Pharma SEO agency: get found by physicians, partners and patients
Pages built for each of your audiences, ready for regulatory review.
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SEO Montreal™ helps pharmaceutical and biotech companies get found in Google and in AI answers, with Google Ads management included in the mandate and content prepared for your regulatory affairs team’s review.
Our SEO case studies
Our pharmaceutical SEO services
In the pharmaceutical industry, a company speaks to separate audiences: healthcare professionals, business partners, investors, job candidates and patients. Pharmaceutical SEO gives each audience its own pages on your website. As an SEO agency in Montreal, we execute this work directly on your site, on top of the technical and content foundation described by our healthcare SEO agency.
Public pages and prescription drugs
In Canada, section C.01.044 of the Food and Drug Regulations limits advertising of a prescription drug to the general public to its brand name, proper name, common name, price and quantity. The Food and Drugs Act also prohibits advertising a drug to the general public as a treatment or cure for a disease listed in Schedule A.1 (s. 3), as well as any false or misleading advertising of a drug (s. 9). So we build public pages around the disease and general medical information, and keep product detail for the healthcare professional section.
In the United States, the FDA’s Office of Prescription Drug Promotion (OPDP) oversees prescription drug ads, and a product claim ad must include at least one approved use, the generic name and all the risks of using the drug. We write for the market each page targets, and your regulatory affairs team decides what counts as advertising.
HCP-only portal for healthcare professionals
Physicians and pharmacists look up a product monograph or drug interactions by the molecule’s proper name. We organize the HCP-only portal with one page per product and per indication, then decide with you what stays indexable by search engines and what sits behind a professional status check, without weighing down the user experience. In Canada, the PAAB is the only organization whose preclearance service is recognized by Health Canada for advertising directed to healthcare professionals: we prepare the copy, and you choose what is submitted.
Disease education content for patients
Patients and caregivers search for a condition and its treatment options first. We write disease education pages that are sourced and focused on medical information, with structured data that helps Google understand them. Each piece is reviewed by your medical affairs team, who can sign it, then approved by you in Google Docs before it goes live. The content stays general information, separate from medical advice.
Pipeline, partners, investors and careers
Licensing partners and investors search for a pipeline or a therapeutic area, rarely for the company name. We build one page per program and per therapeutic area, then an investor section tied to your publications. Job openings get their own pages too, and for a head office or manufacturing site that is hiring, local SEO is part of the work. This follows the logic of our B2B SEO agency, adapted to a long decision cycle.
SEO for biotech companies
A biotech without a marketed product is known by its science: its technology platform, its molecules in development, its researchers and its scientific publications. We give each of them a page and connect every author to their publications, to show the expertise and authority of each researcher at your life sciences company. Our link building relies on editorial backlinks and guest posts, with no questionable practices. For visibility in AI answers, from Google AI Overviews to ChatGPT, Perplexity and Copilot, we give each science page a named author and its sources, the work of our GEO agency.
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Everything about pharma SEO
What pharma audiences search for
Each audience types a different search, at a different point in its decision.
Physicians and pharmacists
They search by proper name or brand, often while prescribing or counseling a patient, and want a sourced answer they can trust, one that reads well on a phone. We build mobile pages that load quickly and cite the product monograph and its revision date.
Patients and caregivers
They search for a condition, then for insurance coverage of a treatment, often over a long decision process. We answer with educational pages and a glossary, without any promise of efficacy.
Business partners and investors
They search for a technology or a clinical stage, then check the company’s credibility before reaching out; job candidates search for openings. We give them precise pages per program and an up-to-date list of publications, then track their contact requests.
How a pharma site competes in Google
On the name of a disease or a molecule, the top search results can be held by institutional sources and large drug makers. On the ad side, Google’s pharmaceutical manufacturers policy allows prescription drug promotion only in Canada, New Zealand and the United States, by manufacturers certified by Google. In Canada, the Regulations still limit what a consumer-facing ad can say. Organic search therefore remains a central lever for a drug maker, and the Google Ads management included in the mandate is used where certification allows.
Our pharma SEO method in 4 steps
Map your audiences and molecules
Our SEO strategy starts with keyword research by audience: proper name, therapeutic area, technology, careers. We also note competing pages and the sources Google and AI tools already cite, then audit the website.
