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If you’ve had your eye on SEO for a while you’ll probably be aware of the Google Quality Rater Guidelines, which favour content that shows Expertise, Authorativeness and Trust – known in the industry as the anacronym E.A.T. The recent Medic update emphasizes the E.A.T qualities even further, so working to these quality ideals is going to be one of the best ways to ensure your brand minimizes any loss of rankings due to Medic.

Too big to ignore, Google’s latest algorithm update on 1st August is causing ripples in the marketing world, with some brands already experiencing negative effects. However, it seems only a selection of brands are likely to suffer these “ill” effects as the update appears to be focused on advice and health-related sites that are dishing out content that may influence more vulnerable readers to make important life decisions. As such, the algorithm has been nicknamed the “Medic” update because it’s seemingly targeting “Dr. Google” type sites or those that are trying to persuade shoppers there’s something terribly wrong with them so they feel compelled to buy a particular remedy (such as a financial advisory service, magic potion, magazine subscription…).

Mobilegeddon, as it came to be known, was a major Google SEO algorithm change that occurred in April 2015. Essentially, what it meant for SEO was preference was given to sites or content that was mobile-friendly. Initially, it applied only to searches on mobile devices and smartphones.

The announcement sent the world of SEO into a whirl. Although it did not affect normal searches on a PC, given the large and growing number of mobile searches, it was still a significant change. More than half of all Google searches are conducted on a mobile device, and this number is growing steadily.

SEO is a dynamic field and changes are fast and regular. Google changes and tweaks its algorithms daily. Often the changes are small and barely noticeable, while others are more dramatic. The SEO practitioner must constantly keep up to date with the important changes or risk that the efforts put forth are no longer producing results. Many people have woken up to suddenly find their site or content has significantly dropped in the Search Engine Results Page (SERPs). There are several important trends to look for in 2018. Granted, there will be many more, but these are the significant ones …