Listen "Helpful or not, here it comes"
Episode Synopsis
Here are the most important things that we know right now in short form:· Name: Google helpful content update· Launch Date: It began to rollout on August 25th· Rollout: It will take about two weeks to fully roll out· Targets: It looks at content that was created to rank well in search over help humans· Search Only: This currently only impacts Google Search, not Google Discover or other Google surfaces. But Google may expand this to Discover and more in the future.· Penalty: Google did not mention penalty but this update does seem to feel like a penalty for sites that will be hit by it· Sitewide: This is a sitewide algorithm, so the whole site will be impacted by this update· Not a core update: Many are going to say this is a core update, it is not.· English Language but will expand: This is only looking at English-language content globally now but likely will expand to other languages.· Impact: Google would not tell me what percentage of queries or searches were impacted by this update but Google did tell me it would be "meaningful." Also, Google said this will be felt more for online-educational materials, entertainment, shopping, and tech-related content.· Recover: If you were hit by this, then you will need to look at your content and see if you can do better with Google's advice below· Refreshes: Google updates the scores constantly here but there is a timeout period, and a validation period and it can take several months to recover from this update.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/webcology/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
More episodes of the podcast Webcology
A Cyber-Funday Mass Outage Edition
04/12/2025
The Major Moves of Mid-November Edition
13/11/2025
The Grok it, All CEOs Should be AIs Edition
06/11/2025
The Browser Wars - Rise of AIs Edition
23/10/2025
The AI Test Pivot Edition
09/10/2025
ZARZA We are Zarza, the prestigious firm behind major projects in information technology.