How To Avoid Getting Your Site Blacklisted From Google with New Algorithm Updates
As the most used search engine in the world, Google makes several updates to the algorithms each year to determine the ranking of websites. No matter what terms or phrases you search online, you expect Google to put the best and most useful links at the top of your search ranking. This wasn’t always true. Google previously put sites near the top of the results based on their overall reputation and how many other sites mentioned them. In competitive industries such as those who are surgeons, you need to learn what to do and more importantly what not to do to increase your organic rankings and keep your sites from becoming blacklisted. You can get blacklisted by employing black hat SEO techniques.
What Does Blacklisted Mean?
Blacklisted is a term that refers to what Google does when it decides whether algorithmically or manually that a site has partaken in frowned upon activities. Some of these frowned upon activities include buying links, spamming keywords in your content, buying spammy links from websites like Fiverr.com, using your keyword in your anchor text too many times, and more. In some cases, Google will remove the site from its system. This is known as being deindexed. Though you might think that you can get around a blacklist, Google will often remove all of the pages of your site from the search results. You can attempt to get back into Google’s good graces but you’ll need to manually email every single webmaster where you have purchased a backlinks (sometimes thousands). As you can imagine, this is a daunting task that requires hundreds of hours of work with no guarantee you’ll get the results that you need. Even if your site still remains online, it may be pushed very deep back into the search results past page 10.
Reasons for Getting Blacklisted
Some reasons are more common than others. The most common reasons for getting blacklisted on Google include buying cheap foreign backlinks. The pitch is tempting to buy cheap backlinks since they are a major ranking factor, but keep in mind if it was as easy as buying thousands of low-quality links, everyone would be doing it. Another common reason is adding duplicate content to your site or content you do not have the legal right to use. A common mistake that you might make as a beginner to website development is that you fill each page with as many keywords as possible. You can also get in trouble for paying other sites to include links to your site and for telling people to use your links. Google will also blacklist sites that use copyrighted materials such as photos and videos if the site owners do not have permission from the content owners.
What To Do if You Get Blacklisted
First, you will want to check Google Webmaster Tools to see if there are any messages indicating your website has had a penalty. Even if Google blacklists your website, it will take steps to let you know of the issues that it found. Google may ask for proof that you own the website prior to giving you information via its Webmaster tool. It’s also helpful to check any of the plug-ins on your site, especially if you use those from people or sites you don’t know. There’s a chance that a plug-in contains malware that others reported, which led to Google blacklisting your site.
Getting Off the Blacklist
The top reason that surgeons desire to grow SEO is to gain more patients. One malicious mistake can ultimately leave your website in blacklist hell for years to come. If you have purchased links from link farms, or sites like Fiverr.com, you must contact these site owners to get them to remove them. This can become a nightmare to try to get a hold of some of these foreign entities. Once all of the malicious links and duplicate content is removed, sign into your Google account and click on the Security Issues option. Google will ask if you checked all possible security issues. You can then request that Google review your site and verify that you made the changes. This often takes a few days to a few weeks and allows your site to go live again.
Staying Off the Blacklist
Getting off the blacklist doesn’t mean that you’ll never have problems again. Each Google algorithm update can lead to new problems that send your site back to the blacklist. Google remains quiet about its process and what it does to rank websites. One of the big updates from a few years ago dinged websites for using too many keywords. Some developers found that sites ranked highly when they used a ratio of 5% keywords to 95% content on their sites. Google changed its algorithm, which caused the ranking of those sites to drop. There are a few things that you can do as you build your website to make sure that your patients can find you through Google.
Use Original Content
Though it might sound simple, not everyone who handles digital marketing for surgeons rely on original and new content. One of the worst things you can do to hinder SEO success is copy and paste articles that others wrote or recycle content. You need to provide new and fresh content that differentiates your practice to others. Patients want to know that your practice can handle their needs and that they can trust you. If you share photos or videos, you want to take your own pictures or choose those that are royalty-free.
