There’s a fuss going on in the internet concerning the August 1^st Google update. Well, a number of healthcare and medical companies have been affected. But it's totally nothing new – Google always does occasional updates and a lot of companies even the biggest companies get affected. But to understand this better, we have to take a look at the exact changes.

Morning Routine by Olga

So What’s An Algorithm Update?

An algorithm can be said to be a complex system used to retrieve data originating from its search index hence delivering the most ideal results for the query. Search engines are found to use combinations of numerous ranking signals and algorithms to deliver web pages ranked by relevance under its specific search engine result pages (SERPs).

In the recent past, Google has been in the move to make thousands of updates every year unlike in the past when the updates were countable.

What Google Has to Say

After numerous complaints, Google had to come to its own defense claiming the updates happen several times in a year. Google went ahead to site that nothing can be done for sites that performed rather poorly; no ‘fix’ can be done for them to magically restore their previous status.

That notwithstanding, Google said the only way forward for such websites would be to remain steadfast and patient and continue sourcing out fantastic content. This way, probably the content may gain more recognition than other sites and receive more traffic. Moreover, Google claimed that these sites that were negatively affected weren’t the ones actually being targeted. Rather, the previously under-rewarded sites were the ones that were set to benefit most from this whole saga.

So Who Was Affected?

A lot of people have nicknamed the recent update ‘the Medic Update’ due to the large number of health and medical sites affected, especially on the negative side. Further on, plenty of Your Money Your Life (YMYL) sites were not spared after the review. Google raters’ guidelines define YMYL sites as:

• Pages that canvass personal information such as bank account details, personal identification number, driver’s license or any other detail that may be used in identity theft.
• Sites offering medical and health information that may affect your physical wellness.
• Pages giving major life advice including purchasing a home, vehicle and parenting.
• Sites that allow you to make a purchase – where your card information is required.
• Pages propounding major life advice likely to impact on your happiness or financial status such as financial or legal advice pages.

As already seen, plenty of health and wellness sites were negatively affected. This is including sites that offer advice on keeping fit through dietary supplements and other methods. It is a surprise, however, considering the amount of traffic previously building in such sites as more and more people seek better alternatives to lose weight.

That said, most clients may go ahead to think the services offered depreciated or went on a down-side ride in Google’s books. On the contrary, it is important to remember the services offered may have even improved. The update only had to do with reduced traffic, services offered are now better than they even were at the beginning of the year with major changes in operations and service delivery. The only work left to do is boosting the marketing part and have it align with the company’s wonderful performance.

Nevertheless, it is important to consider that all kinds of websites were affected by the recent update. Therefore, you need not worry about receiving poorer services from your service provider if they were affected. What companies can do is to endeavor to have a wonderful time and seek to offer better content. They could also employ some tactics to have their customers more responsive to their content.