Medical and dental marketing experts should take note that Google has finally updated its search algorithm to penalize websites that have received a number of copyright violation notices. This move will downgrade the targeted websites and their rankings in Google search results will be lowered. Google is not in the business of passing a judgment on whether a particular website violated the copyright laws. Therefore, it will not remove the targeted pages from its search results, but will lower their rankings.

However, medical and dental SEO marketers can take heart from the fact that Google will continue to offer tools for issuing counter notices to those who believe that their content has been unfairly hit by Google. The decision of Google is likely to have far-reaching consequences in the long run for the publishers of online content.

Legitimacy of content must be accorded the highest priority when an online medical or dental marketing company develops the website for a professional practitioner. The doctor or dentist’s SEO team must maintain a constant vigil about what kind of content is posted on the website. A periodic site audit is recommended to ensure that no copyright-violating content has been put on the website even unintentionally. Content writers must be regularly trained and oriented against the use of plagiarized content.

The situation becomes even more sensitive for such medical blogs and websites that allow user-generated content on their sites. The site’s terms and conditions should make it clear that any such content that is found to be in violation of a copyright will be removed from the site without obligation. Some aggressive online marketers tend to engage in “black hat” marketing tactics such as making false claims of copyright infringement against competitors. Such behavior is also likely to attract adverse action from Google and other search engines eventually.