Bing Adds New Warning to Online Pharmacies in Search Results

Bing has announced a change active in their search results for US searchers that displays a warning when someone attempts to click through to a pharmacy that has been cited by the FDA.

Here is what the new warning looks like when someone clicks through to an FDA cited pharmacy.

When a user clicks on one of the websites in question, it shows the warning in the sidebar, such as this:

They do allow the searcher to continue to the site if they wish, so they are not completely blocked.  But it will certainly affect their traffic from Bing.

We first noticed Bing moving into this area last month when they introduced consumer alerts at the top of search results when the search intent showed the searcher was looking to buy prescription drugs from an online pharmacy.  These warnings look like this:

These warnings continue to be active in the US.

It does raise the question of how Bing plans to keep up with the ever changing names and websites of online pharmacies.  Just as they switch domain names, redirect to other ones or add additional ones as they get penalized by search engines, it will be something online pharmacies will keep an eye on, and note how quickly the FDA plus Bing reacts to new websites and names.  The FDA does list all known URLs of a site in their letters but as you can see by this list, they do not update the list after the initial warning.

These warnings are currently only active for Bing users within the US.  Users outside the US can access all these sites without any warning being displayed.

For those who feel their websites are on the list in error, if the FDA lists the website currently, those site owners need to contact the FDA in order to have their websites removed.  If the site isn’t listed with the FDA, they can contact Bing Support instead.

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Jennifer Slegg

Founder & Editor at The SEM Post

Jennifer Slegg is a longtime speaker and expert in search engine marketing, working in the industry for almost 20 years. When she isn't sitting at her desk writing and working, she can be found grabbing a latte at her local Starbucks or planning her next trip to Disneyland. She regularly speaks at Pubcon, SMX, State of Search, Brighton SEO and more, and has been presenting at conferences for over a decade.

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