Hard Hit by Medic Update

[Larry Linson]

I have an injury lawyer client who is hard hit by the Medic Update: Search Console tells me his most recent high daily traffic number was 3137 on August 2, 2018. Fell precipitously from that day to from 600 to 1000 a day. Really don't see what he has done wrong. Got a URL rating of 30, Domain Rating of 14 which is a tad higher than that for the competitor who seems to have won the Post Medic day. He ranks high consistently in the snack pack, but many of his vital keyword rankings are now off the first page, and he is in a panic. Can anyone give me suggestions as to how I might help him?

 

[JoyHawkins]

Hey Larry,

I've audited quite a few attorneys that had drops after Medic and for all of them the drop was to their blogs or articles they'd written. In *most* cases this wasn't a big deal since they weren't pages that were driving the majority of the conversions.

I found the majority of the drops were around medical malpractice related stuff which falls inline with what most people have written about regarding this update since that topic is a Your-Money-Or-Your-Life topic.

I'd suggest starting by identifying which pages saw a decline in traffic and looking to see what is different (authority-wise) about the pages that are now ranking instead of your client.

 

[Cherie Dickey]

I would also really examine the attorney's reputation. Being YMYL, not having a strong positive reputation as an authority off site (or not as strong as the competition) can be a contributing factor as well.

 

[Larry Linson]

Thank you Cherie for your response. Not sure what we mean by reputation: my attorney has good reviews on Google my business - indeed she ranks well consistently in the "snack pack". She has good Avvo review, decent Yelp as well.

 

[Larry Linson]

Hey Larry,

I've audited quite a few attorneys that had drops after Medic and for all of them the drop was to their blogs or articles they'd written. In *most* cases this wasn't a big deal since they weren't pages that were driving the majority of the conversions.

I found the majority of the drops were around medical malpractice related stuff which falls inline with what most people have written about regarding this update since that topic is a Your-Money-Or-Your-Life topic.

I'd suggest starting by identifying which pages saw a decline in traffic and looking to see what is different (authority-wise) about the pages that are now ranking instead of your client.

Thanks Joy for your response. What exactly do you mean by "authority-wise"?

 

[Cherie Dickey]

Hey Larry,

There are many other review sites besides GMB. There are also endorsements from other authoritative sources such as awards, public recommendations by other trusted professionals in related fields, etc. There is also guest posting on highly respected and vetted industry related blogs as well. For YMYL sites, the more robust this overall endorsement/review profile is for the person responsible for the content of the site (in your case an Atty), the more competitive the site will be in search.

That said, the the content on the site needs to be high quality as well. So, Joy's suggestion is going to be your first tool in your toolbox in this case. But reputation itself is also important, so your client should be working on that while you work on the site. And truthfully, you client should always be working on that.

I hope this helps!

 

[JoyHawkins]

Thanks Joy for your response. What exactly do you mean by "authority-wise"?

In most of the cases I looked at, I noticed things like the credentials of the author being explicitly listed, peer reviews being listed (ex: this article was peer reviewed by X) and awards/badges being displayed that helped clarify why that person that wrote the article is an authority on that topic.