helpful information to users?
- Are you writing content about trending topics regardless of whether your target audience will find it helpful?
- Does your content cover topic areas in which your practice doesn’t have any real expertise or solutions?
If you answered “yes” to any of the above, it is a good idea to update your content.
Tips for success. How can you ensure your website includes human-first content? Here are some tips to help you focus on including content that will demonstrate expertise and help bring searchers added value:
- Don’t stray too far from your main topic
- Demonstrate experience and expertise
- Don’t combine multiple unrelated topics into one site
- Always provide answers to questions
- Pay attention to the overall user experience
- Avoid using filler content
The new helpful content update will be consistently evaluating the content on your business’s website and giving it a quality score which affects how well it will rank on Google. To rank higher, it’s essential the content on your website is written with a human-first approach.
If you’re looking for help navigating the new Google update, including the right search engine optimization practices in your content strategy, and driving growth for your eyecare practice, partnering with an expert can be extremely beneficial.