Have you been hit by the March 2019 Core Update? There are several reasons why a website may lose traffic and rankings after Google rolls out an algorithm update. In most cases, the SEO strategies that the website used to rank in SERP backfires, and in other instances, Google finds a better site that provides superior quality content as a replacement.
In both these cases, the plunge that you’re experiencing can be reversed by implementing a well-thought-out SEO strategy with a heavy focus on Google’s E A T quality.
However, the initial analysis that we did has some good news for webmasters. The negative impact of the latest update is far less than what we thought. Interestingly, there are more positive results, and the discussion about the same is rife across all major SEO forums.
This makes us believe that the Broad Core Algorithm update on March 12 is more of a rollback of a few previous updates that may have given undue rankings for a few websites. Importantly, we found that sites with high authority once again received a boost in their traffic and rankings.
We also found that websites, which had a rank boost last year by building backlinks through Private Blogging Networks, were hit by March 2019 Core Update, whereas the ones that had high-quality, natural backlinks received a spike. If you’re one of many websites that were affected by the Google March 2019 Core Update, here are a few insights about the damage caused to sites in the health niche
Health Niche
According to the data provided by SEMRush, Healthcare websites saw a massive fluctuation in traffic and rankings after the recent March 2019 Core Update. The website has also listed a few top losers and winners. We did an analysis of the top 3 losers and here is what we found:
MyLVAD
MyLVAD is listed as one of the top losers by SEMRush in the Health category. The Medic Update hit this site quite badly in August 2018, and it seems like the latest March 2019 Core Update has also taken a significant toll. According to the SEMRush data, the keyword position of MyLVAD dropped by 11 positions on Mar 13.
MyLVAD is a community and resource for people suffering from advanced congestive heart failure and relying on an LVAD implant. We did an in-depth analysis of the site and found that it does not comply with the Google E A T quality.
The resources provided on the site are not credited to experts. Crucially, the contact details are missing on the site. Since it’s more like a forum, the website has more user-generated content. As this website falls under the YMYL category, it’s imperative to provide the author bio (designation of the doctor in this specific case) to increase the E A T rating. Also, details such as ‘contact us’ and the people responsible for the website are missing.
PainScale
PainScale is a website, which also has an App that helps to manage pain and chronic disease. The site got a rank boost after the September 2018 update, and until December that year, everything was running smoothly. The traffic and ranking started displaying a downward trend after January, and now the Florida 2 Update has reduced it further.
On analyzing the website, we found that it is providing users information about pain management. Once again, the authority of the content published on this website is questionable. Though the site has rewritten a few contents from Mayo Clinic and other authority sites, aggregation is something that Google does not like.
The website also has a quiz section that provides the tools to manage pain. However, the website tries to collect the health details of the users and then asks them to sign up to PainScale for FREE. Google has an aversion to this particular method, as they are concerned about the privacy of its users. This could be one of the reasons for the drop in traffic and rankings of PainScale after theMarch 2019 Core Update.
Medbroadcast
This is yet again another typical example for a YMYL website that Google puts under intense scrutiny. Medbroadcast gives a lot of information regarding health conditions and tries to provide users with treatment options. Here again, like other websites on this list, there is no information regarding the author.
Moreover, the site has a strange structure with a few URLs opening in sub domains. The website has also placed close to 50 URLs towards the footer of the homepage and other inside pages, making it look very spammy.
This site also received undue traffic boosts after the Google Medic Update of August 2018. The stats show that the traffic increased after the Medic Update and started to decline at the beginning of January.
Once again, the impetus is on E A T quality signals. The three examples listed above points to how healthcare sites that failed to follow practices mentioned in the Google Quality Rater Guidelines were hit by the Florida 2 Update.
No comments:
Post a Comment