Overview
SEO content, from past to present, and the changes to SEO copywriting
A little while ago, we started this series on the history of the SEO pillars with an article on the history and evolution of technical SEO. Today, we take a look at the second pillar: content. Taking into account the current evolution of Google, and the increasing importance of high-quality content, it’s crucial that we have a good understanding of this pillar.
The Status Quo
The last few big updates to the Google algorithm all revolved around content, and specifically, the quality and relevance of your web texts. The August 2025 spam update for example, focused on things like keyword stuffing and scaled content abuse. And changes from the June core update evaluate the relevance of your text in an attempt to provide Google users with more satisfactory content.
In short, quality over quantity.
Quality isn’t our only concern anymore, so is the rapid evolution of AI. Your web texts should be fit for use by AI search engines, if not, you’ll be left in the dust sooner rather than later. But, the rise of AI does not mean that AI-generated content will help you gain visibility, quite the opposite in fact. But more on that later. Let’s start at the beginning and figure out how it is that we came to the current meaning of this SEO pillar.
Back in Time: Twenty Years Worth of Content Related Updates
The first version of Google, launched in 1998, ranked web pages by means of the PageRank algorithm. PageRank collected and evaluated backlink data. So essentially, link building was more important than a website’s content in the early days of Google. But that was about to change.
Jagger Update
The first big algorithm update that impacted SEO content was the 2005 Jagger update. Jagger created a lot of commotion in the industry for two reasons: it was the first big update since Florida in 2003, and the effects were clearly noticeable. This update focused on 3 factors: content, backlink spam, and cloaking.
Content-wise, Jagger introduced stricter rules regarding duplicate content. More severe sanctions were imposed on internal duplicate content and duplicate content across multiple domains. And whether or not deliberate, the way in which canonical tags worked also changed.
Websites that had seen their rankings drop after Jagger’s rollout, had to make some serious changes to recover.
Vince Update
The next significant update to the content policy only rolled out a few years later, in 2009 to be exact. After having devoted some years to technical factors and backlinks, the Vince update was the start of a focus on high-quality and relevant content.
The Vince update was called the victory of big brands. Why? Because the top 10 search results for highly competitive keywords were suddenly filled with large and well-known brands. What Google called a “small change” to the algorithm (see Matt Cutts’ video), had significant consequences for websites that hadn’t been able to build authority yet.
This update came in response to the countless websites that were spreading incomplete or false information. With Vince, Google took its first step in the fight against that “cesspool” by increasing the importance of authority as a ranking factor.
Who had authority? Large brands.
And how do you build authority? By looking beyond your own website.
In order to recover from the blow that Vince had dealt numerous websites, it was important to build a presence on various online channels and to consistently share high-quality content.
Mayday update
In May of 2010, the next important update to the content policy happened, the Mayday update. Similarly to previous (content) updates, Google’s goal was to provide their users with more relevant and quality websites for each query.
The Mayday update specifically targeted longtail keywords. Essentially, after May 2010, quality information would become more important in queries about niche subjects, and keyword density less so. This way, Google wanted to improve UX and display more relevant results.
This update was ‘lovingly’ called the Mayday update because of its considerable impact on legitimate websites. Not only spam sites were affected by this new policy, but also countless real, hard-working websites, mainly ecommerce, dropped off of SERPs from one day to the next.
Lots of work had to be done to recover their previous positions and visibility. In-depth keyword research was needed in order to find out which longtail keywords were actually relevant to your website. Irrelevant words had to be taken out. Next, the writing could begin… lots of writing. Because the best way to provide relevant, high-quality, and useful information is by simply writing detailed and thorough texts. Looking back at this update, we can see that this was a clear step in the direction of today’s content policy, detailed and unique content that provides users with relevant information.
Panda update
The 2011 Panda update may just be the most well-known Google update related to content. Panda received no less than 28 (!) updates before it was written into the Google Core Algorithm in 2016. There’s a lot to tell about the Panda update, but there are plenty of dedicated articles already, so we’ll stick to the key points.
The Panda update came (partly) in response to some unforeseen results from the Caffeine update. Faster indexation had given rise to so-called content farms, or at least given them a better chance of succeeding. These websites make a living from thin content, texts of low quality and low relevance. And it is that thin content that Google was trying to eradicate through the Panda update.
To minimise Panda’s impact, or to recover lost rankings, thin content had to be completely rewritten. Google said that it wasn’t necessary to delete ‘bad’ content, it would suffice to improve and expand on any thin content, and to make sure that all future articles or pages did align with the new content policy.
Hummingbird update
At the end of 2013, Google launched, in their own words, their biggest update to the algorithm since 2001. Hummingbird was a ‘total rewrite’ of the Google algorithm. That does not mean that it was an entirely new algorithm, but that is was rewritten to perform the same tasks more efficiently. So while Hummingbird affected 90% of all queries, the direct impact was very subtle. I say ‘direct’ impact, because Hummingbird did allow for many big changes that were to come.
