{"id":1497549,"date":"2022-08-25T20:03:19","date_gmt":"2022-08-25T20:03:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.consultwebs.com\/?p=1497549"},"modified":"2026-06-17T14:05:22","modified_gmt":"2026-06-17T14:05:22","slug":"helpful-content-update","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.consultwebs.com\/lawyer-seo\/google-search-algorithm\/helpful-content-update\/","title":{"rendered":"Helpful Content Update"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>What Firms Can Expect From Google&#8217;s Algorithm Helpful Content Update<\/h2>\n<p>Firms investing in a website or SEO: this update matters to you! Learn more about the update and how it affects your firm&#8217;s digital efforts here.<\/p>\n<p>Google centers around creating better connections between users and relevant content, and one way they do that is through their updates. Although these often go unseen by the average user, the updates happen regularly, and those investing in websites and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.consultwebs.com\/lawyer-seo\/\" data-wpil=\"url\" data-wpil-url-old=\"aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuY29uc3VsdHdlYnMuY29tL2xhd3llci1zZW8v\">legal SEO<\/a> should keep an eye on those changes to:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Better understand if any digital effort is lagging, or conversely, moving in the right direction.<\/li>\n<li>Make the most of digital advertising investment.<\/li>\n<li>Ultimately, give their clients what they need and want.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a class=\"btn btn--primary\" href=\"https:\/\/www.consultwebs.com\/lawyer-seo\/google-search-algorithm\/eeat-and-ymyl\/\">Learn more about why your firm should care about Google Updates here!<\/a><\/p>\n<p>As <a href=\"https:\/\/developers.google.com\/search\/blog\/2022\/08\/helpful-content-update\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Google<\/a> states, the helpful content update is <em>&#8220;part of a broader effort to ensure people see more original, helpful content written by people, for people, in search results.&#8221;<\/em> This update impacts anyone that is a creator. This could range from your <a href=\"https:\/\/www.consultwebs.com\/about-us\/\" data-wpil=\"url\" data-wpil-url-old=\"aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuY29uc3VsdHdlYnMuY29tL2Fib3V0LXVzLw==\">digital legal agency<\/a>\u00a0to your in-house creators and others.<\/p>\n<p>So, what\u2019s the update really about? More importantly, how can firms ensure that their content creation remains compliant?<\/p>\n<h2>How the Helpful Content Update works<\/h2>\n<p>The update will start rolling out sometime at the end of August 2022, and <a href=\"https:\/\/developers.google.com\/search\/updates\/ranking\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">the official launch will be featured here<\/a> (please keep in mind that this can take up to 2 weeks). <strong>This update is primarily geared toward sites that have tried to game the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.consultwebs.com\/lawyer-seo\/on-page\/\">SEO best practices<\/a> and are publishing content that ranks for SEO rather than for the content itself.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>With that said, the way the update works is that Google will continue to crawl websites and automatically identify content that brings little to no value, compared to other content elsewhere that brings better value.<\/p>\n<p>The content identified as flagged is not considered spam. Instead, it becomes a &#8220;signal&#8221; created by an entirely automated classification that uses machine learning.<\/p>\n<h3>How Consultwebs plans to help their firms with the recent update:<\/h3>\n<p>When speaking about the update with the director of ROI at Consultwebs, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.consultwebs.com\/about-us\/our-team\/grant-brott\/\" data-wpil=\"url\" data-wpil-url-old=\"aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuY29uc3VsdHdlYnMuY29tL2Fib3V0LXVzL291ci10ZWFtL2dyYW50LWJyb3R0Lw==\">Grant Brott<\/a>, he said,<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.consultwebs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/grant-brott-seo-strategy-quote-778x1024.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/www.consultwebs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/grant-brott-seo-strategy-quote-778x1024.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"778\" height=\"1024\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<h2>Ensure Your Firm Adheres to People-First Oriented Content<\/h2>\n<p>Superior content not only ranks with <a class=\"wpil_keyword_link\" title=\"SEO\" href=\"https:\/\/www.consultwebs.com\/lawyer-seo\/\" data-wpil-keyword-link=\"linked\" data-wpil-monitor-id=\"2184\">SEO<\/a> but also reaches the correct user and provides a satisfying user experience on-site, and this will remain true with the new update. For that reason\u2026<a href=\"https:\/\/www.consultwebs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/grant-brott-seo-strategy-quote.png\"><br \/>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Follow Google\u2019s #1 long-standing advice: Create content for people first.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>For firms, this means creating more content that your specific target audience(s) wants to see. For example, instead of drowning the blog post with keywords to get it to rank, it&#8217;s best to mix and match relevant keywords while keeping the focus on providing content users want to read.<\/p>\n<p><strong>How can your firm find out if the published content is user-oriented? Use <a href=\"https:\/\/developers.google.com\/search\/blog\/2022\/08\/helpful-content-update\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Google\u2019s checklist<\/a> below to find out.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Please note: If you answer yes to the majority or everything on the list, congratulations, you\u2019ve passed the helpful content test!<\/p>\n<p>Do you have an audience that will find your content useful if they come directly to your site?<br \/>\nDoes your content demonstrate first-hand expertise and depth of knowledge?<br \/>\nDo you have a primary focal target audience and content?<br \/>\nAfter reading your firm&#8217;s content, will the user have something they can take away?<br \/>\nWill the user leave your site feeling they&#8217;ve had a satisfying experience?<br \/>\nAre you, or your digital agency in charge, keeping Google&#8217;s core updates in mind?<\/p>\n<p>Pro tip: Google\u2019s algorithm focuses on the amount of the EEAT: experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness a page has.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a class=\"btn btn--primary\" href=\"https:\/\/www.consultwebs.com\/lawyer-seo\/google-search-algorithm\/eeat-and-ymyl\/\">Read more about Google\u2019s EEAT Quality Guideline here.