August 2022 helpful content update: dates, what changed and what to do

What Google changed#

Google announced the helpful content update on 18 August 2022 as part of an effort “to ensure people see more original, helpful content written by people, for people.” Its Search Central post said the update “introduces a new site-wide signal that we consider among many other signals for ranking web pages.”

Google said the signal is set by a fully automated machine-learning classifier and is not a manual action or a spam action. Because it works at site level, any content on sites with “relatively high amounts of unhelpful content overall” became less likely to perform well, if better content existed elsewhere. The signal is weighted, and the classifier runs continuously on new and existing sites.

When it rolled out#

Google said the update would start the following week and that the rollout could take up to two weeks. The Search Status Dashboard says the incident began on 25 August 2022 and that the rollout was complete as of 9 September 2022, a 15-day run in US/Pacific time. The entries are timestamped 22 March 2023, when Google added ranking updates to the dashboard.

No other confirmed update overlapped it. The September 2022 core update began on 12 September 2022, three days after this one finished, so check both date ranges before attributing a change.

What is known about its impact#

Google published no impact figures. Its only statement on effect is qualitative: Google’s announcement said testing found the update “will especially improve results related to online education, as well as arts and entertainment, shopping and tech-related content.” The update covered English searches globally to begin with. Treat any percentage attributed to it as a third-party estimate.

What site owners should do#

Google’s post and its helpful content documentation give the guidance:

• Answer Google’s people-first questions: an intended audience, first-hand expertise, a primary purpose, and readers who leave having learned enough to reach their goal.
• Check the warning signs of search engine-first content, such as producing lots of content on many topics, extensive automation, or writing to a word count.
• Remove unhelpful content. Google said doing so could help the rankings of your other content.
• Expect a lag. Google said the signal may apply over a period of months and stops once the classifier determines unhelpful content has not returned in the long term.

How to check whether it affected you#

In Search Console, compare clicks for the week before 25 August 2022 with the week starting 16 September 2022, one week after completion. The September 2022 core update was rolling out by then, so repeat the comparison with the week starting 3 October 2022 and see whether the change held. The signal is site-wide, so look at the whole site’s trend before individual pages. The Google Algorithm Updates timeline lists every confirmed update with its dates.

Related updates#

• The December 2022 helpful content update was the next one, extended to all languages.
• The September 2022 core update began three days after it finished.
• The July 2022 product reviews update was the confirmed update before it.