Google’s SearchLiaison responded to a question asking for advice on how to diagnose content that has lost rankings due to the useful content update. SearchLiaison offered advice on how to step back and think about what the problem might be and if there is even a problem to consider.
Question about repairing pages affected by HCU
Someone at X (formerly Twitter) expressed frustration with the advice SEOs have offered because it was (wrongly, it turns out) understood that the content issue is a site-wide signal that makes it difficult to identify pages that didn’t need fixing.
Lee Funke (@FitFoodieFinds) he tweeted:
“I keep getting advice from SEOs to ‘look at the pages with the biggest drops’ and find out why they dropped. If HCU has hit us, the site-wide signal has caused ALL pages to drop, making it difficult to ‘utility and non-utility analysis. Any advice?”
SearchLiaison responds to HCU’s question
SearchLiaison first addressed the perception that the useful content ranking system is a unique signal.
he he tweeted:
“We had this in our Search Central blog post, but it’s probably worth noting that the useful content system of old is very different now:
“Just as we use multiple systems to identify reliable information, we’ve improved our core classification systems to show more useful results using a variety of signals and innovative approaches. No single signal or system is used anymore to do this , and we’ve also added a new FAQ page to help explain this change.”
He then went on to explain that the Useful Content System (commonly referred to as HCU) is not a site-wide “thing” but rather affects websites at the page level.
He followed up with:
“The FAQ page itself is here and explains that it’s not just a site-wide thing now:
“Our core ranking systems are primarily designed to work at the page level, using a variety of signals and systems to understand the usefulness of individual pages. We have some site-wide signals that are also taken into account.”
Ranking drops: not always about page correction
The next piece of advice he offered is that a drop in rankings doesn’t necessarily mean there’s something that needs to be fixed. He is right. A common mistake I see website editors and SEOs make is to immediately assume that there is something that needs to be fixed, but this is not the case when the problem is related to relevancy.
A site that loses rankings due to relevance can sometimes come back, but in extreme cases the old rankings can never, ever come back. An experienced SEO can make a difference.
SearchLiaison tweeted:
“So, on all question pages. Pages could drop in rankings for a number of reasons, including the fact that we’re showing other content that seems more relevant higher. Kind of what I was talking about here:
That tweet he referred to offered the advice to wait until the update has finished rolling out before making any changes. He also said that rankings can change on their own without changing anything, and user trends can affect site traffic, not always because of rankings.
Self-review pages that have lost rankings
Going back to the response to Lee Funke (@FitFoodieFinds), SearchLiaison suggested identifying the pages that receive the least traffic and focus on self-rating those pages along with the Helpful content FAQ documentation and the HCU self-assessment page as guides
He tweeted:
“If it’s more than just going down a bit, I’ll look at some of the pages that have gotten a lot of hits before and self-assess if you think they’re useful to your visitors (the FAQ page covers that). If you do, go ahead.”
Is Google’s FAQ contradictory?
The person who tweeted the original question had some follow-up questions and concerns. They tweeted that they thought the HCU FAQ was contradictory, saying that the signals of useful content were at the page level, but also suggesting that there are factors all over the site that can bring the whole site down.
This is what started the discussion he tweeted:
“Also the HCU FAQ sounds a bit contradictory. It says the systems work mostly at the page level, but then unhelpful/thin content can affect the success of other pages that are felt across the site. I’m just trying to understand what these massive drops came from!”
The FAQ doesn’t mention thin content, but it does mention unhelpful content that affects other pages in a way that goes beyond the page level.
This is what it says:
“Our systems work primarily at the page level to display the most useful content we can, even if that content is on sites that also host unhelpful content.
That said, having relatively high amounts of unhelpful content can make other content on the site perform less well in search, to varying degrees. Removing unhelpful content can help other pages perform better.”
This is a bit vague and contradictory.
Does Google mean that if most of the content on a website is not useful, it will drown out the value of a handful of pages that are useful? Is Google implying that a website that is infested with a preponderance of useless content will never get links or user enthusiasm because no one would be able to find the real good content?
It’s not unreasonable to say that Google’s documentation could use a little more clarity.
Self-assessment not own
I would suggest following Google’s helpful content FAQ self-assessment suggestions.
A fresh set of eyes can see things more clearly than someone who authored the page.
Featured image by Shutterstock/Roman Samborskyi
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