As we welcomed in September 2018, there’s a lot of chatter online about the latest large update on Google algorithms that was rolled out on the 1st August 2018 – this latest update being dubbed Google Medic.
So Google will change and tweak their algorithms on a daily basis, so that those websites ranking well in searches are really working hard to be there. Every now and again, Google will roll out a much larger update that will have greater repercussions across the web. Latest ones have been called Google Panda, or Google Hummingbird.
Sadly, Google doesn’t actually announce what their changes are going to be, so there’s an element of research that goes into writing blogs like these, and some guess work to some extent.
We do know some things though:
- The update has a major focus on expertise, authority and trust. This is basically cementing in Google’s move to ensure that all websites are useful for their visitors, and that websites which rank high on Google searches are offering quality content that helps their users. There is a large section about this on the Google guidelines, under E-A-T.
- We know that some websites have seen major changes in their analytics, and others nothing. It seems that the websites mostly affected are those called “YMYL” websites. This stands for Your Money or Your Life websites – websites such as those with shopping pages, medical information pages, legal information pages – websites that affect you financially or your life. Google wants to ensure that websites which can affect their users finances or lives are legit, factually correct and authoritative.
- Because of point 2, it seems the major change has affected websites based in the nutrition, diet and medical sectors.
- Google seems to also have a preference for local searches, with many SEO experts saying that the locations search has been altered too. Which is great for those shopping locally – the search now seems to prefer smaller local businesses over the multi location businesses.
What do we think?
The latest update might have scared a few people, but it chimes in with what Google is really trying to push website users to achieve – your website needs to be trustworthy, useful to your visitors and stand out as an authority to the crowd.