What is the difference between blog writing and content writing?

Difference between blog writing and content writing

Difference between blog writing and content writing

I’m answering this question because people seem to be asking it on Quora what is the difference between blog writing and content writing, otherwise, there is a very thin line between being a blog writer and a content writer.

Every content writer can be a blog writer but can a writer providing blog writing services also provide content writing?

This is a tricky question.

I don’t mean to undermine any form of writing, but in terms of increasing expertise, I would like to arrange different categories of writing as

  • Blog writing
  • Content writing
  • Copywriting

I will tell you why.

Right now, on an average I am working with 15 content writers.

Some of them are very good at blog writing.

Some do good content writing.

None can do copywriting.

Copywriting services are needed for writing the main website content.

It is different from merely writing content or blog posts.

Not a single writer has been able to satisfy my clients when it comes to writing content for websites.

But for this blog post, I’m solely focusing on blog writing and content writing.

Difference between blog writing and content writing

Blog writing can be a habit.

It can be a passion.

You can write a personal blog sharing your opinions on politics, environment, literature, philosophy, and any other topic that catches your fancy and inspires you to write regularly.

Blog writing is less formal and more conversational.

A blog can be written by a person who is not a trained writer and still make a good impact.

Blog writing is not a profession whereas, content writing is.

It doesn’t mean you can provide content writing services and not blog writing services.

I offer blog writing services to many clients.

Just like content writing, blogging can be professional too.

Almost every business that has a website also has a blog.

Businesses hire content writing services for blog writing on regular basis.

Blogging is good for maintaining buzz around your business.

It improves search engine rankings because Google prefers blogs over conventional websites.

This is because blogs have fresh content, and they are updated regularly.

Most of the content on conventional websites is static.

There is really something fresh to offer to Google from websites.

Whereas when it comes to blogs, since they are constantly being updated, there is always something new to offer.

Therefore, most of the businesses and entrepreneurs try to publish a blog regularly to improve their search engine rankings.

Blogs can be written on different topics.

Every subtopic can have its own unique blog post.

This gives people an opportunity to write and publish lots of content.

Sometimes quality of writing is compromised but still, much benefit can be derived as long as the readers find value in the writing.

To quickly wrap up, a content writer can write a blog post but not every blog writer can write content for websites.

Since I have been writing professional content for the past 17 years, I can quickly wear different hats and provide my services as a blog writer, a content writer, and a copywriter.

Compared to blog writing, content writing is formal.

When you are writing content for the main website, you also need to have copywriting skills because your writing is supposed to generate business for the website owners.

10 copywriting tips: Become a better copywriter instantly

10 copywriting tips for becoming a better copywriter

10 copywriting tips for becoming a better copywriter

Want to become a better copywriter instantly? These copywriting tips can help you.

10 copywriting tips explained in this blog post include:

  1. Learn to write irresistible headlines
  2. Write for search intent
  3. Make an emotional connection
  4. Write short sentences and paragraphs
  5. Avoid using jargon and difficult words
  6. Research your topic thoroughly
  7. Focus on advantages and deliverability
  8. Make every sentence count
  9. Be open to editing and revising
  10. Don’t obsess over SEO

Copywriting is a term that is heavily used in advertising.

The writers who write marketing literature and advertisements are called copywriters.

But these days the term is also used for writers who write for websites and blogs.

That’s because just like in advertisements, when you are writing for your website or business blog, you need to convert visitors into paying customers and clients.

In fact, whenever you write to convince, whether it is a web page, a landing page, a blog post, a case study, or an email, you are doing copywriting.

You are writing to convince.

In that sense, everyone who writes to convince, is a copywriter.

You may like to read: 13 copywriting rules I use when writing copy for my clients

What is the difference between copywriting and content writing?

Content writing is mostly informational writing.

Of course, you need to write well.

Even in content writing conversion matters.

But content writing is mostly done to provide educational and informational content to the visitors so that they have a reason to visit your website or blog repeatedly.

Content writing is extensively used for SEO purposes.

Copywriting, along with informing and educating, also sells.

It has a clear call-to-action.

The end purpose of a piece of copywriting is to sell or to achieve the call-to-action.

Your call-to-action doesn’t always have to be selling.

It can be downloading an e-book.

It can be subscribing to your newsletter.

It can be signing up for a seminar.

It can be using a free product.

Whatever you want to achieve to establish a long-term relationship with your prospective and existing customers and clients, comes in the ambit of call-to-action.

