Are you trying to find out how to recover from the Google medic update ? Has the Google medic update hit your site and your rankings ? Looking for google medic recovery tips ? Just an early tip before you read on. EAT has a lot to do with this algorithm.
As you all may know and be very aware of, Google always has what are called algorithm updates. About seven times a year actually these adjustments are made. Having said this, most times you can fix your site and recover from most Google updates if you are familiar with what adjustments need to be made.
Once in a while though, they like to throw a spanner in the works with a major update and send everyone online scurrying for their lives trying to maintain page one placement.
Having been in the SEO game for nearly two decades now, I’ve seen algorithms large and small come and go.
The most previous hard hitting algorithm was Penguin. This update took the rankings world by storm and saw many online sites drop into the depths of hell. It broke thousands of business practically overnight.
Google has relaxed it’s algorithm adjustments since then of course but either way, it still applies that if your site is not up to scratch with its algorithms, it pretty much falls off the radar.
Since this latest roll out, I’ve had a few inquiries from concerned business owners on how to recover from the Google medic update, and they didn’t even have medical sites.
A Quick Video On The Medic Update
The idea of adjusting algorithms is but only two reasons really. Can you guess ? It’s simple, to improve the user experience by delivering quality results to its users and to keep spammers at bay. That’s pretty much it.
Of course it is a little more in depth in what is involved in the …” user experience ” …but this is what it mostly boils down to. There are certain factors that encompass the user experience and all of pretty much has to do with on page exposure of your site to your user and how your users got there.
The most important user experience points really apply to the ease of someone using your site or navigating around your site together with the utmost security for that user.
This isn’t everything of course as Google looks for specific user experience signals but when it comes down to the crunch, how ” easy ” someone navigates around your site and how quickly they find what they are looking for is important. This has a lot to do with the three click rule.
If there is nothing more annoying is landing on a page and going in circles trying to find what you are looking for. It is frustrating and leads to high bounce rates which is not what you want.
The Google medic update rolled out August 1st and is primarily a google broad core algorithm change. Now you are probably wondering why is it being refereed to as the google medic update ?
Well, there is a reason for that and that is because some of the most hardest hit sites were health and medical wellness related sites.
Basically from what we have discovered is that sites that seem to carry a decent DA, went up in rankings and sites that didn’t suffered a drop in rankings.
Anything other than that, pages labeled as anything to do with what is referred to as ” your money or your life ” pages also took a a hit in a big way. This update was not intended specifically for the medical or health industry alone.
If you look at these points above, it comes down to one thing. Can you guess what Google is looking for in these important key points ?…Drum roll right here ……..” TRUST ” …….Security and safety for the end user. That’s it !
Now some may argue that if many health and medical sites were targeted how it would be labeled a broad core algorithm. Well, it really is because they were just the worst sites hit for this updated algorithm. That’s all it comes down to. Many businesses were hit in different niches all over the globe. This update was not specifically targeted to the medical or health niche alone.
Google rolls out about seven or so updates a year. These updates are barely noticed but once every now and then, like the medic update, they like to roll out a major one.
This is where it becomes a cat and mouse game between SEO Specialists and when a business is needing to hire an SEO consultant that need help with marketing a business online.
What SEO Services you may choose in the near future will play a huge role in effecting your online presence and get more traffic your website. SEO Specialists have to think ahead to avoid as many of these penalties as possible. If you are looking to recover from the Google medic update, you are going to have to make some changes in the way your SEO consultants structure your site. On page SEO as of this latest update has just taken a huge hit forward
Many of Google’s updates are only put in place to mostly sharpen something specific in the their search engine such as the Panda update which targeted on page SEO and the Google Penguin update which targeted off page SEO. This core update is as it states…” Core update ” ….which is basically the search engine itself, is a major update more or less.
From what we know about Google’s ranking signals and how many they are said to have in terms of tweaking their algorithm, it lies at about 700 ranking signals.
That is an answer anyone would like to have in their hot little hands but unfortunately no one knows all of Google’s algorithms and Google does not disclose them.
HTTPS. This is a must have really as of 2017 and especially since the medic update. If you don’t have this, you will experience complications with rankings in the long run.
How responsive is your website ? Does your site take long to load ? If it does fix it ! Google now as default keeps mobile search first and desktop second.
Keywords in your title and meta descriptions. If you don’t have descriptive keyword structure in your tags, this will not help your rankings.
This where the entire topic of the Google medic update becomes complicated.
How do you recover from the google medic update ?
