{"id":7012,"date":"2009-09-14T13:16:00","date_gmt":"2009-09-14T13:16:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pharma-mkting.com\/are-organic-search-results-next-on-fdas\/"},"modified":"2019-02-21T01:22:40","modified_gmt":"2019-02-21T01:22:40","slug":"are-organic-search-results-next-on-fdas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/ec2-54-175-84-28.compute-1.amazonaws.com\/pharma-mkting.com\/blog\/are-organic-search-results-next-on-fdas\/","title":{"rendered":"Are Organic Search Results Next on FDA’s Chopping Block?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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In April, the FDA sent warning letters to several pharmaceutical companies citing paid search engine ads that it claimed violated FDA regulations (see “FDA’s Actions Speak Louder than Its Words: On the Internet It’s the Medium as Well as the Message!<\/a>“). <\/p>\n

But what about organic — ie, unpaid, “non-sponsored,” natural — search engine listings such as the following for Viagra (click on image for an enlarged view)? Are they next on FDA’s chopping block?<\/p>\n

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That was a question posed by Julie Batten, e-marketing manager at Klick Communications (see “Search Marketing in the Pharma Industry<\/a>“).<\/p>\n

“To date, organic listings haven’t been considered promotional, and rightly so,” said Batten.<\/p>\n

Batten notes that pharma companies can determine the wording of organic listings by carefully crafting “meta” data (ie, TITLE and DESCRIPTION) within the header of HTML files that generate Web pages. Since “meta data isn’t meant to be consumer-facing; it’s meant to be [Search Engine] spider-facing,” Batten argues that organic listing based on meta data “aren’t within the jurisdiction of the regulating bodies to review and approve.”<\/p>\n

However, upon review of a few meta tags for Rx drug sites, I find that the wording seems to be crafted especially for consumers and not just for search engines. The following are some examples:<\/p>\n

Viagra<\/b><\/p>\n