"Dermatologist" is searched 33,100 times a month in the UK, "dermatologist near me" another 33,100, "dermatoscopy" 1,900. Unlike in many countries, UK city searches do have volumes: "dermatologist london" gets 9,900 a month, "dermatologist manchester" 2,400, "dermatologist bristol" 1,600. The gap is elsewhere: for "mole mapping", "mole check" and "mole removal" Google Ads returns no data at all (DataForSEO data, Google UK, October 2026). The closest searches with a figure are "checking moles", about 6,600 a month, and "skin cancer check", 1,000.
For a UK dermatologist, the "specialist + city" search still belongs to consultants with their own name, and the procedure search goes to whoever publishes the price. On the first page for "dermatologist manchester", five of the ten organic results are consultants' personal websites. On "mole mapping london", not one is a directory.
Below you'll find the two results pages side by side, the calendar of searches between medical and cosmetic dermatology, and what a page can say without breaking the UK rules on advertising and medical practice.
On "dermatologist + city" the consultants still hold the page
The results page for "dermatologist manchester", read on 10 October 2026 with the location set to Manchester, opens with a "Find results on" carousel: Top Doctors, Doctify, the American Academy of Dermatology's finder, WhatClinic and Facebook. Then a local pack with Dr Nicole Dermatology (4.9 with 133 reviews), Manchester Dermatology Clinic (3.8 with 144) and Lumiere Clinic Manchester (4.9 with 196).
Then the ten organic results. Five are personal websites of consultant dermatologists: Dr Nicole Chiang, Dr Tim Clayton, Professor Faisal Ali, Dr Jean Ayer and Professor Vishal Madan. Two are private hospital groups (Spire's dermatology team page and a consultant profile on Circle Health Group), one is the Lumiere skin clinic, one is the NHS trust's dermatology service at Wythenshawe. Only one is a directory: a consultant profile on Bupa Finder.
It's the same pattern we measured on "dermatologist london" in our article on healthcare marketing: in the UK, directories take the carousel above the map, not the organic results. What decides the top three is the local block, which in Manchester already asks for between 133 and 196 reviews (and lets in a clinic rated 3.8 that has 144). Here the work on Google reviews and on the Business Profile is the condition for being there.
One thing many practices don't look at: what people search by name. In a sample of 80 searches related to "dermatologist" and "mole mapping" taken from DataForSEO for the UK, none contains a consultant's surname. The names people type are clinics and chains: "london clinic dermatology" (2,400 searches a month), "dermis clinic" (1,900), "the skin clinic" (1,600), "skin science clinic" (1,000), "bupa dermatologist" (880), "boots dermatologist" (720). Yet a name already searched for works hard on the results page: Dr Nicole Chiang appears three times on the Manchester page (in the map, first in the organic results and on Bupa Finder), plus the clinic where she practises. Whoever searches for a clinic or a consultant by name has already chosen: if the first answer is a directory profile, the booking goes through there.
On mole mapping, the page with the price wins
On "mole mapping london" the page changes. There's no local pack: an AI Overview sits at the top, followed by nine organic results. None of them is a portal. The first is The Mole Clinic, with its prices in the snippet ("Costs £195 for one person... Full Body Mole Mapping... Costs £325"). Then come the Harley Street Dermatology Clinic, Nuffield Health, Royal Free London Private Patients, HCA Healthcare UK, The Medical Chambers Kensington, Cadogan Clinic, Skin Care Network and Welbeck, which also puts the price in the description ("Mole mapping is available from £330"). Almost all are pages dedicated to the single procedure, with London in the title.
In Manchester, on the same search, the AI Overview opens with four local clinics, each with its rating, and a "Pricing & What to Expect" section: a single mole check at £50 to £150, a full body check at around £295, full body mapping at £385 to £399. Every figure is taken from a clinic's own page (Everything Skin Clinic, Pall Mall Medical, UK-Dermatologist). Below it, only two of the nine organic results are directories (Doctify and WhatClinic).
