The Numbers Behind How Patients Search for Addiction Treatment — and What They Mean for Your Center

A note on methodology before the numbers: The benchmarks on this page draw from a combination of sources: Google Search Console data observed across campaigns we've managed for addiction treatment and behavioral health clients, publicly available keyword research tools (including Google Keyword Planner and third-party platforms), published research from SAMHSA and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, and peer-reviewed studies on health information-seeking behavior.

Where we cite specific figures, we indicate the source type. Where we describe observed patterns, we use language like "in our experience" or "campaigns we've managed" — because extrapolating our campaign sample to a universal statistic would be misleading.

What this page is not: This is not a peer-reviewed study. It does not represent a nationally representative random sample. Benchmarks vary significantly by market, facility size, service mix (detox vs. residential vs. outpatient), and whether a center operates in a competitive urban market or a lower-competition rural area.

Use the figures here as directional guidance, not hard targets. If a metric falls outside the ranges described, that's not automatically a red flag — it's a prompt to investigate why.

This is educational content. It is not legal, medical, or compliance advice. For HIPAA, LegitScript, and FTC regulatory questions, consult qualified legal counsel and your state's substance abuse licensing authority.

Understanding patient search behavior starts with recognizing that addiction treatment searches are not like searches for a plumber or a restaurant. The emotional stakes are high, the decision timeline is compressed, and the searcher is often acting on behalf of a family member rather than themselves.

Query Types and Intent Patterns

Treatment-related searches generally fall into four categories:

• Acute need queries: "drug rehab near me," "detox center [city]" — high urgency, high conversion intent
• Research queries: "how does inpatient rehab work," "what is medication-assisted treatment" — earlier in the decision cycle
• Comparison queries: "best rehab centers in [state]," "luxury rehab vs. standard rehab" — mid-funnel, still evaluating
• Insurance and cost queries: "does insurance cover rehab," "free drug rehab [city]" — practical barrier removal

In our experience working with treatment center clients, acute need and location-modified queries tend to drive the highest contact rates when a facility ranks well for them. Research queries drive volume but require nurturing — the patient may return days or weeks later before calling.

Mobile vs. Desktop

Health information-seeking behavior research consistently shows that mobile devices dominate health-related searches, and addiction treatment is no exception. Many patients search from a phone, often late at night or early morning. This has direct implications for page speed, click-to-call functionality, and the above-the-fold content design of a rehab center's website.

Industry benchmarks suggest that facilities with slow mobile load times and no prominently placed phone number lose a measurable share of would-be callers before the page fully renders.

Local search — meaning Google's map pack and location-aware organic results — is one of the highest-value visibility channels for treatment centers, particularly for acute-need searchers who are geographically constrained by insurance networks or transportation access.

Map Pack Visibility

Google's local three-pack appears for the majority of city-level and near-me addiction treatment queries. Across campaigns we've managed, facilities that appear in the map pack for their primary service keywords see substantially higher click-through rates than those ranking in organic positions 4–10, even when organic rankings are technically higher on the page in some layouts.

Key factors that influence map pack placement for rehab centers include:

• Google Business Profile completeness and category accuracy
• Review volume and recency (with responses from the facility)
• NAP (name, address, phone) consistency across SAMHSA's treatment locator, Psychology Today, and state licensing directories
• Proximity of searcher to the facility address
• On-site local signals — city and service-area mentions in page copy and schema markup

Directory Citations That Matter Most

Not all directory listings carry equal weight for rehab centers. SAMHSA's treatment locator (findtreatment.gov) is the highest-authority citation source in the space, followed by state behavioral health agency directories, Psychology Today, and Healthgrades. In our experience, facilities listed accurately in SAMHSA's locator and their state's licensing registry tend to have stronger local authority baselines than those relying primarily on general business directories.

Multi-facility operators face additional complexity: each location needs its own GBP profile, its own location page on the main website, and consistent NAP across all citation sources. Aggregated or shared listings create ranking conflicts that suppress individual facility visibility.

Addiction treatment search volume is not flat across the year. Observable patterns in keyword tool data and search console performance across campaigns show meaningful seasonality that treatment centers and their marketing teams should plan around.

