SEO in Pharma Marketing: How SEO Can Boost Online Visibility and Engagement in Pharma

Every industrial sector is marching towards digitalisation and enjoying its perks, and so is the Pharma industry. Digital marketing has become an essential part of every sales campaign in any pharmaceutical company, and search engine optimisation is an integral part of digital marketing. Search engine optimisation in pharma marketing boosts online visibility and attracts patients, healthcare professionals, and stakeholders.

Pharmaceutical companies must optimise their website, social media handles, and other pages for search engines to rank higher in search results. This strategy is no longer new but remains relevant – and as experts in the field will tell you, SEO techniques will remain appropriate for as long as the internet exists. But the question that arises is: Why? What is the role of SEO in pharma marketing, and why is it so important? Let’s dive in and understand!

What is the role of SEO in pharma marketing?

Search Engine Optimization methods help you reach your target audience and increase your brand's online presence. This section discusses the importance of SEO for your business growth. 

Increasing online visibility

Search engine optimisation allows a website to appear in the top relevant results on the search engine page. The websites of pharmaceutical companies can be optimised using keywords specific to products, diseases, treatments, etc. Then, when patients search for these keywords, the company’s website will be recommended in the top search.

Increasing engagement

Considering the vast hoard of online information, it is difficult to sift through multiple sources to find the most relevant. However, developing SEO-optimized relevant content allows pharmaceutical companies to build trust, positioning them as a reliable source of medical information.

Improving authority (value)

People often click on the links on the first search engine results page. Approximately 67% of clicks are captured by the top five search results, while only 4% of clicks go to positions 6 through 10. Rarely do people make the effort to scroll to later pages. Therefore, ranking among the top results creates a perception that the company is an authority in the medical field. SEO-optimized content that consistently ranks high can enhance brand reputation and credibility. Consequently, customers are more likely to trust and use the brand’s products.

Driving targeted audience

Getting organic traffic is difficult because of the increasing competition. Search engine optimisation allows relevant customers to find the correct pharmaceutical company easily. This leads to high-quality leads, higher conversions, and a more extensive customer base.

Remaining relevant and competitive

In digital marketing, a pharmaceutical company must compete with other pharmaceutical companies, magazines, journals, and others. However, remaining relevant can be challenging in a competitive landscape where companies use various strategies to drive customer visibility and engagement. A robust SEO technique can help companies become more discoverable, making them stand out.

Therefore, it is essential to select appropriate SEO techniques for pharma marketing. Here are some examples of SEO in pharma marketing

Simple and effective SEO techniques

Though SEO is not a cakewalk, this section presents simple yet effective techniques to boost your online content. 

Keyword research & optimisation

SEO in pharma manufacturing is based entirely on appropriate and relevant keywords. Therefore, pharma marketing teams need to identify relevant keywords and optimise existing and new content according to these keywords.

Improved content quality

It is necessary to be as simple and transparent as possible in pharma content. Therefore, teams must develop relevant, high-quality, detailed content for the best SEO. This content should be targeted at educating patients rather than selling products.

Technical and on-page SEO

Technical SEO includes optimising the website to ensure a better user experience. This includes optimising the website's speed, performance, and security. The website also needs to be optimised for mobile users. On-page SEO refers to using meta titles, descriptions, headers, images, etc., for all pages. These allow the search engine to understand existing content better and recommend relevant pages.

Link building

Link building goes a long way in developing customer trust. In this strategy, webpages must be back-linked to relevant websites and internal web pages. For example, Healthline and WebMD are two excellent instances of link buildings. Each page on these websites is internally linked and linked to credible sources (e.g., medical journals).

These are only some standard techniques pharma companies can use to improve their search engine optimisation. However, SEO in pharma marketing faces several challenges, and it takes work to optimise the website for search engines.

Common challenges in SEO

In this section, we discuss some everyday challenges that you face while optimising your website: 

Regulatory compliance

Pharmaceutical companies must ensure their marketing content aligns with strict guidelines set by regulatory bodies such as the FDA and EMA. These guidelines often change, making tracking and complying with them difficult. Furthermore, they also restrict specific claims regarding drugs/treatment, which makes content creation difficult.

Global SEO considerations

Content can be accessed from any part of the world. As a result, to develop SEO-optimized content for pharma marketing, companies need to optimise their website for different languages, regions, etc. They must also consider regulations in other countries, cultural differences, and search behaviours.

Keyword difficulties

Pharmaceutical companies target niche keywords related to specific medications, diseases, or treatments. These have low search volumes but high competition. Furthermore, the audience often misspells words or types in long searches. Unfortunately, selecting and integrating long-tail keywords is not easy.

Information accuracy and complexity

Medical information involves complex terms that the user may sometimes understand. However, accurately reported information is essential because incorrect or misleading information can lead to legal consequences. Balancing technical accuracy, simplification, and SEO requirements takes a lot of work.

Conclusion

Search engine optimisation in pharma marketing is an established, reliable, and necessary strategy. SEO in pharma marketing ensures customers can find the website, boosting visibility and engagement. Pharmaceutical companies can use keyword optimisation, technical SEO, on-page SEO, and link-building strategies to improve their content. Unfortunately, regulatory guidelines, global SEO considerations, and keyword difficulties often restrict these improvements. However, SEO techniques have been proven to be the most effective in organically attracting the audience. The correct use of SEO in pharma marketing can improve organic traffic by 55%.

FAQs

1. What type of content should pharmaceutical companies create for SEO?

The content developed for SEO should be relevant to the brand. Therefore, you can create content on products, diseases, treatment options, medical procedures, etc.

2. Can SEO help with medical product launches?

Yes! Launch-related content and press releases can be optimised to ensure they contain relevant keywords. Using this technique, new products can gain immediate visibility.

3. How can pharmaceutical companies measure SEO success?

Companies can measure the success of their SEO strategies using Google Search Console, Google Analytics, and other SEO tools.