The most instructive case is The Mole Clinic Manchester, which has only 47 reviews. On "mole mapping manchester" it appears in the AI Overview, in the knowledge panel on the right, in the Doctify listing, with a Facebook video in the organic results and in a local news story about its opening from December 2024. A single-procedure clinic with one clear page per city takes five places on the same page.
The London page also has a block of four questions, two of them about price ("How much does mole mapping cost in the UK?", "How much does it cost to get mole mapping done?"), and the answers are generated by AI Overviews. A page that states the price plainly is the natural candidate to be quoted there.
The three parts of SEO for a dermatology practice according to Sagapixel, a US SEO agency (in English, 9 minutes). The context is American; the method applies just the same in the UK.
Two calendars: skin checks in summer, aesthetics in winter
A dermatologist who does both medical and cosmetic work is dealing with two opposite seasons. Google Ads monthly data shows it clearly, and you can check it in a few minutes on Google Trends.
"Checking moles" reaches 9,900 searches in May and June 2026, against an average of 6,600, and drops to 4,400 in November and December 2025. "Skin cancer" goes from 60,500 in winter to 90,500 in May and June, "skin cancer check" from 720 to 1,600 in May and July. "Skin tag removal" peaks at 60,500 from June to August. People get their skin checked when they start uncovering it: the mole page needs to be ranking by March.
Aesthetics runs the other way. "Botox" gets 33,100 searches in September and October 2025 and in March 2026, and falls to 22,200 from June to August. "Chemical peel" goes from 14,800 in autumn, January and early spring to 8,100 in July and August. "Profhilo" sits at 22,200 from September to November and again in January, March and April, and drops to 14,800 in the summer months. "Aesthetic clinic" hit 5,400 in October 2025, nearly twice its average of 2,900.
"Dermatologist" on its own peaks twice too, in September-October 2025 and January-March 2026, both times at 40,500, and holds at 33,100 for the rest of the year. The end of summer also brings back hair: "hair loss dermatologist" reaches 1,300 in September and October 2025, against an average of 1,000.
| Keyword | Searches/month | CPC | Peak | Low |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| dermatologist | 33,100 | £3.15 | 40,500 (Sep-Oct 2025, Jan-Mar 2026) | 33,100 |
| dermatologist near me | 33,100 | £2.33 | 33,100 (most months) | 27,100 (Nov-Dec, Jun-Aug) |
| botox | 27,100 | £2.43 | 33,100 (Sep-Oct, Mar) | 22,200 (Jun-Aug) |
| profhilo | 18,100 | £2.45 | 22,200 (Sep-Nov, Jan, Mar-Apr) | 14,800 (Dec, Jul-Aug) |
| lip filler | 18,100 | £1.84 | 22,200 (Sep-Nov, Jan, Mar) | 14,800 (Jul) |
| chemical peel | 12,100 | £1.19 | 14,800 (Sep-Oct, Jan, Mar-Apr) | 8,100 (Jul-Aug) |
| dermatologist london | 9,900 | £4.87 | 9,900 (most months) | 8,100 (Dec, Feb, Jun-Aug) |
| checking moles | 6,600 | £1.79 | 9,900 (May-Jun) | 4,400 (Nov-Dec) |
| private dermatologist | 3,600 | £2.23 | 4,400 (Mar-Apr) | 2,900 (Dec, Aug) |
| aesthetic clinic | 2,900 | £2.15 | 5,400 (Oct) | 1,900 (Jun) |
| dermatologist manchester | 2,400 | £3.34 | 2,900 (Sep-Oct, Jan, Mar) | 1,900 (Aug) |
| dermatoscopy | 1,900 | £0.71 | 1,900 (most months) | 1,300 (Dec) |
| botox price | 1,900 | £1.87 | 2,400 (Sep, Nov, Jan, Mar-Apr) | 1,300 (Jun-Jul) |
| lip filler price | 1,600 | £1.84 | 1,900 (Sep, Jan) | 1,300 (May-Aug) |
| hair loss dermatologist | 1,000 | £7.05 | 1,300 (Sep-Oct) | 720 (Dec) |
| skin cancer check | 1,000 | £2.37 | 1,600 (May, Jul) | 720 (Nov-Dec) |
Costs per click are low: £1.79 on "checking moles", £2.37 on "skin cancer check". The most expensive search in the table is "hair loss dermatologist", at £7.05 (and "hair loss clinic" reaches £17.78, because hair transplant clinics bid on it). Google Ads rates competition as medium on the medical searches (checking moles, skin cancer check) and high on the aesthetic ones: chemical peel and Profhilo at 100 out of 100, lip filler at 94. Botox is the exception, at 1 out of 100, most likely because it's a prescription-only medicine that can't be advertised to the public, so very few advertisers bid on it. On aesthetics you also compete with beauty salons and with whoever advertises; on medical searches, much less.
