Google Search will show more useful pages "by people, for people"

Today, Google is describing the next “useful content update” that should make search results more useful and more likely to have been written by a real human.

For almost as long as there have been search engines, there has been the trade of search engine optimization (or SEO). Used properly, SEO can be a great skill that helps smaller creators get discovered through Google Search.

Of course, the flip side is that SEO techniques are often abused, leading to the creation of websites written for the benefit of Google’s algorithms, not for real people to read. Google itself acknowledges this problem, noting that some search results pages “may not even look like it [they were] created by, or even by, a person.”

In its latest measure, and perhaps the most drastic yet, Google has presented the “useful content update” that will start rolling out next week to English search results, with support for more languages coming soon. As the name suggests, the changes focus on separating sites and pages into “useful” or “unuseful” categories. This categorization is used as a new metric to rank where a page should appear in search results.

Given the complexity of Google Search’s algorithms, we weren’t given precise details about what is considered useful or not. However, to give an idea of what the company is looking for, Google has provided a few questions to act as a guideline. Whenever possible, web developers should be able to answer “yes” to these questions.

Do you have an existing or intended audience for your business or site that would find your content useful if it came directly to you?

Does your content clearly demonstrate first-hand experience and deep knowledge (for example, the experience that comes from using a product or service or visiting a site)?

Does your site have a primary purpose or focus?

After reading your content, will someone leave feeling like they’ve learned enough about a topic to help you achieve their goal?

Will someone who reads your content leave feeling like they had a satisfying experience?

Have you considered our instructions for basic updates and for product revisions?

Importantly, these metrics will affect more than just individual pages. If Google Search determines that a website contains more unhelpful content than other sites, all of the content of this site will be adversely affected. And that’s just the beginning, with Google promising more useful and “people first” updates to the search engine.

Elsewhere, Google is also continuing its recent efforts to improve the quality of product reviews displayed in search results. The next set of tweaks will help push out “original, high-quality reviews” and are coming in the coming weeks.