Google has launched several initiatives to assist health organizations with making COVID-19 information more accessible in search results.
These initiatives include the creation of a best practices guide for health websites, and a Google Search support group exclusively for health organizations.
Best Practices for Health Websites
In an effort to help health organizations improve their search engine optimization, Google published a brand new best practices guide for health websites.
Some of the information in the guide includes:
- How to help users access content on the go
- The importance of good page content and titles
- Ways to check how a site appears for coronavirus-related queries
- How to analyze the top coronavirus related user queries
- How to add structured data for FAQ content
Google Search Support Group for Health Websites
Google created a technical support group focused on helping health organizations who publish information related to COVID-19.
The group is strictly geared toward providing assistance with search-related questions.
Access to the group is subject to Google’s approval, which will be granted on a case-by-case basis.
To start, Google will only be accepting domains under national health ministries and US state level agencies.
You can fill out this form to request access. Note that you will need to register using an email under the domain of the health organization you work for.
This new support group was created to address the immediate needs of health organizations.
Google intends to deprecate the group as soon as COVID-19 is no longer considered a public health emergency.
Source: Google Webmaster Central Blog