Medic Update and SEO: what to do if you’re penalized?

The major update Google rolled out in August 2018 goes by the name Medic Update. This algorithm change was, in fact, the biggest of last year. It completely upended the results of the health sector’s SERP. As always, some sites gained ground while others vanished into the depths of the web.

In this article, Semji invites you to take stock of the changes brought about by the Medic Update with several months of hindsight, and to give you the keys to respond as effectively as possible in the event of a Google penalty. Let’s get started!

What is the “Google Medic Update”?

Since its inception, the world’s most-used search engine has rolled out an incredible number of updates to its algorithm. The algorithm changes almost every day. While most of the time algorithm updates go unnoticed, that wasn’t the case with the Medic Update, which shook every site tied to the health topic.

The context behind the rollout of the Medic Update

Every year, the deck is reshuffled with algorithm updates. Some ranking criteria gain or lose importance, and new rules appear. With the Medic Update, rolled out on August 1, 2018, the health sector’s SERP saw its volatility strongly impacted. This change particularly affected sites covering topics such as health, lifestyle, medicine, physical condition and activity, or healthy ways of living. It was, in fact, the biggest change of 2018 alongside the major core algorithm update that took place in March.

The Medic Update stands apart from previous updates because of how specific it is. While algorithm changes usually affect every site regardless of its sector, this one concerned only a single niche. The content on these health sites belongs to the Your Money Your Life category, which Google watches very closely.

The deployment of the Medic Update

As with previous updates, Google officially confirmed the deployment of the Medic Update only a few hours after significant and abnormal fluctuations were observed on the SERP. The advice given by the Mountain View firm was, once again, the same: focusing on producing ultra-high-quality content that meets internet users’ needs is the best way to secure your positions over the long term. This implies that other solutions and optimizations, even if they can work, would have a smaller impact than content.

SEO for YMYL sites and pages

Google applies broadly similar ranking criteria to every indexed site. But if one domain stands out as an exception, it’s the one called YMYL, for Your Money Your Life. The content tied to it relates more broadly to users’ health and finances. In short, any content that could have a possible influence on users’ happiness, safety, financial stability, or physical and moral integrity is put under scrutiny.

You’ll find this type of content in various forms:

• transactional pages on e-commerce or banking sites,
• informational pages on sensitive domains such as:
  • the medical field, covering topics like medications, illnesses, and nutrition;
  • the financial field, dealing for instance with loans, investments, taxes, insurance or savings, and donations to an NGO;
  • the legal field, with advice on adoption, divorce, and inheritances;
  • topics relating to the state, politics, economic news, the international environment, and so on.

Uncompromising with sites and pages of this kind, the search engine requires that certain specific guidelines be followed to the letter. Among the main rules to respect, we find the accuracy, impartiality, and recency of the information covered. The reason? A growing number of internet users trust Google to provide them with the best information, the most accurate and the highest quality, based on their queries.

For this reason, the American giant doesn’t hesitate to call on Quality Raters, scattered across the world and tasked with evaluating the quality of search results.

source: Webrankinfo

It’s now easier to understand why last August’s update concerned only the health and medical sector: the stakes tied to it are far too high.

The impact of the Google Medic Update and the main sectors affected

The sites concerned

It took SEOs relatively little time to notice the changes, glaring to say the least, brought about by this new algorithm.

Between July 31 and August 8, fluctuations ran high, resulting in either a spike or a drop in organic traffic. These changes mainly affected the SERPs of the health and medical domains, but not only those… Sites that were close to these topics were also impacted.

Source: Moz

Another graph provided by SEO Roundtable shows us the most heavily impacted SERPs. Their common trait? They all belong to the YMYL category.

Source: SEO Roundtable

Taking this data into account, we can therefore say that the update called “Medic Update” doesn’t concern only sites offering medical content, as one might think at first glance. That category was indeed the hardest hit, but other “YMYL” sites and pages that could harm readers financially, physically, or emotionally were affected too!

Thanks to the excellent study from the site Sistrix, we can show you two traffic curves that illustrate the variations caused by the Medic Update.

Positive impact of the Medic Update on a health site’s traffic:

Negative impact of the Medic Update on a health site:

How can you avoid “Medic Update”-type penalties?

Just as Google makes no compromises on fully respecting the rules specific to YMYL content, the same goes for its sanctions. As is often the case, there are, on one side, the sites fighting for the top spots, those doing their best without adopting an aggressive SEO strategy, and those that break the rules entirely, even going so far as to endanger the user. The latter are in Google’s crosshairs and are heavily sanctioned!

