December 6, 2022

Google Releases the December 2022 Helpful Content Update

Google released its helpful content system after its first update in August 2022. This update is called the December 2022 update. This update rolled out on December 5, but it became more noticeable on December 6, 2022.

This is a global update that impacts all languages and will help Google detect more low-quality content created for search engines that are primarily not for people. With the recent surge in AI-generated content to manipulate rankings, Google has doubled down and provided the best possible results to users that answer their queries. In other words, this update has additional signals to help identify content that was created for search engines vs. created for people.

This update is designed to promote more helpful websites created for humans by pushing down “low-quality content and make it easier to find content that feels authentic and useful in search.”

When Will I Know if My Site Was Affected by the December 2022 Helpful Content Update?

Like any Google Algorithm Update, you can see updates affect rankings as soon as the first day, but the December Helpful Content Update will take about two weeks to roll out fully. We suggest tracking your rankings as soon as possible to have a better idea of what your baseline rankings are.

Continue tracking your rankings over the next six weeks. While the Helpful Content Update will be done rolling out in two weeks, it can take up to four weeks afterwards for rankings to stabilize. After this, you’ll have an idea of what keywords and pages were affected.

What to do if Your Site is Affected by the December 2022 Helpful Content Update

The Helpful Content Update is exactly as it sounds, if Google finds your content to be irrelevant to search queries or sounding like it wasn’t written by a human, the page it is on will lose ranking. If you’re unsure of where to start when analyzing your content, Google has provided a list of questions you can ask about your content. We have included those questions in our post, Google’s Helpful Content Update: What You Need to Know.

If you were affected by this update, it could take several months to recover. If you notice any ranking or visibility changes in Google Search over the next two weeks or so, you can likely attribute it to this update.

If you have any questions, please contact the digital marketing team at VELOX.