Reducing client turnover rates can be challenging. As the owner of a marketing agency, you need to show clients your worth consistently. You can do this by creating and executing marketing campaigns that get results. Showcasing your industry knowledge can also make a huge impact on both existing and potential clients.
Keeping up with the updates released by Google is crucial when trying to keep your client’s websites ranking well. Over 5.6 billion unique searches are conducted on Google every day. Returning helpful and informative results is the main goal of the Google team.
The helpful content update released by Google in August of 2022 is designed to weed out low-quality content. Below is more information about this update and how to help your clients deal with these recent changes to the Google algorithm.
How Does the Helpful Content Update Work?
The main purpose of the helpful content update is to help Google distinguish between helpful content developed for humans and content created for search engines. The mission of Google is to use this update to put more content by people, for people onto search engine results pages.
This update is considered site-wide. This means that if Google detects that a significant portion of the content on a website is written solely for search engines, it will receive a lower rank. The shift in focus to people-first content has many marketing agencies and business owners worried.
However, if you’ve been developing great content for your clients, you don’t have anything to worry about.
Assessing If Content is Created for Search Engines
Have you recently been hired by a business in need of SEO assistance? If so, the main thing you need to do is assess the current content on their website. As you look at this content, you have to figure out if it was created for search engines for humans. When trying to figure this out, be sure to ask questions like:
- Were content topics chosen because they were trending?
- Does the content add any value or is it a summary of articles that rank well?
- Will readers feel like their query has been answered when reading the content?
- Is the content covering a topic out of the client’s realm of expertise?
- Has extensive automation been used to produce past content?
You can figure out how to best help a new client cleanse their website of unhelpful content with the answers to these questions.
Steps You Can Take To Embrace Google’s Helpful Content Update
In the past, marketing agencies would use keyword stuffing and other black hat techniques to get a client’s website on the first page of Google. With the release of the helpful content update, Google is sending a clear message that these days are over.
Generating great content for a client’s website can be time-consuming. This is why you need to think about working with an SEO outsourcing provider. By outsourcing SEO, you can produce results for your clients without having to be too hands-on. If you want to help clients embrace Google’s helpful content update, then you need to think about implementing some of the following practices.
Focus on a Client’s Niche
Creating winning content for a client’s website will require competitive analysis. Getting to know more about the niche industry a client operates in and who their competition is will be helpful. One of the worst things you can do on a client’s behalf is to create content that is unrelated to their industry.
Some marketing agencies think that covering trending topics, regardless of relevancy, is a winning recipe for search engine optimization. This generally leads to the creation of content that is both unhelpful and bland.
With the roll-out of the helpful content update, it is more important than ever to stick to a client’s niche. Showcasing a client’s expertise and knowledge is crucial when attempting to get their website noticed by Google and modern consumers.
Prioritize Reader Experience
Content created for search engines is usually very boring. If the reader consuming this content doesn’t feel engaged, they will quickly leave the website. Using the helpful content update to your client’s advantage will be much easier if you prioritize reader experience.
Getting to know more about a client’s target demographic is the first step in improving the reader experience. Once you know who you are creating content for, you can begin the process of answering commonly asked questions. Polling a client’s audience in search of suggestions for future blog topics is also a wise move.
Adding pictures and videos to a client’s blog can also boost the reader experience. These visual elements provide the reader with a break from text-based content. When used correctly, images and videos can also give a reader more context about the subject covered in the blog.
Add Value to Older Content
Monitoring older blogs on a client’s website can help you assess which ones are performing poorly. Checking out these poor-performing blogs and finding ways to update them is a wise move. Adding new stats, links and images to these older blogs can be helpful. Adding value to this older content can get more attention from Google.
Avoid Making False Claims
If you want to avoid having a client’s content classified as low-quality by Google, then you have to avoid making false claims. The helpful content update targets content that makes misleading or false claims. When Google’s algorithm detects these issues with a client’s content, they will be penalized.
This is why you need to work with an SEO outsourcing provider that will take the time to research topics thoroughly before writing content. With the help of an agency like this, you can get well-written and accurate content published on a client’s website.
As you can see, there are many things you need to do to take advantage of the helpful content update by Google. If you are struggling to optimize client’s websites for search engine success, it is time to outsource this important job to Outsource My SEO.