Google recently launched an update to its algorithm designed to reward companies for publishing high-quality, helpful and relevant content. The update is adorably named: The Helpful Content Update.

As the CTO of a website design agency in Bangkok, Thailand, I have to constantly keep up with the ever-changing Google algorithm to ensure our clients stay at the forefront of their clients’ minds.

But let’s start from the basics. Google’s purpose is to help us all to find information when we search by indexing content and prioritizing what they determine to be the most relevant to our search. This indexing is done by robots, and those robots are constantly looking for signs of relevance – from time on the page, to loading speed, to keyword optimization.

In the past, many websites have tried to publish low-effort content designed just to rank on Google. Worse yet, some websites would simply copy-paste stolen content and try to pass it off as their own. While duplicated content was already punished by previous updates, the Helpful Content Update goes further by identifying content that was simply re-written, using an AI automated tool.

This new update will rank websites in their totality based on the quality and helpfulness of their content. Note that this is a domain metric as opposed to a page metric.

This means at the very least that your service pages need to be well written and original.

But it is perhaps even more important if you are actively blogging or producing thought leadership content on your site. Unhelpful content can cause your website to lose credibility and fall down the Google rankings, so it’s important that you don’t only compile existing insights but also add your own perspective.

So what can you do about it? At Lexicon, we recommend focusing on quality over quantity. Invest in well-written content that is designed to help your audience succeed, while also being optimized for search engine visibility.

Perhaps even more importantly, figure out your 360-degree content strategy and use your website as the host for all content. Then, turn your written pillar content into social media-friendly videos, animations, infographics and quote images.

Leverage across social media with your multimedia content, and link it all back to your website, thus showing Google how helpful and relevant your content is to your target audience. Of course, you may need the help of an expert video production agency in Bangkok along the way.

The key is to know your audience and help them at every touch point. If you do that sincerely, Google will reward your helpfulness.