The Medic update is the industry nickname for Google's broad core algorithm update confirmed on 1 August 2018. Google confirmed a broad core update but did not name it Medic: Barry Schwartz of Search Engine Roundtable coined the name after a survey in which health and medical sites were heavily represented among those affected. Google said the update involved all searches and that there was nothing specific to fix. For sites, the lasting point is that health and money topics are where Google says expertise and trust carry more weight.
What was the Medic update?
The Medic update is the name the search industry gave to Google's broad core algorithm update of August 2018. Google's Search Liaison account confirmed the update on 1 August 2018, describing it as a broad core update of the kind Google releases several times a year.
Google did not call it Medic. Barry Schwartz of Search Engine Roundtable named it on 8 August 2018 after reviewing sites that reported being affected.
This week we released a broad core algorithm update, as we do several times per year.
Google SearchLiaison, What Google & SEOs Are Saying About The August 1st Algorithm Update, Search Engine Roundtable
Why was it called Medic?
The name came from survey data, not from Google. In his 8 August 2018 analysis, Schwartz said he reviewed over 300 sites whose owners reported an impact, and that over 42% of the submitted sites were in medical, health, fitness or healthy lifestyle niches. That is a self-selected sample of sites that chose to fill in a survey, so it shows where complaints clustered, not the share of all ranking changes.
You all know that I named the August core Google algorithm update the Medic Update because it seems highly slanted in terms of the impact it had on the health, medical and fitness niches.
Barry Schwartz, Search Engine Roundtable, Google On The Medic Update: It Is Global; All Categories Of Search, Search Engine Roundtable
What evidence is there about what the Medic update did?
The evidence label is Confirmed for the update and its date, and nothing more. Google confirmed a broad core update on 1 August 2018. When asked directly about the health focus, Google's Danny Sullivan said on 14 August 2018 that it was a broad core update involving all searches. Google never said it targeted medical sites, and the name "Medic" appears nowhere in Google's documentation.
Google's line was that there was nothing specific to fix. Sullivan pointed people to the search quality rater guidelines while stressing that raters have no direct input into the algorithm.
It's a broad core update which means it is involving all searches.
Danny Sullivan, Google, Google On The Medic Update: It Is Global; All Categories Of Search, Search Engine Roundtable
What does the Medic update mean for sites today?
It means two things, one confirmed and one not. Confirmed: Google's current guidance says its systems give more weight to content aligned with strong experience, expertise, authoritativeness and trust on topics that could significantly affect health, financial stability or safety, which Google calls Your Money or Your Life (YMYL) topics. Not confirmed: that any update specifically targeted health sites.
The practical test is whether a site's health or money content shows who wrote or reviewed it, what qualifies them, and where claims come from. Treat "Medic recovery" advice that promises a specific fix with suspicion, because Google said at the time there was none.
There’s no “fix” for pages that may perform less well other than to remain focused on building great content.
Google SearchLiaison, What Google & SEOs Are Saying About The August 1st Algorithm Update, Search Engine Roundtable
Which Laurelin audit checks relate to the Medic update?
The new check, YMYL section sits outside the site's demonstrated expertise, flags health, finance or safety content published by a site with no visible expertise in that area. It is a proxy built on Google's documented YMYL weighting, not a test of the 2018 update.
Related checks: no expertise signals on YMYL tests page-level credentials; author has no bio or credentials and no named author test Google's "Who created the content" question.
Claims without sources and factual inaccuracies test the reliability that matters most on health and money topics.
What are the common myths about the Medic update?
Myth one: Google named it Medic. It did not; the industry did. Myth two: it only affected health sites. Google said it involved all searches, and the survey that produced the name also included e-commerce, finance and entertainment sites. Myth three: adding author boxes fixed it. Google said there was nothing specific to fix, and we know of no controlled evidence that author boxes alone restored rankings.
What are the key dates for Medic update?
- 2018-03-12: Google SearchLiaison says there is no fix for pages that perform less well after a broad core update (source)
- 2018-08-01: Google confirms a broad core algorithm update (source)
- 2018-08-08: Search Engine Roundtable publishes survey analysis and names it the Medic update (source)
- 2018-08-14: Danny Sullivan says it is a broad core update involving all searches (source)
- 2019-08-01: Google publishes general guidance on core updates (source)
Frequently asked questions about Medic update
Did Google confirm the Medic update?
Google confirmed a broad core algorithm update on 1 August 2018. It did not use the name Medic, which came from Search Engine Roundtable.
Did the Medic update target health websites?
Google said it was a broad core update involving all searches. Industry surveys found health sites heavily represented among those reporting impact, but those samples were self-selected.