Here, in short, is the essence of Google ranking after August 1 and March 12.
Google will never be the same. If someone can’t keep up, they drop out of the top rankings, and expired domains with tons of trust links won’t help here anymore. Waiting around hoping it will pass and everything will return to its old place won’t work either. It won’t just come back—don’t indulge in false illusions.
One of the medical sites right now:
Sites are currently popping out of rankings like champagne corks.
Telderi is packed with sites for sale; supply heavily exceeds demand. All major players are dumping sites—they’re seen as toxic assets.
In theory, right now is when you should be buying sites and driving prices down to rock bottom, but you need to know exactly what to do with them next and how.
Site drops in Google are massive, especially in health-related niches.
If someone fails to adapt, the factory is always looking for workers.
Wait, factories are already full, so you’ll just be sitting at home.
After March 12, the drop trend continued.
All the experts are writing things, but there are no details.
«After March 12, sites that dropped on August 1 came back.» Okay… But to what extent did they recover? And what could have influenced it? Links, content, or something new?
Dr. Max wrote a good article on site recovery after the medical update, part 2. I have some thoughts on this as well. First, I suggest reading his article, and then we’ll move on to my analysis.
Warning: I don’t know how Google works; I’m making assumptions. Google is a black box.
Any claims by people regarding what has an impact or not are merely opinions that should be considered, but not trusted 100%. It’s better to look directly at Google Search.
So, the article mentions the site cbdoilusers.com—a great example that helped me a lot. We’ll start with it.
The downward rally began on August 1, and after March 12, the site recovered. This is important to remember. It was August 1 when medical sites—and many other sites across various niches related to authority and trust—started crumbling.
In his article, Dr. Max points out the reasons for the site’s decline:
Presumably, the site suffered in August 2018 due to extreme over-optimization in the style of «old SEO schools.» For example, the static sidebar is simply packed with all keyword variations the site is trying to rank for.
I also have thoughts on this site. And instead of speculating about over- or under-optimization, I look at the site itself.
Since such a steep drop occurred after August 1, we can assume a connection with the Google trust update. Calling it strictly a «medic update» isn’t entirely accurate, as it strays from the core issue and obscures what currently affects ranking.
Right now, trust presumably plays a role. A very big one. Below, I’ll show what I found using examples.
Let’s go to the Wayback Machine and check what was on the site before. Looking at April 20:
There was no contact info or site mission in the footer yet.
And by August 5, everything had appeared:
But this didn’t save the site on August 1, as such info was presumably added later. It dropped and only recovered on March 12. I assume March 12 was a Google trust update.
Unfortunately, the About Us page was not saved in the archive. Maybe changes were made there. Nor were snapshots from June or July saved to determine whether this trust block had been added earlier.
Social networks were also added + authority in the form of membership in organizations:
They weren’t there before. And now the site has recovered.
So, 6 months of waiting passed. Are you ready to wait 6 months? Good question.
It is very hard to find sites that have fully recovered after August 1. Very.
Still, I managed to dig up 1 more example.
Its footer also improved significantly—phone numbers, addresses, and about us were added. Footer upgrades rule now more than ever.
Here is a spike in traffic:
You can use SEMrush to track site rises and falls—a great tool, by the way.
Very large sites dropped after March 12
For example, this medical article dropped:
https://www.verywellhealth.com/plantar-fasciitis-heel-pain-3120325 (Plantar Fasciitis Heel Pain Symptoms and Treatment)
The author is a regular editor without a medical background
Another article:
The author is a medical professional, but for some reason, that didn’t save this article from dropping:
A medical center took first place for the keyword Trazodone for Insomnia
in second place is also a medical center now: https://americanaddictioncenters.org/trazodone-abuse/vs-ambien
Their positions only grew
Does a medical center carry more responsibility than an individual doctor?
Or are these more tightly niched sites to answer such a question?
Only Google knows.
Next major drop and site loss
The article has no author:
Even though there is an editorial team listed on the site:
But this article is still ranking:
Maybe an article about oatmeal doesn’t require such strong expertise yet?
However, the entire host was still affected, so there is a traffic decline even here.
There are sites that haven’t yet understood that the era has changed and are working old-school, without trust and credibility:
The domain was an expired domain (drop) and is raking in traffic right now:
I’m willing to bet that in Google’s next trust update, this site will get swept out of the top rankings.
The author profile has nothing:
Expired domains rule, but the era has changed. Without trust, there will no longer be top rankings in medical articles.
If you don’t have expertise, authoritativeness, and trust—please show yourself to the exit.
Google now has plenty to choose from, and another site will take top position instead of yours.
Here is Google’s top ranking in June 2018:
Nothing but affiliate sites.
And here it is now:
- https://www.healtheiron.com/best-male-enhancement-pills/ — contender to drop. no authority.
- https://www.walgreens.com/q/male+enhancement — online store with 1M daily visitors
- cvs.com — 1M daily traffic. pharmacy chain
- webmd.com — major US medical portal. 1M daily traffic
- mayoclinic.org — Mayo Clinic. major US medical portal. 2M daily traffic
- https://www.mbpi.org/male-enhancement-pills/ — affiliate site. contender to drop. no authority.
- https://www.vitaminshoppe.com/c/men-s-health/N-cp99in — online store
I hope you got the message. And if you didn’t, here’s some advice: build your trust.