Optimizations & SEO for YMYL pages

Not long ago, we talked to you about Google’s main ranking factors, but what about YMYL pages?

Beyond the algorithm, a few thousand people evaluate how well content matches the searches performed on Google. These are the famous Quality Raters. How do they go about it? Google entrusts them with a selection of queries to run, and their mission is then to report on the quality of the results provided.

You’re probably wondering whether there’s a particular technique for optimizing YMYL pages. Since an acronym never comes alone in the world of SEO, here is the EAT rule:

• Expertise: how reliable is the author of the content?
• Authority: does the site offering the content have a good reputation in its field? What is its level of expertise on the topic covered?
• Trustworthiness: does the content present accurate, recent, and impartial information?

Your legitimacy

When it comes to your legitimacy, you absolutely must establish yourself as an expert in your field if you want to see your YMYL topic content reach the top spots. To achieve this goal, creating ultra-high-quality content is the surest path! Don’t hesitate to demonstrate your knowledge by every means available: highlighting certifications, degrees, and various awards.

Your authority

As for your site’s authority, it still has to be built around your expertise. There are many sites that offer very interesting content but don’t have the authority required to be pushed onto the first page! To build this authority, showcase your various talks and conferences as well as any mentions of your work. Being recognized by other specialists in the field is essential to expanding your influence.

Your trustworthiness

Finally, for your content to be recognized as a reliable source of information, no compromise is possible on quality, thoroughness, substance, or form! Aim for excellence or nothing.

This rigor implies that your content must be beyond reproach. Don’t hesitate to encourage criticism of your work. Also, remember to highlight tangible results from your work: what positive influence does your content have on others?

A YMYL page or site that doesn’t satisfy these 3 rules has no chance of ranking well on the SERP!

The most curious among you can go and consult the evaluation guidelines followed by the Quality Raters.

And you, where do you stand in applying the 3 EAT rules?

Authority criteria for YMYL pages

Beyond the 3 principles laid out by the major EAT rules to respect at all costs, other criteria come into play.

How often the information is updated

There’s nothing worse than taking something that’s no longer current as truth. It’s therefore essential to keep up with developments and to update your content accordingly.

The quality of the site in the broad sense

This implies that your site must be accessible and free of 404 error pages or dozens of bugs…

Staying true to the page’s topic

The idea is to cover a topic in depth rather than skimming over several. The content must match the title perfectly, with no room for false promises.

The comprehensiveness of the content

An excellent proof of expertise on a topic, details, examples, and concrete cases give you more material to enrich your content. The takeaway: a white paper format is valued far more than a 500-word article, so don’t hesitate to share all your knowledge!

Netlinking with other expert sites

Citing relevant sources, themselves recognized by Google, is extremely beneficial for improving your ranking. It proves that you base your work on tangible, established facts that have already been assessed by the algorithm.

The presence of an author biography

Revealing your identity is a prerequisite for building your e-reputation. So don’t hesitate to introduce yourself, say who you are, what you do, what you like… Don’t lose sight of the fact that the professional aspect takes precedence over the rest. This biography is an excellent opportunity to further cement your expertise!

Contact information

Give your readers the ability to reach you by providing an email address and/or a phone number. Transparency is a quality Google appreciates.

Checklist of the essentials for YMYL sites and content

While the Medic Update shook up a good portion of YMYL sites, here is the checklist of points to verify on your site to avoid suffering the same fate:

• A site accessible on all devices;
• Contact information and transparency about the identity of the writer and the sources used;
• Appropriate, comprehensive content with real added value, kept up to date, that carries no risk of disappointing the reader.

So, does your site meet all these criteria?

Have you suffered a penalty following the Medic Update? If, even after running an analysis of your content on your site, you still face difficulties or sticking points, two options are available to you:

• Compare your site with those of competitors for whom the algorithm update was beneficial, and repeat the analysis on each page that dropped;
• Entrust this diagnosis and the implementation of the fixes to professionals such as Semji, for example.

Google has stated it very clearly: sites that have suffered penalties must focus at all costs on the quality of their content. To create the best content, focus on the reader’s intent and don’t forget that articles deemed YMYL are also evaluated by a human eye. Pleasing the robots is no longer enough!

That said, keep in mind that it’s perfectly normal for new sites to enjoy a certain visibility while others lose some: that’s the game, and Google tries to ensure that all reliable, expert sites get their chance!

Once again, this update aims to underscore the fact that Google prioritizes the quality of content and of the user experience in its searches. Do you want to set up a content strategy for your site or improve your existing content? Tell us about your project!