Black hat marketing and black hat SEO… these are hot topics in marketing circles. Yet, many dentists are relatively unfamiliar with them. This is actually incredibly ironic. Why? Because some of their websites may employ black hat SEO for dental practices even though they don’t know it.
Deceptive or unethical marketing techniques can damage a dentist’s practice. A good reputation is one of the most important assets any dentist can have. Therefore, it’s important to be on guard against it being used on your website by unethical marketers.
There’s a reason black hat marketing became a thing. Businesses are keenly focused on getting a high ranking on Google and other search engines. Dentists are naturally concerned about getting more new patients and increasing production. Unethical marketers take advantage of this desire. They do so by promising dentists that they can enjoy a much higher rate of web traffic. Chances are they won’t tell dentists that the methods they employ are considered black hat SEO for dental practices.
Black hat tactics are the fast and dirty solution for getting higher search engine rankings. The results that black hat SEO for dental practices can deliver at first seem too good to be real. It’s true… those results may be real. The problem is that they won’t last.
Yes, you’re enjoying the fact that your website is getting more hits. Unfortunately, you have no idea that the wrath of the search engines has been awakened. Google, for example, is always on the lookout for black hat SEO. When they find it being used on websites, they retaliate by penalizing them. That means these websites will suddenly find themselves not ranking well. In a world where websites are a company’s most important marketing tool, this can be crippling.
Black Hat SEO for Dental Practices – How It Works
Google clamps down on unethical marketers to ensure a better user experience. It’s very much in their self-interest. If users aren’t happy with search engine results, they may stop using Google. As a result, the search engine giant wants to ensure that people get high-quality results in their searches. That’s bad news for unethical marketers who try to game the system.
Dentists are probably unfamiliar with many of the techniques used by black hat marketers. Here are a few of the most frequently used tactics:
Black Hat SEO Tactic #1: Keyword Stuffing
Keyword stuffing is when unethical marketers stuff content with excessive mentions of the desired keyword. Keywords are definitely a part of any marketing strategy. However, they must be used sparingly and in context. Too much keyword stuffing is evident in sentences like this:
“Anyplace Dental Practice in Anyplace is the Anyplace Dental Practice for your dental practice needs in Anywhere. Contact Anyplace Dental Practice today.”
No one in the world would ever want to read sentences like this. Even worse, doing this doesn’t even work. Search engines are getting good at spotting keyword stuffing. Attempts like this fail quickly these days.
Black Hat SEO Tactic #2: Cloaking
With cloaking, unethical marketers are allowing search engines to see one page while the viewer sees a totally different page. Black hat marketers do this in order to rank for content may not be on the viewer’s page. Google sees this as a major infraction and will penalize sites when they discover it.
It’s worth noting that there’s also something called white hat cloaking. In this case, there’s no deception involved. One example would be if you landed on a web page and saw an ad covering part of the page. This ad is easily bypassed and viewers can get the content they’re actually interested in.
Black Hat SEO Tactic #3: Sneaky Redirects
This occurs when someone lands on an entirely different website than the one they thought they were going to. While redirects can be used ethically, black hat marketers have a different goal. Their re-directs often go to a page that’s totally unrelated to what the viewer wanted. A total disregard for viewers is a staple of black hat SEO for dental practices.
Black Hat SEO for Dental Practices Makes Dentists Look Bad
Using black hat SEO is a bad idea for any dental practice. Dentists are advised to work with digital marketing companies that adhere to ethical marketing standards. Dreamscape Marketing has witnessed a wide variety of black hat tactics being used against our healthcare clients. For that reason, we are 100% committed to ethical marketing for dental practices.
Contact us today at 888-307-7304 or through the “Contact Us” on our website. Let’s discuss how white hat SEO for dental practices (not black hat SEO for dental practices) can increase traffic to your website.