Google Revises Helpful Content Documentation: Main Content Takes Centre Stage

For SEOs and website owners, the immediate takeaway is this: it is worth reading the Google documentation again carefully. We summarise the key points below.

What Google means by Main Content

Google defines Main Content as any part of a page that directly contributes to the page fulfilling its purpose. This is deliberately broad. It does not refer solely to the body text of an article, but to everything a user actually visits the page for:

• Text, images and videos

• Interactive elements such as calculators and tools

• User-generated contributions, such as reviews or comments

• Page titles and headings that summarise the topic

Everything else — navigation, advertising, teasers and footers — does not count. The question Google is asking is therefore quite simple: how good is the part of the page that brought someone there in the first place?

Marie Haynes also reads into the revision a recommendation to place the actual answer at the top, rather than making users scroll through lengthy introductions. This aligns with what we see in practice: pages that get to the point quickly perform better. That applies to traditional search just as much as to AI Overviews and AI Mode.

Four characteristics by which Google judges good Main Content

Google identifies four qualities that determine the standard of Main Content. None of them is new, but they have never been set out this clearly side by side.

An important note on skill and experience: Google does not always require formal qualifications. For many topics, lived, first-hand experience counts for more than a credential. For health, finance and safety topics, however, the bar is set considerably higher.

On the subject of AI, Google maintains its established position. Using AI is permitted; it becomes problematic when content is produced primarily for rankings and no one checks what is published. Marie Haynes explicitly flags unverified AI hallucinations as a risk in her analysis. Publishing AI-generated text without fact-checking therefore violates two of the four characteristics at once: effort and accuracy.

Fictitious authors are a quality problem

Google is more explicit than before on the question of authorship. It recommends clear author attributions with background information about the individual. Fabricated profiles — AI-generated portrait photos, false names or invented credentials — are treated by Google as deception that undermines trust in the entire site.

This is a logical position. According to Google, trust is the most important component of E-E-A-T, and anyone who misleads on the question of "who wrote this?" will not be believed on anything else either. The sites most affected are those that publish content at scale using invented expert personas.

Tabs and accordions count as Main Content

A question that has been debated in SEO circles for years now has a fairly clear answer: content in tabs and expandable sections counts as Main Content when it directly serves the purpose of the page. Google cites product specifications and user reviews as examples.

The critical factor is that users can actually find and open that content. Marie Haynes recommends verifying this with heatmaps. An accordion that nobody expands helps neither the user nor the ranking. Important information should therefore be placed where it is immediately visible.

Why this documentation is more than a best-practice guide

The most interesting part of Marie Haynes's analysis is her broader interpretation. In her view, the industry underestimates this document. Google does not work with hard-coded rules; instead, it trains machine-learning systems to recognise helpful content. The foundation for that training is provided by human Quality Raters, who evaluate pages using precisely these kinds of criteria.

Following this logic, the documentation does not merely describe what Google would like to see — it describes what the systems are looking for. Aligning your content with it means optimising not for a single factor, but for the objective Google is training its models to achieve.

Haynes connects this with a forecast: Google has announced Gemini 4 Argon as a new foundation model, and more capable models have historically tended to precede significant ranking shifts. She therefore anticipates a Core Update in the near future. Importantly, this is her assessment, not an announcement from Google. As is so often the case, Google has not indicated when or to what extent the next major adjustment will arrive.

What you should do now

The revision is not a cause for alarm. It is, however, a good prompt to assess your own content with a clear head. It makes sense to start with the pages that generate the most organic traffic:

• Identify the Main Content: What is the part of the page that users come for? Is it at the top, or buried after three paragraphs of introduction?

• Find interchangeable content: Which pages simply repeat what ten others already say? These are the pages that lack original data, original examples or an original perspective.

• Review AI-assisted content: Check every figure, every quote and every source before a piece goes live. For existing content, a retrospective fact-check is worthwhile.

• Tidy up author attributions: Name real people with verifiable backgrounds. Remove fabricated profiles.

• Audit tabs and accordions: Use heatmaps or event tracking to check whether users are opening hidden content. Place important information visibly where necessary.

• Demonstrate expertise appropriate to the topic: For YMYL topics, show professional qualifications; for experience-based topics, demonstrate your own practical knowledge.

Anyone who has already lost visibility following a Core Update should not expect a rapid recovery. Improvements to Main Content do take effect, but typically only with one of the next major updates.

Sources

• Marie Haynes: Google changed their helpful content guidelines to emphasize good "Main Content", 2 October 2026

• Google Search Central: Creating helpful, reliable, people-first content, last updated 1 October 2026