Good copywriting skills are essential for

  • Clearly communicating your brand message.
  • Improving your CTR (click through ratio).
  • Engaging visitors in a constructive manner.
  • Creating value driven content.
  • Improving search engine rankings (in the context of writing for websites and blogs).
  • Attracting more visitors to your website and blog.
  • Keeping your prospective customers and clients proactively engaged in the long-term.

Want to become a better copywriter instantly?

Here are 10 copywriting tips you can implement instantly.

1. Learn to write irresistible headlines

It is your headline that draws people to your remaining text.

When I talk about headlines, I refer to the title of your web page or blog post, the main headline that appears at the top of your web page or blog post, and in the context of writing emails, your subject line.

These are highly important pieces of content.

The web page or the blog post title is called the meta title.

It shows up in search results.

If it is not captivating, if it does not convey the right message, people don’t click your link.

If they don’t click your link, they don’t come to your web page, and if they don’t come to your web page, there is a little chance of them becoming paying customers or clients.

You may like to read: 8 types of headlines you can use in copywriting

There is a reason why sometimes I differentiate between the meta title, the headline and the email subject line.

Your meta title must be less than or equal to 60 characters because this is the length that appears on Google search results.

With the headline there is no such restriction.

The headline appears on your own page.

You can make it as long as you want.

The same goes for the email subject line.

You cannot have a very long email subject line because then it won’t fit in the inbox preview panel.

For meta title and email subject line, your headline must be as few characters as possible, and at the same time, contain the main phrase.

For example, the main title of this blog post contains “copywriting tips” because this is the main intention of this blog post.

Here are a few things to keep in mind when writing your headline

  • Include the phrase that represents your subject matter.
  • Include the hook (become a better copywriter).
  • Use simple, positive language.
  • Be provocative.
  • Use Power words.
  • Make an emotional connection.

2. Write for search intent

Search intent is the intention with which your target readers search Google (or any other search engine).

Are they simply looking for information?

Do they want to navigate to a website?

Do they want to do research before purchasing something or subscribing to a service?

Do they want to purchase a certain product and for that, they’re looking for more information?

All these are different intentions.

You may want to read: How effective content writing and searcher intent are interrelated

Even subtle differences can send your copywriting efforts to an entirely different direction that you don’t want to pursue.

Whether you are copywriting for yourself or for your client, carefully understand the search intent you want to target and then write accordingly.

This will help you become a more effective and better copywriter.

For example, what search intent am I targeting through this blog post?

I am targeting people who are searching for copywriting tips with an intention of becoming better copywriters.

3. Make an emotional connection

It is suggested that power words be used for making emotional connection through copywriting.

This Entrepreneur article claims that research has shown that adds that touch readers’ emotions are more successful than adds that touch their intellect.

The same applies to copywriting.

Most, if not all, buying decisions are emotion-based.

In terms of copywriting, emotions can be divided into 6 broad categories:

  • Loyalty
  • Confidence
  • Fear
  • Anger
  • Curiosity
  • Greed

You must have come across samples of copywriting that offer you a “bargain” or a “cheap” offer, or promising to “double your investment”.

These are all appealing to your greedy side.

Words such as “sneak peek”, “top secret”, “members only”, and “classified” make you curious.

Visit this Optinmonster link to go through 700 power words that you can use to make an emotional connection through your copywriting.

They have categorized these words under basic emotions such as curiosity, greed, anger, lust, vanity, and so on.

4. Write short sentences and paragraphs

This is particularly important when you are copywriting for web, and I have observed I have mentioned this copywriting tip in almost every blog post on the subject.

Short and simple sentence is also good for your SEO.

Although search engine algorithms are becoming quite advanced, it is still difficult for them to analyse compound and complex sentences.

Simple sentences are easier to analyse.

They help you improve your search engine rankings.

Your readers also find reading small sentences easier and meditative.

The same goes for paragraphs.

You must have noticed on some websites that they have single-sentence paragraphs.

They may seem odd in the beginning, but after a while, you find that they are easier to read.

Especially on mobile phones.

These days all my paragraphs are single-sentence.

If you find it odd, at the most, use two sentences in a paragraph.

Not more.

Remember that many people read your copy on their mobile phones.

Even marginally big paragraph will cover half the screen.

This can be distracting and intimidating.

Short sentences, divided in short paragraphs make it easier to read on mobile phones.

5. Avoid using jargon and difficult words

Again, I have written about this copywriting tip multiple times.

Jargon is a set of industry-specific words.

Jargon words are known to people within a profession, or an industry and they are mostly not known to the outsiders.

