With the recent release of Google’s September 2023 helpful content update, let’s delve into what’s new in this latest rollout.
Google officially launched the September 2023 helpful content update yesterday. While this update will continue to roll out over the next couple of weeks, everyone wants to know what changes we’re likely to see.
Lucky for us, Google has left some clues in its revised search documentation, shedding light on the modifications made to the Google helpful content system.
Let’s take a look at the Enhanced Classifier
It’s been an announcement in this update, that Google mentioned an “improved classifier” for the helpful content system. Google stated, “The September 2023 helpful content update is rolling out with an improved classifier.”
We can’t be certain about exactly what enhancements have been made, but Google did leave us with some hints.
Third-Party Content Hosted on Your Site
Google has added a new section in its documentation regarding helpful content updates, which specifically addresses the topic of third-party content hosted on websites. It says, “If you host third-party content on your main site or in your subdomains, understand that such content may be included in site-wide signals we generate, such as the helpfulness of content. For this reason, if that content is largely independent of the main site’s purpose or produced without close supervision or the involvement of the primary site, we recommend that it should be blocked from being indexed by Google.”
To clarify, this advice isn’t groundbreaking. Back in 2019, Google shared its thoughts on third-party content hosted on other sites. In a tweet, Google said, “We’ve been asked if third parties can host content in subdomains or subfolders of another’s domain. It’s not against our guidelines. However, as the practice has grown, our systems are being improved to better discern when such content is independent of the main site and treat it accordingly. Overall, we’d advise against allowing others to use subdomains or subfolders with content presented as if it’s part of the main site without close supervision or involvement of the primary site. Our guidance is that for optimal success in Search, provide value-added content from your own efforts that reflects your brand.”
Google’s Gary Illyes gave further context for the addition of this section in the helpful content documentation. He noted, “We’ve noticed that some sites ‘rent out’ their subdomains or subdirectories to third parties, often without overseeing the content hosted on these new, generally low-quality microsites that bear little relevance to the parent site. In fact, these microsites are rarely linked from the parent sites, which don’t necessarily want to endorse these often questionable sites. The primary motivation behind renting these subspaces is to manipulate search results,” as he posted on LinkedIn.
Content Authored by Humans or AI
Google has removed the phase “written by people” and replaced it with “helpful content created for people in search results.” This update implies that content does not have to be entirely created by humans to be considered helpful.
If you notice that the latest helpful content update has had a negative impact on your site, Google has advised a self-assessment of your content. Google said, “If you’re producing valuable content, no action is needed. In fact, this system may benefit your site, as it’s designed to reward useful content. However, if you’ve observed a traffic shift that you suspect is related to this system (e.g., following a publicly-announced ranking update to the system), it’s prudent to assess your content and rectify or remove any content that appears unhelpful.”
My thought is this change does make sense, when we consider the long term impact of content quality on a site’s performance in search, setting out guidelines should make site owners reconsider publishing content of less quality.
It is also the responsibility of site owners to ensure third-parties are not publishing low quality content on their domain.
