Google helpful content update: What publishers need to know - Press Gazette

Google is preparing to crack down on publishers creating ‘unsatisfying content’ aimed purely at ranking on search with a new “helpful content” search algorithm update

The Google search update, rolling out this week, will prioritise “original, helpful content written by people, for people”, the platform said, adding that it wanted people to have a more satisfying experience.

Google said the types of content it is planning to deprioritise include articles “mainly summarising what others have to say without adding much value”.

The Sun has previously complained that its original scoops get buried in search results beneath stories by rivals that effectively rip their work off. A test of this theory by Press Gazette appeared to show it borne out.

In an Ofcom consultation last year, Sun owner News UK said: “The platforms prefer recency over provenance of news content, meaning that the incentives to invest in breaking a story is diminished. A publisher who rewrites a story is more likely to receive traffic referrals via platforms than a publisher who invested in writing the story in the first place.”

Google’s latest update will also crack down on stories that, it said, “promise to answer a question that actually has no answer, such as suggesting there’s a release date for a product, movie, or TV show when one isn’t confirmed”.

This is a common SEO tactic: for example, Radio Times in June published a story with the headline “Knives Out 2 release date: Netflix movie’s star-studded...

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