How patients in India search for a doctor
Most people don't search "best cardiologist". They search what they feel, then narrow down. A typical path looks like this:
| What they type | What they want |
|---|---|
| "chest pain on left side when walking" | To understand a symptom |
| "cardiologist near me" or "cardiologist in Lajpat Nagar" | A specialist close by |
| "Dr [name] cardiologist reviews" | To check a specific doctor |
| "angiography cost in Delhi" | A price before they commit |
| "hospitals accepting CGHS near me" | To know if their cover works |
A clinic that only has a homepage and a contact page misses four of those five searches. Good medical SEO builds a page for each stage, written for patients, not for search engines.
The October 2026 NMC guidelines change what clinics can publish
On 6 October 2026 the National Medical Commission's Ethics and Medical Registration Board issued Guidelines on Ethical Advertising and Public Communication, effective immediately. Based on the published coverage, they change medical marketing in five ways:
- No testimonials, even with patient consent. That includes video reviews on your website and AI-generated patient stories.
- No before-and-after photos, no "best", "No. 1", "leading" or "guaranteed cure" claims, and no publicising celebrity patients.
- No discounts, coupons, cashbacks or free procedures used to attract patients.
- No fake reviews, followers or ratings, and no "manipulation of search rankings or algorithms".
- No payments to agencies or influencers tied to patient referrals, and no AI-generated promotional campaigns for commercial interest.
Doctors may still publish health-awareness content, formal announcements and their consultation fees. Hospitals may publish factual information about departments, facilities, accreditation and lawful charges, and a doctor directory that serves patients as information.
The 2023 NMC Registered Medical Practitioner regulations were put on hold after protests by the medical associations, so don't let anyone tell you those are the rules in force. The details above come from published summaries of the notice; check the NMC's own text, and take your own legal advice, before you rely on them.
What this means for how we work. We charge medical clients a flat monthly retainer and describe the work as visibility and patient information, never patient acquisition. We don't run testimonial campaigns, review-gating tools or "free check-up camp" landing pages. If we use AI to help draft a condition guide, your doctor reviews it before it goes live and it's labelled where the guidelines require.
What we work on first
A compliance clean-up
Most clinic sites we audit still carry testimonial sliders, before-and-after galleries or "best doctor in Delhi" titles. We list every item that now carries risk and replace it with factual content.
Google Business Profile by specialty
The right primary category (for example Cardiologist or Pediatrician rather than a generic Doctor), every service listed, real photos, accurate hours and a booking link.
Department and doctor pages
One page per department and per doctor, with qualifications, registration number, languages and OPD timings. Patients and Google both look for these details.
Fees, insurance and panels
A factual page for consultation fees and common procedure charges, plus the insurers, TPAs and CGHS or ECHS panels you accept. These pages answer the questions patients call to ask.
Condition and treatment guides
Plain-language pages on the conditions you treat, reviewed and signed by the treating doctor. They answer symptom searches without promising outcomes.
Medical schema
MedicalClinic, Hospital or Physician markup that ties doctors, departments and locations together so search engines and AI assistants read them correctly.
Skin, hair and cosmetic clinics
Dermatology, hair-transplant and aesthetic clinics are under the same NMC guidelines, and they feel the before-and-after ban most. In January 2026 the government moved to treat hair transplantation as surgery that only qualified doctors in licensed facilities may perform, and GST on hair transplants was cut from 18% to 5% in 2025. Procedure pages should name the performing doctor's qualification and show the GST correctly in any cost content. Instead of galleries, we build procedure explainers, recovery timelines and doctor credentials, which is what a cautious patient is actually checking.
IVF and fertility clinics
Fertility clinics carry everything above plus a criminal floor. Section 32 of the Assisted Reproductive Technology (Regulation) Act, 2021 bars any clinic, bank or agent from advertising sex-selective services in any manner, including online, with penalties of five to ten years in prison and a fine of ₹10 to 25 lakh. We will never target gender, "family balancing" or boy-or-girl keywords, and we advise against unverifiable success-rate claims. We haven't yet run a campaign for a fertility clinic, so for now this work sits within this page rather than on its own.
Common mistakes we find in clinic audits
- One Google Business Profile shared by every doctor in a multi-specialty clinic, so none of them shows up for their specialty
- Doctor names written differently on the website, Practo, Justdial and the profile
- "Book appointment" buttons that open a form nobody checks, instead of a call or WhatsApp link
- Treatment pages copied from a pharma or equipment site, word for word
- Reviews requested in exchange for a discount on the next visit, which the new guidelines forbid
Who we've worked with
Pehal Healthcare is one of our healthcare clients. We haven't yet worked with a hospital, an IVF centre or a skin clinic, and we'd rather tell you that than imply otherwise.
What 90 days usually covers
- Weeks 1–4: compliance audit and fixes, Google Business Profile category and services, name-address-phone consistency across Practo, Justdial and Sulekha, and call and WhatsApp tracking in Google Analytics.
- Weeks 5–8: department, doctor, fee and insurance pages, medical schema, and a review process with no incentives attached.
- Weeks 9–12: the first condition guides reviewed by your doctors, local citations, and a report on calls, direction requests and Maps actions.
Most healthcare SEO retainers fall between ₹15,000 and ₹50,000 a month, depending on the number of doctors, departments and locations. We confirm the figure in writing after a free audit.