Okay, friends. The dust has settled on the Helpful Content Update.

We are also still in the next phase of core updates du jour, thanks to Google.

Are you keeping up?

If all I needed to do was keep up with the Google updates, I still couldn’t properly analyze all the data in real time.

But the consensus is out. This update seemed to hit many pure content sites or niche sites. But data and analysis amongst the brightest SEOs and those with the most site data is still happening.

So, we don’t have all the answers yet.

The SEO experts who live to serve us are tired.

There does seem to be some correlation ‘guesses’ amongst the sites that have been hit, so we are starting to see some ‘probable’ reasons why certain sites were hit and why some weren’t.

****If you want a deep dive, the very talented Eric Lancheres has compiled the most comprehensive evaluation of the HCU I’ve read.****

There’s still a lot of chatter in the SEO community about the latest round of updates, namely, is Google really getting it right? And if so, what are our new playbooks, if any, to turn the tides?

While I’m sure there are more than ample examples of sites that ‘deserved’ the heavy HCU anchor and traffic losses, just as many of us are shaking our heads.

Not because we don’t see things in our publications to improve.

I mean, I can always find something to improve on our sites.

So yeah, if that’s the criteria, I get the ‘unhelpfulness’ stamp. But, this has not always been the case in digital publishing.

Until these past few weeks, I always felt we had some runway to build into Google. Now, I’m wondering if that runway actually exists.

I’m all for playing the long game with Google, but I want some signals of hope that this works while we’re piling our precious resources into a publication. And, that my friends is getting harder to see clearly.

Let me explain.

In the early days of building a brand new publication, you could earnestly publish content, wait a bit, and check early data to see where there might be some daylight to build into.

In our portfolios, we’ve done this over and over again.

We call it the ‘bullets, then cannonballs’ approach to building publications (a term we’ve so graciously borrowed from the great Jim Collins).

While I still believe this measured, disciplined approach is wise when building digital publications, the runway we have to figure things out seems to be shrinking.

I think now, more than ever, we will have to put more energy (and budget) into the early stages of the site, even before Google cares to glance our way to have a fighting chance.

So, while we assess the rubble we’re left with after this latest round of updates, I’m now thinking about a more holistic content strategy and go-forward plan for our sites.

After spending a fantastic week in Vegas with the nerdiest of all nerdy content and digital biz folks, I am feeling a renewed energy again for this wild world of content that we love so much.

We got time to compare notes, lament about what we could do better, and discuss fundamental go-to strategies.

Knowing I have this network of other operators, genius content strategists, and real business owners rooting for us gives me life.

Yes. I admit it. I needed to take a few beats after the HCU. We all did. I know there were a few winners in this update, but for the scrappy content publishers like us, it was a tough one.

But I still believe that Google is trying to get it right. They will assess user data. They will continue to tweak the SERPs. And we’ll continue to do what we do as well.

And maybe we’ll have to test out a few new playbooks.

I’ll keep you all posted.

Things We Will Continue to Do

With some renewed vigor!

Keep Our Focus on EEAT

We’re still going to double down, triple down, all the downs on EEAT. While I believe that interpreting and classifying these factors are largely out of my control, EEAT is good for everyone. It’s good for our readers. It pushes us to create the best content.

We’ve been die-hard EEAT (or EAT as it was once known) converts for years now, and it’s greatly improved how we build content teams and create content and has made our publications so much better.

So, now we dig deeper and do more — especially on those sites we care about most.

For us, in the short term, that means more robust author pages, more videos, more authentic images, and only producing content where we get all these things.

Every piece of content has to have EEAT pouring out of its core, or we don’t publish.

Do Better With Overall User Experience

Okay. I can swallow my pride and admit that on some of our publications, the UX is not ideal. I discussed this last week when our new content lead hesitantly told me that we could make many improvements to the navigation and homepage structure.

So, yep, this is something we can improve.

While we won’t be able to do this across the board of our portfolio of sites, we’ll prioritize some of our key sites and dig in more. I’ll keep you posted.

Some Serious Community Building

We spend so much time creating great content. And while Google is still an amazing traffic source, it just makes sense to keep building our communities.

So, now, if we’re going to do anything, we’re going to do this thinking of the community we’re building. That means a continued effort to grow our email lists, add new ways for our readers to interact with us, and test out some new ways we can bring the magic of our internal passionate experts out into the daylight.

Focus on The Things We Can Control

In content and SEO, there are only so many things in our control. I can spend a lifetime trying to figure out exactly what Google wants and scramble to do this, then that, then something else that’s new, or I can double down on what is working.

This is true in life and business as well.

We often distract ourselves with the new, thinking that is the key to our next level of growth while completely ignoring the things that got us here.

It takes a ton of discipline to continue to do what is working.

The Hit List of Things We’re Doing Now

I couldn’t leave you hanging without sharing some of the hit-the-ground-running things we’re doing in this post-HCU world.

• We are adding comment sections back to all our sites and engaging with our readers at the site level much more.

• We are getting some social media help and distributing our content more consistently.

• We are creating more robust author pages with visuals and video.

• We are adding videos to more posts.

• We will spend more time optimizing and refreshing already published content. This is not a quick win; it takes time, but something we continue to do.

• Creating more content that our experts want to create (without evaluating it in a keyword tool).

• We are investing more in email marketing and doubling down on what works there.

Some Final Thoughts on the Next Steps Once Again

While I don’t have all the answers yet, these are a few things that are bubbling inside of me these days.

A lot has already been written about the HCU, and there is a ton of advice out there already.

I tend to take all the chatter and advice with a grain of salt.

There’s still a ton of speculation in the SEO circles about all of this. And, we won’t be able to do ‘all the things’ and do them all well.

We’re the real deal, scrappy operators and content creators with relatively small budgets. We can’t do things like the big boys just yet.

This new reality still motivates me.

I have a great team of fellow content purists who really love to create. We’ll figure this out or give it our best shot. And we’ll have a lot of fun along the way, too!

And — silver lining — I get to come back here week after week and share my thoughts on this.

In the upcoming weeks, I want to get back into some of the strategies and playbooks that I’m focusing on these days, but with the impact of the HCU, I think it was essential this week to keep the discussion going.

Things to Read, Watch, and Ponder

This is the most comprehensive, well-thought-through analysis of the Helpful
Content Update that I’ve found so far. I strongly recommend this resource if you want to dig into all of this. Anyone can dig in here with a video training element, a downloadable PDF, and a web version. Kudos to Eric Lancheres from On-Page.ai for pulling together all this for us!

If the HCU has hit your site and you want an objective view, I love this FREE resource that Jared Bauman created! Use this!

If you want to build an audience-centric content strategy, I recommend reading this post from Robert Rose of Content Marketing Institute. It seems even more relevant now after the HCU. Great audience building always works!

I'd love to hear from you if the latest round of Google updates has hit your site. Feel free to hit ‘reply,’ and we can chat!

Cheers! Amy

Some Bonus Newsletters You’ll Love

If you want to get into the weeds on these topics, here are a couple of newsletters to subscribe to.