My rule of thumb is, use jargon words when you are copywriting for B2B purposes and avoid using them when you are writing for B2C.

When visiting technology websites, you must have come across expressions like “paradigm shift”, “bleeding edge” and “bandwidth”.

As much as possible, avoid using such clichés.

As a trained copywriter your vocabulary is much better than an average person.

If you understand “ubiquitous” it doesn’t mean that the person reading your copy also understands the word.

Use common words.

Do some research on Google to find out what type of search queries people submit and then use the language in those search queries.

In the above screenshot, as you can see that when I partially enter copywriting tips without hitting the enter key, Google gives me the suggestions of the search queries people normally use after copywriting tips.

In the below screenshot, after hitting the enter . Key, when I scroll to the bottom of the Google search results page, it gives me the suggestions of the search queries people often use with “copywriting tips”.

Such research can help you decide what words to use when writing copy.

6. Research your topic thoroughly

The more you research, the more convincing will be your copywriting.

When you are writing about the product, read about it as much as possible.

Read about the competitors.

Read why competitors are better.

Read why the product you are writing about is better than the competitors.

Study the customer profiles.

Gather industry data.

Although I’m giving the suggestions, I also understand that if you are writing for a client, every client has a limited budget and you cannot spend much time on research.

But if you are writing for your own website, leave no stone unturned.

Don’t assume that you know everything about your target audience.

7. Focus on advantages and deliverability

Trained and experienced copywriters focus on the benefits and what the product delivers rather than on its features.

This Hubspot post describes the difference between features and benefits nicely.

You may say that this headphone is wireless – this is a feature.

What is the benefit?

No more tangled cords.

You may say that an air fryer comes with a removable basket – this is a feature.

The benefit is that it is easier to clean after using.

No matter how great the set of features are in a product, ultimately, it is a set of benefits that prompts people to buy a product.

People don’t subscribe for a tool like Grammarly because it may have 50 features; they subscribe to it because they don’t want to commit grammar and structural mistakes and be embarrassed because of that.

How does your product or service make a consumer’s life easy?

I’m not saying completely ignore the features, but when copywriting, give more stress to benefits and what your product or service delivers.

8. Make every sentence count.

In many copywriting books you will read:

The job of your main headline is to make people read the first sentence of your first paragraph.

The job of the first sentence of the first paragraph is to make people read the second sentence of your copy.

This goes on.

Every sentence has a purpose: make the reader read the next sentence.

Just as every sentence has the capability to draw your readers into your copy, every sentence can also send your visitors away by making them feel clueless and directionless.

Therefore, get rid of sentences that are not needed.

Don’t say something repeatedly just to increase the word count.

Make every sentence special.

9. Be open to editing and revising

Most of the word processors these days do half the proofreading for you.

They can catch spelling mistakes.

They can catch grammar mistakes.

They even tell you if there is no subject verb agreement.

Hence, when I say that you should revise and proofread what you are writing, I’m talking about the structure and flow of your document.

Can sentences be shortened?

Can you include more data?

Can you remove difficult and redundant words?

Can you move chunks of text up or down for better flow?

Can you remove portions that are not needed?

Can you add another subheading?

All these things can be taken care of during editing and revising.

10. Don’t obsess over SEO

SEO copywriting is essential.

It means striking a balance between writing for search engines and writing for humans.

Mistakenly, many copywriters get carried away with writing for search engines and in the process, completely ignoring the human readers.

Write for your human readers first.

It doesn’t mean you ignore your keywords.

Throughout this post I have used the main keywords for the post: “copywriting tips” and “better copywriter”.

The new Google “Helpful Content” update algorithm is going to penalise websites that focus more on search engine optimization and less on publishing relevant, human centric and helpful content.

You should write human-centric copy not just because Google demands that, it is also important for your conversion rate.

Unless your copywriting makes an impact that positively affects people, you can’t become a better copywriter.

These are some copywriting tips that can help you become a better copywriter within a few hours.

You can also implement some long-term practices that will help you develop as a copywriter gradually, such as

  • Develop the habit of knowing your product thoroughly.
  • Practice copywriting every day.
  • Learn from the masters and other prominent copywriters.
  • Understand the industry for which you write your copy.
  • Focus more on people and less on your copywriting style.
  • Empathise with the readers.
  • Read good books on copywriting.

 

The headline analyzer tool that I’m using these days

Using a headline analyzer tool

Using a headline analyzer tool

Does a headline analyzer tool really help?

I’m a slacker when it comes to using writing tools.

