Google and Bing Just Told Us How AI Search Works for Clinics

Google and Microsoft Bing have been sharing more details about how AI-powered search works, and the advice may surprise you. Despite all the hype around AI, the fundamentals of strong local SEO still matter.

In this episode, you'll learn what Google and Bing are saying about AI search, how Google Business Profiles, websites, reviews, social media, and authority-building influence visibility, and what clinics should focus on right now to improve rankings in Google Search, Google Maps, ChatGPT, Perplexity, and other AI-powered platforms.

If you're wondering how AI is changing SEO for chiropractors, physical therapists, acupuncturists, med spas, and other healthcare businesses, this episode will help you separate fact from fiction and focus on the strategies that are actually moving the needle.

Episode webpage: https://propelyourcompany.com/how-ai-search-works-for-clinics/

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Transcript

Why AI Search Feels Confusing

Speaker 0:01

Google and Bing have been unusually clear lately about how AI-powered search works, and what businesses and clinics need to do if they want to stay visible. The good news is that most clinics do not need to throw away their SEO strategy and start all over again. What they need to do is modify it. The bad news is that some of the tactics that worked five, 10 years ago are becoming less important, while other signals are becoming more valuable. In this episode, we'll break down what Google and Bing are telling us about AI search, local SEO, Google Business profiles, websites, reviews, social media, and authority building. You'll learn what clinics should focus on right now to improve visibility in traditional search, Google Maps, and AI-generated answers. If you're wondering how AI is changing SEO for chiropractors, physical therapists, acupuncturists, med spas, and other healthcare businesses, this episode will help you separate hype from reality. Welcome back to the Clinic Marketing Podcast. I'm your host, Darcy Sullivan, with Propel Marketing Design. And today, we're talking about something that's creating a lot of confusion for clinic owners right now, and I know this to be true because I speak to them on a daily basis, and they're asking questions like, "What content do I need on my website? I heard that if you do this one thing, everything will fall in place for AI," and, "Should I be paying somebody to get all these links to my website?" And all these other questions, "Should I focus on ChatGPT and should have-- instead of Google?" Or, "How do I get my clinic to show up in these AI search results?" And the interesting thing is, is that no longer is it a time of guess. Right now is a time of putting the right plan into action, because Google and Microsoft Bing have been sharing more information about how AI-powered searches work and what businesses should be doing to improve their visibility. And when you look at their recommendations, something surprising happens. Most of the fundamentals of good, solid SEO haven't changed, and we've been talking about this a lot lately because I think people forget how important the solid foundation for SEO is. In fact, AI is rewarding many of the same things that strong local SEO has rewarded for years. The difference is that AI can now pull information from many more places and connect many more dots than it could ever do before, and faster than it could ever do before. So let's talk about what this means for your clinic. One of the biggest changes that's happening right now is that AI systems are looking for confirmation. Years ago, your website might have been the primary source of information about your business, and then we saw this start to change. We saw this start to change, you know, ten-plus years ago when we started to talk about NAP, name,

What Google And Bing Confirm

Speaker 3:40

address, and phone number, and how you wanted it consistent and congruent throughout all of your listings online. That hasn't changed. What's changed is technology. Today, AI wants to see that same information showing a- across multiple trusted sources. It's just that now AI can scan all this information so much quicker than it could before, gather it, and determine what it thinks about your business in a quick way, right? This includes your website, your Google Business Profile listing, your Apple Business Connect listing, your Bing Places listing, health directories, reviews, social media profiles, industry organizations, your mentions

AI Looks For Consistent Proof

Speaker 4:28

within news and podcast appearances. All of this can go into play. Think about it this way. If your website says that you're the leading shockwave therapy provider in your area, AI does not automatically just believe that claim. But if your website says it, if your Google reviews mention it, if your social media discusses it, if patients talk about it online, and other trusted websites reference it, now AI has confidence in that information. The goal isn't always publishing content anymore, although publishing content is still extremely important But in addition to publishing really great content, the goal is also to create consistency across the web. What does this mean? Well, it means that your Google Business Profile matters more than ever. And even though we've said this before and before and before, it continues to grow, especially if you are a local business, which most of the people listening here are local businesses. And if you wanna show up in your local rankings, you have to pay attention to your Google Business Profile listing. This hasn't changed, but in fact, it's just continuing to become more important. Google is increasingly using Google Business Profile information to understand who you are, what your services offer, what services you offer, and where you should appear in these local searches. This means that your clinic should regularly review your business categories, your services, your products, your photos, your reviews, your business description, and your hours. One thing I've noticed recently is that Google continues to pull information from more places and display it directly in your Google profile. In fact,

Google Business Profile Matters More

Speaker 6:37

we're gonna do a full episode on this, I believe coming up, or hone in more on it on social media's role in your Google Business Profile listing and overall how it plays a role in SEO, but we're gonna talk about it a little bit today. Your Google Business Profile listing is becoming more of a business knowledge center than just a map listing. And so if your information is inaccurate, incomplete, you're making it harder for both Google and AI systems to understand your clinic And one of the big shifts that we're seeing here is how this relates to social media. We're seeing Google Business Profile pull in some of that social media information from your other resources. Historically, social media didn't directly impact local SEO rankings very much. Slightly, it did. Very slightly. But now we're seeing Google pull social media content into Google Business Profiles and Search Experience. We're also seeing AI systems use social content as another source of business information. That means your social media isn't just for engagement anymore. It's becoming another place where search engines and AI tools learn about your business. This does not mean that you need to be a full-time influencer. This does not mean that your website is any less important than it was before when it comes to SEO. It's still so important. But we have to lean into the fact that we need to participate in social media So on social media, you should be sharing clinic updates, information about your services. Sometimes I think people overlook this one because they're busy.

