SEO for medical sites: how Google algorithms affect a medical site’s the promotion

The healthcare sector is actively developing online, and clinics are adapting to modern requirements by transferring certain services to the Internet. This approach creates a competitive environment where healthcare facilities that comply with Google’s search criteria win leading positions, particularly thanks to SEO for medical clinics.

In August 2018, the corporation presented a major update to the Medical Update algorithm, which significantly affects the traffic of many resources.

The algorithm affected resources based on health and wellness topics (medical centers, clinics, web resources on nutrition and healthy lifestyle). However, the update has led to changes in traffic in other areas, such as online commerce and finance.

Those who follow Google updates could recognize the well-known YMYL algorithm in Medical Update.

YMYL and E-A-T: what is it?

The YMYL algorithm (“Your Money or Your Life”) indicates Google has begun to explore web content that can affect security, finances, and health. News, financial issues, government data, online purchases, and medical materials are subject to thorough analysis.

Over time, the algorithm has evolved into E-A-T (Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness) factors. It considers the expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness of users when assessing the usefulness of online content.

All three points are crucial for medical topics:

Expertise: Page texts should be created with in-depth knowledge of the industry.
Authoritativeness: The author of the content must be a person with specific merits.
Trustworthiness: An article written by a specialist is trustworthy, and Google does not block such material.

The expertise of web content in the field of medicine is determined based on the following criteria:

The way the topic is covered in the text.
Answers to all the client’s questions.
Regular publishing and updating of materials.
Promotion of the resource on social media and highly trusted platforms, presence in reference books.
Specialized websites that link to the resource.

Algorithm updates are an additional opportunity to better understand user intentions. You should keep track of them, as Google rarely announces updates.

One of our successful medical SEO cases is the project of a proctology clinic. In 6 months of providing medical SEO services, we achieved the following results:

Since 2022, another E has been added to the abbreviation. To improve the quality of search results evaluation, the Google team decided to expand the existing E-A-T model to include an additional element — experience, thus turning it into E-E-A-T. It is imperative to understand whether the published material on the site reflects facts and the author’s impressions, such as their experience of using a product, visiting different places, or going through certain events. The most valuable and informative materials for medical marketing SEO are often created by those who have direct personal experience in a particular field.

10 Tips for Working with the E-E-A-T Algorithm

You can avoid problems with the updated algorithm on medical portals by following certain rules:

The main information about the clinic should be used for SEO for medical websites. To do this, you should improve the description and tell about the staff.
Introduce the clinic’s specialists on specialized aggregator resources.
Work with SERM to improve the image of your medical institution.
Register web pages in Google My Business and add reviews about the clinic. Take the same strategy on social media.
Transfer ratings from social networks to the website.
Pay attention to links in your field, create and fill out a Wikipedia page, present the clinic on aggregator platforms, and publish articles about the medical institution on trusted websites.
Create content as a medical expert, without oversaturating texts with the specifics of SEO for medical sites. Focus SEO promotion on the title and meta tags. Do not ignore lists.
Stick to the standard writing style inherent in popular science literature.
Study the algorithm in more detail. Check the pages of your site for “seeded” content and replace it with more meaningful material.
Improve the content regularly. Update information about symptoms, diseases, and innovative therapies.

Core Web Vitals Ranking and Medical Resources

Google regularly analyzes the quality of content and is committed to ensuring that search results meet the user’s needs. If a person finds the right content for their query, they will continue to use the search engine. Given that Google’s earnings depend on advertising, the amount of traffic matters.

Websites should work quickly and attract users’ attention for a long time because embedded banners also affect the profit.

Some search engine parameters are not clear to site administrators. For example, why a resource is not shown in search results or is moved to lower positions despite the high costs a start-up medical website paid to an SEO agency for medical services.

The Core Web Vitals set, which appeared in May 2021, allows you to measure the factors on which rankings depend. The evaluation criteria are available to all users.

The set includes three factors: loading speed, interactivity (interaction with site visitors), and stability.

Features of quality websites:

The main content, including visuals, is loaded quickly.
Interaction with web content is seamless.
All blocks and page elements are displayed in all versions and do not interfere with the interaction with the materials.

With the right approach, this algorithm can be used fruitfully despite the difficulties.

Maintaining Reputation

Image is essential for all industries, including healthcare, where a good reputation is critical.

An advantage over competitors, patient loyalty, openness to communication, and informativeness are key steps in the clinic’s development. Today, Internet users trust only proven companies, so clinics cannot do without reviews from real people.

If a medical institution is at the beginning of its development or has not previously been engaged in improving its reputation, you should start with SERM. This type of promotion includes working with negativity and creating PR articles.

Negative reviews and articles hit the business image causing the clinic to lose patient and partner loyalty.

When working with projects, we constantly monitor the SERM situation and formulate a strategy to eliminate materials with a negative background. Most often, the action plan consists of posting PR articles on trusted portals, generating positive feedback on social media, and keeping articles at the top of SERPs.

A client with a 3.5 rating in search engine reviews recently contacted us. Now, this figure has risen to 4. The score has increased by only 0.5, but it is difficult to fool Google by adding automated reviews. Experts write live reviews guaranteed to be approved by the search engine.

The key to online success is an integrated approach to professional medical SEO. Remember that publicity and leadership positions can be accompanied by hate. That is why you should work in two directions — SEO and SERM.