HON Code Certification--how important is it for a health site?

[nicole.healthline]

How important is HON code for a health site? I am working on a client's site (health-related) that was hit by Panda and am wondering if anyone knows of any studies or has any personal experience with Panda & HON code?

[matbennett]

I don't work in that sector myself, but I have a friend who does, was hit heavily by Panda and tried HON code as part of a recovery strategy.

He seems to have clawed his way out of Panda this week, but doesn't attribute it to the HON code directly.  However HON does impose some criteria that are probably good to stick with in order to build trust in that sector, which might give off some secondary signals. In short some of the stuff he did to get the HON accreditation probably helped even if the accreditation itself didn't.

For reference his attributes much of his recovery to removing thinner content - ensuring he has 1 article per topic and making it a better article by combining similar ones.