Google Medic Update Slams Cannabis Websites and Health Sites in General

Google Medic Update Slams Cannabis Websites and Health Sites in General

Best Marijuana Sites Online - Google Medic Update Slams Health and Cannabis Websites from CannabisNet on Vimeo.

Where did all my Google traffic go?

That is a big question coming from cannabis website owners right about now as a massive rolling Google update nicknamed Medic (no pun intended) did a number on cannabis sites and the entire health industry. What happened, why did it happen, and what can you do about it?

The Google Medic update begin in August and has been rolling on for about 120 days now. Major cannabis sites with high domain authority got demoted in Google, while other news sites with high domain authority got moved up. What does that mean? Sites with high domain authority like High Times, Green Rush, and Herb.co got moved back in Google, while news sites like Vox, Boston Globe, Vice, Washington Post who started their own separate marijuana news sections, got moved up.

The International Highlife covered the update in great detail in this article, check it out.

Let’s go over a few questions.

Was this a cannabis-based thing?

No, it was called Medic and it affected the health niche in a big way, which cannabis currently fall under. So no, it was not “Google shutting down cannabis”. See this article on the effects it has had on many health-related sites.

What can you do to fix it?

First thing to do is check your Google analytics and webmaster areas for any notices or red flags from Google about your site. Did they send you a warning or information on things that needed to be corrected? Too many broken links? Site loading time issues?

Second, if you have done some shady link building or things in the past, go in and disavow those links in your Google account. This is one way of saying “Sorry, we screwed up in the past, we are sorry now, please forgive us”. This process usually takes about 90 days to get through the Google system and for Google to re-evaluate you.

How do I get my traffic and ranking back today?

Same as always, create good content, share it on social networks and let Google do its thing. There are over 2,000 data points that Google uses to place search results, or as they call them, signals, so you need to just keep creating good content and let Google bring you back up.

Some things you can control are listed in the graph below. These stats are from Alexa.com and are free to the public in their free version. Google has access to this information, and 10x more I am sure, with their analytics program. They like it when people are happy, they like sites that create good content and users like to stay on and look around. How is your site design? Is it interactive? Are you just pushing out article after article and telling people to “read, read, read, while I show you a banner, banner, banner”? That model is dead. You need a site to be interactive, people don’t read much anymore, they just skim headlines, click on one story, and then are gone. What is on your site that is sticky, to bring people back? Create a calculator, create a widget, create a quiz, anything to keep that bounce rate down and time on site up.

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How long will it take?

Great question. This is our 3rd Google update at Cannabis.net and we usually get tossed around for 30 to 60 days and then, as they say, the “cream rises to the top”. Google knocks down everyone it seems and then re-runs the algorithms on your site and starts your site climbing the ranking ladder again. In the SEO world, it is called the “Riding the Google Wave”. At one point, Cannabis.net was number #3 in the world for the word “cannabis”, an update hit and we were sent to #43. We then climbed back up to #7 over 90 days. We are seeing some dropping now, but not as bad as previous years and all our secondary signals and platforms look great, so I am not worried about it. In 100 days, I expect to be back and climbing the ladder back up for whatever we lost.

Remember, you can’t game Google. They have more PHD’s working there than any company in the world and they know how this stuff works, and they know how you try to cheat.

Stay away from “grey hat” and “black hat” SEO tactics now, no more Warrior Forum or Russian bots to ramp up traffic.

What is the death knell and it’s time to throw in the towel?

If you domain authority drops and by more than a point or two, you are done. Once Google and DMOZ label your domain as “nefarious” and adjust your DA down by more than a point or two, you will never come back from that demotion. It will take years and time and money that many people just don’t have right now.

Don’t panic, create good content. With Google, it is a marathon, not a sprint. If you try and cheat and they catch you, they will push you back to the back of the pack.

Remember, it's not personal. Google is not singling out your site and demoting it. They are creating math codes and rules for 10,000 sites or even 100,000 at a time and pushing a button and regrading ALL of them at once. They then look and tweak things and let their normal algorithms start to run again. If you got knocked down and you have been doing everything legit and right, don't worry, ti wasn't about you, it was about 50,000,000 other webpages...and you.

Best Marijuana Sites Online - Google Medic Update Slams Health and Cannabis Websites from CannabisNet on Vimeo.