August 2018 core update (Medic): dates, what changed, what to do

What Google changed#

Google confirmed the update on Twitter, through its Search Liaison account, on 1 August 2018: “This week we released a broad core algorithm update, as we do several times per year.” It pointed to the guidance it had given for a broad core update that March, which said “There’s no ‘fix’ for pages that may perform less well other than to remain focused on building great content.”

Google gave no detail on what changed. Asked about the health and medical niche, Google’s Danny Sullivan said: “It’s a broad core update which means it is involving all searches.”

When it rolled out#

The Search Liaison tweet on 1 August 2018 said the update had been released that week. On 8 August 2018, asked by Search Engine Land whether the rollout was complete, Sullivan replied on Twitter “It’s done,” adding that Google always has other broad and specific changes happening. Google did not state a rollout length.

What is known about its impact#

Google published no impact figures. The Medic nickname reflects an industry reading, not a Google statement. Barry Schwartz, who coined it on Search Engine Roundtable, said he chose it because the update seemed “highly slanted” towards health, medical and fitness niches. He also reported that entertainment, gaming and travel sites were affected. Google maintained it was a global update across all categories of search.

What site owners should do#

Google now describes this kind of update in its core update documentation, and the advice has changed little since 2018. At the time, Sullivan told site owners to read the search quality rater guidelines to understand what Google considers great content, while stressing that raters have no direct input into rankings. Google’s current guidance:

• Self-assess content against Google’s helpful content questions, and make it clear who created it and how.
• Take extra care on health, finance and safety topics. Google says its systems give more weight to strong E-E-A-T on “Your Money or Your Life” topics.
• Avoid quick fixes such as removing page elements because you heard they were bad for SEO.
• Expect recovery to take time; Google says it can take several months, possibly until the next core update.

How to check whether it affected you#

This is historical. Search Console keeps 16 months of performance data, so it cannot show August 2018. In archived analytics, compare organic Google traffic for the last full week of July 2018 with the week starting 15 August 2018, one week after Google said the rollout was done, as its core update guidance recommends. The Google Algorithm Updates timeline lists the updates around it.

Related updates#

• The May 2015 quality update was an earlier confirmed change to how Google assesses quality.
• The March 2019 core update was the next core update covered here.
• The June 2019 core update was the core update after that.