What is Google looking for now to reverse the medic update ?
Are you sitting down and paying attention now because if you’ve come this far, you are obviously looking for answers.
All Google is wanting to now see on sites is what Google
like to call EAT.
Well, it’s an abbreviated term which stands for Expertise, Authority and Trust. Establish these three factors on your website and you are in business.
This is why health and medical sites and some financial sites to do with asking for credentials, or providing life advice were slugged by the medic update.
They could not satisfy what I like to personally call it, Google’s EAT algorithm. Everyone else likes to call it the medic update because it mostly impacted sites in that niche but I like to call it the EAT algorithm because when you look at what google is really targeting it is these three key factors. Regardless of what niche your business is in, if you have licenses, credentials, diplomas, or certificates of any kind, flaunt them on your site.
When I have clients asking how to get more traffic to a website or they need help with marketing a website, the first thing I always do is take a look at their site and the one key element I always find short is that their site is lacking content and lacking content means lacking trust also. There is a lot more involved with trust but content lacking is also lacking trust.
Sorry guys, but if you want trust in your site these days, you are going to need to add content. Don’t believe a word of what any other SEO consultant or SEO agency may tell you when it comes to content, especially for long term gains.
Content in Google’s eyes is still king and always will be, especially now. How can you have trust without having content in Google’s eyes ? you can’t ! That’s just common sense.
Even if you did manage to to pull that of ( and not since the medic update ) How long do you think your site would stay up on page one of Google ? Not long I bet. Every client I have taken on has lacked content.
Clients that headed my advice and invested in adding content to their sites before the medic update have seen MASSIVE gains in overall rankings on page one including sub pages. One of our cosmetic clients has hit position one for over forty keywords and currently ranks for over 206 on page one all because I stressed content all the time.
The ones that did not want to add content to their sites upon inspection, I told them I could not assist them. With the introduction of the medic update, if you are not prepared to add content to your site, you may just see negative results in rankings.
As Google has stated, you can actually not fix up pages that have been hit by the medic update.
Content relating to the ” who, why, is, was, how, where, and do ” and so on will win you big browny points with Google. ( Questions answer format )
Try to at least hit the 1000 word mark per page or post. Over time as you website grows, your site coupled together with quality links will become a huge authority.
I always find when I target 1000 words or more on a page or post, websites rank better. This also adds to trust in Google’s eyes. This doesn’t often work on many business sites of course but put simply, the more content the better is the rule.
If you look at this post alone, it has broken 2500 words just on this subject so that should tell you I practice what I preach.
Well, these key points above still apply but what Google primarily wants to see with this latest update is what we spoke about earlier that is referred to as EAT..Expertise, Authority, Trust
If you are in any of these fields or any niche in fact that you want to better your rankings, you must provide trust or security to your user. Google wants to basically see that you are a licensed or certified authority relating to your field of expertise in health, medical, or finance or any other industry you are trying to rank in.
This was why so many sites in the health or medical niche took a huge hit and plummeted.
There was no real proof or trust factor to protect user security or happiness as it is put. So, if you have licenses, diplomas or are affiliated with specific forums, awards you have achieved in the past, and you aren’t afraid to post them on your site, then do so and show it off because Google wants to see that you can be trusted.
High E-A-T medical advice should be written or produced by people or organizations with appropriate medical expertise or accreditation.
E-A-T medical advice or information should be written or produced in a professional style and should be edited, reviewed, and updated on a regular basis.”..
This goes back earlier to what was stated about trust, and if you don’t start applying this rule, you could be in trouble.
Well, there it is guys and gals. I hope this has been some pretty interesting reading for you and hopefully it will help restore your site from this retched update
Structure your site under this requirement, and you can’t lose. As Google as stated, you can’t fix this update and all you can do is continue to add trusted and informative content but from our own investigating, Re-apply EAT correctly, and you will see upwards climbs in the long run.
Either way, as long as you add content in this manner, you should always see an upward climb in the serps and secure long term standing with your website and continue to establish your brand for many years to come.
This is the only way we know as of now how to better serps for business owners or even how to recover from the Google medic update and get any website that has suffered as a result for this penalty back on page one of search engines
Peter K
PK SEO has been providing search engine optimisation services as SEO consultants for approximately eighteen plus years for small and corporate businesses in Sydney Australia and is located in Campbelltown Sydney NSW 2560. Should you have any questions regarding our SEO consulting, please do not hesitate to contact us at 0418118998 or email us at [email protected]
