You can estimate local patient search demand for your specialty with Google Keyword Planner (average monthly searches by location), Google Trends (relative interest and seasonality), and your own Search Console and Google Business Profile data. Each gives estimates or samples, not patient counts, so combine them and treat the result as a range.
Last verified: November 9, 2026.
"How many people in our area are searching for a dermatologist?" is a fair question before you open a second location, add a provider or set a marketing budget. Search results for "healthcare search statistics" mostly offer national survey percentages, which do not answer it. A specialty-by-city number is what you need, and nobody can hand you an exact one.
This guide shows how to build a defensible estimate yourself with free Google tools, what each number actually means according to Google's documentation, and where the method breaks. We are not publishing ClinicStats search volumes here; the only numbers in the worked example are invented round figures to show the arithmetic.
What you can and cannot know
Be clear about this before you start, because it shapes how you present the result to partners or a bank.
You can estimate:
roughly how often people in a defined area search phrases related to your specialty each month;
how that interest rises and falls through the year;
how your area compares with nearby areas; and
how many of those searches your clinic already appears for.
You cannot know:
how many of those searches came from distinct people, rather than one person searching several times;
how many searchers were patients rather than students, staff, caregivers or competitors; or
exact counts for small towns or rare specialties, which public tools often round down to zero or do not report.
Every number below is a public-tool estimate or a sample. None is a patient count.
Tool 1: Google Keyword Planner (estimated monthly searches)
Keyword Planner is part of Google Ads. Google says you must complete account setup, including billing information, to use basic features such as "Get ideas for new keywords." You do not have to run ads to see search estimates, although what you see may vary by account.
What "Avg. monthly searches" means
Google defines average monthly searches as the average number of times people searched for a keyword and its close variants, based on the month range, location and Search Network settings you select. By default, it is averaged over a 12-month period. Google also notes that:
historical statistics such as average monthly searches are shown for exact matches, whatever match type you choose;
search volume statistics are rounded, so volumes for several locations may not add up as expected; and
historical metrics do not account for bid, budget or seasonality, unlike forecasts.
The healthcare limitation
Google's Keyword Planner FAQ states that its personalized advertising and data privacy policies "often prevent results for keywords in sensitive categories like health or finance." It also says keywords with very low search volumes, or that are considered sensitive, are not discoverable or forecastable. For clinics, that means condition and treatment keywords may return nothing at all. Searches built around the provider type ("pediatrician," "physical therapy clinic") are more likely to return data than searches about a diagnosis.
How to run it
Open Keyword Planner and choose Get search volume and forecasts.
Paste your keyword list (see the next section).
Set Location to your metro area, county or a set of cities, not the whole country.
Set the date range to the last 12 full months.
Download the results and keep the file with the date you pulled it.
Building the keyword list for your specialty
A demand estimate is only as good as the list of searches you measure. For each specialty, include:
| Group | Examples (dermatology) |
|---|---|
| Provider type | dermatologist, skin doctor |
| Provider type + "near me" | dermatologist near me, skin doctor near me |
| Provider type + place | dermatologist [city], dermatologist [neighborhood] |
| Service-led | mole check, skin cancer screening, acne treatment |
| Access modifiers | dermatologist accepting new patients, pediatric dermatologist |
Avoid branded searches (your own clinic name or competitors' names) in the demand total; those measure awareness of specific clinics, not specialty demand. Track them separately.
Expect some keywords to come back blank. That is normal for health terms and small areas. Note them as "no data" rather than zero.
Tool 2: Google Trends (seasonality and comparison)
Google Trends answers a different question: not "how many," but "how much interest, relative to everything else, over time and place."
According to Google's Trends FAQ:
Trends uses a sample of Google searches, which Google says is representative because of the volume it handles.
Each data point is divided by total searches for that place and time, then scaled from 0 to 100. A score of 100 is the peak for that comparison, not a count.
Searches made by very few people show as 0. Repeated searches by the same person over a short period are removed.
