Dental SEO dangers you never even knew existed, and how to avoid them
Google analytics keep people guessing when it comes to their websites. It's hard to work on a website, only to see it disappear because Google rewrote the rules. Here is what dentists can do to avoid any surprises with their Google SEO.
If you’re a dentist who values new patients finding you online …
If you’re a dental professional who’s confused about how SEO works …
If you want to avoid being permanently deindexed from Google search results, then this article is a must-read!
Here’s why. Google has been very clear about how link schemes can get you banned from appearing in the search engine giant’s results. Google warns, “Any links intended to manipulate ... a site's ranking in Google search results may be considered part of a link scheme and a violation of Google’s Webmaster Guidelines. This includes any behavior that manipulates links to your site or outgoing links from your site.”
What does Google mean by this? Here’s the overview. Unethical tactics are often used by dental marketing firms to temporarily boost dental website rankings. Those that Google disapproves of include:
● Buying links from websites that aren’t a natural fit to the topic your web pages cover.
● Reciprocal linking (link to me and I’ll link to you) agreements.
● Large-scale, low quality article posting that links excessively to the homepage of your website, without offering any additional value to the reader, in other words, many links that don’t support the message in the article.
● Using automated software or services to create links from websites that are obscure, unrelated, and unclear about the point.
Consider the dentist who hired an SEO company to build links to his practice’s website. The dentist noticed that the company had ranked other dentist’s websites, and that the company had testimonials from other dentists who touted the effectiveness of this SEO company.
Then one day, Google squashed the link building tactics of this SEO company. Google deemed the company’s link building tactics “unethical,” and responded to them and thousands of other examples with an algorithm change known as “Payday Loans Update,” which is similar to the more widely known “Penguin Update.”
This dentist saw his new patient flow cut in half. He was crushed, and he wasn’t the only one. Imagine how these dentists felt when the SEO company just disappeared from accountability, as many dental websites vanished from Google search results. Google was flooded with complaints that these dentists had no idea the SEO company they hired was breaking Google’s rules.
Google did allow some dental websites back into the fold, but many dentists were left holding the bag. Some of them decided to hire a dental SEO expert who could help them recover from the Google penalty. As a response, Google issued a public statement that said when someone hires a marketing consultant to drive new patients through Google’s portal, they are responsible for any risks the SEO consultant puts them through.
It’s basically the same as hiring a videographer to shoot video of your practice, a TV station to air the video, and a dental marketing company to choreograph the process, without ever reviewing the video to be aired in your community.
You can learn from the experience of these penalized dentists. It’s time for you to do the right thing for your practice. Demand transparency from your dental marketing company. Have someone in your practice take an SEO course specifically designed for the dental niche. By understanding the basics of SEO, you can save yourself a ton of heartache when Google rolls out the ever-stricter algorithmic change.
Google recently released an algorithm change called “Penguin 4,” which is a live update. A live update means you can instantly be unlisted from Google without warning. The purpose of Penguin 4 is to prevent unscrupulous SEO companies from manipulating Google search results with strange links.
