In part one, Bryan Cush, the co-founder of Tidal Health Group, and I spoke about how to use health data for content and search marketing and in part two we dug into using medical databases, local search and E-A-T & YMYL. In part three (hint, there is a part four) we talk about schema and structured data for health content.
Google: Schema, Trust, Authority & Unsupported Structured Data
Bryan all into schema and using schema, even the unsupported schema, for client content. It is a win – win – even if Google does not use it, having it there, if they support it in the future – great. Making the content, adding structure to it, is helpful for other reasons outside of search.
Google’s Shift With Health Content & Requiring More E-A-T
Bryan said he first saw this big shift to Google requiring more E-A-T in the health space in local search. He said clients were doing well nationally but then saw that go away and only saw it locally. He then said authorship was key here and every doctor or brand they treated like a media brand, to showcase who they are with the content and structured data. This shift came around 2013 and 2014, Bryan said. They keep doubling down on treating everyone like a media brand. It does seem to be big in the health space but they are expanding it beyond the health space.
Structured Data In Showcasing E-A-T
I told him I disagree with the theory that structured data helps you showcase the E-A-T in your content. I explained why and then he explained why he thinks it does and ultimately why it doesn’t matter. Bryan said either way, it is a tool his company uses to build the relationship database for building the content. So it is great for that reason, and they use it for annotations and eventually if Google does use the structured data, if they are not using it yet, it is there already and it is a big win.
This includes not officially supported schema. One example is that they use case study schema and they have been using that a lot now. I argued that the content itself for the case study is the content play, not the schema aspect of it. I do wonder if that can be tested but it seems more work to test adding the content without the schema, at least in his case. Another example is the also known as schema and they use it a lot for their purposes.
More to come in part four next week.
You can learn more about Bryan Cush at Tidal Health Group.
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