Writing About Houston Cancer Quack Dr. Burzynski’s Antineoplastons

Skeptics can do many things to naturally boost the Google ranking of good information so that it arrives in the hands of people who need it, patients and their families. This means WRITING about the Clinic, antineoplastons, and Burzynski’s abysmal publication record. These tips were gathered by skeptical web ninja Tim Farley of whatstheharm.net:

1) Be serious when you write. We are writing for future patients, and they are unlikely to respond sympathetically to snark.

2) Have as many of these words in your TITLE and URL as possible:

    a. “Dr.” or “Doctor”

    b. “Burzynski”

    c. “antineoplastons”

    d. “cancer”

    e. “Houston”

    f. “Stanislaw”

3) Link to already well-ranked articles using the following keyword/target pairs:

a) antineoplastons: http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/index.php/stanislaw-burzynski-antineoplastons-and-the-orphan-drug-sodium-phenyl-butyrate/

b) antineoplastons and Burzynski: http://www.quackwatch.org/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/Cancer/burzynski1.html
c) Burzynski: www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/11/15/stanislaw-burzynski-cancer-controversy/2994561/  (This has an amazingly high ranking already. Let’s boost it into the stratosphere.)
d) Burzynski: http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/2011/12/12/what-dr-stanislaw-burzynski-doesnt-want/
e) Burzynski: http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2012/07/19/burzynski-is-still-bilking-dying-children/
f) Burzynski: http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/2012/04/07/will-stanislaw-burzynski-slither-away-fr/
g) Burzynski: http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/2012/03/02/dr-stanislaw-burzynski-strikes-again/

h) Burzynski: http://burzynskiscam.com/

4) Create links that use relevant potential search terms:

GOOD: Doctor Stanislaw Burzynski’s antineoplastons can have severe side effects.

BAD: Read this

5) Try to link to reliable articles at as many different critical sites to spread the love (also Google likes to consolidate links from a single domain, so mix it up to get multiple skeptical domains boosted).

6) Never link to the Burzynski Clinic or pro-woo sites; instead use http://www.donotlink.com/, which prevents quacks’ Google ranking from benefiting from your criticism.

7) The above tips also apply to signatures in message boards and online forums, so contribute to the boosting project effortlessly by putting some meaningful links in your forum signatures!

8) Use the rebutr plugin to flag bad information with links to good information (yay!), as well as the other skeptical web tools designed to combat misinformation. And there is always the venerable Web of Trust, which should be on every patient advocate’s computer.

We can make a difference and we have seen that these strategies have a real impact on patients’ decisions. Please pitch in and be awesome! Thanks!