Medic Update 1st Birthday – Summary
At the turn of July and August 2018, a major shakeup of organic search results occurred in Google . As it later turned out, the changes primarily affected the medical industry. Other industries, including finance and many online stores, also suffered. The confusion was truly profound, and SEO specialists continue to debate and argue about how the new algorithm works and what it actually takes into account.
Over the past 12 months, we've had at least four Medic Updates (or Medical Updates) , commonly known as revisions. The first one appeared in October 2018, followed by three more in January, March, and June 2019. Each of these updates brought a new shakeup to the medical search results. Some sites saw their rankings rise after one revision, but fall after the next. Others saw only declines, while others remained steadily rising.
During this period, some websites grew by over 1000%. Others lost as many as 10 million users per month. At first glance, the algorithm might seem random, but over the course of the year, we managed to collect data that provides a wealth of valuable information. Before jumping to conclusions, however, it's worth examining how the new algorithm impacted the largest healthcare websites.
The Medic Update's Biggest Losers and Winners
PoradnikZdrowie.pl
Arguably the biggest loser in the healthcare industry is the portal PoradnikZdrowie.pl. The chart below shows that the site began growing rapidly after the Medical Update was released in August. By October, when the first algorithm update was released, this trend reversed, and the site began rapidly losing visibility. This trend continued until the next update in January. Then, the site began another rapid growth period, which continued until the March update.
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March proved to be the worst month for PoradnikZdrowie.pl – it saw a sharp decline, losing almost half of its top keywords. Furthermore, some of the keywords that remained saw slight declines.
Ahrefs.com is a tool that allows you to estimate the organic traffic of individual websites. Their estimates are typically accurate enough that the numbers they present are close to the actual figures (usually within 10%). Therefore, we can assume that the data they provide is reliable.
In the case of PoradnikZdrowie.pl, we're seeing a massive decline in organic traffic. As recently as September of last year, Ahrefs estimated the number of visitors (from organic results) at nearly 15 million per month. Today, that number is less than 5 million. This means that since March, PoradnikZdrowie.pl has lost approximately 10 million organic users.
ABCzdrowie.pl
Another major decliner is ABCzdrowie.pl. This WP group-owned portal has lost over 9 million visitors from Google.
The ABCzdrowie.pl website began to decline in February 2018, but the Medical Update and subsequent corrections only worsened its situation. Furthermore, the June correction proved to be the true kiss of death, literally killing the site. We can only sympathize with the people managing this site, as they must now have a lot to explain to their superiors about the decline.
Zdrowie.tvn.pl
We have a very interesting situation with Zdrowie.tvn.pl. Analyzing the chart below, we can conclude that with each subsequent algorithm update, the site's visibility either increased very rapidly or decreased even more rapidly.
First, in August 2018, the site was hit hard by the Medical Update, only to see a massive surge in October, which continued until January 2019. Then, during another correction, the site began to decline again. Meanwhile, in February, it began to grow again, only to lose momentum during further corrections in March and June. The chart below looks like a rollercoaster, and it's definitely not something any SEO expert wants to see.
Wylecz.to
Wylecz.to is another major decliner. Since March of this year, the site has lost over 2 million monthly users, which accounted for nearly 70% of its organic traffic.
Polki.pl
Polki.pl was hit hard by the March correction. The site's organic traffic dropped by nearly 10 million visitors, placing it at the top of the infamous ranking of the biggest Medical Update victims in Poland.
drugs.com
It's not just Poland that's interesting. The well-known and popular website Drugs.com also took a hit abroad. At one point, their organic traffic dropped from 32 million to just 8 million, but fortunately, they're slowly rebounding, and after the June correction, their traffic has now increased to over 20 million per month.
Abroad, there are significantly more victims of the algorithm and to this day, many of these websites have not managed to cope with the declines.
ZnanyLekarz.pl
If some decline, others must rise. One of the big winners is ZnanyLekarz.pl. March of this year certainly brought a lot of pressure on SEO professionals . However, by June, the situation had returned to normal. Since August of last year, the website has seen a doubling of organic traffic, currently reaching around 3 million users per month.
medonet.pl
In the healthcare industry, only a few websites have managed to grow throughout each Medical Update algorithm revision. One such site is medonet.pl, whose organic traffic has grown from 2,5 million to nearly 10 million.
AptekaGemini.pl
The large online pharmacy industry is certainly pleased with how the search engine rankings have evolved over the past year. One such major winner is AptekaGemini.pl, whose organic traffic has grown from 1,5 million to nearly 4 million. It's also worth noting that most competing online pharmacies have also managed to grow during this time.
KtoMaLek.pl
KtoMaLek.pl is another big winner from the March update. The site increased its monthly organic visits from 350 to over 2 million.
Medical Update – Conclusions after a Year
In August 2018, the Serps experienced their strongest fluctuations in at least several years. Furthermore, drawing concrete conclusions was hampered by the fact that the visibility of very similar websites could rise or fall. Therefore, it's no surprise that some believe that a so-called random element was the key factor.
The situation has clarified somewhat with subsequent corrections. Especially after the March and June updates, we can draw more conclusions.
Factors that cause some websites to decline and others to rise include:
1) Industry Domain Authority – In short, we can say that websites that have a large number of links from other valuable websites with similar topics are growing. If a given website previously relied on links from strong domains, but from domains with different topics, these links begin to lose their strength.
This is particularly evident in the case of websites belonging to large media groups, which until now had based their link profiles on websites with different themes but belonging to the same media group. Until March, such "tricks" worked perfectly, but Google has apparently decided to clamp down on such practices.
2) Website usability – websites that load slowly, have poor mobile performance, and are overloaded with ads have fallen significantly. This situation is illustrated in the screenshot below from an article by PoradnikZdrowie.pl.
After entering the site, we don't even see the title of the post and such a screen will certainly scare away many visitors.
What to do to recover the site from the Medical Update legacy
1) First, it's worth checking how users behave on your site. If you have a high bounce rate, visitors spend little time on your site, and are reluctant to return, then something is definitely wrong and it's worth fixing.
2) It's also a good idea to "slim down" your website and remove unnecessary elements. It's worth paying attention to JS scripts, unnecessary ads, and loading elements that slow down the page. It's also worth checking the mobile version, which has been around for several years and should be easy to read, fast, and as lightweight as possible.
3) Improving your link profile is worth investing some time in, as is increasing your resources for acquiring industry-specific links. This includes valuable resources (those with visibility and traffic), links from WhitePress and LinkHouse, and, above all, creative link building (because not all links can be purchased, and some don't require payment).
What awaits us in the future in the medical industry and beyond
The next Medical Update should arrive around the turn of August and September. It's sure to stir things up again in the search results, and it certainly won't be boring. It seems almost certain that Google will promote websites that prioritize quality. This primarily concerns user-friendliness and the domain's so-called industry authority. Therefore, there's no need to fear this update, and if you do a good job, there's a good chance Google will appreciate it.
What are your thoughts on Medical Update?
Summary
The above article covers the following topics:
- annual Medic Update analysis,
- examples of the biggest increases and decreases in the medical industry,
- ranking factors after Google algorithm updates, including industry authority, usability and link profile quality,
- predictions for future Google algorithm updates.
