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Links are fading fast. Reviews are heating up.
Backlinks have always been a replacement for reviews. A vouch from one site to another. A vote of confidence. As links fade out, trust signals fade in. That means reviews are going to be upgraded as a trust signal as soon as verification technology improves to understand sentiment better.
Recovering from an EEAT (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness) demotion on health content requires addressing Google's core concerns about your site's credibility. Here's a strategic approach:
Assess what triggered it: Start by understanding why your content was demoted. Common issues include outdated medical information, lack of author credentials, missing or unclear sources, or content that conflicts with established medical consensus. Review Google's health content guidelines and compare your content against them.
Strengthen author credentials: If you're writing health content, ensure author bios clearly establish relevant expertisem edical degrees, certifications, years of practice, or relevant credentials should be visible and verifiable. If you don't have medical credentials yourself, consider collaborating with or having content reviewed by qualified healthcare professionals. This is one of the most impactful signals for health content.
Improve source quality and citations: Link to authoritative sources (peer-reviewed studies, government health agencies, major medical institutions). Make sure citations are current and accurately represent the research. Remove or update outdated information that contradicts current medical evidence. This signals you're tracking evolving medical knowledge.
Add expert review processes: Document that health content is reviewed by qualified professionals before publication. Even if you're not the original expert, having external expert validation visible improves EEAT signals significantly.
Update and refresh content: Go through existing health content systematically and update it with current information, recent research, and fresh timestamps. Google values regularly maintained health content over static, aging information.
Build topical authority: Rather than scattered health advice, develop deep expertise in a specific niche where your credentials are strongest. This helps rebuild authority in that area.
Improve site-wide trust signals: Add an "About Us" page with team credentials, display security certifications, ensure clear contact information, and be transparent about your organization's mission and funding sources.
Teach employess to always ask for reviews of which pages this tells you what's resonating with their systems.
Recovery typically takes weeks to months. Be patient and focus on genuine improvement rather than quick fixes. In the long run you will see it as a blessing, now tou have eifferent possino
There are many reasons, and you will find a few below. The most obvious is that tech hasn't quite got good enough yet. Both at reading reviews to understand content and sentiment, plus detecting schemes that game the system.
Review gating is a practice where businesses filter customer feedback. To ensure they receive just positive reviews. While steering negative feedback to private channels.
It is a smart move (it crossed my mind before realising the ethics) However, it is most certainly against the rules. Often done manually, it is difficult to trace.
This non digital setup of reviews is the biggest ethical scale that needs carelly weighing when carrying out BTO.
Until platforms (especially Google) can near-perfectly identify and devalue fake or incentivized reviews. Using the content of reviews as a strong trust signal is risky, as it could reward manipulators. Top platforms do incentivize reviews, such as the top tech site G2.
We are in the AI era and haven't seen a massive attack of AI reviews. Some think agentic AI pose a huge threat. Perhaps the likes of Google are waiting to see what pans out.
Every platform has a different scoring system. This makes it difficult to decipher the value.
The why is more important than the what.
A 15 minute Clutch review Vs a no text Google Maps review is a good example of the void. They are clearly not equal.
Then you have questions like who is leaving the review: an author with great expertise or a malicious passerby.