A Pew Internet survey of 2010 revealed an astounding statistic that made medical Internet marketing companies sit up and take notice. Out of 3,000 respondents in the survey, more than 2,400 or 80 percent said that they had used Internet search for a specific health related keyword.

When it comes to SEO for physicians, choosing and applying the most relevant health search terms on their websites forms the foundation of the entire medical SEO exercise. A medical or dental online marketing expert should work in close coordination with the doctor or dentist to understand the most important treatments or procedures that need to be promoted.

Related Group of Medical Search Keywords

In early 2012, Google’s Chief Health Strategist, Dr. Roni Zeiger, wrote on Google’s official search blog called “Inside Search” that a large number of online searches for health information relate to the symptoms that the searchers or their close ones may be experiencing. To make the health search experience more enriching, Google has introduced an expanded list of possibly related health conditions relevant to a particular health keyword searched.

This is crucial information from a physician SEO perspective. Dr. Zeiger explains the search process with an example. If a user searches for a health symptom such as: “abdominal pain on my right side,” it will lead to a list of potentially related health conditions such as appendicitis, hernia, kidney stone, ovarian cyst and irritable bowel. This enhanced result helps a potential patient find out the relevant information more quickly and more accurately.

Keywords Focusing on Symptoms

Those who are involved with Internet marketing and SEO for physicians can draw crucial cues from this official information released by Google regarding health keywords. Physician Internet marketing experts should look at search terms from a potential patient’s point of view. New patients or their near ones not very likely to know the appropriate medical search terms, and may search only for the symptoms that they are experiencing.

The physician’s website should include keywords for the symptoms as far as possible. The symptoms should be phrased in a manner that potential patients are most likely to search for. This enhanced keyword strategy coupled with Google’s efforts to help users search for the appropriate medical information can go a long way in putting a physician’s website on top in terms of SEO and page rankings.