Changes in August update of the Google algorithm

On August 1, another update of the Google algorithm came into effect, causing a lot of confusion in the positions. The parties from the medical industry, those related to finances, as well as e-commerce websites suffered the most.

This is the third update of the algorithm this year. I wrote about one of them earlier. This time it is also difficult to reveal what exactly the change was about. Google does not usually share specific information about it. The only and most important clue is how to create good content as usual. But what did the changes in the algorithm update involve? Here we can only speculate based on analyzes.

Medic update – is it medical though?

The name of the algorithm itself is already somewhat misleading. For some baptized as Medic update, it seems that it has touched not only medical-related websites but also those related to finances (in a broad sense). The YMYL pages (Your Money, Your Life) are now much more severely evaluated by the algorithm. This category also includes e-commerce websites and those that collecting user data.

Among the most important factors, the users’ safety comes first. It is therefore important to have an SSL certificate, but this is not all, of course. The website should also ensure proper storage of collected data and security of transactions.

It also seems that security is also evaluated by paying attention to opinions about the site or about the owner of the website. If the entity publishing the content is evaluated negatively, or there are not many opinions, then it is judged worse by the algorithm. These are only speculations, but it is worth checking if the positioned website has representative opinions.

Individual voices suggest that Google did not implement any major changes, but only allowed to break out smaller, undervalued websites, at the expense of larger ones. In such a situation, it may happen that a well-positioned page fell down only because smaller companies jumped higher in the search results. Some suggest that, at present, positioning on local phrases may be more fruitful.

Update – and what next?

As with any update, it will be difficult for some time to conclude what positioning technique works best. The most important document and list of all guidelines by which Google handles pages is updated in the July General Guidelines. Maybe their update has something to do with the latest update.

EAT – what is it

There is also no doubt that the EAT indicators (Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness) are becoming more and more important. What do they mean in practice?

• Expertise – the website should present an expert level, documented by certificates, awards, education, etc. If we have such achievements, it is worth to put this information on the website. Although it seems that it should be of interest only to the medical, financial and legal industries, in fact, each party may represent its expertise in some way. The condition is content tailored to the user’s needs.
• Authoritativeness – The authority of the site can be demonstrated through the involvement of users. Let them rate our content and products, leave own opinions. Thanks to good feedback, but also thanks to the high commitment of our users, we will show that we are the authority in the industry.
• Trustworthiness – It is equally important to make users believe that the site is trustworthy. This indicator is the most important for the e-commerce industry, where the buyer must leave his personal data. By making the user feel safe at every stage of making transactions, we will meet the requirements of this indicator. This is, of course, a multi-stage task, because the sense of security of the client is influenced not only by information about security, good opinions of others, but also (and maybe even above all), user-friendliness, especially in the context of concluding transactions.

Google is constantly pushing us to increase the quality of the pages. Let us hope that the current changes in the algorithm will have a positive impact on the quality of information coming to us, especially from the medical industry.