Google Medic Update Proves User Experience Is King
A Google algorithm update that rolled out at the beginning of this month delivered a major shake-up to websites belonging to health care organizations. Many are calling it the “Medic Update.”
Health care sites began seeing big fluctuations in their rankings at the beginning of the month, and in many cases, the changes were not positive.
Although the algo update affected the health care industry the most, it appeared to affect a few other industries, according to Search Engine Roundtable, such as:
- eCommerce
- Business
- Finance
- Technology
- Entertainment
Google claimed it was simply a routine “broad core algorithm update,” the same as it releases several times each year. But to us, we know this wasn’t a run-of-the-mill algo update, especially since we have various types of health care clients.
How Do Health Websites Respond?
The best response to Google’s de facto new guidelines for health care sites is to stay the course, meaning keep trying to improve on the quality of your content and user experience (UX). Don’t give up on organic SEO!
Also, if your website is offering medical advice, make sure it’s coming from a medical expert. Or, at the very least, make sure it’s signed off by and attributed to a medical professional. This will help with search engine trust and a little Google concept called “authorship.”
See How Drug Rehabs Can Get Around PPC Obstacles:
Ethical Addiction Treatment Marketing Alternatives
Medic Update Message from Our CEO
“Worried about the ‘medic update’? There is no fix – nothing quick and easy, anyway. The algorithm change didn’t target health sites exclusively; many websites in other categories were negatively impacted, as well. Why? The truth is, people are making better websites these days and Google expects more. If you want to rank with Google, there’s no secret: Continue to work on improving your website, make better content and create a better overall user experience. That’s what it takes.”
– Jenny Stradling, CEO of Eminent SEO
Featured Resources
Creating better content and UX is always recommended, and that’s what we do (for resellers also)! Here are a couple of articles that illustrate what we mean:
Beware Boredom: Keeping Your Content Marketing Strategy Fresh in 2018
4 Ways News Websites Fail to Deliver the Optimal User Experience
Well the health industry keeps on improving and so is its algorithm..