Summary of this blog
- A HealthTech keyword strategy is the plan for which search terms a company targets, on which pages, in which order, judged by the demos and pipeline they produce. Keyword research finds terms; the strategy decides what to do with them.
- Volume misleads. Ahrefs found that keywords with fewer than ten searches a month make up almost 93% of its US database, and that 96.55% of pages get no Google traffic at all. Buyer terms are small and specific.
- The seven steps below use one named framework, the Demo Distance score: every term is rated by how many steps sit between the search and a demo request.
- Six classes of search cover the HealthTech buying journey: problem, category, comparison, proof, vendor and integration. Each class needs a different page type.
- Measure a HealthTech keyword strategy by demo requests and pipeline per term, using Google Search Console joined to your CRM. Sessions are a leading indicator at best.
A HealthTech keyword strategy is the plan for which search terms your company will target, on which pages, in which order, and how you will judge the result. The judgement is the part most teams skip. A list of two hundred terms sorted by monthly volume is research. A HealthTech keyword strategy starts when you ask which of those terms a buyer types in the week before they request a demo.
The gap between the two is expensive. Health buyers search in small, specific ways. Ahrefs found that keywords with fewer than ten searches a month make up almost 93% of its US keyword database. The same company found that 96.55% of all pages get no traffic from Google. A HealthTech company that chases the few large terms competes with publishers for readers who are years from buying. A company that targets the small terms meets buyers at the moment of choice.
This guide sets out a HealthTech keyword strategy in seven steps, built around one framework we use at Healthora: the Demo Distance score. Our companion guide to healthcare keyword research covers how to find and qualify individual terms. This article covers what to do with them.
Traffic is what a keyword brings to the site. A demo is what a keyword brings to the business. A HealthTech keyword strategy is judged on the second number.
Why volume is the wrong sort order for health
SparkToro and Datos analysed US Google behaviour from September 2022 to May 2024 and found that 58.5% of searches ended without a click, and that only 360 of every 1,000 searches reached a site outside Google’s own properties. Broad informational terms lose the most clicks to answers on the results page. Specific buyer terms, where the searcher wants a vendor, a comparison or a proof page, still produce the click, and the demo behind it.
1. Start from the demo and work backwards
The first step in a HealthTech keyword strategy has nothing to do with a keyword tool. Open your CRM and list the last thirty demo requests. For each one, find out what the buyer searched before they arrived, what page they landed on, and what they read next. Google Search Console, your analytics tool and a short question on the demo call give you most of this. The terms that appear in that list are the seed of the strategy.
What the last thirty demos tell you
At Healthora, we have seen that the terms behind real demo requests are rarely the ones a founder expects. A remote-monitoring vendor assumed its buyers searched for the category name. The demos came from searches about a specific reimbursement code and an integration with one electronic health record. Once the HealthTech keyword strategy was rebuilt around those terms, the share of enquiries that reached a second call rose noticeably. The traffic total barely moved.
A quick test for any term
Before a term enters the plan, ask one question: could the person typing this book a demo this month? One clinician searching “prior authorisation software for oncology” could. One student searching “what is prior authorisation” could not. Both terms may deserve a page. Only the first deserves a place near the top of a HealthTech keyword strategy. Gartner reports that 75% of B2B buyers prefer a rep-free sales experience, so the page that answers the buyer’s search often replaces the first sales call.
2. Map the six classes of HealthTech search
Every search a health buyer makes falls into one of six classes. A HealthTech keyword strategy that names the classes stops treating all terms as equal and starts matching each to the moment it serves. The six are problem, category, comparison, proof, vendor and integration. Together they trace the buying journey from first symptom to signed contract.