Search Engine Optimization Techniques
First, feel free to visit our blog which has several step by step SEO guides for plastic surgeons. If it is too daunting to stay up to date with everything, you should consider hiring a plastic surgeon SEO company. SEO experts can help you stay on top of future Google updates and make sure that your site and all associated pages rank as high as possible. You need to choose keywords and phrases that relate to your practice and what you do. If you do not offer knee procedures but use those terms on your site to get traffic, your page ranking can drop. You also risk alienating prospective patients who find you through Google. If they search for someone who can do their knee surgery and land on your site but find that you don’t handle the procedure, it’s a waste of their time. All of the keywords and phrases that you use can grow your patient traffic and improve your ranking.
Local Google Optimization for Surgeons
Using Google Local optimization for plastic surgeons is one of the search engine ranking techniques that you can use to grow your site and traffic. Google launched this option as a way to help searchers find businesses that are close to them. This is why when you search for restaurants, Google will list those closest to your current location first. You do not need to spend a lot of time setting up a local page because you just need some basic information such as the hours your practice is open and its location along with your phone number and a link to your site.
Allow Users To Easily Navigate Your Website
The algorithm update for 2021 will look at how usable your site is and the overall experiences that patients have. Google wants to make sure that patients can find all of the information that they need and have a positive experience. If they need to click on multiple buttons to find out more about your education and what you do or go back to the homepage to find the right page, you will likely see a drop in your page ranking. You might find it helpful to add scheduling software that helps patients easily make appointments online, too.
Get Rid of Errors
Have you ever visited a website and clicked on a button only to get an error message that it couldn’t locate that page? With so many surgeons concerned about website growth for the future, now is the perfect time to eliminate those errors. You should look at your site from the perspective of both a computer user and a mobile user. Take a few minutes to click on each button to ensure that everything loads. You’ll also want to look at any photos and videos that you share as you might upload broken links or use links that stop working.
Use Comparison Tools
Plastic surgeon marketing companies like AdvertisingforSurgeons.com are aware of the leading tools that can be used. There are many comparison tools that let you compare your site to a similar one. This lets you see how you rank in terms of the keywords and SEO techniques that you use as well as the number of visitors that you get. You might find that the site of another practice in a different part of your state ranks higher because it uses fewer keywords but has phrases that more people search for on the web. Comparison tools can even tell you how much your site makes off any marketing techniques that you use when compared to how much other sites make.
Cut Down on Loading Times
Experts in digital marketing for surgeons know that patients don’t want to spend a long time waiting for pages to load. Though you might feel tempted to add multiple videos that load along with the page and large buttons that direct patients to different pages, those features will increase the time that it takes for the page to load. There is a good chance that some patients will back out before loading your site and look for another surgeon. You also need to cut down on loading times if you have a mobile site as mobile users want to find the most important information quickly.
Increase the Time Spent Per Visit
One of the top things that you can do when improving your surgeon focused marketing is increase the amount of time that visitors spend on your site. You want patients to spend more time reading through your pages and seeing what you can offer as it increases the chance that they’ll call for an appointment or make one online. Making your site more interactive is one of the best ways to extend the average visit. This might include adding articles about different medical conditions and treatment options along with bios about everyone who works in your practice. You can add quizzes that encourage them to learn about the best treatments for them and a tool that lets them contact your practice, too.
Rank Higher on Google
A Google algorithm update can significantly change your site ranking and move you from the top of the first page. Even if you prepare for the 2021 update, you need to stay on top of future updates as Google releases them. Some of the advertising for surgeons techniques include using the right SEO and getting visitors to spend more time on the site. With the right methods, you can ensure that your page always ranks high and that you never end up on the Google blacklist.
Of course, feel free to reach out to the team at Advertising for Surgeons as we offer complimentary SEO services at $0.00 cost per month. We’re so confident in our services that we only request to get paid when the marketing works.
