Rob Burgner | 7 SEP 2022
Are you managing a website for a performing arts organization? Or perhaps it’s your own artist website or blog. Here’s some fresh news that may prove helpful:
Google is rolling out a new “helpful content update” that promises to dramatically change search results. The intent is to boost the quality of ranking content. The changes are partially in response to the explosion of AI-written mass content.
For content creators, if the answer is “yes” to any of the following questions it’s time to devote time to rewrites and deletions.
- Does the content answer a question that has no answer? Examples are those annoying results suggesting there’s a release date for a product or TV show when there isn’t.
- Is the content targeting a particular word count because a bunch of blogs say Google prefers “X” number of characters or words in an article?
- Does the content have earmarks of being written to do well in search as opposed to being written for humans?
- Does a site have tons of content on different, not necessarily related topics?
- Does some of the content appear automated?
- Are articles summarizing what others have said without adding value?
- Is the content about a trending subject that doesn’t sync with the rest of your content?
- Will the content leave readers with the need to search again to get better information?
- Does the writer have real expertise in the topic, or are they writing about a niche “long tail” subject to get traffic?
You get the idea! If you notice your analytics taking a hit over the next few weeks, odds are good it’s because of these changes. It may be time to recalibrate if you want to keep your hard-earned traffic!
Take time to review the content on your site or have a copywriter familiar with the new guidelines do it to make sure you’re not violating any of the rules. It’s mostly targeted at superficial content written specifically to do well in search, so thoughtful articles in an area of your expertise should be fine.
Things will definitely change for the better. Autopilot may not work so well anymore, but hard work will be rewarded. ■
Rob Burgner is President/CEO of Bleeding Edge, Inc., which provides marketing and strategy, web development, SEO, content creation and video production to a wide range of businesses. Specializing in breaking down the barriers between web, multimedia, social media and video, Bleeding Edge has become a marketing “sole source” that is affordable for SOHO (small office and home office clients) but also works with Fortune 500 companies.
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