Playbook: self-audit for helpful-content signals

Playbook: self-audit for helpful-content signals
If you suspect the helpful content system flattened a site, run this page-by-page pass before rewriting anything:

— Check author bylines: do top losers have a real, verifiable author? Google's guidance explicitly calls out 'who, how, why'.
— Flag 'parasite' patterns: irrelevant topics bolted onto your main niche dilute site focus, per Glenn Gabe's repeated case studies.
— Score first-hand experience: can the page only have been written by someone who used the thing? If not, mark it.
— Audit the SERP-reverse-engineered intros that say nothing in the first 200 words.
— Count affiliate-density per page — review-heavy sites took the hardest hits in analyses by Lily Ray.

Work the worst-performing 20 URLs first; site-wide signals often improve from concentrated cleanup.

One to bookmark: Google's creating helpful content doc — the self-assessment questions map directly to the system's intent.