Hi readers, welcome to another week of SEO news. How has your week been so far? Have you seen any disruption to your website’s traffic? Do let me know in the comments. Let’s not waste time and dive into the topic we have for today, shall we? 

• Google testing quick read and 5-minute read label 
• A review of Google’s helpful content update 

29/8 – Google testing quick read and 5-minute read label 

Multiple users have reported seeing Google test out the quick read and 5-minute read label. 

Google’s testing of these labels has got webmasters worried. This is because this might cause an unintended penalty for webmasters. Searchers would naturally flock to content that is shorter to find their answers. However, not all niches and topics are best solved by short-form content. 

Secondly, this might shift the creation of new content that is more short-form rather than long-form content. Webmasters want to create shorter content to obtain these labels for their websites. 

A review of Google’s helpful content update

As some of you may already know, Google recently released helpful content update to downrank content created to rank on search engines rather than to help readers. 

This update instantly struck fear into the hearts of webmasters as it was being compared to the likes of the Penguin and Panda updates. However, the impact has thus far been non-existent. 

However, Danny Sullivan, Google’s public search liaison, has responded by saying that the update rollout is still an ongoing process, and it will be a continuing effort on Google’s part to promote helpful content and downgrade content created specifically to rank. 

The End!

That is it for this week’s readers. What do you think about this week’s news? With the average attention span of a person getting shorter, do you think short-form content is the way forward? Let me know in the comments below. 

Updated: 24 April 2024

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