The six classes, with examples
Problem terms describe the pain before the buyer knows the solution exists: “nurse documentation time”, “no-show rate reduction”. Category terms name the type of product: “patient engagement platform”, “remote patient monitoring software”. Comparison terms weigh options: “Epic vs Cerner patient portal”, “best telehealth platform for physiotherapy”. Proof terms look for evidence: “remote monitoring readmission study”, “HIPAA compliant scheduling software”. Vendor terms name you or a rival: “[competitor] pricing”, “[competitor] alternatives”. Integration terms check fit: “Epic integration”, “FHIR API for lab results”.
Which classes bring demos
Comparison, proof, vendor and integration terms sit closest to the demo. A buyer who searches for an alternative to a named vendor has a budget, a deadline and a reason to switch. A buyer checking whether your product integrates with their record system is past the shortlist stage. Problem and category terms bring larger audiences and longer waits. A complete HealthTech keyword strategy covers all six classes. A commercially focused one weights effort towards the four nearest the demo, and uses problem and category pages to feed them through internal links.
3. Score every term by demo distance
The Demo Distance score is the core of the HealthTech keyword strategy we run for clients. Each term is rated on four questions, with two points available for each. Does the searcher have a buying role? Does the wording show they are choosing, rather than learning? Do the current results show vendor pages, pricing or comparisons? Does the term connect to a product you sell today? A term scores between zero and eight. Six or more means the term is one or two steps from a demo. Three or less means the searcher is learning, and the page serves awareness.
Worked example: three terms, three scores
“Remote patient monitoring software for cardiology practices” scores eight. The searcher has a role, is choosing, sees vendor pages in the results, and matches a product. “Remote patient monitoring benefits” scores three. The role is unclear, the wording is informational, the results are publisher articles, and the product link is indirect. “CPT codes for remote monitoring” scores five. The role is likely a practice manager, the intent is mixed, the results are a blend of guides and vendors, and the product link is strong. A HealthTech keyword strategy places the first term on a landing page this quarter, the third on a guide with a demo path, and the second on a blog post that links to both.
Why the score beats volume and difficulty
Keyword tools rank terms by volume and a difficulty score built from backlinks. Neither measures whether the searcher will buy. Two terms with identical volume and difficulty can differ by a factor of twenty in demo requests. The Demo Distance score puts commercial intent first and treats volume as a tie-breaker. When two terms score the same, take the larger. When they differ, take the higher score. That single rule changes what a HealthTech keyword strategy produces more than any tool.
4. Give each class the right page type
A term only converts if it lands on a page built for its class. Most HealthTech sites publish everything as a blog post, so a buyer searching for a comparison lands on a 1,500-word essay with no table, no pricing signal and no demo button above the fold. Page fit is the part of a HealthTech keyword strategy that turns rankings into requests.
The page for each class
Problem terms belong on educational guides that name the problem, quantify it and point to the category. Category terms belong on a pillar page that defines the category and links to every related asset. Comparison terms belong on comparison pages with a table, clear trade-offs and a demo path. Proof terms belong on evidence pages: case studies, security and compliance pages, outcomes summaries with sources. Vendor terms belong on alternatives pages and pricing pages. Integration terms belong on a page per integration, with the technical detail an IT lead needs. Our guide to getting more demo requests covers the conversion elements each page type needs.
The mistake to avoid
Do not send high-scoring terms to the blog. A blog post is the right home for problem terms and a poor home for comparison, vendor and integration terms. The blog format signals “read”, and a buyer at the choosing stage wants to “check” and then “book”. Google’s guidance on creating helpful content asks whether a page is written by someone who “demonstrably knows the topic well” and gives extra weight to that signal for health topics. A comparison page with a named author, sourced claims and a clear structure meets that bar. A rushed post does not.
A specialist’s view on your keywords
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Book a Free Consultation5. Sequence the work by stage
A HealthTech keyword strategy has to fit the company’s stage and capacity. One Series A vendor with one marketer cannot publish forty pages a quarter. A scaling health SaaS company with a content team can, and should not waste that capacity on awareness. The sequence below is the one we recommend most often, and the order matters more than the pace.