You can publish the price, not the promise
Under rule 12.12 of the CAP Code, prescription-only medicines such as Botox cannot be advertised to the public. The ASA's advice on botulinum toxin spells out what that means for a clinic website: the treatment can be mentioned only as a possible option following a consultation, never on the homepage or in a sponsored ad, while price lists are allowed as long as they make no product claims and don't push people to choose on price. For doctors, the GMC guidance on cosmetic interventions adds that they must not use promotional tactics that could encourage an ill-considered decision, must not claim a procedure is risk-free and must not offer treatments as prizes.
In practice the price of mole mapping can be published, and with two of the four questions on the London results page being about cost, it's worth doing. What the rules rule out is promotion: guaranteed results, time-pressure offers, a sales tone. The ASA also treats before-and-after photos of Botox as an efficacy claim, so they're best left out. On the London results page, The Mole Clinic and Welbeck already show their mapping prices directly in the snippet.
The same care applies to cosmetic dermatology. Fillers, Profhilo and Botox, when a doctor performs them, are medical procedures: the pages should be written as information, not as a price list with a sales pitch. Non-medical beauty treatments work differently, as covered in our guide to SEO for beauty salons.
A procedure page that works in this sector says five things: what is done, how long it takes, how much it costs, who does it (with their GMC number and specialty), and where and when. None of these is promotional, and they're exactly what someone searching for a mole check wants to know before booking.
Recommended reading: how specialties, locations and services fit together for a practice with several doctors, in our guide to SEO for medical practices and clinics.
Frequently asked questions
About 33,100 times a month, with peaks of 40,500 in September-October and January-March, and "dermatologist near me" gets another 33,100 (DataForSEO, Google Ads, 2025-2026). City searches have volumes too: 9,900 for London, 2,400 for Manchester. Searches for mole mapping, mole checks and mole removal return no data.
By March. "Checking moles" climbs from spring and reaches 9,900 searches in May and June, against 4,400 in November and December, and a new page takes weeks to rank.
Yes. The ASA confirms that clinic websites can carry price lists, even for prescription-only treatments such as Botox, as long as they make no product claims and don't push people to choose on price. What is not allowed is promotion: advertising Botox to the public, guaranteed results, or tactics that rush a decision.
It depends on the search. On "dermatologist manchester" the three practices in the map had between 133 and 196 reviews in October 2026. On "mole mapping manchester" a single-procedure clinic with 47 reviews appeared in the AI Overview and in the knowledge panel.
You need both, for different jobs. In the UK the directories mostly sit in the "Find results on" carousel above the map, while on "dermatologist manchester" five of the ten organic results were consultants' own sites and on "mole mapping london" none were directories.
Where to start
On your phone, search "dermatologist" and then "mole mapping" followed by your town. On each of the two pages, count how many of the ten organic results are directories (Doctify, Top Doctors, WhatClinic, Bupa Finder, iWantGreatCare) and how many are the sites of practices and clinics, and note which ones show a price in the snippet. If the second search has two directories or fewer and nobody near you shows a price, there's room: a single mole mapping page with price, duration and the doctor's name, published by March, works for the whole peak season.
If you want to know which of your practice's procedures still have an open results page in your town, get in touch: we run that check as part of our SEO work for medical practices.