I have never used text analyzer tools.

The headline analyzer tool that I recently started using was sent to me by one of my clients and she insisted that I use the tool to come up with better headlines.

I’m not used to analyzing headlines because either most of the topics are sent to me by the clients (which ultimately become the headlines), or the clients simply love the headline suggestions that I send them.

This particular client recommended a headline analyzer tool and insisted that I run every headline that I create for her through this tool.

Headline analyzer screenshot

Headline analyzer screenshot

The above screenshot shows the headline analyzer analyzing one of my recent blog posts.

It gives the overall headline score.

Then it gives the sub-scores for readability, SEO, and sentiment.

As recommended by the headline tool, the headline must be easily readable.

It must appeal to a wider audience and hence, words should be chosen accordingly.

It also uses the Flesch-Kincaid reading ease score to tell you how easy it is to read your headline.

The higher the score is, the easier it is.

After the readability score it gives you the SEO score.

I personally believe there is no sure shot way of coming up with the best SEO headline.

I believe in using your main keywords and a catchy language so that it prompts people to click your link when it appears in search results.

The more people click your link, the better become your rankings.

The headline analyzer counts the number of words, the number of characters, and some other random factors to calculate the SEO score.

Then it shows you the sentiment.

It counts the number of positive words and negative words and then counts the sentiment accordingly.

Should you use a headline analyzer tool?

It depends.

I often find analyzer tools constraining.

Once I had an SEO analyzer tool.

Most of the time I was more interested in seeing the “green” signal than focusing on what I wanted to write.

The same happens with a headline analyzer tool.

If you think that a headline analyzer tool is a needless distraction, don’t use it.

Use an analyzer only when you don’t want to rely on your own judgement.

This also goes with grammar analyzers and text analyzers.

Sometimes they are so interfering that it becomes almost impossible to write.

6 tips for writing meaningful blog posts

Tips on writing a meaningful blog post

Tips on writing a meaningful blog post

This blog post talks about tips on how to write meaningful and captivating blog posts that are human-centric.

The main points covered in this blog include

  1. Write down the purpose of your current blog post
  2. Keep your title, headline and the text, aligned
  3. Do enough research to make your blog posts authoritative
  4. Write an outline first
  5. Don’t unnecessarily stretch your blog
  6. Make your blog post easily readable

In my previous post I wrote about Google’s “helpful content” algorithm update.

Once this update is active, websites that focus more on search engine rankings and less on the relevancy and quality of content, will lose their rankings.

If search engine rankings from Google matter to you, then you must write and publish content (that also includes blog posts) that is relevant to your readers.

This means writing meaningful blog posts that solve a definite purpose and deliver value to the visitors.

What is the purpose of publishing blog posts?

Search engine traffic matters.

I will be frank here: most of the clients who approach me to write their blog posts have search engine optimization as their first most priority.

Yes, as they read more about Google algorithms, they understand the importance of quality and relevance of their content and hence, they want to publish meaningful blog posts.

But by the end of the day, their primary objective of publishing blog posts is to cover enough topics to improve their search engine visibility, or SEO.

Even Google must know that websites need search engine traffic to get business.

For example, if someone needs a blog writer, he or she is going to search for “looking for a blog writer for my business” on Google.

For this person to find my link, I must publish a web page or blog post describing my blog writing services.

Therefore, to an extent, one needs to write in a manner that makes it easier for Google to make sense of the content and then rank it accordingly.

In the realistic world, there are two reasons why businesses publish blog posts:

  • To give visitors a valid reason to visit the website or the blog as often as possible and through that, become familiar with the website and what it offers.
  • Improve search engine rankings.

Google prefers blogs (or websites) that have lots of content.

When you have covered multiple topics in your niche, it gives you content depth.

It conveys to Google that you have, sort of, developed an expertise on the topic, and therefore, your content should be highlighted for related search terms.

These are the reasons why businesses publish regular blog posts.

What I often suggest to my clients is use the language that is used by the target audience.

This automatically optimizes the blog content.

Tips on writing meaningful blog posts

In the context of writing your blog posts, you first need to understand and acknowledge what “meaningful” stands for you.

Google defines meaningful content as content that provides appropriate answers to the questions people ask.

When people don’t immediately leave your blog post and they read a major portion of it, it indicates that they have found what they were looking for.

They are deriving value out of it.

They get the solution they are looking for.

They can understand and read your blog comfortably.

You genuinely mean to impart useful and relevant information through your blog posts.

