Let’s say someone close to you has a drug or alcohol problem, to the point that it gets in the way of every life decision made at a detriment to themselves and others. Yes, it is that pinnacle point in time when choosing the right addiction treatment facility is vital to the essence of his or her future. But how would you know which one is right or best? What is the next step? For more than 70 percent of us, we search for something online and more often, with Google. But when it comes to looking for a trustworthy and accredited addiction treatment program, what’s on screen can be deceiving. Until now. With the introduction of the LegitScript certification, Google searches and addiction rehabs come together and regain the credibility needed to help patients and their families find answers from reliable sources.
What Is LegitScript?
This certification was created as a mechanism to help remove bad actors, posing as legitimate businesses, from the internet. Primarily used for pharmaceutical-based listings, LegitScript has expanded since its inception in 2007. Partnerships with Google, Bing, Visa, Facebook, Amazon and now the National Association of Addiction Treatment Providers, LegitScript has provided necessary safeguards for those who are most at risk, the people seeking help for alcohol and drug addictions online.
There are three basic tenets that must be met in order to be eligible for the LegitScript cert: legality, safety and transparency. While these characteristics may seem as obvious must-haves, many drug rehab listings found across the country via Google searches have uncovered an ugly truth. If there are loopholes in the internet advertising arena, criminals will find them and suck the money out of anyone who believes their phony worth. And they did, easily, until this year.
How Does LegitScript Call Out the Good and Bad in Addiction Treatment?
Trust is often the last word to come by when dealing with drug or alcohol addiction. At the same time, trust is the first word you’re hoping to feel with respect to an addiction recovery program. What stands in the middle is the search for such a place.
LegitScript redefines how the public perceives addiction treatment by setting a new standard in online presence through a new certification specific to the drug and alcohol addiction industry. Either the drug rehab is LegitScript certified or it isn’t. The guidelines therein serve as protective layers against false advertising, bait-and-switch tactics, and identifying treatment resources vs. actual brick-and-mortar treatment facilities. There is a difference and LegitScript provides the key differentiator.
The process in attaining the certification can be lengthy but in the eyes of perspective patients, well worth the peace of mind it presents. Each web domain and company must reapply on an annual basis to ensure compliance is ongoing and maintained. Moving forward, the addiction industry now has something to help remove the shadow of doubt carried in recent years.
Remember the Google Search Lockdown
A multitude of addiction rehab facilities in Florida and other areas of the United States received mandatory cease and desist orders. Subsequent arrests and convictions ensued, putting drug rehab owners and their staff in prison for a variety of criminal activities. Since much of the wrongdoing could be traced to misleading or phony online marketing and business listing practices, Google stepped up its game and put the industry on lockdown. If you were in the addiction treatment business, Facebook and Google ads were made a thing of the past. That was then. LegitScript is now.
Addiction Rehab Advertising Overhaul Is Part of a Large-Scale Initiative
Transparency continues to lead the way as addiction rehab businesses dig out of the proverbial hole. But for drug and alcohol treatment centers that have always operated on that platform, LegitScript didn’t force them to change; it merely honored their ongoing ability to treat people right from the start.
Scottsdale Recovery Center (SRC) co-founder Chris Cohn said it this way, “Getting LegitScript certified is another way to help those suffering with the disease of addiction to feel comfortable in our program… It feels good to be recognized by Google as one of the good guys in Arizona.” SRC is also accredited through The Joint Commission, with memberships and alliances in NAATP, NAADAC, NAMI and more.
The search for reliable, accredited addiction treatment programs just got easier with LegitScript. If a drug or alcohol rehab business doesn’t have this certification, they cannot advertise on Google or Facebook.
Why Maximizing the User Experience Is Everything
There’s a connection between drug/alcohol user experiences during detox, addiction treatment and corresponding recovery programs and the “user experience” while online. To get patients into recovery has a lot to do with the information received and the emotional experiences that go with it before they ever set foot in a treatment center.
Advertising, at its best, is a way to connect with existing clients and prospective clients by engaging a feeling that will elicit an online user’s response. Today, people want it real and honest. LegitScript partners online search practices with a foundation of reliability. Whether a person is looking for addiction treatment for the first time or the result of relapse, the rehab industry finally has its own seal of approval that distinguishes the cream of the crop from the bottom feeders.
But the big winners are the patients and their families.
Facility Videos and Images Help Authenticate the Truth
In addition to looking for the LegitScript certification when searching for addiction treatment online, videos on a drug rehab’s website or social media channels can provide other insights into the company. Former clients, family members and staff from the facility can be found on testimonial videos that tout the merits of a program, recovery methodology or how the experience made them feel. Corporate videos offer details of what to expect in the physical aspects of the rehab.
Authenticity is key to meeting or exceeding client expectations and sobriety success rates. LegitScript helps give consumers an advantage towards both. Find out how SRC and LegitScript certification can make the difference in you.
