The Numbers Behind How Patients Find Doctors Online — And What They Mean for Your Practice

Before diving into the data, a word on methodology and context — because healthcare SEO statistics get misquoted constantly.

The benchmarks on this page are drawn from a combination of sources: publicly available industry research from organizations including Google, BrightLocal, and Pew Research; observed patterns across campaigns we have managed for medical practices; and data published by healthcare market research firms. Where we cite our own observed ranges, we note them as such. Where we cite third-party research, we describe the claim type rather than fabricating a specific citation.

What you should know before using any of these numbers:

• Search behavior varies by specialty. A cardiologist and an urgent care clinic serve patients with fundamentally different urgency levels and research habits.
• Market size matters. Benchmarks in major metro areas and rural counties are not interchangeable.
• Data ages quickly. Search behavior shifts with algorithm updates, platform changes, and consumer habit evolution. Treat any statistic older than 18 months as directional, not definitive.
• Sample sizes matter. Industry surveys often skew toward digitally active practices — results may not reflect the average small or solo practice.

Use these benchmarks to identify patterns and prioritize decisions — not to set hard targets. The goal is directional clarity, not false precision.

Disclaimer: This page is educational content about search behavior and marketing benchmarks. It does not constitute medical, legal, or compliance advice. For HIPAA and advertising compliance guidance specific to your practice, consult qualified legal counsel.

Patient search behavior has shifted substantially over the past decade. The phone book is gone. Insurance directories are consulted, but rarely first. Search engines — primarily Google — are where most patient journeys begin.

Search as the Starting Point

Industry research consistently shows that a strong majority of adults use search engines when looking for health information or a new provider. Pew Research has documented for years that most internet users have searched for health topics online. More recent behavioral data suggests that when a patient needs a specific type of doctor — not just general health information — Google is the default starting point for the majority of searches.

The First-Page Reality

Click-through rate data across industries consistently shows that the first page of search results captures the overwhelming majority of clicks — often cited as 90% or more in various studies. The drop-off after position one is steep, and by page two, traffic is negligible for most search terms. For medical practices, this means a practice ranking on page two is, in practical terms, nearly invisible to new patients searching online.

Specialty Search Intent Varies

Search intent — and therefore conversion speed — differs by specialty:

• Urgent care and primary care: high urgency, faster conversion, searchers often ready to call or book immediately
• Elective specialties (dermatology, plastic surgery, orthopedics): longer research cycles, more comparison behavior, reviews weighted more heavily
• Mental health and behavioral health: searches often begin with condition or symptom terms rather than provider type — content strategy matters more here
• Pediatrics: search often driven by parents; trust signals and staff credentials carry more weight in click decisions

Understanding the intent pattern for your specific specialty shapes which SEO tactics to prioritize first.

For most medical practices, local SEO is the highest-use SEO channel available. Patients are searching for doctors near them — and Google's local results, particularly the Map Pack, dominate the visible real estate for those searches.

How Often the Map Pack Appears for Medical Searches

Google triggers a local 3-Pack for the majority of searches that include location modifiers ("near me," city name) or for searches Google interprets as having local intent. Medical and healthcare searches are among the most consistently local-intent categories Google tracks. For searches like "family doctor [city]" or "pediatrician near me," the Map Pack typically appears above the organic results — giving it prime placement.

Click Share in Local Results

Research from local SEO tracking tools suggests that Map Pack listings collectively receive a meaningful share of clicks on local searches — often comparable to or exceeding the organic results below them. The top Map Pack position captures the largest individual share of those local clicks. For a medical practice not appearing in the 3-Pack, a significant portion of potential new-patient traffic is going to competitors before the organic listings are even seen.

"Near Me" Search Growth

Google has reported sustained multi-year growth in "near me" search queries, with healthcare among the top categories. Mobile devices — which now account for the majority of local searches — have accelerated this trend because patients search while away from home, often in moments of need.

What Influences Map Pack Rankings

Based on our experience working with medical practices and consistent with published local SEO research, the primary factors that influence Map Pack placement include:

• Google Business Profile completeness and category accuracy
• Volume and recency of patient reviews — and how the practice responds to them
• NAP (name, address, phone) consistency across directories and citation sources
• Proximity of the practice to the searcher's location
• On-site local relevance signals (location pages, schema markup)

All local pages in this resource cluster reference these benchmarks as the evidence base for the tactics covered.

Reviews sit at the intersection of local SEO and patient trust. They influence Google's local ranking algorithm and — separately — the decision a patient makes after they find your listing. Both effects are measurable.

