Googles Helpful Content Update.

byDerekMarshal

4.7K followers

Updated 2 years ago

Helpful content update. Thought and musings that may make your content more helpful.

Personally, I tend to agree that those following the training at Wealthy Affiliate really don't have a lot to be concerned about as it mentioned a lot to "help your audience and answer their questions.

Here are my thoughts on the update.

• - Video on posts will help readers as long as it is related to the topic and, of course, helpful. Add high quality videos that get a lot of traffic on YT. It will also aid dwell time (video is one of the reasons I have an average on page time average of 22 min.
  
• - FAQ frequently asked questions. The questions related to the topic that help your audience. With a caveat - ONLY if the topic merits it. Not all that we write will need an FAQ.
  
• - Pullquote If use pullquote or quote, you can directly quote the text from other sources. The reader can read it immediately. More user friendly, helpful, and convincing, and they also stay longer (you are borrowing word counts from other sites).
  
• - Resources. Resources at the bottom. A lot of sites do this, wikipedia being a fine example. Even fully automated content sites also do this. Nothing wrong. Put anchor or urls as reference at the bottom; honestly the audience seldom click. If they click, they will leave your site. Do you want them to leave or want them to click another internal links? (up to you..reference internally or externally).
  
• - Resources Page: something you can do site wide by having a resources page.
  
• - Your ebook (if you have one). Have it on google books, amazon. and mention it on your author page and bio. Reference it naturally in your content if it is appropriate.
  
• - Author page (we all should have one). Self explanitory. List and link your social profiles and any achievements (ebook, link to it). Social profile, link back to your site.
  
• - UGC User Generated Content - WIKI how masters this.Adjust from "comments" to "ask a question". See image by Wiki how the master of this! We have this handled at WA in the comments are - be sure to leave questions on the post that you read there and less of the trash "uhh great site, you need to use more images" Read the post, interact with it and leave a genuine question that is related to the content - otherwise it will just look faker than Paris Hilton's tan!.

- Write helpful content..(duh)

- Make your content accessible for visually impared, able to be read by the technology that they use. It is easy to see (pardon the pun) how helpful that is.

- Images: Make sure images are relevant and helpful, not just taking up space! Is your post a "what is" or "how to" type of post. Images of what it is you are writing about is helpful (e.g. What is affiliate marketing - image: an diagram explaining the process and relationship between vender, affiliate and customer and how and affiliate earns a commission. A How To type of article can have images and/GIF demostrating "how to" do what the article is about.

- Video Intro: On your About Us and author pages a brief video intro to both personallise your site and brand, appear to be a real person and of course to be helpful.

- Video on product pages: If own the product use video like an unboxing integrated into your reviews. Include video testimonials (borrow from those that manufacturer, with permission). If you own or have your own product get video testimonials and use them.

- Social media interaction: Good social media interaction (good CTR from the social media post to the article) with good ratio of social media views to interactions* is a sign of the content being of relevance, use and helpful to the audience in my opinion.

- Content Clusters: Create a few more of these for topical authority within your niche. Remain on topic.

- Greater Focus On Keyword Research: Is the keyword that you are using have an helpful aspect to it? (how to, is a great example here), does it answer a question your audience may be asking or want to know? (Why, What, "Tips" based keywords examples here).

- Mine Quora For Questions - Answer them in on your blog. These are legit questions your audience are asking, thus content is helpful.

- Mine Popular YT Channels: You popular search terms for your niche on YouTube find popular videos and look for comments with questions and use the question as the basis of a topic for your content.

Just my thoughts. Appreciated it you wish to add to the thread and keep this going.

Mostly, don't stress about it. Most of us are writing helpful content anyway! Your thoughts and imput appreciated. As I said, lets keep this going and stay ahead of the curve.

*This is how I find my winners for paid social media traffic.10% interaction ratio from views to interactions (total) is a sign that paid traffic will be worth my while in promoting that social media post.

- Derek M.