Your website content must be helpful if you want to get found

Your website content must be helpful if you want to get found sounds like a statement that is naturally true. Of course, you consider that you are adding content that is helpful, but does Google look at the content in the same way.

There have been recent guidelines in September 2023 from Google that you should be aware of before adding content to your site. These guidelines were issued because there is a lot of ‘unhelpful’ content out there and Google wants to distinguish between ‘helpful’ and ‘unhelpful’ content.

Let’s look at a few of these guidelines and how they may affect the way you add content.

What is helpful content?

According to Google “The helpful content system aims to better reward content where visitors feel they've had a satisfying experience, while content that doesn't meet a visitor's expectations won't perform as well” ( Source Google)

So you ask , what is a satistying experience. Google has also provided guidance on this.

“Google's core ranking systems look to reward content that provides a good page experience. Site owners seeking to be successful with our systems should not focus on only one or two aspects of page experience. Instead, check if you're providing an overall great page experience across many aspects”. ( Source;  Google)

It is all about the overall experience of your web page and how it is presented. Let’s have a look at some of the aspects of this good page experience.

Is your content people first?

The Google algorithms will crawl the content with your reader in mind and will ask a number of questions to determine if the content is there to inform your readers or just to perform well from an SEO point of view. The question will cover a lot of aspects like the following:

• Do you have an existing or intended audience for your business or site that would find the content useful if they came directly to you?
• Does your content clearly demonstrate first-hand expertise and a depth of knowledge (for example, expertise that comes from having actually used a product or service, or visiting a place)?
• Does your site have a primary purpose or focus?
• After reading your content, will someone leave feeling they've learned enough about a topic to help achieve their goal?
• Will someone reading your content leave feeling like they've had a satisfying experience?( Source Google)

Google is trying to determine if the content is written for your target audience in way that they will find relevant and helpful. Content that is not relevant or helpful to your audience or is stuffed with unrelated keywords will be penalised and labelled as ‘unhelpful’.

It is not a good thing to be found to have unhelpful content since this will have a direct impact on your ranking in Googles eyes and may take time for you to recover lost ground.

Design ideas that help with good page experience

There are aspects of your website design that will help deliver a satisfying pages experience. Let’s have a look at a few of them.

Mobile optimised- All sites should be mobile optimised so that they appear correctly in a mobile format. The Google crawlers place a lot of weight on the mobile experience since that is where the majority of website traffic comes from.

Loading Speed- A slow loading site will get penalised by Google since this has an impact with the user experience.  Check with your web design partner or have a look at your Google Search Console to see how your page load speed is performing. Look at the ‘Core Web Vitals’ section for information on this.

Add images and videos where appropriate- Adding relevant images or videos will enhance the user experience if added in the right way.

Get help with your helpful content

Your website content must be helpful if you want to get found but you will probably need help in achieving this standard  set by Google.

If you are looking for a web design partner, then Say Web Design are always willing to help. We are digital experts who deliver affordable websites. We are based in Newquay, but our coverage all of the UK. Why not get in touch

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