From the NYT – Turn your head and cough for the camera please. Apparently doctors in the “luxury” category (lasik, botox, boob jobs, etc.) are getting pretty aggressive at getting patients to post videos of their procedures on YouTube. Docs are offering nice discounts, and in one case a lasik doc is paying patients $1 a pop to email their friends about him. My favorite deal was a free $800 injection of Jurvederm in exchange for promotion.
I wonder what I can get from my doc in exchange for a targeted inbound link or two? Would Google require the doc to put “nofollow” tags on my eyeballs?
7 Response Comments
There was an interesting discussion about this here: http://www.wolf-howl.com/google/hey-matt-cutts-fair-you/
It talks about the difference of giving people something and then asking for a review online, or just out right paying for a link. It is an interesting discussion.
The conclusion it seems many people are coming to is that you are giving the person to review you however they want and you aren’t paying someone one out right for a link. I also had an interesting discussion about this the other day at Mike Blumenthals blog
http://blumenthals.com/blog/2008/06/10/making-reviews-customer-friendly-for-better-local-search-rank/
Right, now Google hasn’t said anything, but they will have to address it sooner or later. I don’t know how they will fall though. They can’t control everything and I don’t know how they could determine what person received and incentive to post or not.
I believe this aggressiveness is perfectly fine. SMB are becoming very tactful is their search marketing strategies, and are hyper focus on local for being their guide to building business. I’m not sure how I would like watching a root canal being done.. yet who knows.. maybe it’ll be in my decisions making process when selecting a dentist or “luxury” surgeon.
I think having a video which takes you through the entire process of preparing for surgery all the way through the recovery stage would be interesting.
Anyhow those are my 2 cents.
Cheers,
Ben
Totally agree with you Ben. This post might provide some more food for thought: https://www.localseoguide.com/video-optimization-is-your-dentist-ready-for-his-close-up/
BTW Ben, stayed at the Atlanta Airport Marriott this week and thought it was pretty good.
Thx, Andrew a little positive search engine reputation management is always welcomed.
Please let me know when your staying at your next Marriott.. perhaps I can help save some molah:)
I’m sure you can find my contacts.
Cheers!
Ben
It’s easy to forget that doctors running their own practices are businessmen in their own right, at least until your making out the check for your procedure. I guess I can’t fault them for aggressively pursuing various marketing channels anymore than I would any other small business owner. Still makes the stomach turn a little bit, though : )
I can fix that stomach for you Jay if you agree to tatoo my url on your abs.