Getting your pharmacy website discovered is the simplest way of increasing patient numbers and growing your revenue. But getting discovered on Google means having content on your website that people are searching for. So we’ve drawn up a list of the 10 Most-Googled Pharmacy Searches.
Knowing these pharmacy searches is the first step of increasing those patient numbers. Understanding what people are searching for is fruitless without creating content for it on your website. Having that content on your website takes people from searching on Google to being a prospective pharmacy patient.
If, like a lot of pharmacists, creating content is something you have neither the time nor the inclination for, join the hundreds of pharmacies already using Pharmacy Mentor’s marketing and web development services to improve their community’s access to healthcare.
What is the most searched pharmacy term on Google?
The most Googled search term relating to pharmacy is not in fact, “pharmacy,” which has 823k monthly searches.
Lateral Flow Tests, (did you just roll your eyes?!), get 1.83million monthly searches.
Do Pharmacy Google Searches change in different parts of the UK?
Yes. It’s worth stressing that this list is a national list. If you’re in a city, the results may differ. If you’re in a village, the results may differ again.
Here are the Top 10 Pharmacy searches on Google, in order:
1. Lateral Flow Test
Yes, you probably run out of them. And yes, people looking for LFT’s are probably often abrasive compared to regular customers.
But if you advertised that you had these in either your Google Business Profile or your website, there’s a lot of people discovering or visiting your pharmacy that otherwise wouldn’t have.
2&3. Pharmacy & PCR Test
As you can see in the screenshot below, PCR test and pharmacy have the same amount of average monthly searches.
It’s no wonder some of our marketing campaigns for pharmacies’ PCR Clinics generated more money than their pharmacy business.
However, you can see that within the past three months, PCR Test searches have gone down by 33%, whilst pharmacy searches are up 22%.
Capitalising on these searches
Naturally, if you do offer PCR Tests as part of your business, you need it top of those Google results pages to convert these searches into business.
As far as appearing for “pharmacy”, whilst your ranking on Google Maps is important (which we’ll explore in more detail on the next point) – the best way of capitalising on the high volume of the pharmacy searches is following the best pharmacy SEO practices.
Click here for a Free SEO Health Check for Your Pharmacy Website.
(See where your website scores and loses ranking points with Google.)
4. Pharmacy Near Me
Pharmacy Near Me is Googled on average over half a million times per month in the UK.
The top results shown on Google for any searches with “near me” are always Google Maps listings.
Why? Because Google aims to be as helpful as possible, and people who’re looking for a location need a map.
So to capitalise on this search in your local community, optimise your Google Maps listing.
Check out this guide for 7 Steps to Rank Your Pharmacy higher on Google Maps!
5. Morning After Pill
I’m going to gloss over the fact that drugs like paracetamol and ibuprofen have a similar search volume as the Morning After Pill. There are also has a lot of searches for “morning after pill near me”, but similar searches for paracetamol and ibuprofen are practically non-existent.
Of course, if you’re an online pharmacy, it’s important to show up for all drug queries, but for independent community pharmacies, your marketing efforts are best spent where there’s intent to buy locally.
Creating content around the Morning After Pill is not only useful for your pharmacy business, but helpful for your community.
- Creating informative blog posts around Emergency Contraception & specifically the Morning After Pill.
- Make sure the keyword you are optimising for is Morning After Pill, not emergency contraception. Morning After Pill gets 95k monthly searches, where emergency contraception only gets 8k.
- Don’t create offers/promotions around Emergency Contraception. Be clear, professional, and sympathetic in your communication and your marketing.
6. STI’s & Sexual Health
If you combined all the possible STI searches, they’d amount to similar amount of searches to pharmacy. Chlamydia alone, for example, has 74k monthly searches.
So if you offer Sexual Health services in your pharmacy, it’s well worth creating content around each individual condition. Each one is a stream feeding into a river of traffic for your website.
Offer a Sexual Health Clinic but don’t have any sign of it online…?
7. Minor Ailments
Minor ailments cover such a wide range of “Asthma” has 60k monthly searches in the UK. That’s more than “Headache” at 40.5k.
Point is, if you’re creating articles on your website which give health advice for these symptoms, you harvest the traffic from your local community of people searching for relief from minor ailments, building trust with them in the process.
8. Ear Wax Removal
Google Searches for Ear Wax Removal have risen dramatically since GP’s stopped running the service on the NHS.
Searches have almost doubled from 2020 to 2022. Average monthly searches nationally are now around 90.5k.
This has mirrored the popularity of the services provided by pharmacies. Success on Googles plays a huge part in the success of those Ear Health Clinics.
Google Searches for Ear Wax Removal over the past 5 years
9. Weight Loss/Management
It’s notable just how much more people search for weight loss as opposed to weight management. Weight loss receives around 60k monthly searches on average, where weight management only receives a few thousand.
Of course all the usual keyword practices apply here again. Make sure your relevant web pages feature the word Weight Loss, amongst helpful content. Anyone can have Weight Loss plastered all over their website, but Google will rank the most helpful websites at the top.
Let’s spice things up a bit and give some leftfield advice here, as sometimes the best way of beating the competition is do something no one else is doing.
A great way of being featured by Google is hosting local events, either Live in your pharmacy or online via Zoom or similar. If anyone is searching for Weight Management in your local community, and you’re promoting a meeting in their local area? Google loves that.
10. Flu Jab/Vaccine
Flu Jabs have risen dramatically since the pandemic, and Google Search reflects that rise.
Whilst the average monthly searches for Flu in 2021/22 was 22k, you can multiply that by 3 and that’s how many searches are done between late August and January. In October of 2021, there were 201k Google Searches for “Flu Jab”.
People don’t often search for Flu, but when they do…you want to be the one being found at the top of Google.
The 5 year trends show that Google searches for flu are as seasonal as the vaccinations.
