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!

With the ever-changing rules of SEO and best practices on the internet, it can be hard to know what will work for your website. And, on top of the changing rules, there are also SEO myths that just won’t die. The SEO world likes to call them Zombie myths, because we try to kill them with facts, but they always come back. Here are 5 of the most common Zombie myths, and our Utah SEO specialists’ debunking answers.

5 SEO Zombie Myths

1. Content is All You Need

   While content is very important to have a great site, it’s not the only thing you need for good SEO. You could have the best website in the world, but that won’t matter if you don’t have any way to get to your website. Good SEO is a combination of great content, internal and external links, meta data, and site speed.

2. Site Speed Isn’t Important

   False! High-speed internet is the norm now, and your site’s visitors don’t want to wait on a slow site–especially on a mobile phone. In the early days of the internet, site speed wasn’t a concern, but today’s best websites are fast, sleek, and easy to use. Make sure you don’t bog down your sites with large images and videos. If you need help speeding up your site, Utah’s best SEO specialists can help!

3. Links Are Dead

   Nope! Much like the content myth above, links are still vital to your website’s rankings. But, Google and other search engines are much pickier when it comes to what kinds of links you have. In the olden days, the amount of links you had was all you needed. You could have 5,000 links from terrible, spammy, and even porn sites. Now, if you have a bunch of links from bad sites like that, you’ll get dinged. When you are building links and directory listings, you need to make sure that it’s a reputable site, AND that it’s related to your business.

4. You Don’t Need a Sitemap

   No matter how big or small your website is, it’s always important to have a sitemap. It helps search engines to know exactly how many pages you have, their hierarchy in importance, and even when they were last updated. Make sure you have a current xml sitemap on your website. If you need help creating one, give us a call! We would love to help.

5. SEO is Just Snake Oil

   There are many shady people on the internet trying to scam others for money, but SEO is real, and absolutely necessary for a successful website. It’s worth noting, however, that not all SEO firms and specialists are created equal. If you’re looking for the best SEO specialist in your area, do some research and find out their practices, their knowledge, and their philosophies. If you have a great SEO specialist working on your website, there’s nothing to stop you!

There are many more Zombie SEO myths out there, but these are the most popular ones that we hear from our past and present clients. If you want to know more about what SEO can do to grow your business, give us a call today!