Data study · Wikipedia readership in the AI answer era

Wikipedia Pages on Dental, Cosmetic, Pet Care and Wellness Treatments Lost 48.9% of Their Readers Since 2022, and Mobile Readers Fell 55.3%

KGWritten by Kriszta GrenyoPublished October 20264 min read

116 English Wikipedia articles on services that local businesses sell, from root canals to Botox to dog training to chiropractic care, drew 9.2 million views in the past 12 months, down from 18.0 million in 2022. Mobile web views fell 55.3% and desktop views 34.8%.

Analysis of 116 English Wikipedia articles on dental, cosmetic, pet care and wellness treatments, 2022 vs October 2025 to September 2026 · Wikimedia pageviews via BigQuery, October 2026

Key findings

1
116 treatment and service articles drew 9.23 million views in the past 12 months, down 48.9% from 18.05 million in 2022; the median article fell 44.6%.
2
Mobile web views fell 55.3% while desktop views fell 34.8%, so desktop's share of reading rose from 31.2% to 39.8%.
3
Wellness and therapy pages fell the most, 52.1% (29 articles), followed by dental 47.0% (35), pet care 45.2% (26) and cosmetic and med spa 42.4% (26).
4
Only 7 of 116 articles (6.0%) gained readers; 43 (37.1%) lost more than half.
5
Root canal treatment fell 66.3%, Physical therapy 58.5%, Dog training 69.2% and Liposuction 59.7%, while Breast augmentation (down 0.7%), Pilates (down 0.6%) and Invisalign (down 0.6%) held steady.

Summary

Picture a dental office in Tampa that used to get new-patient calls from people who had just read up on root canals or implants on their phones, often late at night. Those readers have not stopped worrying about their teeth. Many may now ask an AI assistant what a root canal involves and how much it hurts, and only some of them go on to look for a dentist.

We tracked 116 Wikipedia articles on the treatments and services that local businesses sell: dental work, cosmetic and med spa treatments, pet care and veterinary services, and wellness services such as chiropractic, massage and physical therapy. Together they lost 48.9% of their readers between 2022 and the past 12 months.

The drop was steepest on phones. Mobile web views fell 55.3%, compared with 34.8% on desktop. That is the quick, worried search someone does before booking, and it may be the search AI answers now handle first.

What we measured

We built a seed list of treatment and service topics in four groups and matched each to its English Wikipedia title. We summed desktop and mobile web views and compared calendar year 2022 with October 2025 to September 2026.

We excluded pages with fewer than 1,000 views in 2022 or views that rose or fell more than fivefold, which removes pages that were renamed or merged. We also left out general animal pages and weight-loss drug pages, which are driven by unrelated interest.

Every service group lost more than 40% of its readers

-48.9%change in views for 116 treatment and service articles, 2022 vs past 12 months

Change by service group:

Change in Wikipedia views by service group, 2022 vs Oct 2025 to Sep 2026

2022 viewsPast 12 months

Wellness and therapy

9,978,485

4,783,099

Dental

3,182,646

1,688,361

Pet care and veterinary

2,214,639

1,214,120

Cosmetic and med spa

2,672,862

1,540,211

All services

18,048,632

9,225,791

% change

Service group	Articles (N)	2022 views	Past 12 months	% change	Median article change	Gained
Wellness and therapy	29	9,978,485	4,783,099	-52.1	-50.1	0
Dental	35	3,182,646	1,688,361	-47	-45.6	1
Pet care and veterinary	26	2,214,639	1,214,120	-45.2	-42.7	4
Cosmetic and med spa	26	2,672,862	1,540,211	-42.4	-38	2
All services	116	18,048,632	9,225,791	-48.9	-44.6	7

Source: aisearchoptimization.net analysis of 116 English Wikipedia articles on dental, cosmetic, pet care and wellness treatments, 2022 vs October 2025 to September 2026 · Wikimedia pageviews via BigQuery, October 2026

No wellness or therapy page gained readers. Cosmetic treatments held up best, perhaps because people considering an elective procedure still read widely before booking.