Quarter one: the twenty terms nearest the demo
Take the twenty highest-scoring terms and build or rebuild the pages they need. Most will be comparison, proof, vendor and integration pages. Expect a modest traffic total and a visible rise in demo requests, because these pages meet buyers who are already choosing. This quarter proves the HealthTech keyword strategy to the board with a number the board cares about.
Quarter two onwards: the clusters that feed them
Once the demo pages exist, build the category pillar and the problem guides that link into them. Each guide targets one problem term and points the reader to the comparison or evidence page for the next step. The pillar defines the category and links to every page in the cluster. Our guide to HealthTech content strategy covers how to plan those clusters across a year. The HealthTech keyword strategy now has both a top and a bottom, and internal links carry readers from one to the other.
6. Keep one term to one page
The quietest way to lose rankings is to compete with yourself. Two pages targeting the same term split the signals between them, and Google chooses one, often the weaker. Health sites accumulate this problem quickly, because product, marketing and clinical teams publish about the same subjects from different angles. A HealthTech keyword strategy assigns each primary term to exactly one URL and records that assignment.
Running the cannibalisation check
Export your Search Console data by query and page. Any query with two or more of your URLs receiving impressions is a candidate. For each, decide which page owns the term. Redirect or consolidate the other, or rewrite it around a different term from the same class. Repeat the check every quarter as part of the HealthTech keyword strategy review. Our HealthTech SEO audit guide covers the twelve checks to run alongside this one.
Thin pages hurt the whole domain
A page with 400 words, no author and no sources does more than fail to rank. Under Google’s approach to health topics, it lowers the confidence in every page around it. Where a HealthTech keyword strategy finds ten thin posts on one theme, the right move is usually one strong page that replaces them, with redirects from the old URLs. Fewer, deeper pages rank better and convert better. They also cost less to maintain.
7. Measure terms by demos, then traffic
A HealthTech keyword strategy is measured by the number of demo requests and the pipeline value each term produces, and only then by clicks. Most reporting stops at sessions because sessions are easy. The join between search data and CRM data takes an afternoon to set up and changes every decision that follows.
The one-page keyword dashboard
Track five things each month. Demo requests by landing page, from your form or CRM. The top queries for each of those pages, from Search Console. Pipeline value created by leads who arrived on those pages. The average Demo Distance score of the terms that produced demos, which should rise as the plan matures. And the rankings of the twenty priority terms. Our guide to measuring SEO ROI in HealthTech covers the attribution model in detail.
What to change when the numbers move
When a page ranks and produces no demos, the page fit is wrong or the term scored higher than it deserved. Rebuild the page for its class before touching the copy. When a page produces demos from a term you did not target, add that term to the HealthTech keyword strategy and check whether a dedicated page would serve it better. When a term ranks, converts and then slips, look for a new competitor page or a cannibalising page of your own. Each review takes an hour. Each one sharpens the plan.
HealthTech keyword strategy in practice: a first ninety days
A HealthTech keyword strategy takes shape in three moves. Weeks one to three are diagnosis: pull the last thirty demos, classify every term you already target into the six classes, score each by demo distance, and run the cannibalisation check. Then weeks four to eight are building: publish or rebuild the twenty highest-scoring pages, each with the page type its class needs, a named author and sourced claims. Weeks nine to thirteen are feeding and measuring: publish the first problem guides, link them into the demo pages, and set up the keyword dashboard.
At Healthora, we have seen that companies which run this sequence report a different kind of result within a quarter. The traffic graph looks ordinary. The demo form is busier, and the demos are better qualified, because the HealthTech keyword strategy put the right page in front of buyers who were already choosing. That pattern holds for B2B HealthTech vendors and for clinics and wellness brands, whose “book a consultation” plays the same role as a demo.
The recap below lists the seven steps of a HealthTech keyword strategy in the order to work through them.