January Surge

Search volume for terms like "drug rehab," "alcohol treatment," and "addiction help" reliably spikes in early January. This is consistent with the broader pattern of health-related resolution behavior after the holiday period, compounded by the stress and relapse triggers that the holiday season itself creates. Centers that have fresh content, updated GBP profiles, and active ad accounts entering January are positioned to capture this surge. Centers that pause marketing in December miss it.

Post-Holiday Spikes

Smaller but notable volume increases appear after Thanksgiving, Memorial Day weekend, and Labor Day — periods associated with elevated substance use and family intervention moments. These are not as pronounced as the January spike, but they are consistent enough to inform content publishing and paid media scheduling.

Organic vs. Paid Traffic Mix

Because Google restricted standard addiction treatment advertising in 2017 and subsequently introduced the LegitScript certification requirement for Google Ads, the organic and map pack channels carry more weight for treatment centers than in most other healthcare verticals. Centers without LegitScript certification cannot run Google Ads for treatment-related terms, making organic rankings not a supplement to paid traffic but often the primary acquisition channel.

Industry benchmarks suggest that LegitScript-certified centers running both organic and paid programs see more balanced traffic sources, while uncertified centers are almost entirely dependent on organic search and referral networks — a concentration risk worth addressing.

Rankings drive visibility, but click behavior determines whether that visibility translates into patient inquiries. Several patterns are consistently observable in addiction treatment search data.

Position vs. Click-Through Rate

Standard organic CTR benchmarks (positions 1–3 capturing the majority of clicks) apply in the treatment space, but with important nuances. When the map pack is present — which it usually is for local queries — the three-pack pulls significant click share away from organic position 1. This means a facility ranking first organically for "drug rehab [city]" may receive fewer clicks than a competitor appearing in the map pack at a lower organic position.

The practical implication: organic and local SEO are not competing priorities. They're complementary, and neglecting local optimization while chasing organic rankings is a common strategic error in this space.

Multi-Touch Search Journeys

Research on health decision-making consistently shows that patients (and family members making decisions on their behalf) conduct multiple searches before contacting a facility. In our experience, the journey often looks like: awareness query → research query → comparison query → direct brand search or call. This means content that serves mid-funnel research queries — "what to expect in detox," "how to choose a rehab center" — contributes to eventual conversion even when it doesn't generate a direct contact itself.

Treatment centers that publish only service pages and neglect educational content tend to be invisible during the research phase, re-entering the patient's consideration only if they appear in direct comparison searches.

Trust Signals That Affect Click Behavior

In the treatment space, trust signals visible in search results — star ratings, review counts, accreditation mentions in meta descriptions, and HTTPS security — influence whether a searcher clicks at all. Facilities with no reviews or outdated information in their GBP see depressed click rates even when rankings are strong.

Search behavior data in the addiction treatment space is sensitive to regulatory changes, platform policy updates, and shifts in how Google displays results for health-related queries. A benchmark that held in 2023 may not hold in 2026 — and citing stale statistics as current is a credibility risk for any organization publishing research.

What Changes and What Stays Stable

The following elements tend to be relatively stable year-over-year:

• The primacy of mobile search for health queries
• The importance of local intent for facility discovery
• The multi-touch nature of treatment decision journeys
• January seasonality patterns

The following elements change frequently enough to require annual review:

• Specific click-through rate benchmarks by position (Google's result layout changes affect these)
• LegitScript and Google Ads policy requirements for treatment advertising
• State-level advertising regulations (Florida HB 807-type legislation has evolved; other states have introduced similar measures)
• SAMHSA directory structure and submission processes
• Google's handling of YMYL health content in algorithm updates

Our Update Schedule

We review and update this page annually, typically in Q1, to reflect the most recent full year of observable data. Where a specific data point has changed materially, we note the previous figure and the update date. Where a benchmark remains consistent, we carry it forward with a notation that it has been confirmed against current data.

If you're citing this page in published research or institutional materials, note the publication year and verify that the page has been updated within the last 12 months. The page footer displays the most recent review date.