If you’ve noticed a sudden drop in your website’s organic traffic around August 2018, you’re not alone. Thousands of website owners woke up to significantly lower rankings, and many are still struggling to recover. The culprit? A major algorithm update that changed how search engines evaluate website quality.
Understanding what happened and implementing the right recovery strategies can help you reclaim your lost visibility. Let me walk you through everything you need to know about bouncing back stronger than before.
What Actually Happened During the Medic Update
In early August 2018, website owners across multiple industries experienced unprecedented ranking fluctuations. This wasn’t just another minor tweak—it represented one of the most significant changes to search quality guidelines in years.
The update earned its nickname because health and wellness websites took the hardest hit. However, the impact extended far beyond medical sites. Financial advisors, fitness coaches, nutritionists, and even e-commerce stores selling health products saw their traffic plummet overnight.
Why Your Website Rankings Dropped
The core focus shifted toward evaluating expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness—commonly known as E-A-T principles. Search engines began scrutinizing whether websites demonstrated genuine expertise in their subject matter, particularly for topics that could impact someone’s health, finances, or overall well-being.
Your Money Your Life (YMYL) pages came under intense scrutiny. These include any content that could potentially affect a person’s future happiness, health, financial stability, or safety. If your site covers these topics without demonstrating clear credentials, you likely felt the impact.
Signs Your Site Was Affected
Before diving into recovery strategies, you need to confirm whether the update actually impacted your website. Here’s how to identify the damage:
Check your analytics for a sharp traffic decline between August 1-8, 2018. Look specifically at organic search traffic rather than total visitors. Many affected sites lost 30-60% of their organic visibility within days.
Search Console data reveals which specific pages lost rankings. Focus on pages that previously ranked well but suddenly dropped to page two or beyond. These are your primary recovery targets.
Building Back Your Authority and Trust
Recovery isn’t about gaming the system—it’s about genuinely improving your website’s quality and demonstrating real expertise. Here’s where most successful recoveries begin:
Showcase Real Credentials
Every piece of content needs a clear author attribution. Add detailed author bios that highlight relevant qualifications, certifications, and professional experience. If you’re writing about nutrition, mention your dietitian credentials. Discussing legal matters? Display your bar association membership.
I’ve seen websites recover simply by adding proper author boxes with professional headshots, LinkedIn profiles, and verifiable credentials. This transparency builds immediate trust with both users and search algorithms.
Overhaul Your Content Quality
Thin content won’t cut it anymore. Your articles need depth, accuracy, and comprehensive coverage of topics. Aim for 1,500-2,500 words per page, but don’t add fluff just to hit word counts.
Every factual claim should link to reputable sources. Medical advice? Cite peer-reviewed studies or recognized health organizations. Financial guidance? Reference government data or established financial institutions.
Remove outdated information ruthlessly. If you published something three years ago that’s no longer accurate, either update it completely or remove it. Keeping questionable content hurts your entire site’s credibility.
Technical Foundation for Recovery
Content improvements mean nothing if your technical setup raises red flags. Address these fundamentals first:
Your About Us page needs significant enhancement. Explain who runs the website, what qualifications they have, and why visitors should trust your information. Include real contact information—not just a contact form.
Privacy policies and terms of service might seem boring, but they’re crucial trust signals. Make them easily accessible in your footer. If you handle sensitive health or financial data, ensure HIPAA or GDPR compliance where applicable.
Page speed matters more than ever. If your site takes longer than three seconds to load, you’re already losing both visitors and rankings. Compress images, minimize code, and consider faster hosting.
Mobile optimization isn’t optional. With mobile-first indexing now standard, your site must work flawlessly on smartphones and tablets. Test thoroughly across different devices and screen sizes.
Strategic Content Improvements
Beyond general quality enhancements, specific tactical changes accelerate recovery:
Separate informational content from commercial pages. If you’re selling health supplements, don’t stuff product links into every educational article. Create distinct, genuinely helpful content that doesn’t immediately push sales.
Consolidate similar content. Multiple thin pages covering overlapping topics dilute your authority. Merge related content into comprehensive resources, using 301 redirects from old URLs.
Add strategic outbound links. Linking to authoritative sources doesn’t hurt your rankings—it demonstrates you’ve done proper research. Reference medical journals, government health departments, or academic institutions where appropriate.
Update content regularly. Fresh information signals your site remains actively maintained. Add new sections to existing articles, update statistics, and revise outdated recommendations.
Real Recovery Examples
A physician review platform saw complete recovery within 60 days by adding detailed doctor profiles with verified credentials. They restructured their content to separate reviews from educational health information.
An e-commerce site selling medical products took 12 months but recovered by investing heavily in educational content written by healthcare professionals. They added author bios for every contributor and cited sources for all health claims.
Even controversial niches saw improvements. A financial services site focusing on short-term loans recovered 18% of lost traffic in two months by enhancing transparency about fees, adding financial expert contributors, and improving their disclosure policies.
Understanding Recovery Timelines
Patience is essential. Most successful recoveries take 60-180 days after implementing changes. Some complex sites need up to a year to fully bounce back.
Changes don’t show immediate results because search engines need time to recrawl your site, reassess your content, and adjust rankings accordingly. Continue monitoring Search Console and Analytics weekly to track gradual improvements.
Don’t expect overnight miracles. Sustainable recovery comes from sustained quality improvements, not quick tricks or shortcuts.
Maintaining Long-Term Success
Recovery is just the beginning. Ongoing maintenance prevents future drops:
Conduct quarterly content audits. Review your top-performing pages and update them with fresh information, better sources, and improved expertise signals.
Stay informed about algorithm changes. Subscribe to reliable SEO news sources and adjust your strategies as guidelines evolve.
Diversify traffic sources. While working on organic recovery, consider paid advertising or social media to maintain business continuity. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.
Moving Forward with Confidence
Recovering from a major algorithm impact feels overwhelming, but thousands of websites have successfully rebuilt their rankings by focusing on genuine quality improvements.
The key takeaway? Search engines increasingly reward websites that demonstrate real expertise, back up claims with evidence, and prioritize user welfare over quick profits. If you commit to these principles, recovery isn’t just possible—it’s inevitable.
Start with your most important pages first. Fix author attributions, enhance content depth, and improve trust signals. Monitor your progress, stay patient, and keep improving. Your rankings will follow.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long does recovery typically take? Most sites see meaningful improvements within 60-180 days, though complete recovery can take up to 12 months depending on the severity of issues and how quickly you implement fixes.
Is my site penalized or just devalued? Most likely devalued, not penalized. The update reassessed quality signals rather than applying penalties. You can recover through improvements rather than penalty removal requests.
Can non-medical sites be affected? Absolutely. While health sites were hit hardest, any YMYL content—including finance, legal advice, and even parenting guidance—fell under increased scrutiny.
What’s the single most important recovery factor? Demonstrating clear expertise through author credentials and comprehensive, well-sourced content consistently shows the best results across recovered sites.
Should I disavow backlinks as part of recovery? Only if you have genuinely spammy links. Most recovery efforts should focus on content and expertise signals rather than backlink cleanup unless you have a specific spam problem.
