The Google Helpful Content Update September 2023

Google made recent updates taking effect in the early weeks of September. There are a few changes in the guidelines about helpful content. Keeping up

It is vital to stay up to date with changes in algorithms to ensure you are doing what’s right for your website.

Here is a breakdown of the 2023 September Google Helpful Content Update.

Google rolled out the September 2023 Helpful Content Update on 14th September. It is one of Google's efforts to ensure that web searchers get quality, and insightful content.

1. Content written for the people

Google seemed to favor content written by humans. However, in the latest update, it seems to have updated the term to include content written for people. The phrase “written by people” is now replaced with “helpful content written for the people.” The phrase change puts an end to the debate whether Google will penalize content written by machines. Moving forward, Google will only concentrate on whether your content serves the readers. Website owners are free to use any tools of choice so long as they create content for the people.

2. Third-party Content

Hosted third-party content update states that “If you host third-party content on your main site or in your subdomains, understand that such content may be included in site-wide signals we generate, such as the helpfulness of content. For this reason, if that content is largely independent of the main site’s purpose or produced without close supervision or the involvement of the primary site, we recommend that it should be blocked from being indexed by Google.”

It means, Google will now start looking to other sites hosted on your main domain to check your content. If the content is not aligned with the main site or it is not up to standard, it will hurt your site rankings. According to Google people operate third-party sites want to manipulate rankings. Also, most micro-sites are questionable and unrelated to the parent sites.

3. Expert reviewed Content

Google continues to emphasize on the need for expert review of content. It is acceptable to have the content reviewed by a knowledgeable enthusiast of the topic. You can read more about the Experise questions here.

4. Editing content

Remember how you update content by changing dates? Google says that it will be keen on content that is not up to date even with changed dates. It will focus on whether the content has any added new information.

Changing dates on pages will not cut it anymore. The search engine-first tactic is another area of focus for Google. Also, not listing dates to keep your content evergreen will not cut it.

5. Classifier Improvement

Google spots a new classifier. It is not exactly clear what is new with the classifier. Yet, google added that as part of the recent Helpful Content Update.

Closing Thoughts on Google Helpful Content Update 2023

Google first announced about the Helpful content update in May 2023. It is now here with us. If your site gets hit, look for the above pointers on what could be the cause. The changes may work for your site if you write quality content for the people.

There are many projected changes to come in the Helpful Content System Update. As we wait for the rest, ensure your site is following the new rules by making the necessary changes above.