|
Keyword |
Local Monthly Searches |
2009 Rank |
Var |
|
|
arthritis |
1500000 |
2 |
Up 1 |
|
|
back pain |
1500000 |
1 |
Down -1 |
|
|
acupuncture |
823000 |
3 |
Same |
|
|
sciatica |
450000 |
9 |
Up 5 |
|
|
lower back pain |
450000 |
4 |
Down -1 |
|
|
stenosis |
368000 |
6 |
Same |
|
|
low back pain |
368000 |
11 |
Up 4 |
|
|
osteoporosis |
301000 |
5 |
Down -3 |
|
|
scoliosis |
246000 |
8 |
Down -1 |
|
|
herniated disc |
201000 |
14 |
Up 4 |
|
|
herniated disk |
201000 |
38 |
Up 27 |
|
|
back ache |
165000 |
20 |
Up 8 |
|
|
back pains |
165000 |
35 |
Up 22 |
|
|
muscle spasm |
165000 |
33 |
Up 19 |
|
|
disc herniation |
165000 |
57 |
Up 42 |
|
|
lumbar pain |
165000 |
92 |
Up 76 |
|
|
sciatica nerve |
165000 |
95 |
Up 78 |
|
|
herniated discs |
135000 |
103 |
Up 85 |
|
|
whiplash |
110000 |
10 |
Down -9 |
|
|
lumbar spine |
110000 |
30 |
Up 10 |
|
|
back surgery |
110000 |
17 |
Down -4 |
|
|
spine surgery |
110000 |
29 |
Up 7 |
|
|
spinal surgery |
110000 |
48 |
Up 25 |
|
|
spinal injury |
90500 |
16 |
Down -8 |
|
|
slipped disc |
90500 |
62 |
Up 37 |
|
|
bulging disc |
90500 |
28 |
Up 2 |
|
|
left back pain |
90500 |
25 |
Down -2 |
|
|
sciatic pain |
90500 |
26 |
Down -2 |
|
|
sciatica pain |
90500 |
58 |
Up 29 |
|
|
bulging disk |
90500 |
78 |
Up 48 |
|
|
upper back pain |
74000 |
12 |
Down -19 |
|
|
back pain relief |
74000 |
15 |
Down -17 |
|
|
back pain treatment |
74000 |
44 |
Up 11 |
|
|
degenerative disc |
74000 |
39 |
Up 5 |
|
|
back pain causes |
60500 |
54 |
Up 19 |
|
|
laminectomy |
60500 |
21 |
Down -15 |
|
|
radiculopathy |
60500 |
32 |
Down -5 |
|
|
spine pain |
60500 |
49 |
Up 11 |
|
|
degenerative disc disease |
60500 |
50 |
Up 11 |
|
|
sciatic nerve pain |
60500 |
18 |
Down -22 |
|
|
spondylolisthesis |
49500 |
22 |
Down -19 |
|
|
kyphosis |
49500 |
31 |
Down -11 |
|
|
piriformis syndrome |
49500 |
51 |
Up 8 |
|
|
spinal fusion |
49500 |
41 |
Down -3 |
|
|
lordosis |
40500 |
23 |
Down -22 |
|
|
neck surgery |
40500 |
40 |
Down -6 |
|
|
back pain exercises |
40500 |
52 |
Up 5 |
|
|
sciatica treatment |
40500 |
73 |
Up 25 |
|
|
severe back pain |
40500 |
74 |
Up 25 |
|
|
exercises for back pain |
40500 |
96 |
Up 46 |
You’d think the most popular term for back pain would be back pain, right? If it was still 2009 you’d be correct. But the world apparently kept turning and people searched for different terms.
Back In The Day…
We used to have it all figured out. Back Pain was the number one search term and people fought long and hard for dominance on that term. They still do, but not quite as hard. By now you’ve noticed that not-so-subtle chart on our right. This is a comparison of spine surgery search terms we’ve tracked for several years now, in order for 2012 with the local monthly searches, their corresponding 2009 rank, and the variance from then to now. As a side note, the “Local” means all of the United States, not your hometown.
These aren’t all the terms we track, but they give you an idea of whats going on. Let’s look at a couple of highlights of interest:
- Google corrects things for you, but misspellings rank.
You’ve probably noticed Google corrects spelling. What you may not have noticed is that people don’t always care. Look at “herniated disc”, up 4 points, and “herniated disk”, up 27 points. What? Only illiterates and hillbillies spell it “disk”. Oh, and the Mayo Clinic and PubMed. Check this for yourself on Google. This may mean that people are using more casual spellings, assuming that Google knew what they meant and the results are valid. As you’ll see if you look it up, the results are similar but the top ranks are different. Those top spots are critical, so bear this in mind as you spell. The best solution? Use all variations of spelling in the text and description. Few will notice. Check out the WebMD result. It’s spelled “disk” near the top and “disc” elsewhere.
- Searches are getting more specific and frequent.
Check out “lumbar pain”, “sciatic nerve”, and “disc herniation”. Wow! They’ve jumped way up in the ranks. Could it be that our searchers are checking out terms they hear from their doctor? I think so.
- Smart words are declining
I just wrote searches are getting more specific. I didn’t say they were smarter. We used to love to point out that spondylolisthesis and bulging disc had the same amount of search terms but there is an obvious decline in the more clinical terms. I don’t blame this on the patients. We know they’re searching for information, but I think it may be that surgeons are providing more resources to their patients, such as our content library. The patient no longer has to search as much for terms because they’re provided as part of their treatment.
- Search is declining… or is it?
This isn’t something on this chart, but its on our gigantic spreadsheet of hundreds of terms and weights – available to all of our clients (call us today) – but we’ll share anyway. The top 50 searches in 2009 tallied up to 13.4 million searches monthly in the U.S. Today’s top 50 top out at 9.8 million. This might mean people are searching less, but thats not the case. Today there are many more venues to get information and usage is up on all of them – Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, even Pinterest all vie for our attention. Google itself has refined their search engines countless times of the last few years and has localized many searches and moved results around. Where once everything was glopped on the front page of Google, thats no longer the case. It’s segmented and stored under their News, Videos, and More categories.
What this all means to you is that search is a moving target. If you aren’t monitoring what’s going on in the world, literally, and you aren’t continuing to optimize your site and take advantage of rise and fall of search terms, you just may be missing out on that one thing you’re always searching for… patients.