Trends adds small random noise to protect privacy, which is most visible on low-interest queries.
Internal searches made by AI Mode and AI Overviews are filtered out.
Google states Trends is not a scientific poll and should be treated as one data point among others.
How to use it for a clinic
Seasonality. Enter your main specialty term, set the region to your state or metro, and look at the past five years. Many specialties have visible peaks and troughs; use them to plan staffing and campaign timing.
Area comparison. Compare the same term across nearby metros to see where relative interest is higher before choosing a new location.
Wording. Compare "skin doctor" with "dermatologist" to see which phrasing your area uses, then make sure your website uses it too.
Do not multiply Trends scores into search counts. Pair them with Keyword Planner's averages instead: Keyword Planner gives the scale, Trends gives the shape.
Tool 3: Your own data (what you already capture)
Public estimates tell you about the whole market. Your own accounts tell you how much of it reaches you.
Google Business Profile, Searches metric. For verified profiles, Google lists the search terms people used to find your profile. It updates at the start of each month and can take up to 5 days to show.
Google Business Profile actions. Calls, website clicks and direction requests show what people did after finding you. Google notes these include interactions from both organic results and Google Ads.
Search Console. Impressions count how often a link to your site was seen in Google Search, and clicks count visits. Filter to non-brand queries containing your specialty terms. Impressions only appear when your site showed up, so this measures your visibility, not total demand.
Putting it together: a worked example (illustrative numbers)
The numbers below are invented to show the method. They are not measurements.
Suppose a two-provider physical therapy clinic pulls these figures for its metro area:
| Input | Illustrative value | Source type |
|---|---|---|
| Sum of avg. monthly searches across 15 non-brand PT keywords | 4,000 | Keyword Planner estimate |
| Keywords with no data | 6 of 21 | Keyword Planner |
| Search Console impressions for those terms | 1,200 per month | Your data |
| Search Console clicks for those terms | 90 per month | Your data |
| Google Business Profile calls + website clicks | 140 per month | Your data (includes ads if running) |
How to read it:
Market size, roughly. About 4,000 specialty searches a month in the area, plus an unknown amount from the 6 keywords with no data. Present it as "at least about 4,000," not "4,000 patients."
Your visibility. Your site appeared about 1,200 times for these searches. Because one search can show your site once, this suggests you appear for a meaningful share of searches but far from all. It is an indicator, not a precise share, because impressions and Keyword Planner volumes are measured differently.
Your capture. About 90 site clicks plus 140 profile actions. Some overlap: the same person may click and call.
Seasonality. Apply the Trends curve to see which months will be above or below the average.
The useful output is not a single patient number. It is a short statement such as: "Specialty searches in our metro run in the low thousands a month, peak in spring, and we currently appear for a minority of them, mostly through our Google profile." That is enough to make decisions about a new location, a provider hire or where to focus marketing.
Why "near me" searches point to the map pack
When your keyword list is dominated by "near me" and city searches, the results patients see are usually local results tied to Google Business Profiles. That makes your profile's categories, hours, reviews and photos as important as your website. Our local SEO and Google Business Profile guide explains what you control there, and our guide to checking AI Overviews on your own near me searches covers what else may appear above the results.
Common mistakes
Using national volumes for a local practice. Always set a location.
Adding up overlapping keywords as if they were different people. "Dermatologist near me" and "dermatologist [city]" may be the same patient on different days.
Reading Trends 100 as a count. It is the peak of that comparison only.
Treating "no data" as no demand. It often means Google withheld or could not report the term.
Presenting estimates as facts. Label each number with its tool, location setting and pull date.
Getting a local demand view without the spreadsheet
If you would rather not assemble this yourself, the ClinicStats Competitor & Social Report includes a patient demand section alongside a comparison with your local competitors on maps, reviews, website, social and AI search. You can see the layout in the sample report before buying anything, and the free clinic website scan is a good first step if you have not checked your site.