Google's Helpful Content Update (HCU) is a significant shift in SEO that prioritizes "people-first" content – meaning content created to genuinely help and inform users, rather than solely to rank in search engines. In March 2024, the HCU was integrated into Google's core ranking algorithm, meaning its principles are continuously at play in determining search rankings.

Creating HCU-proof content means focusing on:

Quality and Depth: Providing comprehensive, accurate, and insightful information.

Page Experience: Ensuring fast loading times, mobile-friendliness, and easy navigation.

E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness): Demonstrating credibility and reliability of the content source and creator.

User-Centricity: Addressing user intent, answering their questions thoroughly, and avoiding content that feels generic or created solely for SEO.

How ChatGPT and Custom GPTs Can Help
While ChatGPT can be a powerful tool for content creation, it's crucial to use it strategically to avoid generating "AI-sounding" or unhelpful content, which the HCU aims to penalize. Custom GPTs offer a way to fine-tune ChatGPT for specific SEO tasks, helping to produce content that aligns with HCU principles.

Here's how ChatGPT and Custom GPTs can assist in creating HCU-proof content:

Keyword Research and Intent Analysis: ChatGPT can help brainstorm semantically related terms, long-tail variations, and keyword clusters. A Custom GPT can be trained to analyze search queries, identify user intent, and even suggest content ideas that truly address user needs.

Content Outlining and Structuring: ChatGPT can generate detailed outlines with relevant headings (H2, H3), ensuring a logical flow and comprehensive coverage of a topic.

Content Generation (with human oversight): While ChatGPT can write drafts, it's vital to:

Edit and refine: Human review is essential to add nuance, personal insights, and ensure a natural, conversational tone.

Inject E-E-A-T: Supplement AI-generated content with real-world examples, expert quotes, data from reliable sources, and original research.

Avoid generic phrasing: Train your Custom GPT or manually edit to avoid common AI-generated language patterns.

Content Optimization: ChatGPT can suggest improvements for readability, identify repetitive phrases, and help optimize content for on-page SEO elements like meta descriptions and title tags (though real-time data from SEO tools is still necessary).

Identifying Content Gaps: By feeding competitor content to a Custom GPT, it can help compare tone, depth, and keyword coverage, highlighting areas where your content can provide more value.

Finding Free ChatGPT SEO Custom GPTs for HCU-Proof Content
As of July 2025, Custom GPTs require a ChatGPT Plus subscription to create and use. However, you might find some publicly shared custom GPTs (often linked in blog posts or YouTube videos) that users have developed for various SEO tasks.

To find such resources, you can:

Search the GPT Store (if you have ChatGPT Plus): OpenAI's GPT Store allows users to browse and use Custom GPTs created by others. You can search for terms like "SEO," "Helpful Content," "Content Creator," etc.

Look for blog posts and tutorials: Many SEO professionals and AI enthusiasts share their custom GPT prompts and configurations in their articles and videos. Searching on Google or YouTube for "Free ChatGPT SEO Custom GPT," "HCU content GPT," or "ChatGPT prompts for helpful content" might yield useful results.

Experiment with prompt engineering: Even without a specialized Custom GPT, you can achieve good results by using well-crafted prompts with the standard ChatGPT model. Focus on instructing ChatGPT to:

"Write content that is primarily for humans, not search engines."

"Provide in-depth, authoritative, and well-researched information."

"Adopt a conversational and engaging tone."

"Answer all possible questions a user might have on this topic."

"Avoid keyword stuffing and repetitive phrasing."

Important Note: While AI can be a powerful assistant, ultimately, the responsibility for creating truly helpful and HCU-proof content lies with the human creator. Always review, fact-check, and add your unique expertise and perspective to any AI-generated content.