Google update create people-first content

23 – Google update create people-first content

Google have released a blog post containing some really helpful information for bloggers so I thought it best to cover the main points of it here in easy to digest pieces. Some of it is stuff I have have already covered but it is definitely worth going over again.

Write content people want to read

The main point of the Google Update is to ensure that the content they point people at actually provides the reader with the information they need. This means articles with click bait headings or ones that dont add any value will not rank as well as they did before. This is one of the things I try to point out to people when they are asked to write a review of a toy. No one actually cares if your kid likes it, kids like toys, in fact kids like crap from the poundshop so their opinion rarely matters. If someone is using google to find out about a toy then there will be a small handful fo questions they might ask. Trying to include these as headers with the information underneath can really help visability. Think about batteries, if you had to build it think about creating a photo tutorial of the build, were the instructsion ok? If not rewrite the bit that was bad. Point out the bits that were difficult or that you didnt do first time. Some of the best google searches can from me explaining how to hatch a hatchimal because the instructions tried to keep the magic alive for the kids and yet the parents just wanted to know how it worked.

Remove content that is of no value

Now you dont need to actually remove it from your site, you could just no index it so the search engines cant find it. Whatever you decide to do Google will be happy. A site full of useless content will not rank as well. The same principle goes for content that is trying to be helpful but basically just repeats other articles. Google wants you to add value to the information. A good example of this would be a travel listicle of things to do in Barcelona, instead of listing the extremely popular places that others will have chosen I could talk about a nice bar I went to or a smaller tourist attraction that surprised me.

Dont worry about the word count

Ok so we dont want you to publish an article with hardly any words if it doesnt provide value but if you can manage to deliver everything that someone will need to know about a topic in less than 300 words then that is all good. The same goes for long content, do not keep writing for the sake of it. This will only weaken the quality of the content. Google does not have a set number of words that it likes you to use.

What do you need to do?

At the time of writing this update hasnt happened yet, however if you still have poor quality content on your site when it does then you can get marked down and it will take a long time to get that back.

I would suggest that you spend some time immediately to no index old content or put it into drafts. Make sure you have a redirect plugin in place so that you dont end up with lots of broken links instead. Let me know how you get on and give me a shout if you need any advice on this.