If you work in the medical or health industries, you may have heard of the dreaded algorithm change that occurs during the winter months. The gift-giving holidays are coming up, and Google has learned that people search more for products and gifts. So, to get the best search engine results, they place more importance on retail instead of other queries.

So, what does this mean for you, if you own a medical business?

What Is an Algorithm Change?

In the world of the Internet, nothing is constant. Search engines like Google roll out changes every day, to make sure that their search engine is best serving the people that use it. The major and minor algorithm changes that have rolled out over the years can affect your rankings. You may remember your SEO specialists talking about algorithm changes that negatively affect websites with thin content, or websites that aren’t optimized for mobile phones. These algorithm changes, while they seem to happen at random, are a targeted way to best reflect user intent and the current trends of the Internet.

What Does This Have to Do With the Holidays?

If you think about your own personal Internet usage, what time of the year are you Google-searching retail the most? Most would answer just after Black Friday, to just after Christmas Day. That’s when retail stores have their deals, to get more people in the door to buy their products. The search engines are aware of this, and adjust the algorithm to better serve these retail searches.

As a result, the search engines are focusing less on the good SEO practices you’ve worked hard on, like your meta titles, descriptions, and keywords. They are looking for product descriptions, lists, and deals. If you’re not selling a product, the search engines won’t pay as much attention.

What Can I do?

First of all, don’t panic.

This algorithm change is only temporary. You may see your rankings and traffic fluctuate from November to January, but you can expect these numbers to go back up after the holiday rush. Just keep following the SEO best practices, and creating informative and engaging content about your services, and you should be fine.

If you’re wondering how to best follow the SEO best practice guidelines, give a call to one of our SEO specialists today! We have over 10 years of experience doing SEO work for all industries–especially medical. We will be happy to help!