You’ve put blood, sweat, and tears into making your private practice take off, so you’re cautious whenever someone comes along and tells you that they can take your business to the next level. But with a constant need for a competitive edge to attract new patients and gain a bigger reputation, doctors make the perfect candidates for search engine optimization (or SEO) scams.

But before we go into how to spot an SEO scam, you should know that not every person trying to sell you SEO services is a scam artist. In fact, there are thousands of reputable firms with proven track records, traditional strategies, and a deep understanding of ethical practices. So if you hear the words “SEO” or “Internet marketing,” don’t hang up the phone just yet. However, the following points are several of the red flags you should keep an eye out for.

The “Instant Results” Scam

True SEO takes time, effort, and a constant stream of links, content, and proper coding. Even the best SEO firms in the world can’t cut corners around any of the above requirements. The Google search algorithm changes regularly, it takes time for websites to be fully indexed, and the entire art of SEO is about experimentation and testing combined with classic marketing concepts. All in all, a real SEO strategy can take months and even years to execute properly. And even then, it has to be maintained.

If you’re unaware of the amount of work that goes into SEO, then naturally, a company that offers you next-day results, or even next-month results, is most likely a scam. Unfortunately, no one is that good! Talk to your SEO consultant about what kind of results you can expect to see in one month, six months, one year, two years, and so on. Any proper SEO firm will be able to draw up a long-term proposal that can steadily increase your ranking. Anybody that promises something else is just looking to make a quick buck off of your medical practice.

The “Nothing But Link Building” Scam

A good portion of SEO strategies is link building. This means that you partner up with other websites and they’ll display a link back to your website in exchange for some content, a link of their own, etc. A website with links from other trustworthy websites signifies to Google that you can be trusted since all these other people trust you, too. However, this isn’t the entire SEO strategy. Link building has to be balanced with quality content on high ranking and diverse websites. Without all of the components, you end up with a bunch of spam.

Be cautious of SEO companies that offer a link building package, especially ones comprised of directories and search engine submissions. While they might actually submit your website to these forms, they won’t be associating your website with content or high rankings. In fact, they’ll be grouping your website in with thousands upon thousands of other low-quality websites that Google has already deemed to be spam. This sort of association can bring down your website’s ranking, making it difficult for new patients to find you in a search query.

Talk to your SEO consultant about their link building strategy. If it includes quality content, guest blogs, forum moderation, and linking to highly ranked websites, then they might be a legitimate firm. However, if they promise to submit your website to thousands of directories, you can say thank you and walk away.

The “I Know A Guy” Scam

As the search engine of choice, we’d all like to know someone at Google. Unfortunately, most of us don’t. And even if we did, he wouldn’t be able to help our website rankings, not even for a million dollars. Google’s search algorithms are complicated, evolving, and confidential. This means that most SEO strategies are about testing and experimentation, not knowing a guy who knows a guy who works at Google.

Legitimate SEO companies have been able to deduce what kinds of strategies work best, yield results, and convert. But if you hear about an SEO company that doesn’t have to go through testing because they “have a source,” then you have our permission to laugh. Your medical practice needs an SEO company that is willing to put in the time to find the formula right for your goals, not a scammer who will tell you anything you want to hear to get you to sign up.

Search engine optimization has become the new age of marketing and businesses every have been taking notice. Unfortunately, that also means that scammers everywhere are paying attention, too. Don’t let them fool your medical practice with too-good-to-be-true guarantees, fast results, and unethical practices. Your website is the portal to new patients and a better reputation, be careful who you entrust with it.

Images: Eden, Janine and Jim – CC BY 2.0