post by Stephanie Nelson
Back in August, Google rolled out yet another of its organic algorithm updates, with changes to this update continually rolling out. This update has widely been referred to as the Medic Update because it seemed focused on health/medical sites. However, the updates seem to have also affected many different niches including e-commerce, fashion sites, local, affiliate, and more. As usual, Google did not release information on what exactly the update did, but trends are being noticed. Here are a few things to note:
- Informational pages seem to now be getting higher ranking than purchase pages. If your site is based in e-commerce, it’s a good idea to flesh out your pages with more product information.
- Page load speed appears to be more of a ranking factor now. As we noted earlier this year, Google was poised to make load speed more of a ranking factor in mobile search results. With this update, though, it seems to be across all devices.
- Google wants to know who is responsible for a website and its content, per updates to their Quality Rater Guidelines. Creating an About page and making it easy to find by linking to it from every page on the site is a good way to achieve this.
- Google also wants to see how to contact you on your website. A contact page or customer service page should be included on your site, along with pertinent contact information.
- Expertise, Authority, and Trust (EAT) were major components in this update. Google wants to see that content you’re producing is trustworthy enough for them to show in the search results. You can increase your EAT ranking by including an author bio on posts on your blog, by including references and links in your content to other highly authoritative content, and/or including documentation on awards and other signs of credibility on your site.
- Proper grammar and punctuation are also important with this update.
Keeping up with algorithm updates and adjusting content on your site accordingly is a MAJOR part of SEO strategy. SBN Marketing takes pride in our work in this area. Need help? Use the button below to shoot us a line!
