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Monthly search queries · Source: Ahrefs
Monthly search queries · Source: Ahrefs
Analysis: Mogaji Digital Communications · mogaji.at
Whilst companies are publishing guidelines on gender-neutral language and some media outlets are reporting on the major societal shift, search data from Austria and Germany paint a different picture:
Search behaviour has hardly changed. The male job title dominates the internet, almost unchallenged.
An analysis of search data from 2004 to 2025 shows that Austrian and German users continue to predominantly use the masculine form when searching on Google for specialists, doctors and consultants, to an extent that largely runs counter to the public debate on gender.
The study, which analysed keyword data using the SEO tool Ahrefs and Google Trends, covers five occupational groups:
The evaluation was supplemented by a manual analysis of Google search results in incognito mode in order to rule out the effects of personalisation.
The discrepancy between male and female search patterns is consistent across all occupational groups examined, and in some cases extreme.
In Austria, the term ‘Rechtsanwalt’ is searched for about about 1,700 times. „Rechtsanwältin“ is searched for only 70 times.
In Germany, the ratio is similar: 19,000 to 900.
The gap is even wider when it comes to dentists: 12,000 search queries for ‘"Zahnarzt"’ in Austria, 300 for ‘Zahnärztin’. In Germany: 54,000 to 2,000.
The only slightly more balanced picture emerges when it comes to psychotherapists: 700 search queries per month in Austria for ‘Psychotherapeut’, 350 for ‘Psychotherapeutin’. A ratio of 2:1.
Monthly search queries in Austria · Source: Ahrefs (estimated figures)
Analysis: Mogaji Digital Communications · mogaji.at
In Germany, the difference is much greater: 12,000 to 1,800.
Monthly search queries in Germany · Source: Ahrefs (estimated figures)
Analysis: Mogaji Digital Communications · mogaji.at
In the case of tax advisers, the feminine form is almost entirely absent: 1,700 searches for ‘Steuerberater’ in Austria, 50 for ‘Steuerberaterin’. In Germany: 22,000 to 400.
Over the course of more than two decades, search behaviour has hardly changed at all. The male job title dominates in all the categories examined, consistently and with no discernible narrowing of the gap.
When it comes to ‘Rechtsanwalt’ versus ‘Rechtsanwältin’, the ratio in Austria today remains exactly the same as it was in 2004, at around 24:1. For ‘Zahnarzt’, the gap has actually widened, as the male form has been searched for significantly more often since 2010, whilst searches for the female form have remained flat.
The only exception is ‘Psychotherapeutin’. Here, the female form has been rising slowly but measurably since around 2006 and now accounts for almost half the search volume of the male form in Austria. This is the only area in which the data reveals a genuine shift in behaviour.
At the other end of the spectrum is ‘plastische Chirurgin’. In Germany, the relative search intensity for the feminine form has been almost entirely within the unmeasurable range since 2004. Google Trends shows a value of 0, which does not mean that absolutely no one is searching for it, but rather that the volume is so small in relation to the most popular search term that it is barely measurable.
There are two brief exceptions: a one-off spike in 2011, presumably triggered by a single event in the media, and a slight rise in 2025. This does not alter the basic conclusion.
Gender-neutral forms such as ‘Zahnarzt:innen’ or ‘Rechtsanwält*innen’’ are virtually never searched for. The search volume for all the variants tested is zero.
| Occupational group (example) | Search volume in Austria (m) | Search volume in Austria (f) |
|---|---|---|
| Zahnarzt / Zahnärztin | 54.000 | 2.000 |
| Rechtsanwalt / -anwältin | 1.700 | 70 |
| Steuerberater / -beraterin | 1.700 | 50 |
| Psychotherapeut / -in | 700 | 350 |
| Occupational group | Search volume in Germany (male) | Search volume in Germany (female) |
|---|---|---|
| Zahnarzt / Zahnärztin | 54.000 | 2.000 |
| Steuerberater / -in | 22.000 | 400 |
| Psychotherapeut / -in | 12.000 | 1.800 |
| Rechtsanwalt / -anwältin | 19.000 | 900 |
| Plastische/r Chirurg/in | 900 | 100 |
It is particularly revealing not only to see what people are searching for, but also what Google shows them.
When searching for ‘Rechtsanwalt’, the top 40 organic results consist exclusively of pages optimised for the masculine form. Not a single page optimised for ‘Rechtsanwältin’ appears in this visibility zone, neither in Austria nor in Germany. The same pattern applies to ‘Zahnarzt’, ‘Steuerberater’ and ‘Psychotherapeut’.
However, the mechanism also works the other way round: anyone searching for ‘Zahnärztin’ or ‘Rechtsanwältin’ is shown almost exclusively results for female-identified professionals. Google makes a clear distinction between the two sets of terms.
Search results for ‘Zahnarzt’
Search results for ‘Zahnärztin’
This has specific implications for anyone who wants to be found online: a female doctor who optimises her website solely for the term ‘Ärztin’ will be invisible to users searching for ‘Arzt’ – and that is the vast majority of searchers.
In Austria, there is an additional factor that further exacerbates this trend. When searching for ‘plastische Chirurgin’, Google often suggests searching for ‘plastische Chirurgie’ instead. This does not happen with ‘plastischer Chirurg’.
The reason lies in the search volume: with around 20 searches per month, Google simply has too little behavioural data to interpret the term with any certainty. The system learns what users really mean from millions of search queries.
If a term is rarely searched for and the few people who type it in frequently correct their search, Google concludes that it is likely to be a typo.
A separate analysis shows that gender-neutral forms such as ‘Zahnarzt:innen’ or ‘Rechtsanwält*innen’ are virtually non-existent in search queries. For all the variants examined, the search volume is zero or virtually zero. Google Trends also shows no discernible trend.
When people want to search in a neutral way, they do not sidestep the subject by using asterisks or colons, but by using completely different terms. They search for ‘dental practice’, ‘plastic surgery’ or ‘psychotherapy’ – in other words, for services and facilities rather than for individuals. This is the only recognisable form of neutral search behaviour.
The data suggest that the public debate on gender-neutral language has so far had little impact on people’s search behaviour. This does not necessarily mean that people reject the feminine form. It means that, when searching quickly, they default to the term they have learnt as the standard, and in all the cases examined, that is the masculine form.
For businesses and the self-employed who want to be visible online, this has direct financial implications. Female lawyers or dentists who rely solely on their professional title will miss out on the vast majority of relevant search queries.
At the same time, the low search volume for the feminine form is not always a disadvantage. Anyone who optimises their website for terms such as ‘Psychotherapeutin’ or ‘‘Rechtsanwältin’ will usually face only a fraction of the competition compared with the masculine form.
For smaller practices or individuals, this may mean ending up on page 1, where they would have to compete against significantly more numerous and often better-established rivals for search terms such as ‘Psychotherapeut’ or ‘Rechtsanwalt’.
If you want to appeal to both target groups, there are two ways to go about it. It is possible to optimise a single page for both formats.
The other option is to create two separate subpages with their own content – one for the male job title and one for the female job title. It involves more work, but if you want to cover both search queries, there’s really no way round it.
Gender-neutral language is currently transforming the media, corporate communications and political discourse. Yet there is no sign of this in the Google search behaviour of the German-speaking population.
The masculine job title is the standard that people use when searching, and Google reflects this by consistently sorting results by search term. Anyone who wants to be found online must take this into account, regardless of how they speak themselves.
Managing Director of Mogaji Digital Communications OG since 2021.
Digital Marketing Expert since 2019