One of those changes was conversational search according to Roger Montti. Because even though Hummingbird did not really change anything, it opened the door to later innovations and the evolution of content into the pillar that we know today.
RankBrain update
Two years later, in October 2015, RankBrain was introduced and immediately became the third-most important ranking signal in Google Search. RankBrain isn’t actually a ranking signal, it is a machine learning AI that handles a large number of queries. What’s more, RankBrain can independently make changes to the algorithm based on user behaviour. This was a major turning point in the evolution of the Google algorithm, because from then on, updates would no longer be fully coded by people.
What did this mean for content? The goal of RankBrain was to understand the meaning of queries, and link that meaning to possible synonyms or related queries by means of written language that is incorporated into the algorithm’s vectors.
While there was no optimising to be done for this update, you could (and still can) play into the changes by writing comprehensive and detailed articles or pages. The more (useful) content you provide, the better your chances that Google will link your content to related queries. So essentially, RankBrain made it possible to rank for keywords that are not word for word incorporated in you text.
2018 Core updates
In 2018, Google rolled out three different Core updates with largely the same goal: boost under-rewarded pages and focus more on content quality.
You should know that Google makes changes to the core algorithm every single day. Most of those changes are small and have little to no discernible impact on search results. Core updates are only announced when Google predicts a clear impact, in which case they are usually accompanied by a list of action points to protect or recover your rankings.
Did you see a drop in your rankings after these Core updates? That was most likely the result of other website being rewarded, not because you did anything wrong. So there was no real ‘fix’ in this situation.
Generally, Google advises to focus on creating useful, high-quality content when you see a drop in your rankings after a Core update.
Passage update
As you will have noticed by now, the evolution of content as an SEO pillar is full of algorithm updates you can’t specifically optimise for. The only thing you can do, is to write high-quality texts that are useful to your audience. Another one of this type of update, is the February 2021 Passage update.
This update focused on extremely specific queries with answers that are often hidden in a single sentence. This update made it possible for the algorithm to look at the meaning of individual passages on a page, and link those passages to queries, even if the main subject of the page is something else entirely.
Helpful content update
The August 2022 Helpful Content update was a clear continuation of Google’s efforts against low-quality content because it targeted content that was written for search engines rather than people. Moreover, this update evaluated your website as a whole, unlike previous updates that looked at individual pages. This means that your entire website could lose visibility if a few pages did not stick to the guidelines.
If you were affected by the Helpful Content update, it could take up to a few months before you were able to recover your rankings. You had to prove that you had actually taken a different route and would now provide your users with high-quality content. The message remained the same: quality over quantity.
Advice Concerning AI Generated-Content
This might not be an algorithm update, but it’s still important to SEO content. In February 2023, Google published guidance about AI-generated content. The rapid rise and evolution of AI in search engines had also given rise to many questions and uncertainties. With this guidance, Google tried to clear some things up and reassure marketeers.
What it comes down to, is that you are allowed to use AI in content creation, so long as you stick to the Google spam policy. One element that I would like to highlight is this sentence: “Google’s ranking systems aim to reward original, high-quality content that demonstrates qualities of what we call E-E-A-T: expertise, experience, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness.”
Google states that they reward original content. Current AI however, cannot produce original content. What generative AI does, is collect existing, relevant information and rewrite that into the requested format. To make it unique, you have to add your own thoughts or data to it. So while you can definitely use AI-generated texts on your website, you should never simply copy and paste. We recommend using AI as inspiration and a starting point, but not as a copywriter.
March 2024 Spam Update
March 2024 was a busy month at Google, and as a result, also for online marketeers. This month’s Core update promised to be bigger and more impactful than most previous Core updates. And on top of that, the Helpful Content system was now fully integrated into the Core update system, so any future updates would no longer be individually announced.
An important update to content, was the March 2024 Spam update, specifically the additional guidelines regarding scaled content abuse. Before this update, Google cracked down on large-scale, automatically-produced content that was made purely to rank in search results. These additional guidelines now also targeted scaled content produced by people. Did you not produce any scaled content? In that case you had nothing to fear from this update, or at least this part of the update.
Full Speed Ahead
It is clear from the last few large algorithm updates, and a number of smaller updates, which direction Google is taking: towards high-quality content that was written for people.
It is now more important than ever to take your time and spend enough effort on new content. You can just quickly put together a short text and expect it to perform well, especially if it simply re-uses existing information without containing any new thoughts or data.
Ever since the Mayday update was rolled out in 2010, almost every content related update focused on one thing: high-quality, relevant content. And taking into account the current AI-evolution, we don’t see that changing any time soon. People are increasingly looking for content written by people, people with relevant experience and expertise.
Our advice is to focus on quality over quantity! Obvious I would say seeing how this pillar has evolved in the last few years. Don’t let the time and effort it takes put you off of writing a detailed, comprehensive text. It’s much better to publish a good text once or twice a month, than to post something meaningless every single week.
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