Unfortunately, within the industries of addiction treatment, online pharmacies, supplement sellers, CBD manufacturers, and telemedicine providers, there is a history of misleading or scamming customers. These deceivers take advantage of people searching for the help they need. Google (and other major search engines) now take it as their responsibility to monitor and regulate these businesses when it comes to advertising on their platforms. This is where Legitscript came into play.
Legitscript provides proof of legitimacy for healthcare providers, drug rehabs, and more. This legitimacy is backed by an in-depth vetting process that ensures each website is in compliance with laws and regulations. It is required in order to advertise drug rehabs.
To fully understand Legitscript, we have to take a look at the history of online advertising within the addiction treatment space. In 2017, the HHS declared the opioid crisis a public health emergency after witnessing 42,000 opioid-related deaths in 2016. As a result of the mass amounts of people addicted to painkillers and other opiates, there was a large increase in the need for addiction treatment.
Sadly, this gave third-party scammers the opportunity to attempt to con the thousands of addicts and loved ones looking for help. To counter this, Google actually banned all ads targeting drug rehab related keywords in September of 2017. However, in 2018, Google started allowing facilities to target these keywords if they were certified with Legitscript.
Within the addiction treatment industry, there are many benefits to having a Legitscript certification. Your addiction treatment center could start moving the needle quickly after obtaining this certification.
First of all, with this certification, you will be able to advertise your rehab center on Google using “addiction treatment” keywords. Pay-per-click advertising is an extremely fast and effective way to see traffic and conversions increase. For example, “best drug rehabs” is searched 390 times per month, “alcohol treatment” is searched 6,600 times per month, and “drug rehabs per me” is searched a whopping 14,400 times per month.
These search results pages are highly saturated and extremely difficult to obtain a spot on without paid advertising. Obtaining a Legitscript certification makes your brand much more discoverable to a very large audience.
It also helps you stay competitive. Since Google rolled out a Legitscript certification requirement a few years ago, many of your competitors have jumped on the opportunity to advertise within this space and are already certified. In order to stay relevant, it is important that you catch up to your competition in online advertising.
Another benefit to being Legitscript certified is credibility to the users, not just to Google. When potential clients or loved ones of clients see that your center is properly licensed and verified to be ethical, they feel reassured and more willing to trust you with their lives.
The process of getting Legitscipt certified can be monotonous, which is what our PPC agency for Healthcare is here for. We will be able to help you submit the required items in order to fit the criteria and prove to Google and Legitscript that your business fits within the restrictions.
To begin with, your center must fit this criteria:
You will, in most cases, need to submit the following:
The process of getting this certification can take anywhere from a couple weeks to a couple months, and may include an in-person examination from Legitscript to ensure your treatment center is up to their standards. Legit Script does offer expedited certification for an additional fee which can move the process along in a more timely manner. It is important to comply with everything that Legitscript asks from your center, or the certification will not be granted.
MGMT Digital is here to make this process smoother and more efficient. Our goal is to ensure that you can focus on caring for your clients, while we worry about the technical side of your business’s marketing. Not only will we ensure that you obtain this certification, but our PPC experts will then be able to handle your paid advertising.
With 20+ years of combined experience in digital marketing within addiction treatment, our team has the knowledge your site needs in order to convert well at the lowest cost possible. Get in touch with our team today, and we can begin the process that will help you help more people.
MGMT Digital can help with all your marketing and branding needs to establish and grow your brand. Contact us with details on your next project and we will get back with you.
