Healthcare keyword research means finding the exact words patients type when they look for care, sorting them by intent (learn, compare, book), and assigning each group to one page on your site. Start from your services and locations, translate clinical terms into patient language, check demand with free Google tools, and give priority to searches that end in a booked visit.
The difference from general keyword research is that a clinic serves a small area and a fixed list of services. You don't need thousands of keywords. You need the 50 to 200 that match what you offer, where you offer it.
Start from services, locations and patient questions
Before opening any tool, write three lists:
- Services you want more of. Ranked by value and capacity. A dental practice might list implants, Invisalign, emergency visits and new-patient exams.
- Locations. Each clinic's city, plus neighborhoods and nearby towns patients actually drive from.
- Questions patients ask. Ask your front desk and clinicians for the questions they hear every week ("Does insurance cover a crown?" "How long does recovery take after ACL surgery?"). These are real queries, and many have no volume in tools yet.
Combine them: service plus location ("dental implants Round Rock"), service plus modifier ("emergency dentist open Saturday"), question plus service ("how much does a root canal cost").
Translate clinical terms into patient language
Patients rarely search the way charts are written. Build a two-column list for every service:
| Clinical term | Patient phrasing |
|---|---|
| Gingivitis | Bleeding gums when brushing |
| Myocardial infarction | Heart attack symptoms |
| Plantar fasciitis | Heel pain in the morning |
| Major depressive disorder | Depression treatment near me |
| Obstructive sleep apnea | Snoring and tired all day |
| Cognitive behavioral therapy | Therapist for anxiety |
Good sources for patient vocabulary:
- Google autocomplete and People Also Ask. Type the clinical term and the plain term and note what Google suggests.
- MedlinePlus health topics from the National Library of Medicine, which uses consumer-friendly names for conditions.
- Your intake forms and call notes. The words patients use on the phone are the words they type.
- Reviews, yours and competitors'. Patients describe the problem in their own words.
Use the clinical term on the page too, usually in the first paragraph ("plantar fasciitis, the most common cause of heel pain"). Some patients, and many referring clinicians, search it directly.
Sort keywords by intent
Every keyword falls into one of four groups, and each group needs a different page type.
| Intent | Example searches | Page that should rank | How close to booking |
|---|---|---|---|
| Symptom | "why does my jaw click", "chest tightness when anxious" | Educational article, reviewed by a clinician | Far |
| Condition | "TMJ treatment options", "what is sleep apnea" | Condition page linking to your treatment | Medium |
| Treatment | "jaw botox for TMJ cost", "CPAP alternatives" | Service page with cost, process and booking | Close |
| Provider | "TMJ specialist near me", "sleep doctor Austin" | Location page and Google Business Profile | Closest |
Most clinics should build provider and treatment pages first, then condition pages, then symptom articles. Symptom content brings large audiences, but those visitors are earlier in their journey and Google holds health information to a high standard, which you can read about in our healthcare SEO best practices guide.
Check demand with free Google tools
You can do solid healthcare keyword research without paid software.
Google Search Console
The performance report shows the queries that already bring impressions and clicks, with average position for each. Filter by page to see what each service page ranks for. Queries at positions 5 to 20 with many impressions are the fastest wins: improve the page that already ranks for them.
Google Keyword Planner
Keyword Planner inside Google Ads gives "estimates on the number of searches a keyword gets each month," and lets you set location to your city or radius. Use it to compare variants ("dentist" vs "dental office" vs "dental clinic") and to see seasonality.
Google Trends
Google Trends shows relative interest on a scale "of 0 to 100 based on a topic's proportion to all searches on all topics" (Google Trends Help). It is good for comparing two phrasings and spotting seasonal demand (allergy treatment in spring, flu shots in autumn, sports physicals in summer). It does not give absolute volumes.
The search results themselves
Search each target keyword from your area in a private window. Note what Google shows: a map pack, AI Overview, People Also Ask, directories (Healthgrades, Zocdoc) or hospital pages. If the top results are all directories, a single clinic page may struggle; target a more specific variant and make sure your profiles on those directories are complete.
