Core update
A significant, broad change to Google's ranking systems, announced in advance and rolled out over one to several weeks, typically a few…
AlgorithmsAugust 2018 core update
Medic update
The industry nickname for Google's August 2018 broad core update, which had pronounced effects on health, medical and other YMYL sites.
In full
Google confirmed it as an ordinary broad core update with no health-specific targeting, but its impact concentrated on YMYL categories and it became the moment E-A-T entered mainstream SEO practice. The lasting lesson is that core updates re-evaluate whether a site is a credible source for its subject, which bears hardest where the stakes are highest. The name is industry shorthand, not Google terminology.
Example
A supplements retailer publishing medical claims without credentialed authors lost most of its visibility in the rollout.
Related terms
YMYL
Topics that could significantly affect a person's health, financial stability, safety or wellbeing, held to a higher quality standard by…
E-E-A-T
The framework in Google's Search Quality Rater Guidelines for assessing page quality: Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness and…
Search Quality Rater Guidelines
Google's published manual for the external human raters who evaluate search results, defining Page Quality, Needs Met and concepts like…
Trust signals
The observable characteristics that make a site and its content credible: accurate information, transparent ownership, clear contact…