Phone readers left much faster than desktop readers

-55.3%change in mobile web views of treatment and service pages

Desktop vs mobile web change by group:

Desktop and mobile web change by service group, 2022 vs past 12 months

Service group	Desktop change	Mobile web change	Desktop share 2022	Desktop share past 12 months
Wellness and therapy	-36.7%	-59.3%	32.0%	42.2%
Dental	-34.5%	-53.0%	32.6%	40.3%
Pet care and veterinary	-37.4%	-48.7%	31.0%	35.4%
Cosmetic and med spa	-23.6%	-49.1%	26.5%	35.2%
All services	-34.8%	-55.3%	31.2%	39.8%

In every group, mobile fell further than desktop. These topics are mostly read on phones, and phones may be where people now ask a voice or chat assistant a quick question instead of opening a page.

Most of the drop came in 2025 and 2026

51.1%past-12-month views as a share of 2022 views

Views held close to 2022 levels for two years, then fell.

Treatment and service article views, indexed to 2022 = 100

All servicesDentalCosmetic and med spaPet care

Index

Period	All services	Dental	Cosmetic and med spa	Pet care	Wellness and therapy
2022	100	100	100	100	100
2023	96.4	96	89.3	111	95.2
2024	98.3	100.6	88.2	107.8	98.2
2025	69	75.2	70.4	81.9	63.8
Oct 2025 to Sep 2026	51.1	53	57.6	54.8	47.9

Dental pages were at 100.6% of their 2022 level in 2024 and fell to 53.0% in the past 12 months. Among larger pages, Dentures fell 66.1%, Personal trainer 70.5% and Psychotherapy 59.2%, while Clicker training rose 131.5% and Spaying rose 8.2%.

What this means

For dentists, med spas, vets, groomers, chiropractors and therapists, the early research a customer does on their phone appears to be moving into AI answers. People still need the service, but the visit to a page that explains it, and the click to your site that often followed, happens less often. For a practice, SEO for AI search is about being the name that answer suggests when the person is ready to book.

Make sure that when someone asks an AI assistant about a treatment near them, your business is the one named. That means clear service pages with prices or price ranges, what to expect, your location and hours, insurance or payment options, and real reviews. To see how AI tools describe your practice today, request a free AI visibility audit; our AI search optimization services then keep those service details current from month to month.

Limits

Wikimedia pageview counts include some automated traffic that its filters do not catch, and Wikimedia changed how it detects bots in 2025, which lowers counted views from that point on. Some of the change in any period may reflect better bot filtering rather than fewer human readers.

We count views of titles that had at least 5 views in a given month on a given site, which drops a very small tail of rarely read pages.

The seed list was built by hand and covers common treatments and services, not all of them.

A few topics mix service interest with general interest (for example Yoga or Sauna).

We report reading trends only and make no claims about any treatment or provider.

Embed this research

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<iframe src="https://aisearchoptimization.net/embed/data-studies/local-service-treatment-pages-mobile-decline" title="Treatment Pages Lost 55.3% of Mobile Wikipedia Readers" width="100%" height="720" style="border:0" loading="lazy"></iframe>

Cite this study

APA

Grenyo, K. (2026). Treatment Pages Lost 55.3% of Mobile Wikipedia Readers. AI Search Optimization. https://aisearchoptimization.net/resources/data-studies/local-service-treatment-pages-mobile-decline

Plain link

Treatment Pages Lost 55.3% of Mobile Wikipedia Readers - AI Search Optimization - https://aisearchoptimization.net/resources/data-studies/local-service-treatment-pages-mobile-decline

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Frequently asked questions

Are fewer people researching dental and cosmetic treatments online?

On Wikipedia, yes. Dental treatment pages fell 47.0% and cosmetic and med spa pages fell 42.4% between 2022 and the past 12 months.

Is the drop bigger on mobile?

Yes. Mobile web views of 116 treatment and service pages fell 55.3%, while desktop views fell 34.8%.

Which local service topics lost the most readers?

Wellness and therapy pages fell 52.1% across 29 articles, and none of them gained readers. Physical therapy fell 58.5% and Psychotherapy 59.2%.

Did any treatment pages hold steady?

A few. Breast augmentation fell 0.7%, Pilates 0.6% and Invisalign 0.6%, while Clicker training rose 131.5%. Only 7 of 116 pages gained readers.

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