Listed below are some tips you can use to write meaningful blog posts for your blog.

1. Write down the purpose of your current blog post

This is a two-pronged approach: your blog post must have a purpose from your perspective and from the perspective of your readers.

What do YOU want to achieve through publishing a blog post and making your readers read it?

What should your readers achieve or accomplish once they have gone through your blog post?

Of course, there is the obvious objective that you want the maximum number of visitors to turn your paying customers and clients.

But this isn’t how the real-world works.

Every blog post must have a singular purpose.

For example, the purpose of this blog post is to share with you my knowledge of how to write meaningful blog posts.

When you implement these tips, my purpose is that you should be able to publish your own meaningful blog posts or even if you hire me as your blog writer, you should have an idea of how I will be writing your blog posts.

Writing an introduction may help you remain focused.

In the introduction you can write why you are writing the blog post and what you want to deliver to your readers.

You may like to read: What is blog post introduction and how to write a great one?

2. Keep your title, headline and the text, aligned

Click bait headlines are frowned upon by Google, and much more after the recent update.

There is a difference between your blog title and your blog headline.

Your blog title is what appears in search results as a highlighted hypertext that people click to visit your website or blog.

The job of your blog post title is to bring people from the search engines to your blog or website.

The headline is the big text that appears at the top of your blog post.

This is the name of your current blog post.

Ideally it appears within the <h1></h1> tags.

The job of your headline is to present a compelling reason to your visitors to read your blog post further.

When I say there must be an alignment between your title, headline and the main text, what I mean is, don’t mislead people into reading something that does not exist.

I again come back to this blog post: my purpose here is to share blog writing tips with you.

I’m not promoting my services.

I’m not promoting an affiliate product (although, AdSense ads appear, they are automatic and they appear with every blog post here).

The sole purpose of this blog post is to adhere to the objective of the headline: tips on writing meaningful blog posts.

3. Do enough research to make your blog posts authoritative

If you are a big agency or an established consultant, you can conduct your own research and publish the data.

If not, there are many authoritative websites that give you authoritative data.

What I mean to say is, always use data and numbers instead of random expressions.

For example, instead of saying “millions of blog posts are publish on WordPress every month” you can say “70 million blog posts are published on WordPress every month” and then link to the source.

As of 2022, there are 600 million blogs on the Internet, worldwide.

Your readers find numbers reassuring.

They are double reassured when they find out that you have taken these numbers from authoritative websites.

It also tells your readers that you make an effort when writing an awesome blog post for them.

4. Write an outline first

An outline helps you a lot if you are working on a longer blog post of around 2000 words.

You may like to read: 6 steps to writing the perfect blog post outline

Writing an outline renders clarity to your blog post.

It makes your blog post readable.

It streamlines its flow.

An outline makes sure that you don’t miss anything important.

It is basically the order of your topics – one beneath the other.

An outline helps you keep your thoughts organized.

It helps you build a narrative.

It is not necessary that you write an outline of your current blog post every time, but if you build a habit of writing an outline before writing a blog post, in the long run it will benefit you a lot.

5. Don’t unnecessarily stretch your blog post

Google says there is no correlation between your search engine rankings and the number of words you use to write your blog posts (source).

Are you writing to a particular word count because you’ve heard or read that Google has a preferred word count? (No, we don’t).

Many Internet marketers advise you to write huge blog posts like containing 2000+ words.

To achieve this, many bloggers cram their blog posts with lots of additional information that is not relevant to the topic the user has searched for.

Instead, create highly focused blog posts dealing with a single topic.

Yes, you can give some background information.

But if a blog post can be written in 500 words, don’t use 2000 words.

People find so much information overwhelming.

They don’t even read such long blog posts.

They leave midway.

Isn’t it better to write just 500 words that makes it easier for people to read and derive value from your blog post?

6. Make your blog post easily readable

Divide various sections under headings and subheadings.

Write short sentences capturing one idea in one sentence.

Avoid using complex sentences.

Use bulleted points whenever you can.

If possible, use single-sentence paragraphs.

Link to other relevant sections of your blog or website instead of repeating your content.

Two types of people read your blog posts:

Those who quickly scan.

Those who read completely, even the finer text.

You format your blog post for both types of readers.

Use simple language – preferably language used by your readers.

Avoid using complex words.

Don’t use passive voice much.

Most of the people may be reading your blog posts on a mobile phone.

It is easier to read smaller sentences and words on mobile phones.

If they find it difficult to read your blog post, even if your blog post is meaningful, mentally they will get distracted and exhausted and stop reading.

