Google now penalizes sites that publish ‘useless’ content

Big news in the SEO world. Google has released a new site-wide ranking signal that rewards sites that publish satisfactory content and penalizes sites that do not.

according to Google Search Central Blog, an update — aptly called a “helpful content” update — kicks off this week. However, it can take up to two weeks to fully deploy.

Google has laid down ground rules, stating that content must take a “people first” approach to achieve or maintain favorable search rankings. On the other hand, content created to force search engines in the first place can take a big hit. In other words, Google distinguishes between content created to rank rather than content created to help users.

If you’re engaged in any of the following types of searchpandering content gathering, it’s time to shift gears quickly.

• Rely on AI-generated content tools to create content “automatically”.
• Gather information from other sites without creating your own.
• Drill into topics you don’t have permission to, thus encouraging users to continue searching for answers elsewhere.
• Create content based on trends, not expertise.When
• Emphasis on word count rather than quality.

Keep an eye on your rankings in the coming weeks to determine if you’re affected. If your rankings plummet, get rid of old, unhelpful content (or beat Google and start spring cleaning now). Use our analysis as a guide. If you have pages that have no traffic at all, or if people visit them and then quickly leave, update them or throw them away.

Future content should please people by providing reasons, answers, expertise, and data points that satisfy their queries.