Paid tools (Ahrefs, Semrush and others) add keyword difficulty and competitor data. Our guide to keyword difficulty explains how to read those scores, and SEO competitor analysis shows how to pull the keywords a rival clinic ranks for.
Prioritise by what a new patient is worth
Low-volume keywords are normal in healthcare. "Pediatric sleep study Round Rock" may show almost no searches in a tool and still bring several high-value patients a month. Score each keyword group on four things:
| Factor | Question | Score 1 to 3 |
|---|---|---|
| Value | What is a new patient for this service worth? | Low, medium, high |
| Intent | How close is the searcher to booking? | Symptom, condition, treatment or provider |
| Fit | Do you offer it at this location with capacity? | No, partly, yes |
| Winnability | Who ranks now: directories, hospitals or small clinics? | Hard, medium, easy |
Multiply or add the scores and work from the top. A high-value treatment keyword with local intent and small-clinic competition beats a symptom keyword with ten times the volume.
Map each keyword group to one page
Create a simple sheet with one row per page: URL, primary keyword, secondary keywords, intent, location and status. Rules:
- One primary keyword group per page. "Dental implants", "tooth implants" and "implant dentist" are one group with one page.
- One location page per clinic. Each with its own address, hours, providers and services.
- Service pages per location only when the service genuinely differs by site, or when you have enough unique content (providers, photos, local details) to make each page useful.
- Questions become FAQs or articles. Short answers go in the service page FAQ; questions that need 800 words get their own article that links to the service.
If two existing pages rank for the same query and swap places, merge them or make their focus distinct. Then link from articles to service pages with descriptive anchor text: see anchor text best practices.
Worked example: a sleep clinic
A sleep clinic in one city offers sleep studies, CPAP fitting, oral appliance therapy and insomnia treatment.
| Page | Primary keyword group | Intent |
|---|---|---|
| /sleep-study-[city] | sleep study [city], sleep test near me | Provider |
| /sleep-apnea-treatment | sleep apnea treatment, CPAP alternatives | Treatment |
| /insomnia-treatment | insomnia treatment, CBT for insomnia | Treatment |
| /what-is-sleep-apnea | what is sleep apnea, sleep apnea symptoms | Condition |
| /blog/snoring-and-tired | snoring and tired all day, why am I always tired | Symptom |
The symptom article links to the condition page, which links to the treatment and booking pages. More on building this out in sleep clinic SEO, and for therapy practices see mental health SEO keywords.
Add the questions patients ask AI assistants
Patients now ask full questions in ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini: "Who is the best pediatric dentist in Round Rock who takes Delta Dental?" Those questions are longer and more specific than Google searches. Add them to your list, answer the facts behind them on your pages (insurance accepted, ages served, hours, specialties), and check whether assistants name you. The free Rank.ai AI grade asks 12 such questions about your business and scores how often you are named. More in AI and medical SEO.
FAQ
What are the best keywords for a medical practice?
The best keywords combine a service you want more of with a location you serve, such as "Invisalign Round Rock" or "urgent care open now Plano." They have clear booking intent and less competition than broad terms like "doctor." Add questions patients ask your staff, because those convert well as FAQ content.
How do I find keywords for my healthcare website for free?
Use Google Search Console for queries you already appear for, Google Keyword Planner for monthly estimates by location, Google Trends for seasonality and comparisons, and Google autocomplete and People Also Ask for patient phrasing. Together they cover most of what a single clinic needs.
Should I target medical terms or patient terms?
Both, on the same page. Use the patient phrase in headings and the title where it matches search demand, and use the clinical term early in the text. Patients search plain language, while some patients and referring clinicians search the clinical name.
How many keywords should each page target?
One primary keyword group per page, which can include close variants and synonyms. A dental implants page can rank for "dental implants," "tooth implants" and "implant dentist" together. Separate pages for each variant split your signals and compete with each other.
Do low-volume keywords matter in healthcare?
Yes. Tools often show little or no volume for specific local searches, and Google says 15% of daily searches are new. A keyword with a handful of searches a month can still bring high-value patients if the intent is to book.
