The Medic Update – Everything You Need To Know

Are you a medical or pharmaceutical website that saw your search engine ranking and traffic suddenly drop? You’re not alone. A recent Google core algorithm update hammered medical sites and rankings dropped like an anchor on a cruise ship.

Sites are still reeling, but we can tell you all about the update and what you can do to fix it.

Major Core Algorithm Update

You’ve probably heard about named updates like Panda and Penguin. These also shook up the Internet world, but they only impacted specific aspects of the Google search algorithm. The Medic update was a core algorithm update, so it impacts every piece of the more than 100 factors determined for ranking.

Google rolls out changes throughout the year, often without telling anyone. We just suddenly notice rankings across the Internet go up or down drastically. While the occasional change is expected, a core algorithm update is rare.

Why it’s the Medic Update

Google’s primary goal is to provide the best search results for its customers. When someone types in a search, the results should be relevant with authoritative and correct information. Many times websites selling medical items such as supplements have thin content designed to sell and not inform.

The update focused on increasing the rank of pages with good content. For example, before the update, a supplement site could have been ranked 4 for a keyword and a medical site ranked 54. Following the update, the medical site would have gained rank and the supplement site lowered rank.

 The medical site had better more educational content that didn’t focus on selling or convincing people that the items would improve the ailment. The update impacted more than medical sites, but it appears the vast majority of the sites were associated with the medical field.

Fixing the Rankings Drop

Many sites are left scratching their heads on how to recover from the update. The bad news is there’s not a quick fix. If Google deemed your content inferior to the others, then the only way to gain rank is to do SEO and improve your content.

If your site has content that is thin or more sales pitch than informational, then you need to change your strategy. Focus on SEO for keywords and build out your content with the goal to educate and inform instead of sell. You can still have internal links to your items in the blog post or article.

Google still has to see the content and then index it. It will likely be weeks before your rankings improve and that’s if you get working on the content right away.

It’s Worth the Effort

If your site dropped in rankings for high volume keywords, then it’s definitely worth adding and changing the content on your site. You’ll see a drop in revenue traffic, but you can build it up again naturally. Plus, good content improves your site and helps customers convert.

If you’d like to learn more about SEO and digital marketing, then explore our site.