Are you ready for Google's new update?

13 October 2022

If you work or are involved in marketing, you will know the stress that comes along with Google announcing its plan on doing an algorithm update. Everything that has been successfully working for you might now not.

Several times a year Google will update its algorithm, some sites drop, and some sites gain from this. So, let's find out what changes September’s update has had.

Google Update

Google's September update focused on “core updates and reassessing content”. With this new update, Google has told marketers to focus on their content and create “helpful content”. By this, they mean making accurate and factual content that helps answer the Google "communities’" questions whilst focusing on original content.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Today we released the September 2022 product reviews update for English-language product reviews. We'll update our ranking release history page when the rollout is complete: <a href="https://t.co/sQ5COfdNcb">https://t.co/sQ5COfdNcb</a></p>— Google Search Central (@googlesearchc) <a href="https://twitter.com/googlesearchc/status/1572135355691704321?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 20, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Focus on content that focuses on people

As mentioned above, Google likes content that helps inform their users, whether that's an FAQ or a "how to guide". Content should be created for the user, and not search engines. Google has put a focus on "people first" which aims to reward content that gives users a satisfying experience, whilst punishing content that gives users a poor experience.

Does your content answer users potential questions?

If you visit Google Search Central, they have published a list of questions to help you analyse your content.

Content and quality questions:

Does the content provide original information, reporting, research, or analysis?
Does the content provide a substantial, complete, or comprehensive description of the topic?
Does the content provide insightful analysis or interesting information that is beyond obvious?
If the content draws on other sources, does it avoid simply copying or rewriting those sources and instead provide substantial additional value and originality?
Does the headline and/or page title provide a descriptive, helpful summary of the content?

Expertise questions:

Does the content present information in a way that makes you want to trust it, such as clear sourcing, evidence of the expertise involved, and background about the author or the site that publishes it, such as through links to an author page or a site's About page?
If you researched the site producing the content, would you come away with the impression that it is well-trusted or widely recognised as an authority on its topic?
Is this content written by an expert or enthusiast who demonstrably knows the topic well?
Does the content have any easily verified factual errors?
Would you feel comfortable trusting this content for issues relating to your money or your life?

Presentation and production questions

Does the content have any spelling or stylistic issues?
Was the content produced well, or does it appear sloppy or hastily produced?
Is the content mass-produced by or outsourced to many creators, or spread across a large network of sites, so that individual pages or sites don't get as much attention or care?
Does the content have an excessive number of ads that distract from or interfere with the main content?
Does content display well for mobile devices when viewed on them?

Comparative questions:

Does the content provide substantial value when compared to other pages in search results?
Does the content seem to be serving the genuine interests of visitors to the site or does it seem to exist solely by someone attempting to guess what might rank well in search engines?

Along with answering these questions, Google has suggested you ask trustworthy, unaffiliated people to assess your content for an honest assessment.

Get to know E-A-T and Google Rater guidelines

Google has also announced that SEO experts should get used to the EAT acronym. This stands for Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness to help analyse their content, which will boost their performance in the search rankings.

Are you Interested in finding out more on EAT? Visit here..

Another resource Google uses is “raters”. These are people who give Google insights on their algorithm and if they’re providing good results. This helps Google confirm if their changes are working.

You can visit their search quality rater guidelines here.

Do you think you’ll perform better or suffer from a drop? Let us know!

The Zen Agency are specialists in all things digital, whether it be website and app development or digital design. We can help with creating digital marketing strategy, content creation, social media marketing, PPC, SEO and videography.

Are you looking for advice on content creation or all things digital marketing? Call us today at 0141 229 1333 or fill out our quick enquiry form on our website and a member of the team will be in touch to discuss your marketing needs.