Google Medic Update | Weboptim

Google's latest algorithm update, Google Medic Update, was launched in August 2018.

Contrary to the name, this update did not only affect medical sites, but it was undoubtedly the medical sites that were most affected. Many medical, dental and pharmaceutical sites have seen traffic drop or even increase as a result.

What do we know about the update?

Not too much. Google did not give a precise definition.
Google referred to its previous core updates, which said there are no fixed pages that always perform well, and others said the focus should be on good content building.
According to Google, as with all updates, we see an increase in traffic to some sites and a decrease to others.

Who is affected by the update?

Google calls it a broad, global update, but the update is mainly for YMYL, i.e. your money, your life type pages were affected. These are sites that focus on money and "life events". Among others:

• Sites that ask for personal information, such as identifiers, bank account numbers, driver's license numbers, which could be used for identity theft.
• Sites that use monetary transactions, where users can enter their bank account or credit card details, i.e. almost any site where you can make purchases.
• Sites that provide medical or health information that affects your physical well-being.
• Sites that give life advice on topics such as parenting, buying a home or buying a car.
• Sites that offer solutions to financial issues, such as legal and financial advisory firms.

Image source: https://www.seroundtable.com/google-medic-update-26177.html

What can we do?

Google says there is nothing we can do to fix the site. There is no fix, as there is nothing particularly wrong with these sites. They just don't perform as well as the others.
This may not sound like much at first; but Google suggests that we can continue to work on the effectiveness of our website by focusing on a better experience, more valuable content and a more useful website in itself.

If we look at the rule of thumb for the biggest winners, we see that Quality Guidelines strive to comply with. The guidelines emphasise the importance of expertise, authoritativeness and trust (E.A.T.)
Google is committed to delivering the most valuable and relevant results for users. That means that everything we create needs serious credibility.

Summary

Google has made a huge algorithm update that affects search results, websites, web developers, website owners and more.
The Google Medic algorithm update has mostly affected smaller websites with less Authority, but not so much larger, more powerful sites. However, health and medical sites seem to have been most affected.

All we can do is try to make the site, the content and the user experience even better, and work on small changes that can have a big impact on the rankings.

Also, it is still important to pay attention to known algorithm factors such as PageSpeed, HTTPS, mobile presence and the technical correctness of the site.