Protecting your turf

ONE WAY to minimise the impact of online harassers is to claim enough online real estate that you crowd them out of the first page of search results when someone looks for you online.

Research shows that most people using Google don’t look beyond the first page of search results.

The best way to occupy as much of that first page as you can is to get yourself there before you find yourself in a situation where someone is trying to create content using your name.

This isn’t just because prevention is better than a cure, it can often be the case that a longstanding website can be viewed as more reliable by a search engine than a newer one.

Broadly speaking, this is called Search Engine Optimisation or SEO and it’s a term often used by website developers describing ways they can generate traffic for a site they are building.

It is also an important tool in protecting your online reputation.

It is not unusual for doctors, especially if they have a private practice, to have their own websites.

This is a good start in claiming your online turf, but to really prevent any potential online harassers from getting into search results for your name or practice, it is worth considering doing some SEO.

Companies like Google are constantly changing their methods for determining the relevance of websites when it comes to keyword searches to prevent people from gaming the system.

That said, you should ensure content on your website is:

• Well-written and uses keywords important to your practice, such as your name, your practice name, your specialty, your location, and so on
• These keywords should also appear in text that is not usually seen by website visitors like alt text for images (this is the text that displays in a web browser if there a problem loading the image for whatever reason)
• Keep the information on your website up-to-date and provide regular updates
• Ensure your website is easy to navigate and responsive for use on mobile devices and tablets

If you are really dissatisfied with your own website’s performance in Google search results, you may want to consider paying for professional SEO services.
Since SEO is all about getting the top spot on a Google search results page, simply searching for the term SEO is often a good way to find skilled practitioners.

A website isn’t the only type of online space you can claim, though; you may want to consider social media accounts.

Social Media

A Facebook page (as opposed to a personal account) for your practice is another way you can claim your space on the web.

A Facebook page differs from a personal account in several ways but the most noteworthy is that when someone likes a page, they do not share the same level of information with it as when they have friended someone’s personal account.
In this respect, a Facebook page is a tool for information broadcast rather than a reciprocal friendship arrangement.

A Facebook page is something that any Facebook user with an existing account can create and, once created, you can provide other people with posting rights so they can manage it for you (eg your practice manager).

Many practices already use Facebook pages to provide patients with important updates and general health news.

One thing you should keep in mind with a Facebook page is that they usually come with reviews and ratings systems turned on by default.

So you don’t run afoul of regulations on advertising standards for medical professionals, it is best to disable these.

Facebook goes through regular updates, and the specific settings to turn reviews and ratings on and off have varied over time but, as of this writing, they can be found under settings > edit page > tabs – you should see an option there to disable the reviews tab, if it is active.

In the general section on page settings you should also consider what sort of content you will allow visitors to post, review moderation settings, and how strong you want to set the profanity filter to prevent your page from being vandalised.

You should also keep an eye on comments that people post on your page and hide or delete inappropriate visitor posts or, in some cases, even ban users who cause trouble.

You may also want to consider creating a LinkedIn page or Twitter account for your practice, or even branch out into making videos for your practice on YouTube or similar service (just be careful to turn comments off for videos you post about your practice).

The more online spaces you claim in your name or your practice’s name, the better you are able to crowd out harassers from search results in the event you attract them.

Be careful, though, some social media pages come with mandatory review and ratings systems, which you cannot turn off.