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Helpful Content Update and what it means today

The Helpful Content Update was Google's update targeting content written for search engines rather than for people. It first rolled out in August 2022, was updated several times and is now part of Google's core algorithm. The principle still applies: your content should help the person reading it.
Read our guide to Google's helpful content update
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What was the Helpful Content Update?

In August 2022, Google launched an update designed to stop unoriginal, low-quality content from ranking highly. Google wrote that its tests particularly improved results in online education, arts and entertainment, shopping and tech (Google).

The update introduced a site-wide signal. If a site had a lot of unhelpful content, it could drag down the rest of the site, including the good pages.

Google updated the system several times. The last standalone update rolled out from 14 to 28 September 2023 (Google).

What a drop could look like

Here's an example of a website whose organic visibility fell sharply after the update rolled out:

Graph of a website's organic visibility falling sharply after the Helpful Content Update

What happened in March 2024

With the March 2024 core update, the assessment of helpful content became part of Google's core algorithm (Google). At the same time, Google wrote that there is no longer one signal or system that determines whether content is helpful (Google). So there will be no more updates called the Helpful Content Update.

Google also wrote that the core systems primarily assess individual pages, and that there are still some site-wide signals (Google). In other words, each page counts on its own, and the site as a whole still counts too.

The same update brought three new spam policies targeting mass-produced content: scaled content, expired domains and site reputation abuse. You can read about them in the SEO in 2026 section of our SEO guide.

Content that struggles

Google itself describes content made for search engines first (Google). In short, it's:

  • Content made primarily to attract visits from search engines.
  • Lots of pages on lots of different topics in the hope that some of them rank.
  • Content mass-produced with automation that doesn't help the reader.
  • Summaries of what others have written, without adding anything new.
  • Copy written to a set word count. Google has no preferred word count.

How to write content that helps

  • Show first-hand experience. Your own tests, case studies, images and figures say more than general advice.
  • Write under your name. An author with an author page and relevant experience strengthens your E-E-A-T.
  • Answer what the user is searching for. Readers shouldn't have to go back to Google to find the answer somewhere else.
  • Add something new. A perspective, an example or data that isn't in the ten other articles on the topic.
  • Tidy up. Update, merge or remove pages that are outdated or thin.

Can you recover after a drop?

Yes, but it takes time. There's no guarantee that your rankings will come back, and improvements rarely show from one week to the next.

  1. Find the drop. Check in Search Console which pages and folders have lost clicks and impressions.
  2. Read the pages as a new visitor. Do you get an answer? Is there anything you couldn't have found elsewhere?
  3. Improve, merge or remove. Make the important pages better, combine thin pages on the same topic, and remove what doesn't help anyone.
  4. Track progress over a longer period. Compare over several months, not day by day.

Help with content that lasts

As an SEO agency, we review your content with Google's guidelines in hand and prioritise what needs improving, merging or removing. We also write new content with our copywriters.

Get in touch, and we'll look at your site together.

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