If something ails you, you likely go to Dr. Google first to figure out what it is. You know it’s not always the “soundest” of advice, but it’s readily available. Huffpost Healthy Living recently featured an article about how and why Google is the best and worst “expert” when it comes to your health, and I was happy to contribute. I’ve found that inaccurate medical information, regardless of the source, can lead to deadly consequences. Worse, “Dr. Google” often doesn’t abide by ethics codes that demand content to be flawless—if that were the case, content marketers would have a much tougher time!
The content on Google, medical or otherwise, is largely vetted via search engine optimization—and SEO doesn’t have an MD. This means the content that pops up first when you Google “weird rash in XYZ location” was selected by Google’s algorithm based on just about every factor except medical expertise. Instead, content layout, page speed, quality of images, keyword density, and authority links dictate what appears.
Would you trust a so-called doctor who required a prescription look pretty as the primary cause for giving it to you? Of course not, but that’s what we get with Google.
Find out more by reading the full article:
