Google’s Helpful Content Is Live. Here’s How It Will Redefine Web Content

 

Content is the lifeblood of your website. It's what brings people there and it's what keeps them coming back for more. The more valuable and helpful the content on your site, the better chance you have at ranking higher in search engine results pages. However, over the past few years, Google has been cracking down on websites that were simply providing a lot of low quality or duplicate content. And that’s where the Helpful Content update comes to play. This update has sent many businesses scrambling to make sure their sites are in compliance with these new requirements. This guide from the experts of white label digital marketing will help you understand what the update is all about.

What Is Google's Helpful Content Update?

In recent years, articles discussing so-called search engine-first content or SEO content have popped up everywhere, on blogs and social media including Facebook and Twitter. That’s because, searchers are frustrated when they land on pages that do not answer their queries and yet rank well in search for the keywords. Such websites publish content for the sake of visibility on SERPs, rather than actually providing answers the users are looking for. As a result, Google is addressing this situation by pushing out its latest Helpful Content algorithm update.

Google's Helpful Content update is a change that affects the search engine's ranking algorithm. The new update will affect how high up a webpage will rank in search results, based on how helpful it is deemed by Google. As per a white label SEO agency, this update will take on sites with an overwhelming amount of poor/mediocre quality content, which is often aimed at search engine bots. In other words, Google will prefer only those content that are solely written with readers in mind, when it comes to ranking.

What Content Will be Most Impacted by the Update?

The following types of content will get the most attention from Google with this update.

·         Shopping

·         Arts and Entertainment

·         Online education

·         Tech

The content pertaining to these areas seem to have written for search engines the most. Internet users are looking for content that are easy and digestible to read, so if a website fails to cater to their visitors’ needs, they are sure to find their rank go down sooner.

Speaking of Online Education, Google’s Search Liaison Danny Sullivan clarified in his tweet, “Generally tutorial, things meant to teach something, not really formal courses. But again, it's not focused on any particular area. That's just one example where we see notable improvement but there are others and any query about any thing might benefit.”

What Should We Do Next?

To gain ground on white label SEO, Google advises you to follow the tips below.

1.      Do Write From Experience

The most important tip Google provides content creators is this - write about something only if you have first-hand experience on it. When you write a post about something you haven't experienced for yourself, there are two major problems.

The first is that you are not an expert on the topic. This means the information in your post will be less reliable, because you're basing it off of secondhand knowledge. The second issue is credibility. If someone reads your post and sees that you are just guessing at what might be happening/should happen, they might think twice before trusting the rest of your post with this new data point. So, the next time you start writing a blog post, ask yourself if you have any experience or expertise on the subject. If not, it's best to focus on another topic.

2.      Your Website Should Focus on a Niche

What does this mean? Google advises not to publish content on different topics or industries in your site. Granted, it might be tempting to include a bit of everything. But this can lead your site to become less focused and result in lower rankings on search engine results.

The best way to go about creating great content for white label local SEO is focusing on one niche topic at a time. Let’s assume you have a pet supply website with information about animal breeds, types of food and essential pet products for sale. Don’t add articles about anything else that has nothing to do with pet care. Just focus on one area for now, so you can create great quality content that is optimized for search engines and also appealing to your audience.

3.      Provide Answers to a User's Queries:

Google's algorithm looks at the type of website you have and the quality of your content you post. This means that if you want your content to rank higher, it should not just promote your company. Instead, it should provide value for the reader and answer their questions.

Simply put, you need to focus on creating an enticing and informative blog post or website. Analyze what a user might be trying to find when they come across your content. If they want instructions on how to bake brownies, for instance, then make sure your instructions include all of the steps necessary. Provide pictures as well so they know what it should look like at every stage of cooking.

Wrapping Up: By deploying the Helpful Content update, Google commits to enhance the search experience for its users moving forward. Creating straightforward and user-friendly content will help your site stay relevant in the digital space. Talk to the best white label SEO experts if you have any questions.

Stay Away From These 8 Common Black Hat SEO Techniques

Search engine optimization has evolved dramatically over the past decade or so, and it has become apparent that some black hat SEO tactics just aren’t as effective as they used to be. A white label SEO agency lists some of the most common bad SEO techniques you should avoid if you want to get the best results from your hard work and improve your rankings over time.

Duplicate Content:

One common black hat technique is creating duplicate content. This is when someone takes content from another website and copies it verbatim on their own site. This is a bad idea for a few reasons. First, it's plagiarism. Second, search engines can penalize you for having duplicate content on your site. Finally, even if you're not penalized by search engines, your readers will likely notice the duplicated content and think less of your site.

A better approach to taking advantage of what other people have already written is to find interesting posts that are similar to yours and write short summaries of them with links back to the original articles.

Paid Links:

This is when someone pays another website to link to their site. This might seem like a quick and easy way to get links, but it's actually a huge violation of Google's guidelines. Not only will you get penalized by Google, but you could also end up getting banned from their search engine entirely. That's why we recommend sticking with more natural linking techniques that are less likely to be flagged as spam.

Guest blogging is a great white label SEO technique because it offers your audience an expert opinion on your niche topic, and provides you with quality backlinks. For example, if you're writing about weight loss then reach out to other fitness bloggers who may want to write a guest post for your blog or vice versa.

Content Cloaking:

Cloaking is the practice of presenting different content or URLs to human users and search engines. When done properly, cloaking can be used to improve your website's ranking by showing search engines different, more relevant content than what is shown to users. However, cloaking is considered a black hat technique because it can be used to deceive search engines and manipulate their results. If you're caught cloaking, you could be penalized by Google. Not only will this severely impact your traffic, but it will also damage your site's reputation as well.

Keyword Stuffing:

This is the act of filling your content with so many keywords that it becomes difficult to read. Not only will this irritate your readers, but it will also get you penalized by Google. So, avoid keyword stuffing at all costs!

Instead, try using white label local SEO tools like SEMrush and Ahrefs to find out which words are the most popular in your niche and then sprinkle them into your post naturally. That way, you’ll make sure that your content is readable and rankable for these key phrases.

Comment Spamming:

Comment spamming is when someone posts a lot of comments on various websites with the goal of promoting their own website or product. This is considered spam because the comments are usually irrelevant to the discussion and are only there to promote something. Additionally, comment spamming can be annoying to other users who are trying to have a genuine conversation. If you're caught comment spamming, you could be banned from the site or have your comments removed.

Rich Snippets Spam:

Rich Snippets are a great way to improve your click-through rate and organic search ranking. However, some black hat SEOs will try to take advantage of this by spamming Rich Snippets with keywords and other irrelevant information. Google has been cracking down on these types of tactics in recent years, so you’re best off using them sparingly and in context.

Power-Posting:

The idea behind power posting is that by writing many blog posts at once, you'll receive more backlinks than someone who writes one blog post per week. The problem is that Google may pick up on this strategy and penalize your website for it. Using power posting for links can be risky business and may result in a penalty from the search engine giant. The best white label SEO tip here is to properly schedule your blog posts for good ranks.

Private Blog Networks:

A private blog network (PBN) is a network of websites used to build links to your money site(s) for the purpose of ranking higher in the search engines. PBNs are considered black hat because they go against Google’s guidelines. Even if PBNs can be effective, they are very risky and can get you banned. One way to spot a PBN is if all of the sites in the network have similar WhoIs information. Another red flag is if the sites all have similar design elements or content.

SEO is an important part of any marketing strategy, but that doesn’t mean every tactic you hear about is a good idea to try. If you want to avoid these techniques and make sure that your site doesn’t get penalized, hire a white label digital marketing agency to implement the most effective strategies that align with your goals.