As a reminder, with the release of the Google March 2024 core update, the old Google helpful content update is no longer a thing. As we reported, Google has incorporated helpfulness signals into the overall core update, but that old helpful content update is no longer around.

I still see people talking about how this is a helpful content update or that the old helpful content update is simply now part of the core updates. Technically, I believe, Google has probably used elements of the old helpful content update but from my understanding, how Google determines helpfulness in the core system is different from the old helpful content update.

So why have no HCU hit sites seen a recovery yet with this core update? Good question. Maybe this new March core update has stronger signals around what Google considers helpful or not? Maybe the new helpful content aspect of the update has not run yet, as it is still rolling out? Or maybe everything is just broken?

As Glenn Gabe put it well on X, “The old HCU classifier is going away completely. Now multiple systems are assessing the helpfulness of content. I’m saying it looks like the old classifier is still applied as of now.”

Glenn thinks that the old classifer may be still applied until maybe at some point where Google removes it but who knows…

Not sure you understood my point. The old HCU classifier is going away completely. Now multiple systems are assessing the helpfulness of content. I’m saying it looks like the old classifier is still applied as of now. So, G could remove it like it did when Penguin 4 rolled out…

— Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) April 8, 2024

What are your theories?

Forum discussion at X.