STRUCTURED DATA · SEO GLOSSARY
Physician Schema
The schema.org type for individual medical doctors — Physician, a subtype of MedicalOrganization — with properties including medicalSpecialty (using schema.org\'s controlled vocabulary), worksFor (linking to the practice entity), availableService (procedures performed), and alumniOf (medical school). Enables individual doctor knowledge panel features and physician-specific search result enhancements.
Definition
`Physician` is a schema.org type in the `Organization → MedicalOrganization → Physician` hierarchy for individual medical doctors and practitioners. The type hierarchy: `"@type": "Physician"` — the primary type for individual medical practitioners, as distinct from the practice (`MedicalClinic`) they work in. Physician-specific properties: **`medicalSpecialty`** — schema.org provides a controlled vocabulary for medical specialties including `GeneralPractice`, `Dermatology`, `Pediatrics`, `Cardiology`, `Orthopedics`, `Psychiatry`, and others. Using vocabulary-aligned values provides stronger semantic signal than free-text specialty descriptions. **`availableService`** — specific medical procedures the physician performs, expressed as `MedicalProcedure` objects: annual physical, vaccination, skin biopsy, etc. **`worksFor`** — linking to the `MedicalClinic` or `Hospital` entity where the physician practises. This entity relationship connects the physician to the practice, allowing Google to associate the physician profile with the practice\'s local search presence. **`alumniOf`** — medical school attended, as an `EducationalOrganization` entity. Provides the educational credential signal relevant to E-E-A-T assessment. **`memberOf`** — professional college or board membership (Royal College of Surgeons, American Board of Internal Medicine, GMC registration number context). **`knowsAbout`** — clinical areas of expertise, condition types, or patient populations (paediatric dermatology, geriatric care, sports medicine injuries). For multi-physician practices, each physician should have an individual `Person` or `Physician` schema instance on their profile page, all linked via `worksFor` to the parent practice\'s `MedicalClinic` entity.
Why it matters for SEO
Individual physician search queries are a real patient acquisition channel — "Dr. [name] reviews", "Dr. [name] [specialty]", "who is the best [specialty] at [hospital]". Physician schema on individual profile pages provides the structured signal that enables knowledge panel features for these queries. For YMYL E-E-A-T, physician schema with `alumniOf` and `memberOf` makes credential claims machine-readable — reinforcing the authorship credibility signals that Google\'s quality evaluation applies to medical content.
How DeepSEOAnalysis checks this
DeepSEOAnalysis validates `Physician` JSON-LD on individual doctor profile pages for: `medicalSpecialty` presence (schema.org vocabulary alignment), `worksFor` linking to the practice entity, `alumniOf` for medical school, `memberOf` for professional association, and server-rendering. Missing `worksFor` (disconnecting the physician from the practice entity) and missing `medicalSpecialty` are flagged as structured data gaps for healthcare sites.
Useful tools and resources
GLOSSARY
Related terms
technical
Healthcare SEO
SEO applied to medical practices, clinics, hospitals, and allied health providers — characterised by YMYL content standards requiring physician authorship and clinical review, Physician/MedicalOrganization schema for local search visibility, patient review acquisition under regulatory constraints, and competition between local service queries (where practices can compete) and health information queries (dominated by aggregators).
Read definition →structured data
MedicalOrganization Schema
The schema.org type hierarchy for healthcare organisations — MedicalOrganization (parent) with subtypes including MedicalClinic, Hospital, Dentist, Optician, Pharmacy, DiagnosticLab, and Physician. Each subtype inherits LocalBusiness properties and adds healthcare-specific properties like medicalSpecialty and availableService.
Read definition →structured data
Professional Service Schema
Schema.org structured data for licensed professional service providers — including Attorney (legal), Physician (medical), Dentist (dental), AccountingService (financial), FinancialService, and other LocalBusiness subtypes for regulated professionals. These types add profession-specific properties to the LocalBusiness foundation that enable knowledge panel features and local search relevance for professional service queries.
Read definition →technical
YMYL SEO
SEO applied to Your Money or Your Life (YMYL) content — pages where inaccurate information could cause significant financial, physical, legal, or safety harm. YMYL pages face elevated E-E-A-T requirements from Google\'s quality evaluation framework: medical, legal, financial, and safety content must demonstrate credible expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness signals.
Read definition →onpage
E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness)
Google\'s quality framework for evaluating content — especially important for YMYL (Your Money, Your Life) topics like health, finance, and legal.
Read definition →See how your site scores on Physician Schema.
The free DeepSEOAnalysis audit checks physician schema and 100+ other signals. Full report, no signup.
Run a free audit →