Google search analysis: What do people want to know about prostate cancer and where do they find answers?

Abstract

e23073 Background: With over 95% of Americans online, Google has become the most utilized search engine. Google has developed machine learning technology to attempt to understand the intent of the user’s search, predict the search, and recognize patterns leading to a list of questions "people also ask" (PAA) with websites that answer these questions. With nearly 300,000 new prostate cancer diagnoses each year, this study aims to identify the questions patients have about their diagnosis and where they find this information. Methods: We analyzed data from Google using a search engine optimizer (SEO) Semrush (Semrush.com) to identify the most commonly searched terms about prostate cancer. Data was limited to the United States. We searched the terms “Prostate Cancer”, “Prostate Carcinoma”, and “Prostatic Adenocarcinoma” to extract online queries. Popularity of terms was assessed by search volume per month. Using the same SEO, the most common queries and PAAs were extracted. We included the top ten most popular queries and PAAs in our results. Similar queries and PAAs were combined. Results: The most common search term was “prostate cancer” with 246k queries. This generated 10k PAA questions. The categories with the highest search volume were: Cause (27k), Symptoms (17.7k), Diagnostic testing (17k). These results and where people received their information is summarized in Table 1. Conclusions: Prostate cancer was the most searched term, with the number of queries correlating to the annual incidence of diagnoses, suggesting that nearly all men are using the internet for additional information. Most common PAAs can be classified into causes, symptoms, and diagnostic testing. Physicians should emphasize these specific education topics to address these categories when counseling patients. In the era of misinformation it is important for patients have accurate websites where they derive their information. Top 10 "people also asked" questions with volume metrics. PAA Questions Volume per Month What causes prostate cancer? 27,000 What are the symptoms of prostate cancer? 17,700 What are the tests for prostate cancer? 17,000 What is prostate cancer? 14,800 How to avoid prostate cancer? 8,100 Is prostate cancer curable? 5,700 Can women get prostate cancer? 4,700 Is prostate cancer fatal? 4,600 How to treat prostate cancer? 3,500 How many radiation treatments for prostate cancer? 2,400