- Start from the demo and work backwards. List the last thirty demo requests and find the searches behind them. Those terms seed the plan.
- Map the six classes of HealthTech search. Problem, category, comparison, proof, vendor and integration. Weight effort towards the four nearest the demo.
- Score every term by demo distance. Four questions, two points each. Six or more goes first; volume is only the tie-breaker.
- Give each class the right page type. Guides, pillars, comparison pages, evidence pages, alternatives and pricing pages, integration pages. No buyer terms on the blog.
- Sequence the work by stage. Twenty demo-distance pages in quarter one; the pillar and problem guides that feed them from quarter two.
- Keep one term to one page. Run the cannibalisation check quarterly and replace clusters of thin posts with one strong page.
- Measure terms by demos, then traffic. Join Search Console to the CRM and review demo requests and pipeline by term every month.
A HealthTech keyword strategy is one part of an organic growth programme, alongside technical foundations, content, links and conversion. Our pillar guide to HealthTech SEO services sets out how the parts fit together. To see how this work turns into enquiries and pipeline for health companies, look at our case studies or the services we offer.
A specialist in health understands that buyers in this market search late, search specifically and search with a committee behind them. Build the HealthTech keyword strategy around those searches, give each one the page it needs, and measure it by the demos it brings. The traffic will follow, and it will be the traffic worth having.
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Book a Free ConsultationFrequently asked questions
What is a HealthTech keyword strategy?
A HealthTech keyword strategy is the plan for which search terms a health or HealthTech company targets, on which pages, in which order, and how the result is judged. Keyword research finds and qualifies terms. The strategy decides what to do with them, and measures the outcome in demo requests and pipeline rather than sessions.
How is a HealthTech keyword strategy different from keyword research?
Research is the input: finding terms, checking volume, reading the search results. The HealthTech keyword strategy is the set of decisions built on that input: classifying terms by buying stage, scoring them by distance from a demo, matching each to a page type, sequencing the work and measuring it against the CRM. Most companies do the research and skip the strategy.
What is the Demo Distance score?
The Demo Distance score rates a search term on four questions, with two points each: does the searcher have a buying role, does the wording show they are choosing, do the current results show vendor or comparison pages, and does the term connect to a product you sell today. A score of six or more means the term is one or two steps from a demo and goes to the top of the HealthTech keyword strategy.
Should a HealthTech company target high-volume keywords at all?
Yes, in the right order. High-volume problem and category terms build awareness and feed the pages nearer the demo through internal links. They come after the twenty highest-scoring buyer terms, because those produce demo requests within a quarter. Ahrefs found that almost 93% of keywords have fewer than ten searches a month, so most buyer terms are small by definition.
How many keywords should a HealthTech keyword strategy include?
Fewer than most teams expect. Twenty priority terms in the first quarter, each with its own page, is enough to prove the approach. A mature HealthTech keyword strategy for a scaling company might cover 100 to 200 primary terms across pillars, guides, comparison pages and integration pages, with one URL per term.
How do you measure a HealthTech keyword strategy?
Join Google Search Console to your CRM. Track demo requests by landing page, the top queries for each page, pipeline value from leads who arrived on those pages, the average Demo Distance score of converting terms, and the rankings of the priority terms. Review monthly and change page fit before changing copy.
Does this approach work for clinics and wellness brands as well as B2B HealthTech?
Yes. The classes, the scoring and the page fit apply to any health business where a search precedes a booking. For a clinic or wellness brand, “book a consultation” plays the role of the demo, and comparison, proof and location terms sit closest to it. Healthora specialises in health, and the same HealthTech keyword strategy method runs across B2B vendors, clinics and wellness brands.
Keep reading
More on building search that brings health buyers:
B2B health marketing SEO
Getting found by the buyers who sign the contracts.
HealthTech lead generation
Turning search and content into qualified enquiries.
SEO for HealthTech companies
The full organic growth playbook for HealthTech.