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The latest 2 Google Helpful Content Updates impacted sooo many websites (October 2023, April 2024).

Even Google said: “As of April 19, we’ve completed the rollout of these changes. You’ll now see 45% less low-quality, unoriginal content in search results versus the 40% improvement we expected across this work.” I have highlighted the words “low-quality” and “unoriginal” for the reasons that I will explain at the bottom of the article. **

It’s been more than half a year since the first really impactful update, and many people are stating that the recovery is impossible because there were just a few of them.

But I have 2 news for you: Good and bad.

Good - recovery is possible. I have recovered 3 websites since the beginning of May, and 2 more are in the process of doing so.

Bad - it’s likely more complex than you expect.

Also, sustainable recovery is not something that every website can have without rebuilding the entire website.

If you still hope to get “quick and easy wins”, don’t waste your time.

Disclaimer: All information below is based on my experience and analysis. If you have a different perspective, please share your experience. Also, what worked for me does not mean it will work 100% for you, as there are quite a few factors in play and some of them we can’t measure objectively.

In addition, I will keep my proofs as simple as possible by sticking to 1 argument and 1 screenshot to make the article shorter and less overwhelming.

Buckle up and let’s geeeet started!

The recovery process

How can I prove that I recovered the website?

It’s a screenshot from one of the website’s Google Analytics for the last 12 months, as requested on social media.

For the most skeptical people, here are the keywords from Google Search Console to prove that traffic is not from branded keywords.

I believe that the recovery for websites that don’t have traffic anymore consists of 2 steps.

First, identify the core problem. In other words, “why” your website was affected.

Second, reset the website’s low quality rating assigned by Google.

Why 2 steps?

If you fix the problem, you will still have to wait until the next update because Google needs to collect enough information to update your rating and they update this rating ONLY during updates.

If you still have a considerable amount of traffic coming to the website (ideally not only from Search), then you will likely need just 1 step and wait.

Core problem

There are quite a few theories about what Google targeted with Helpful Content Updates.

Most of them are just theories (I will prove it later), and some are what I believe Google targeted.

I will cover the most widespread theories to shorten the article and then share the solution.

1. Google targeted websites with affiliate links and only content websites monetized by affiliate marketing were affected.

• There is definitely a correlation, but it’s not the main problem.

If you remove affiliate links from the page, you will likely get your traffic back.

Screenshot from one of my test websites:

However, it is highly likely one of the signals but definitely not the only and main one. I think it’s a part of a bigger picture that I will explain later.

Here is the website that was affected that didn’t have affiliate links at all and is an E-Commerce store:

2. You need to reduce the number of “Best” articles.

Nope.

Here is the website that was affected and doesn’t have “Best” pages (I used the same website for simplicity):