A Guide To The August 2018 Google Algorithm Update

The new Google update August 2018 brought about significant change to the way in which the popular search engine ranks a website in their search engine results pages (SERPs), which has resulted in a significant shift in the way in which digital marketing agencies are having to operate.

Google has always looked for ways to improve their algorithm so that the most authoritative sites are the most visible and ones which do more than just match keywordKeywords are the words and phrases that potential customers might search for to find your business. searches so that they can provide a better service to their users.

A Challenge For The Marketing Industry

As over a billion people use Google daily, digital marketing agencies work hard to help their clients increase their visibility online and improve brand reputation by using their expertise to help brands to climb through the SERPs with search engine optimization (SEO). The updates that Google makes to their algorithm are not advertised beforehand and not explained in detail to the digital marketing industry, which can make it a challenge for marketers to help their clients to rise through the rankings following an update. So, what do we know about the Google SEO update in August 2018?

The “Medic Update”

Interestingly, it seems that the latest update has impacted the medical niche the most, which has led digital marketing companies to dub the new update the “Medic Update.” Of all the websites affected by the Google algorithm update August 2018, a staggering 41.5% of these have been health-related while just 16% were eCommerce and 10.8% business-related. Businesses in all industries have likely experienced some keyword fluctuation after the update, but other than this, the impact has been minimal. It is not a cause for concern, and brands should not worry about the update. It simply means that some of your competitors have been building authority and trust at a faster rate, which could come down to making this a priority.

Trust & Authority Affects Ranking

Analysis of the Medic Update by experts in the SEO industry shows that the algorithm is seeking trust and authority so that the best and most useful websites are ranked highest. From an SEO standpoint, this means that the quality of your company website and the content created and shared by your brand needs to be of the highest standard and a priority if you want to rank as close to the top of SERPs as possible. Not only this, but customer reviews are now an important ranking factor which makes them even more valuable than they were before and a great way to build trust and reputation.

Industry-Leading Content

So, how can you build trust and authority to rise through the rankings? You can achieve this by generating and posting content that is seen as industry-leading and of the highest standard. It means that any content that is created and shared should be informative and useful to your target audience, so they must be kept in mind at all times when creating any type of content. Additionally, the more niche-specific the content, the highest that you will rank in your particular industry.

Using Link BuildingLink building is a process of acquiring links pointing to your website. These links are obtained by creating content, participating in social media or commenting on other blogs. To Improve Authority

It is not just your content strategy that may need altering to achieve results either. You can also build trust and authority to climb through the rankings by including surface or through linksHyperlinks, also known as links, are the connection points on a webpage that take you to other webpages. to the content created from service pages or landing pages. This demonstrates that the content is relevant and authoritative, so it can be used to improve your domain authority on a particular topic.

Customer Reviews For Social Proof & Building Trust

As mentioned earlier, you can also build trust and authority through the use of customer reviews, and these should be present and visible on your target landing pages. It is important to note that you should include a scheme markup which will enable the Google algorithm bots to detect and understand the page content as well as the reviews – this will then improve your authority in the eyes of Google and, consequently, improve your SERP ranking.

Reasons For The Medic Update

Many people automatically assume that changes to the algorithm that Google uses are frustrating, but it is worth noting that they are merely trying to improve their service so that more trust and traffic goes to those ranked highest and, therefore, that Google users are getting the most out of the searches and able to find what they are looking for faster. At Click Intelligence, it is our job to analyze how the Google SEO update August 2018 impacts our clients so that we can develop a personalized strategy to help you to climb the rankings, direct more traffic to your company website and improve your authority in your specific industry.

What We Have Found

What we have found from the Medic Update is that some of our clients have experienced significant keyword fluctuations as the bots have crawled through sites, and these seemed to occur mainly for the websites that ranked in the top 20. It is normal for there to be fluctuations after an algorithm update, and they are actually helpful for allowing us to determine what the new update is looking for. Content relevancy seems to be the primary target for the new Google update August 2018, which is why we have decided to have keyword mapping and content updates done for all of our clients that have experienced keyword fluctuations following the implementation of the latest update.

How We Can Help

High trust authority is key, and at Click Intelligence, we will work to build your trust authority to improve your SERP ranking in a few different ways:

First, we will use our proven content writing services to create custom content and articles which are engaging, valuable, and informative to your target audience. We have found that guides and how-to articles within your specific niche are the best way to achieve this as they are articles that can be useful to your users and helpful for showing your expertise in addition to building trust. We have a team of expert writers who understand how to write captivating articles in a wide range of different styles and for different audiences, which ensures that every article is bespoke and tailored for your specific target customer.

Next, we will use our link building services to add links to this content through service or target landing pages. We find placement websites that are ranked highly on SERPs so that backlinking is successful with Google so that your own ranking improves following the new update. We use blogger outreach programs that can introduce your company to different audiences and improve your domain authority with relevant links from authoritative websites in your specific industry. Link building is about much more than links as you must also build and nurture relationships with manual outreach and using email, social media and phone calls to authoritative bloggers in your niche.

Finally, we will use customer reviews to build further trust with Google and make sure that these reviews are visible on service/target landing pages. We will also make sure that these customer reviews are properly marked up with a scheme that will ensure that Google’s algorithm bots are capable of picking up and reading the reviews. Customer reviews have always been highly valuable as a form of social proof and a way to promote your company from a non-bias source, but they are now also incredibly important for building authority and trust with Google following the Medic Update.

These three key steps will help to build trust and authority with Google following the 2018 Medic Update. Doing so should help your website to rise through the rankings and direct more traffic to your website, and it is then a case of converting these visitors into customers. Changes to Google’s algorithm can be disruptive at first, but they can also provide an opportunity to improve your ranking and build trust and authority with your target audience and with Google which is vital in today’s digital marketplace where people turn to the search engine when looking for any kind of product or service.

The Google SEO update August 2018 has brought about significant changes in the world of digital marketing and SEO. It is now vital to produce content which is much better and more valuable and related to your specific industry in order to improve your domain authority. A great content strategy developed by Click Intelligence can improve your ranking on Google, but it can also help to increase organic engagement and shares which can help with your brand reputation and awareness. We can work with you to develop high-quality and relevant content through creating an audience persona, generating a list of topics and create a wide range of different types of content which will improve your brand authority and value to your target audience. This can then be combined with a keyword strategy and then optimizing each post for SEO purposes. In turn, this will then improve your trust, engagement and domain authority following the Medic Update.