How Patients Use Reviews

BrightLocal's annual consumer research has consistently found that the majority of people read online reviews before choosing a local business. Healthcare is among the categories where this behavior is most pronounced — patients are making decisions that affect their health, so verification through social proof matters more than it does for, say, choosing a restaurant.

Industry surveys suggest that patients pay attention to:

• Overall star rating — a meaningful threshold exists around 4.0, below which many patients do not proceed
• Review recency — older reviews carry less weight in patient perception; a practice with strong reviews from three years ago and nothing recent raises questions
• Practice response behavior — patients notice whether (and how) a practice responds to negative reviews
• Review volume — a 4.8 rating with 12 reviews is received differently than the same rating with 200 reviews

Reviews as a Ranking Signal

Google has publicly stated that review signals — including quantity, quality, and recency — factor into local search rankings. Practices with a strong, recent review profile tend to outperform competitors with thin or stale review histories, all else being equal. This creates a compounding dynamic: better reviews support higher rankings, which drives more patient visits, which creates more opportunities to generate reviews.

HIPAA and Review Responses

One important constraint for medical practices: HIPAA prohibits confirming or revealing any protected health information in review responses — including confirming that the reviewer is a patient. Practices must respond to reviews carefully. This is covered in depth in the reputation management and HIPAA-compliant SEO resources in this cluster. This is an educational summary — consult qualified legal counsel before implementing a review response policy.

Mobile overtook desktop as the primary search device years ago, and healthcare searches reflect this shift as strongly as any category. The practical implications for medical practice websites are significant.

Mobile Share of Healthcare Searches

Google has reported that mobile now accounts for the majority of searches globally, and healthcare is consistently cited as a high-mobile-intent category. When someone experiences a health concern or needs to find a nearby provider, they reach for their phone — not a desktop browser. Industry estimates suggest mobile accounts for well over half of healthcare-related searches, with "near me" and urgent-care-type searches skewing even higher toward mobile.

Page Speed as a Ranking and Conversion Factor

Google uses Core Web Vitals as a ranking signal, and mobile page speed is a component. More directly, slow pages lose patients. Research consistently shows that mobile users abandon pages that take more than a few seconds to load. For a medical practice website, a slow-loading page on mobile means a patient who clicked your result but left before seeing your content — and likely called a competitor instead.

What a Mobile-Optimized Medical Site Requires

Based on our experience auditing practice websites, mobile readiness for healthcare SEO involves more than a responsive design template:

• Tap-to-call phone numbers visible above the fold on mobile
• Appointment booking accessible within two taps from the homepage
• Core Web Vitals scores in acceptable or better ranges on mobile devices
• No interstitials or pop-ups that block content on mobile (a Google penalty trigger)
• Forms that work on mobile keyboards without horizontal scrolling

Voice Search Context

Voice queries for healthcare tend to be conversational and local: "find a dermatologist near me" or "who is the best pediatrician in [city]." Practices with strong local SEO and structured FAQ content are better positioned to appear in voice results, though voice search attribution remains difficult to measure precisely.

Beyond patient behavior data, medical practices frequently ask about performance benchmarks: How long does SEO take? What organic traffic should we expect? What click-through rates are realistic? This section provides honest ranges — with the caveats they require.

Timeline to Results

Industry benchmarks and our experience working with medical practices align on a consistent pattern: meaningful organic ranking improvements typically begin to appear within 3-6 months of sustained SEO work. However:

• Competitive metro markets (major cities, dense physician populations) take longer — 6-12 months is more realistic for meaningful movement on high-competition terms
• Lower-competition markets or niche specialties may see movement faster
• New websites or domains with no prior SEO history take longer than established sites with existing authority
• Google Business Profile optimization for local results often shows faster movement than organic — sometimes within 4-8 weeks for citations and review improvements

Organic Click-Through Rate Ranges

CTR benchmarks by position (drawn from industry CTR studies) show a steep decay curve:

• Position 1: industry estimates range from roughly 25-35% average CTR
• Position 2-3: approximately 10-20%
• Position 4-10: declining from single digits
• Page 2 and beyond: typically below 1%

These are broad industry averages. Healthcare CTRs can vary based on whether a featured snippet appears, whether ads dominate the top of the page, and how compelling the title and meta description are.

Conversion Benchmarks

Organic traffic only matters if it converts to appointments. In our experience working with medical practices, website conversion rates — visitors who take a booking or contact action — vary widely based on the specialty, the booking friction on the site, and how well the page addresses patient concerns. Practices with clear calls to action, visible phone numbers, and online booking options consistently outperform those that make patients work to get in touch.

Benchmarks vary significantly by market, specialty, firm size, and starting authority. Use these ranges as directional guidance, not hard targets.