Google Medical Update: Why Is the Search Engine Decreasing Visibility of Health and Medical Information Websites?

Abstract

The Google search engine answers many health and medical information queries every day. People have become used to searching for this type of information. This paper presents a study which examined the visibility of health and medical information websites. The purpose of this study was to find out why Google is decreasing the visibility of such websites and how to measure this decrease. Since August 2018, Google has been more rigorously rating these websites, since they can potentially impact people’s health. The method of the study was to collect data about the visibility of health and medical information websites in sequential time snapshots. Visibility consists of combined data of unique keywords, positions, and URL results. The sample under study was made up of 21 websites selected from 10 European countries. The findings reveal that in sequential time snapshots, search visibility decreased. The decrease was not dependent on the country or the language. The main reason why Google is decreasing the visibility of such websites is that they do not meet high ranking criteria.

Availability of COVID-19 Information from National and International Aesthetic Surgery Society Websites

“…National and international aesthetic societies must provide COVID-19 information via their websites to their member aesthetic surgeons. This World Wide Web is a global collection of documents and other resources; in the Internet era, aesthetic surgeons require reliable sources of online information [8,[11][12][13]. Enabling information technology platforms can optimize aesthetic surgery education and best standard of care [11][12][13][14][15].…”

“…This World Wide Web is a global collection of documents and other resources; in the Internet era, aesthetic surgeons require reliable sources of online information [8,[11][12][13]. Enabling information technology platforms can optimize aesthetic surgery education and best standard of care [11][12][13][14][15]. Clinical practice guidelines can improve the quality of care and are helpful in summarizing evidence, standardizing management and guiding appropriate referrals [8,[11][12][13][14][15].…”

“…Enabling information technology platforms can optimize aesthetic surgery education and best standard of care [11][12][13][14][15]. Clinical practice guidelines can improve the quality of care and are helpful in summarizing evidence, standardizing management and guiding appropriate referrals [8,[11][12][13][14][15]. No national nor international aesthetic society website provided paediatric COVID-19 surgical guidelines for aesthetic surgeons.…”

“…In an increasingly technological health system, where the Internet and communication play a crucial role, it is essential that this deficiency be addressed. This highlights the opportunity for partnership between national and international plastic surgery societies to standardize the information and quality of care provided to aesthetic surgeons [8,[11][12][13]. A limitation of this study is that it could not evaluate whether direct information was provided by the national or international aesthetic society directly to their society members, e.g.…”

“…This study suggests that improvement and increase in COVID-19 information provided by many national aesthetic surgery society websites may be improved by links to the ISAPS website and to other national aesthetic surgery society websites. National and international aesthetic surgery societies should provide their members with the most up-to-date, thorough and correct expert information to use in making decisions regarding the COVID-19 pandemic and care for aesthetic surgery patients [8,13,16]. National and international aesthetic surgery societies should not only explore a variety of opportunities of safe practice while following all the prescribed guidelines in current COVID-19 pandemic but more importantly endeavour to present a well-organized, constantly updated summary of COVID-19 management of aesthetic patients during the pandemic with emphasis on safe practice methods for patients and providers [17][18][19].…”