If you’ve been feeling the sting of decreased traffic since the Medic update, you’ve probably heard whispers that focusing on E-A-T (expertise, authoritativeness, trustworthiness) is your golden ticket to recovery. But let’s be real—sometimes all you need to E-A-T is a good ol’ sandwich. Here’s why.
What’s the Deal with E-A-T?
There’s been a lot of buzz around Google’s recent “Medic” update and its impact on local SEO. The prevailing theory? E-A-T is the key. While it sounds appealing, Dan Leibson sheds light on an important point—these concepts are a bit squishy for machines to fully grasp.
Google is, at the end of the day, a machine—a glorified calculator that processes data based on existing information on your website. As much as Googlers might wish it were driven by the dreams of a digital utopia, that’s just not the case.
Real Talk: What It Means for Your Clients
In my journey through the trenches of local SEO, I’ve had the opportunity to analyze sites affected by the Medic update. Here’s the kicker: I’d put my money on solid technical SEO and a robust content strategy before I’d lean on complex concepts like machine learning or AI. These aren’t the magic bullets they’re made out to be.
To illustrate, let’s dive into some case studies:
Client One: Multi-location Medical Practice in California
Example 1: When you think weak E-A-T, you might envision a lack of credentials or poor visibility. But this client? Their practitioners regularly publish in peer-reviewed journals.
Example 2: So, what’s the problem? Their Better Business Bureau profile was virtually non-existent. More critically, they faced a slew of basic SEO issues:
Conflicting robot declarations on pages
Confused content targeting due to outdated pages
Poor canonical tags
Issues with Google’s ability to render page content
When you’re diving into a penalty recovery process, these glaring problems need immediate attention. We recently made one minor adjustment to their internal linking strategy, and wouldn’t you know it? They started to see some traffic bounce back—even in a week where no new content was published.
Client Two: Insurance Agent
Example 3: Another tough case. You’d expect their issues to lie at the intersection of advanced machine learning, right? Wrong. This client had a toxic link profile that resembled a dumpster fire.
Example 4: We found an alarming number of poor-quality backlinks. And, as if that wasn’t enough, they also faced technical SEO issues, including:
Blank CMS pages being indexed
Duplicate content strewn across numerous pages
Again, these are foundational issues that need addressing before getting caught up in the E-A-T whirlwind.
Building Back Up: The Path Forward
“Dan, stop breaking me down. Build me back up!” I hear you loud and clear. The good news is, fixing these issues isn’t rocket science. Google has long been clear about what they want:
Expert content: You can’t just slap together a blog post; it needs to offer real value.
Authoritative and trustworthy sites: Build credibility, and don’t shy away from showcasing your expertise.
Here’s the plan if you’ve felt the brunt of the Medic update:
Prioritize technical SEO: This is your foundation.
Refine your information architecture: Make your site crawlable and indexable.
Ensure your pages are rendering correctly: Both for GoogleBot and users.
Cultivate a strong link profile: Because, let’s be real, it matters.
Explore advanced content strategies: Consider how natural language processing fits into your content game.
But don’t sweat it if you’re not in the top 1% of the internet—most aren’t.
In Conclusion
In a digital world where visibility is everything, GMB Fox ensures your business isn’t just online—it’s the first choice customers make. Let us handle the complexities of digital marketing, so you can focus on what truly matters: growing your business.
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