AAD.org public content tops search results

One of the many facets of the Your Dermatologist Knows consumer positioning strategy is curating and optimizing the Academy’s public-facing content so that it is easier for people to find, which helps drive traffic to AAD.org and ensures that the information the Academy supports is among the top search results.

In 2023, public webpages on AAD.org were visited over 65 million times by over 47 million unique visitors, which represent 14% and 17% increases from 2022, respectively. Over the course of the year, the Academy updated 81 pages with new information and posted 17 brand-new public webpages. 

This boost in traffic can be attributed to the Academy’s search engine optimization efforts, which resulted in content from the AAD’s public website appearing among the top three Google search results for over 23,000 unique terms. Of those terms, over 8,500 of them appear as either the #1 search result or as the snippet — the first organic search result that Google shows at the top of the results page. 

As a result, for some topics, AAD public content outperforms several of the internet’s top health information sites, including WebMD, Mayo Clinic, Johns Hopkins, and others. These top rankings ensure that the information the public receives on the topics that are of interest to them comes from the Academy, displaying the full scope of knowledge and expertise that only a board-certified dermatologist can provide. 

A few of the terms for which the AAD appears as the top result include: 

• Adult acne 

• Alopecia areata 

• Chapped lips 

• Hives 

• JAK inhibitors 

• Melanoma on foot 

• Microneedling acne scars 

• Nail psoriasis 

• Sarcoidosis skin 

• Skin tags 

• Stasis dermatitis 

• Stretch marks 

• Vitiligo treatment 

• What is a dermatologist? 

• What is melasma? 

• Will I get skin cancer from tanning beds? 

In addition, the spam score for AAD.org remained at 1% throughout the year, which is the lowest score possible. A low score means that high-quality websites consistently link to the AAD’s public webpages, indicating to search engines that the content is trustworthy, deemed an expert resource, and worth showing in results. 

The Academy’s efforts to drive traffic to public pages remain a priority, and we will continue to optimize pages for search engines as well as keep them up to date with the latest information as it becomes available.