Google makes Rich Medical Content into Knowledge Graph

Google recently announced an update to its one of the important algorithm: Knowledge Graph, now provides an extensive collection of information to common medical queries for searches related to health issues. According to Google’s official blog, one in 20 Google searches are for health-related information, so they increased the search terms.
So now, when we ask Google about common health conditions, the Knowledge Graph will throw up relevant medical facts. It will show common symptoms, treatments, the typical age groups it affects, whether it is critical and contagious. For some conditions, search results will show examples from licensed medical illustrators.
Although it’s hard to predict the short-term impact of this update on health-related paid and organic search, the potential number of queries affected by this update could be very significant.

Effect on patients

Technology is being increasingly used by consumers to search for data on gadgets. In spite of all devices and platform, they are not able to find the most appropriate words that will give them the right links – especially in the medical field.
The new Knowledge Graph will help put a superior patient experience at the top-of the-funnel for those users. . The Knowledge Graph will provide content that can be easily absorbed by users and will enable a more defined research on websites including google, WebMD, which assists patients to find more detailed information.

Effects on organic and paid search

The update in Knowledge Graph could help paid searches become more competitive for top of the funnel, a significant move in paid inquiry, rather than in organic searches of pharma brands.
The Knowledge Graph dominates the right rail of search results, thus pushing right rail paid search ads towards the bottom of the page. Thus the top three listings that appear in the middle of the page become much more valuable and potentially more competitive; query will typically list content publishers such as WebMD and Wikipedia.
The outcome of paid search is:

1. Website’s click-through rate will decrease
2. The cost of paid search will increase

The following example drives home the message. For a patient searching for information on ’Flu’, there is enhanced knowledge graph on the right rail, showing tabs: About, Symptoms and Treatment. This knowledge graph pushes the paid ads below the fold.

Knowledge Graph in mobile search

Searchers can also access the Knowledge Graph on their mobiles, as there is no right rail in mobile search result. In that case, Knowledge Graph occupies the top results of the page and pushes down the rest of the results.
The information provided within the Health Knowledge Graph is obtained from endemic health sites such as the Mayo Clinic and WebMD, as well as government sites such as the NIH and CDC. Though this information comes from trustworthy sites, Google also provides users the ability to report errors in the information provided.
 Final Thoughts

• This update in Knowledge Graph will provide more detailed information quickly and easily.
• The website’s click-through rate will decrease, as most of the information is covered by the Knowledge Graph
• The cost of paid search will increase and will occupy premium positions and maintain visibility for high-level keywords

Sources:
https://www.digitashealth.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Health-Knowledge-Graph-POV.pdf
http://techcrunch.com/2015/03/11/google-knowledge-graph-meets-healthcare/

This post is originally posted in Yorke Communications Blog