Google search results for Physiotherapist vs Osteopath vs Chiropractor in the battle for the hearts and minds of back pain sufferers.

What does Google tell us about back pain and the different professions?

When people are in pain, they go online.  Working with Google Adwords, I decided to look at the search volume and see whether the search patterns revealed anything interesting about what people are looking for.

I began by taking the three main professions which treat musculoskeletal conditions: physiotherapists, osteopaths and chiropractors and then I looked at the search volume for specific conditions.

Google displays results in two columns, the first, for the world and the second, local to where you are – in this case the UK.  Here are the results:

Keyword	Global	UK
physiotherapist	1,500,000	368,000
physiotherapy clinic	60,500	18,100
chiropractor	2,740,000	165,000
chiropractic clinic	74,000	14,800
osteopath	1,220,000	135,000
osteopathy clinic	9,900	4,400
back pain	2,740,000	368,000
low back pain	673,000	90,500
herniated disc	368,000	27,100
slipped disc	165,000	22,200
sciatica	1,000,000	135,000
neck pain	550,000	74,000
shoulder pain	550,000	90,500
shoulder injury	74,000	9,900
knee pain	673,000	90,500
knee injury	246,000	33,100
sports injury	135,000	40,500
arthritis	4,090,000	450,000

Of course there are thousands of keyword permutations but these are the broad searches.

When people look for a clinician they do so because they have a condition.  Each profession has specialities but back pain is the number one reason that people visit a clinic.

Based on conversations with clinicians over the years, I would put forward the following general percentages as back pain-related patient visits for each profession globally:

Physiotherapy: 40-50%
Osteopathy: 60-70%
Chiropractic: 70-80%

The profession-related search reveals three interesting things for me. 

1/ When people need help, they are looking broadly for a profession.  The type of treatment is a commodity ie I just need a physiotherapist, chiropractor or osteopath.

2/ People are looking for information about back pain and they are looking for private treatment in very large numbers (you don’t need to search if you just go to your GP to get treatment/ referral)

3/ Clinics need to plant the name of their clinic in the minds of future patients so that when they do get pain, they won’t search generically, they will search for their clinic!

There are up to 10 times as many physiotherapists in the UK as osteopaths and chiropractors, but large numbers of patients are looking for osteopaths and chiropractors over physiotherapists.

If we take it that a search for a clinician is in essence a search for treatment for a condition, then applying some percentages we can see more dramatically that osteopaths and chiropractors are getting a disproportionate amount of search traffic for back pain for the number of clinicians in those professions compared to physiotherapists.

Keyword	UK Search	% of Patients with Back Pain
physiotherapist	368,000	50%	184,000
chiropractor	165,000	70%	115,500
osteopath	135,000	60%	81,000	196,500

This is search for broad terms only and the numbers may not be entirely accurate but they do give a ball park figure.  Combining the chiropractic and osteopaths (although I know the two professions are very different!) their combined search number of 196,500 is greater than the search for physiotherapist, 184,000.

What can we infer from this?

Quite a number of things but two things for me.

1/ The numbers show that in broad search terms for the professions, osteopathy and chiropractic are winning the day in the hearts and minds of back pain sufferers.

2/ With an ageing population, clinics can do worse than be the best for back pain … and arthritis.

Stephen Small
Director Steadfast Clinics

Steadfast Clinics is a dynamic medical company which helps clinicians do more for back pain sufferers and helps to grow clinics with the IDD Therapy spinal decompression programme.

For details request an information pack using the form below or visit www.SteadfastClinics.co.uk to read clinician testimonials and more.

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