Why are so many good facilities going out of business? Well, here’s some practices that the Dark Side participates in that may have something to do with it.
1.) Misleading information
By now most people have caught on to the fact that treatment centers will put up fake pictures. They will advertise having a pool when really they just have big puddles from the huge pot holes in their low income neighborhoods. Pictures show locations close to the beach and beautiful outdoor activities, but in reality you get cement and passing the football in a parking lot. I can recall times at the treatment center I use to work for making us have the clients sign up for “kinesthetic therapy.” We were really just playing soccer with a flat ball in a parking lot, and as a tech I did not have the proper background to be conducting such activity.
2.) Fake Reviews
If you go to a treatment centers’ Facebook page and cannot find a score lower than a (4) something is wrong. We are dealing with addicts, they get mad and leave bad reviews; it’s their right to do so, and people deserve to know the full truth. Seeing a facility that has a score showing some bad reviews actually instills more trust, because that means they had the integrity to leave them posted and possibly respond. Facilities with something to hide spend thousands of dollars deleting information or ordering fake reviews from a website. Look to see what reviews their pages have, and it will show their true colors.
3.) The number-claim game.
Google will automate a business listing, and if the real facility isn’t the first to claim it, another facility can. This has happened to many facilities especially the mom-and-pop ones that don’t do a lot of SEO pushing. The Dark Side will list the number to a different facility or call center, and someone who thinks they are calling a Jedi is actually calling Darth Vader. Even if they were the first to claim their site, 50 managers can have authorized access to the page and update various aspects of the business information. So, it’s possible that up to 51 people can alter the details presented about their business on Google search, Google+ and Google Maps. So if you call one facility and a different one answers hang up and get your Light Saber out.
4.) Negative SEO
The last and probably most nefarious practice is negative SEO. It involves using unethical techniques to sabotage competitors rankings in search engines. It is honestly very easy to do and to avoid giving away dirty secrets I won’t disclose exactly how. I can tell you it is cheating! The Dark Side likes to cheat and it will do anything it can to make it hard to find a good facility.
Wherehab will never tke bribes to alter reviews, and truly believes in raw and organic data so if you’re doing this on your own make sure you charge your Light Saber and are trained in combat.
