Biotech and pharma sites often bury their best content in PDFs, image-based data tables, and a domain structure split across corporate, investor, and product sites. Search engines cannot index what they cannot crawl. We fix the technical foundation so your actual scientific and commercial content shows up.
The Problem
Regulatory-approved language lives in PDFs and images, invisible to search
Legal and regulatory teams frequently approve content as a static PDF or an image-based data table because that format is easier to lock down and version-control. Search engines cannot read text trapped in an image and crawl PDFs poorly compared to structured HTML. The result is that your most credible, hardest-won content – the exact language regulatory signed off on – never shows up in search results.
Domain sprawl splits authority across corporate, investor, and product sites
It is common for a biotech or pharma company to run a corporate site, a separate investor relations site, and one or more product or pipeline microsites, each on its own domain or subdomain. Search engines treat these as unrelated properties by default, which means the authority one site builds does not transfer to the others, and the company's overall search visibility stays fragmented and weak.
JavaScript-heavy pipeline and trial pages hide content from crawlers
Interactive pipeline visualizations and clinical trial dashboards are often built in JavaScript frameworks that render content client-side. Search engine crawlers do not always execute JavaScript the way a browser does, which means a page that looks complete to a human visitor can appear nearly empty to the crawler indexing it, and the underlying content never gets credit in search rankings.
Thin, duplicated content from templated press release pages
Biotech and pharma companies issue press releases frequently, and many sites publish these through a templated system that produces near-identical page structures with minimal unique text. Search engines can flag this as low-value, duplicated content, which drags down the overall quality signal for the domain even when the underlying news is legitimate and important.
How We Help
Assessment starts with a full technical crawl of every domain and subdomain the company operates, checking what search engines can actually see versus what a human visitor sees. We flag PDF-locked content, image-based data, JavaScript rendering issues, and domain fragmentation as separate categories, because each requires a different fix and a different owner on your team.
Strategy development prioritizes fixes by impact rather than by ease. A pipeline page with genuine scientific substance trapped behind a rendering issue gets fixed before a low-value legacy page, even if the legacy fix is technically simpler. We also build a plan for consolidating domain authority where it makes sense – canonical tagging, structured internal linking, and in some cases a recommendation to bring fragmented properties under one primary domain.
Execution covers the technical work directly: converting locked-down regulatory content into crawlable HTML with the approved language intact, fixing server-side rendering or pre-rendering for JavaScript-heavy pages, cleaning up duplicated press release templates with genuinely unique summary content, and implementing schema markup so search engines and increasingly LLMs understand what a pipeline page, clinical trial, or product page actually represents.
We work directly with your engineering and regulatory teams throughout, because technical SEO fixes on a biotech or pharma site almost always touch content that legal has already approved in a specific format. Measurement tracks crawl coverage, indexation rate, and organic traffic to the pages that matter most – pipeline, product, and investor content – not vanity traffic to unrelated blog posts.
What we deliver
- Full technical crawl audit – every domain and subdomain, flagged by issue type and priority
- Content accessibility fixes – converting PDF-locked and image-based regulatory content into indexable HTML without changing approved language
- JavaScript rendering fixes – server-side or pre-rendering solutions for pipeline and trial dashboards
- Domain consolidation plan – canonical structure and internal linking to unify authority across corporate, investor, and product properties
The best content on most biotech and pharma sites – the regulatory-approved language that took months to clear – is often the least visible to search engines because it lives in a PDF or an image. Fixing that one issue can unlock more organic visibility than any new content the team could write.
Our Methodology
Our 90-day technical SEO sprint opens with the full crawl audit across every domain and subdomain in the first 30 days, producing a prioritized issue list ranked by traffic and business impact rather than by technical complexity alone. This phase includes direct conversations with engineering and regulatory teams to understand why certain content is locked into its current format.
Days 30 to 60 focus on the highest-impact fixes: converting locked content, resolving JavaScript rendering gaps, and implementing schema markup on pipeline and product pages. Days 60 to 90 move into domain consolidation work and duplicate content cleanup, along with initial measurement of crawl coverage and indexation improvements.
What makes this different from a generic technical SEO audit is the regulatory context built into every recommendation. We do not propose fixes that would require re-running content through legal review from scratch – we find the technical path that preserves approved language while making it visible to search engines.
How We Work
The first 30 days run heavy with engineering and regulatory stakeholders to complete the audit and get buy-in on the fix priority list – typically 2-3 days a week. Days 30 to 90 taper to 1-2 days a week as fixes move through your engineering sprint cycle, with us reviewing implementation and tracking indexation progress.
You provide access to Search Console, analytics, your CMS or engineering team, and time with regulatory reviewers when content format changes touch approved language. We handle the audit, prioritization, technical specifications, and implementation support – your engineering team typically owns the actual code changes, with us reviewing and validating.
Weekly working sessions track fix implementation against the priority list. Monthly reviews cover crawl coverage, indexation rate, and organic traffic movement on priority pages. Most engagements run 4-6 months for the initial fix cycle, with an optional retainer for ongoing technical health monitoring.
- Increased indexation of pipeline, product, and regulatory content
- Consolidated domain authority across corporate, investor, and product properties
- Organic traffic growth on the pages that actually drive investor and partner interest
If your biotech & pharma company needs technical seo leadership, we should talk.
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Frequently asked questions
How much does technical SEO work cost for a biotech or pharma company?
Engagements typically run $10K to $22K per month depending on the number of domains involved and the complexity of the JavaScript rendering fixes needed. Companies with a single domain and a modern content management system land at the lower end. Companies with fragmented domains and legacy JavaScript frameworks land higher because of the additional engineering coordination required.
How long before we see results from technical SEO work?
Crawl and indexation improvements typically show up within 30-60 days of fixes shipping, since search engines can re-crawl fixed pages relatively quickly once the technical barrier is removed. Organic traffic growth on previously invisible pages usually builds over 3-4 months as search engines gain confidence in the newly accessible content.
How does the technical SEO team integrate with our existing staff?
We work directly with your engineering team on implementation and your regulatory team wherever a fix touches approved content format. We provide the technical specifications and priority order – your engineering team typically executes the code changes within their existing sprint process, with us reviewing and validating each fix.
What makes Winston Francois different from a typical technical SEO agency?
Most technical SEO agencies do not account for regulatory content constraints and propose fixes that would require re-running everything through legal review. We build fixes around the format constraints that already exist, preserving approved language while making it crawlable. We also prioritize fixes by business impact on pipeline and product pages, not by generic technical severity scores.
How do you measure ROI from a technical SEO investment?
We track crawl coverage, indexation rate, and organic traffic specifically on pipeline, product, and investor-relevant pages rather than blended site-wide traffic. We also track how domain consolidation affects authority signals over time. Most engagements need 3-4 months before the indexation and traffic data shows a clear pattern.
What type of biotech or pharma company is the right fit for this service?
Companies with real scientific or commercial content that is not showing up in search – often because it is locked in PDFs, split across multiple domains, or built on a JavaScript framework that crawlers struggle with. The best fit is a company that already has substance to surface, not one that needs new content written from scratch.