<\/a><\/p>\n<h2>Takeaway<\/h2>\n<p>The businesses building search-engine-first content might see a significant decline in their traffic in the coming months. Vice versa, those focusing on user-first content might see an increase in traffic in the coming months.<\/p>\n<p>Whether you&#8217;re looking for experts to update your website or want to produce content that goes above and beyond, <a href=\"https:\/\/meetings.hubspot.com\/tanner-jones\/discovery_call?uuid=3b57f3e5-a30b-49f1-af8c-e2109fec9811\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">we can help<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What Firms Can Expect From Google&#8217;s Algorithm Helpful Content Update Firms investing in a website or SEO: this update matters to you! Learn more about the update and how it affects your firm&#8217;s digital efforts here. Google centers around creating better connections between users and relevant content, and one way they do that is through [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":1616104,"parent":14725,"menu_order":24,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1497549","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Google&#039;s Helpful Content Algorithm Update for Law firm Websites - Consultwebs<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Discover the latest helpful content update and its significance for law firm marketing.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.consultwebs.com\/lawyer-seo\/google-search-algorithm\/helpful-content-update\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Google&#039;s Helpful Content Algorithm Update for Law firm Websites - Consultwebs\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Discover the latest helpful content update and its significance for law firm marketing.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.consultwebs.com\/lawyer-seo\/google-search-algorithm\/helpful-content-update\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Consultwebs\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/consultwebs\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-06-17T14:05:22+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.consultwebs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/helpful-content-update.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"418\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Google's Helpful Content Algorithm Update for Law firm Websites - Consultwebs","description":"Discover the latest helpful content update and its significance for law firm marketing.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.consultwebs.com\/lawyer-seo\/google-search-algorithm\/helpful-content-update\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Google's Helpful Content Algorithm Update for Law firm Websites - Consultwebs","og_description":"Discover the latest helpful content update and its significance for law firm marketing.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.consultwebs.com\/lawyer-seo\/google-search-algorithm\/helpful-content-update\/","og_site_name":"Consultwebs","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/consultwebs\/","article_modified_time":"2026-06-17T14:05:22+00:00","og_image":[{"width":800,"height":418,"url":"https:\/\/www.consultwebs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/helpful-content-update.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.consultwebs.com\/lawyer-seo\/google-search-algorithm\/helpful-content-update\/","url":"https:\/\/www.consultwebs.com\/lawyer-seo\/google-search-algorithm\/helpful-content-update\/","name":"Google's Helpful Content Algorithm Update for Law firm Websites - Consultwebs","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.consultwebs.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.consultwebs.com\/lawyer-seo\/google-search-algorithm\/helpful-content-update\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.consultwebs.com\/lawyer-seo\/google-search-algorithm\/helpful-content-update\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.consultwebs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/helpful-content-update.jpg","datePublished":"2022-08-25T20:03:19+00:00","dateModified":"2026-06-17T14:05:22+00:00","description":"Discover the latest helpful content update and its significance for law firm marketing.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.consultwebs.com\/lawyer-seo\/google-search-algorithm\/helpful-content-update\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.consultwebs.com\/lawyer-seo\/google-search-algorithm\/helpful-content-update\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.consultwebs.com\/lawyer-seo\/google-search-algorithm\/helpful-content-update\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.consultwebs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/helpful-content-update.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.consultwebs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/helpful-content-update.jpg","width":800,"height":418},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.consultwebs.com\/lawyer-seo\/google-search-algorithm\/helpful-content-update\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.consultwebs.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"SEO For Lawyers Guide","item":"https:\/\/www.consultwebs.com\/lawyer-seo\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Google Search Algorithm","item":"https:\/\/www.consultwebs.com\/lawyer-seo\/google-search-algorithm\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":4,"name":"Helpful Content Update"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.consultwebs.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.consultwebs.com\/","name":"Consultwebs","description":"","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.consultwebs.com\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.consultwebs.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.consultwebs.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1497549","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.consultwebs.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.consultwebs.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.consultwebs.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.consultwebs.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1497549"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.consultwebs.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1497549\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3377493,"href":"https:\/\/www.consultwebs.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1497549\/revisions\/3377493"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.consultwebs.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/14725"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.consultwebs.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1616104"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.consultwebs.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1497549"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}