They may be in a state of distraction.

They may not have enough time or patience to read your blog post completely, sentence by sentence.

They should be able to understand what you are trying to communicate by simply going through the headings and subheadings, or at the most, including the bulleted points.

These are a few tips you can use to write meaningful and relevant blog posts.

As Google rolls out its update, it will become increasingly important that you deliver real value to your human readers and focus less on “search engine optimization hacks”.

Simply focus on delivering value in the language people use, and the SEO part should be taken care of on its own.

New Google ‘Helpful Content’ update will benefit websites with quality content

Google announces the new helpful content algorithm update

Google announces the new helpful content algorithm update

Google is constantly updating its search algorithm to put more emphasis on human-centric content.

The recent Google update is being termed as one of the most significant changes in over a decade.

We all know that there are many websites that publish content simply to draw search engine traffic.

They don’t concentrate on quality.

They simply rehash content from other websites to publish web pages and blog posts extremely fast, get search engine traffic, and generate ad revenue.

Although legally there is nothing wrong in publishing low quality content, but it harms Google’s interest.

If people are constantly finding low quality content in search results, they will get frustrated and stop using the search engine and worse, they may move to a search engine that provides them relevant results.

What is Google’s “Helpful Content” algorithm update?

Google announced the new algorithm update in a tweet

 

It basically devalues content merely written for search engines.

As a professional content writer and copywriter, I always advise that more focus should be on writing and publishing human-centric content.

Yes, writing content in a search engine friendly format is necessary so that it is easier for crawlers to crawl your content, index it, and appropriately rank it, but ultimately, it is the human readers who consume your content.

You may like to read: SEO content writing: Should you write content for robots or humans?

The aim of the new “Helpful Content” update is to put more emphasis on finding high-quality content that is

  • Original
  • Relevant
  • Solves the true purpose of the search query

The new update will be rolled out within two weeks (I’m writing this on August 20, 2022).

Once it is active, it will severely downgrade the content that is merely written to generate search engine traffic.

The new Google algorithm update will raise the rankings of content written for people (humans) and lower the rankings of the content primarily written for SEO.

Unlike some algorithm updates that target specific kind of pages, the impact of this update will be sitewide.

It means, if you have been publishing low quality content, the new Google update will impact all pages of your website.

What does Google suggest?

  • According to this link from Google:
  • Focus on people-first content
  • Avoid creating content for search engines first

Google further suggests some remedial measures

Any content — not just unhelpful content — on sites determined to have relatively high amounts of unhelpful content overall is less likely to perform well in Search, assuming there is other content elsewhere from the web that’s better to display. For this reason, removing unhelpful content could help the rankings of your other content.

How to focus more on human-first content?

The best way is to ask yourself, does your content help someone?

Are you answering genuine questions?

Are you providing solutions that can solve people’s problems?

The new “Helpful Content” algorithm update will be favourably evaluating websites with vertical content depth.

What is that?

Content that is more aligned with the central topic of a website.

For example, the central topic of my website is content writing and copywriting.

I’m also shifting the focus towards general digital marketing that also includes blog posts on search engine optimization, email marketing, content marketing, and social media marketing.

These are my focus areas.

But what if I publish content on mobile app development?

Does it help my core audience?

What about a list of best SaaS accounting applications?

Is the topic relevant to the central theme of my website?

No.

Such content, and websites publishing such unfocused content will be downgraded.

What does Google suggest?

Ask the following questions before you write and publish content to make it human-first content

  • Have you built an audience for your website and does your content solves its purpose?
  • When writing content, do you have first-hand experience and depth of knowledge about the product or service you are describing?
  • Do people find answers to their questions when they come to your website from Google?

Google also suggests avoiding

Writing and publishing content that focuses more on search engines and less on humans.

Producing lots of content on unrelated topics merely to attract search engine traffic?

Using automation tools to extract and produce content on different topics.

Simply rehashing content from other websites without adding much value for your own opinion.

Focusing on word count rather than the value you are delivering.

Publishing on a niche topic just because it is lucrative in terms of search engine traffic.

Interestingly, according to this Techcrunch analysis, one of the biggest reasons behind this “Helpful Content” algorithm update might be that 40% of young people use TikTok or Instagram to find their favorite restaurant or an eating joint, instead of Google Search or Google Maps.

Along with this update, Google will also launch a series of updates to make it easier to find helpful and in-depth reviews in search results.

This Search Engine Journal update says that the new Google “Helpful Content” update will be activated on 25 August, 2022.