Prioritize pages by audience and risk
We start with the pages that serve a precise business goal, such as a partnership or a hiring need. Pages that touch a prescription product go to your regulatory team first.
Write for regulatory review
We write in Google Docs with sources cited, so your medical and regulatory affairs teams can review and approve each piece. Our team then publishes it directly in your WordPress or CMS, with technical optimization of title tags and internal links.
Track partner and physician inquiries
Every month, by report or meeting as you prefer, we walk you through site performance, from rankings and organic traffic to the leads received from each audience. The mandate renews month to month with 30 days’ notice, and everything we build stays yours.
How much does pharma SEO cost?
A focused mandate starts at $1,500 per month and a growth mandate costs about $2,000 per month, our average mandate; larger sites move to a custom mandate. The price depends on the scope of the work and the competition, not a fixed price grid. Google Ads management is included with no management fee.
Why choose SEO Montreal™ for pharma SEO
SEO Montreal™ focuses only on search, SEO and GEO, with Google Ads in support. Based in Montreal, our team has worked with more than 500 clients in over 25 industries, including healthcare clinics and dentists. We write and publish in English and French, which serves a pharmaceutical site addressing both of Canada’s language markets, and we take on companies elsewhere in Canada and in the United States.
To start, tell us about your pipeline and your audiences: a free 30-minute consultation, with a reply within 24 business hours.
What is pharmaceutical SEO?
Pharmaceutical SEO, or SEO for pharmaceutical companies, is the search engine optimization of websites for drug makers and biotech companies. Its audiences are mostly professional, and its content goes through regulatory review. In Canada, the Food and Drugs Act defines advertising as any representation by any means for the purpose of promoting directly or indirectly the sale or disposal of a drug or other product. Your regulatory team relies on that definition, or on the rules of your own market, to separate an educational page from a promotional one.
Pharma SEO FAQ
Yes, within strict limits. In Canada, section C.01.044 of the Food and Drug Regulations limits consumer advertising of a prescription drug to its brand name, proper name, common name, price and quantity. A public page that describes the benefits of a prescription product can go beyond those limits. We suggest a disease page instead, and your regulatory team approves the final wording for each market.
It depends on its content and on your regulatory team’s position. Science, therapeutic area and publication pages can often stay indexable in Google. Pages that detail a prescription product more often sit behind a professional status check, with a noindex tag. We map the two zones, then work on the SEO of the pages that stay public.
That decision belongs to you and your regulatory team. PAAB, the Pharmaceutical Advertising Advisory Board, is the only organization whose preclearance service is recognized by Health Canada for advertising directed to healthcare professionals. We prepare structured, sourced copy that is easy to submit, then apply the requested changes before publication.
Generally not. The FDA says that, except in unusual instances, it cannot require drug companies to submit ads for approval before they are used. Its Office of Prescription Drug Promotion still oversees promotion, and a product claim ad must include at least one approved use, the generic name and all the risks of using the drug. We prepare the copy, and your regulatory team decides what to publish in each market.
In some cases. Google allows certified manufacturers to promote prescription drugs only in Canada, New Zealand and the United States. In Canada, a consumer ad remains limited by section C.01.044 of the Regulations, and Google requires online pharmacies there to be accredited by LegitScript or the NABP. Google Ads management is included in the mandate, within what the rules allow.
Through its science and its people. We publish one page per technology platform and per pipeline program, one page per researcher linked to their publications, then an investor section and a careers section. Each new publication or conference presentation also gets its own page, linked to the relevant program. These pages can be found by partners and investors well before a first product reaches the market.
Yes, with one page per trial: eligibility criteria, participating sites, what to expect and a contact. Google’s clinical trial recruitment policy allows these ads, for approved advertisers, in a limited list of locations that includes Canada, but they may not promote prescription drugs or imply that the products being tested are safe. Each page is validated under your clinical team’s procedures before it goes live.
It depends on how it is presented. In Canada, the Food and Drugs Act covers any representation of a product made to promote its sale or disposal, directly or indirectly. So we keep disease pages separate from brand pages, with sourced, measured educational content. Your regulatory team then decides each case, since final compliance remains your responsibility in each market.
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