Google has officially released a Google Helpful Content Feedback Form that webmasters can use to submit feedback about this recent algorithm change.
If you noticed that your website has been affected by this latest Helpful Content Update and do not think it should have been, then this new Feedback Form can be used to communicate directly with Google.
The feedback you can supply about your site includes:
- URL of the affected page
- Query that shows non-ideal results
- Comments about the indexing or ranking change
Google Helpful Content Update Feedback Form
You can access the Google Helpful Content Feedback Form here.
However, there are two important things to consider before making your submission:
- Feedback you provide with this form doesn’t guarantee that your website will reclaim its original ranking position in the SERPs. As noted on the Feedback Form, “While Google does not use these submissions to take direct action, these reports will help us improve the quality of the search results for everyone.”
- This form is not to be used to submit URLs or comments for search results you believe are ranking in the SERPs due to spam, paid links, malware, or other issues that violate Google’s Webmaster Guidelines. Google has a separate form for this type of reporting that you can find here: Report Spam, Paid Links, or Malware.
Google Helpful Content Update Quick Facts
You can get the full details about the Google Helpful Content Update posted earlier on the SEO Chatter blog or read this list of quick facts below to get a general overview of this algorithm change.
- Name: Google Helpful Content Update
- Announcement Date: August 18, 2022.
- Launch Date: August 25, 2022.
- Rollout Timeframe: It can take up to two weeks to fully roll out.
- Purpose: To reward content that takes a people-first approach rather than a search-engine first approach. The Google Helpful Content Update aims to surface higher-quality content in the SERPs that gives visitors a satisfying experience while reducing visibility for content that doesn’t meet visitors’ expectations.
- Search Impact: English searches globally for Google Search only.
- Site Impact: This is a site-wide signal applied to sites. Sites with a higher amount of unhelpful content will be impacted more than sites with lower quanities of unhelpful content. Also, sites may find this signal (or classifier) applied to the entire domain that lasts for a period of months while the algorithm reassesses the helpfulness of its content; meaning that the site must remove (or fix) the unhelpful content to get the classifier dropped from the domain.
- Categories Affected: All website categories will be affected to some degree; however, the following categories of content will experience the most impact: online-educational materials, entertainment, shopping, and tech-related.
Helpful Content Update Feedback Form Summary
In an effort to gain feedback about the Google Helpful Content Update, the company released an official Google Helpful Content Feedback Form that webmasters can use to submit their comments about this recent algorithm change.
Submitting a website’s URL that was affected by the Helpful Content Update doesn’t guarantee a direct action or reassessment of the content, but helps Google improve the quality of the search results for everyone.
