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POINT OF VIEW

Google has updated their Knowledge Graph yet

again in an effort to provide fast, accurate

information to those searching for common

health conditions. With over 30 billion health

related searches occurring last year on Google,

you can understand why Google continues to

make these types of updates. By arming the

Knowledge Graph with as much relevant

information as possible, Google decreases the

risk of a user navigating away to other Pharma or

health focused sites.

As you may have read in our previous Knowledge

Graph POVs here & here , you will also see more

high-quality illustrations from licensed medical

illustrators. These illustrations will accompany

some of the 400 common medical conditions

identified by Google and their panel of

Physicians. Some of these conditions include

diabetes (type 2 diabetes, gestational diabetes,

prediabetes and type 1 diabetes), psoriasis,

epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, Crohn’s Disease,

COPD, hepatitis C and Alzheimer’s disease.

While general information, symptoms and

treatment options for the disease or condition

are still available, they will be presented

differently. The Knowledge Graph now

separates the information into separate tabs:

About, Symptoms & Treatments.

What Pharma Marketers Should Know and Do About Google Updates to the Knowledge GraphApril 2015

Background

So what has changed?

While this update helps drive user engagement

and separates proper content, an

understandable area of concern can arise with

the Treatments tab as multiple, competing

brands can potentially show in random order.

Obviously, Brand A doesn’t want to show

behind Brand B in an effort to secure authority

resulting in many questions being fired at

healthcare marketers like, “How can I show

before my competitors?” or “Why isn’t my

brand showing at all?” These are all completely

understandable concerns. Google worked with

the same panel of physicians to identify eligible

brands based on frequency of prescription

ultimately determining which will show under

the Treatments tab.

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From a Paid Search standpoint, there aren’t any

optimizations available that will impact or

change content within the Knowledge Graph.

While the Knowledge Graph still occupies the

top of the right rail on the Search Engine

Results page, these updates should not alter

your SEM efforts. Implementing a granular

structure, writing highly relevant ad copy and

putting a strategy in place should allow for SEM

campaign success with proper management

and optimization. Ensuring ad extensions are

utilized to the fullest extent to guarantee your

ad is taking up as much real estate as possible

could help drive attention toward your ad. As a

result, you should experience cost efficiencies

and effective placement giving your ads the

best possible chance for conversion.

Looking from a SEO lens, Google is now-more

than ever-telling us that it’s time for our tactics

and optimization strategy to evolve. The

Knowledge Graph will be abundantly

recognizable to searchers and provide them

with more information than ever. Furthermore,

it will push the emphasis of traditional results

down by removing the need for a user to click

through in order to receive the desired answer.

In order to help ensure the validity and

relevance of information appearing on search

engines that is related to a brand or its disease

state, brand managers can help ensure the

following tactics are leveraged:

1. Optimize Webpages with Schema Microdata.

The recent Hummingbird algorithm shift layered

in greater level of importance on microdata as a

ranking factor. Looking at Google from an industry

agnostic perspective, microdata is also what

Google frequently uses to determine how

information equivalent to a pregnancy warning,

indication or side effect is displayed in the

Knowledge Graph. Google’s current decision to

rely on third parties for this information is

indicative of the fact that pharma can improve on

providing this contextual piece. If this practice

were to begin to be accepted by pharma

marketers, there’s no reason why Google couldn’t

begin to reward brands with information that is

directly aggregated from their websites to the

Knowledge Graph.

2. Learn to trust your Wikis. This may be hard to

stomach, but Wikipedia and Wikidata are trusted

authorities by search engines. Instead of running

away from them, embrace the authority that

these websites carry.

“Google is now-more than ever-telling us that it’s time for our tactics and optimization strategy to

evolve.”

What should Pharma Marketers do?

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Andrew Miller

Associate Director, Search Engine Marketing

Communications Media, Inc.

Michael Ranalli

SEO Supervisor

Communications Media, Inc.

Analysts:

It is more apparent now more than ever that

Google is attempting to provide searchers with

the information they are looking for without

having to leave Google.com. This could

potentially leads to less organic and paid traffic

reaching your brand websites.

Update the Wikipedia profile and information

on Wikidata that relates to your brand. If you

don’t…. someone else may do it instead. This

information is regularly displayed at the top of

search results and used in Knowledge Graphs

outside the pharmaceutical vertical, but again,

search engines cannot embrace information

that is not provided to them.

3. Don’t assume you are the Only Source of

Content. Competition for organic rankings isn’t

only coming from other brand websites. They

are coming from the heavy hitting health

content providers, including NIH, Everyday

Health and WebMD. Instead of trying to battle

them head on, consider partnering for content

production. Internet users have spoken and

they want information through content.

Whether this means unbranded articles that

drive brand awareness to your indication or

branded content focused on driving rankings,

thinking about content serves a two-fold value

and could potentially be the quickest way to

land yourself and your information on the

Knowledge Graph.

What Does This Mean for Brands?

With more real estate being taking up by the

Knowledge Graph, even less space is now

available for your brand’s listings.

An integrated SEM and SEO strategy that shows

ads and organic listings that are highly relevant

to search queries is now more important than

ever. From a paid search perspective, ads must

directly reflect search queries and on the SEO

side, proper HTML tag optimizations need to be

implemented to ensure organic listings entice

users to click through.

For more information about the Knowledge

Graph or integrating your SEM and SEO efforts,

please reach out to a member of the CMI

Search team.