Factual Dispatch #27: Google Algorithms & Anti-Vaxx Profits

This is a story I’m still trying to wrap my head around, so instead of bringing you new looks at a story you’re familiar with, this will be the first Dispatch where I’m hoping to explain something not many readers will be familiar with. Essentially, over the last two months, updates to Google’s search algorithm have annihilated the organic traffic numbers of many prominent, but poorly sourced/ethically unfettered health information sites, with the fallout deeply impacting anti-vaxx websites.

Google makes “core updates” to its search algorithm several times a year, in an effort to keep pace with the changing times, add sophistication to search and keep you on their SERP (Search Engine Results Page) as long as possible. In addition to these core updates, Google recently stated they make over 3200 minor changes to the algorithm a year. There has been chatter that Google made an unannounced minor update even as late as this week.

We’re all familiar with the swamp that is the low-information health enthusiast corner of the internet. For years, medical institutions and traditional medical practitioners could not be digitally heard over the awful din of anti-vaxx, toxic cleanse, and faux supplement marketers. Last year, Google released an algorithm update that was eventually deemed the “Medic” Update, which reshuffled the “organic” traffic many top news and, diet, exercise, core healthcare, and finance sites receive on a daily basis (Full Disclosure: I worked at a health information site www.verywellhealth.com for 2 years, experiencing these updates from the inside.). There were also a number of aftershocks, continually affecting organic traffic and search rankings in September, November, and March, where it appeared that many of the changes were “reversed” with the winners seeming to have given back traffic they’d earned, while the losers got back a bit. This masked what was actually going on, which seems to be that Google was revising its algorithm to go after badly sourced information, anti-vaxx claims, and “authorities” that had no credentials, no experience, and no business popping off at the mouth in the health space. As per, this great review of what people inside the industry are seeing:

For many years it was somewhat easy to trick Google and Facebook, using a combination of paid social campaigns, purchased backlinks to your site, and general influencing tactics. You didn’t even really need to use “black-hat” tactics, you could build a moderately successful career spreading fake news, selling natural cancer supplements, or pleading with your users to commit acts of stochastic terrorism. All while earning ad revenue by ranking organically for search terms related to your grift and building your social audience. But, with the anti-vaxx movement growing in tandem with the measles body count, Google’s response has served up some of these brands business-ending drops in traffic. One site was hit so badly it looked to be kicked from the human health information space to the PET health information space. And boy, were they not happy about it.

It’s not just anti-vaxx, supplements, or alkaloid water salesmen that need to be coped with. Fake journals, fake conferences and other examples of academic spoofing are on the rise, which will make Google’s job much more difficult. If Google' can’t parse whether an authority’s credentials are legitimate, it may not be able to correctly evaluate their trustworthiness. Thankfully, Facebook also responded, downranking brands and content that produce “exaggerated” health information. Ultimately, they will be slower to respond given the volume of business they generate catering to fake news aggregators and brand pages.

While Facebook tip toes through the tulips to not nuke that revenue immediately, Google is speeding away from search entirely. Voice discovery, smart homes, digital assistants, and a half dozen other initiatives are moving them quickly away from keyword search and into developing a narrative about their users and their needs. Morons still don’t get that the reason their sites are down-ranked is because of their site architecture and speed, not because their conservative content is “dangerous,” and now anti-vaxx people are grumbling similarly. Both groups entirely miss the point that Google’s algorithm has ~250 ranking signals that crunch the text and code on a page, and employs tens of thousands of Quality Raters to judge content. It’s way bigger than your aunt’s blogspot about the Federal Reserve or mumps pissing them off specifically.

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