Social Media As A Search Source

Speaker 8:35

For example, clinics, let's say a chiropractic clinic, they're busy showcasing specific stretches you can do for this or for that, or th- they're trying to add so much value that they forget that they need to pepper in information about their services. We wanna see patient education, community involvement, team highlights, and frequently asked questions that you're answering them. The more consistently you talk about what you do, the easier it becomes for AI systems to connect with your clinics on those topics. So let me repeat. I am not asking you to become a social media manager. I am not asking you to post to social media five times a day. I'm asking you to make sure, one, that all of your social profiles are accurate, that you are going in and checking on your Google Business Profile listing, and that you are participating on social media in a way that truly aligns with the products and the services that your clinic offers. And reviews have expanded beyond rankings. Reviews have always mattered. That's nothing new. But AI is changing why they matter. In the past, we mostly focused on reviews as a ranking factor, right? You wanted to aim for 100 reviews, 200 reviews, 300 reviews, 400 reviews. The more positive reviews, the better. But now we have to take into account the words that are used in those reviews. So today, reviews also help AI understand your expertise. With dozens of patients mentioning, and we'll go back to that example before, maybe their shockwave experience, that's gonna position you more as a shockwave leader If dozens of patients are mentioning the specific conditions that they're coming in with, the specific services that you offer, these words become signals. And we would much prefer for somebody to leave a review, for example, if you're a chiropractor that's mentioning chiropractic care, chiropractic adjustment, neck pain, sciatica. If you did a shockwave treatment, shockwave

Reviews That Explain Your Expertise

Speaker 11:01

therapy, sports injuries, prenatal care, rehabilitation. Again, these words become signals, and it's a lot clearer to Google and AI systems what you offer when those words are being used other than just nice friendly staff, clean environment. See how different of a review that is. AI can identify these patterns. One of AI's core values is looking at tons of data points and picking out patterns. So one of the key words here that I want you to focus on and think about when it comes to AI is just that, patterns. Patterns, patterns, patterns. If your social media suggests that you are the leader in your area for shockwave, if your website suggests you are the leader in your area for shockwave, if your reviews come across positioning you as a leader for shockwave, you are gonna appear not only in traditional local SEO, but also AI as leader in shockwave. And I'm sorry if you have no idea what shockwave is because it doesn't relate to your clinic. That's fine. You can fill in the blank for what you want to be known for. We want your business to become famous, and by doing this, your business can become famous. So yes, your website still matters. Let's address that. I will repeat that over and over and over again. Your website is your hub, your informational hub, and it matters more than ever. Just like continue to say, your Google Business profile matters more than ever. Your website matters more than ever. All of these things that were core in traditional SEO, local SEO over the past years, they're still so important. And what's changed though is the type of content We saw, I guess starting around 2020 when lockdown happened and all of a sudden AI started to really come into play and people were like, "Ooh, ChatGPT. I can get ChatGPT to do all of this for me." Well, you could, but what we saw is that a lot of people that used all that generic content that ChatGPT, Grok, and those other resources spit out, it fell flat. It might have been like, ooh, they got a little boost for

Website Content That Avoids Generic

Speaker 13:39

a couple minutes, but then boom, they were back down. And we're seeing this continue because generic content does not add value. Instead, Google and Bing continue to emphasize helpful, experience-based content. For clinics, that means creating pages that answer real patients' questions. And I think that people get a little confused on that one because they're like, "Okay, I'll just go make a frequently asked questions page." And while that does work, we also wanna focus on those core pages that we talk about time and time again, having strong service pages. So your specific services pages, and we'll go back to that shockwave example. If you offer shockwave therapy, you should have a really strong shockwave page. It should not look like every single other shockwave page that you see out there. It should not just be a regurgitation of the resources that were supplied by the device when you purchased it. This goes for any device that you purchase or any modality that you start to offer. And if you receive collateral from that company that highlights that service, don't just copy and paste that onto your website. No, no, no. And don't just go to AI to ask it to write content about it. No, no, no. We want your website to showcase your specific experience and authority. The clinics that will perform the best in AI searches usually are the same clinics that have invested in quality websites that do not look cookie cutter and that provide useful content and clear messaging Authority. Authority is another important key takeaway that's becoming increasingly important. And you know, for years we've talked about authority, and some businesses have focused on publishing massive amounts of content. And today, one highly trusted source can be more valuable than dozens of mediocre pieces of content. Now, that does not mean that I want you to take all year to work on one piece of content, but it does mean that you wanna go out and build authority. And how do you build authority? Well, I wanna give you some examples of ways you can build authority that are outside of your website. So in the realm of SEO, we have on-page SEO. These are actions that take place on your website to help you improve your overall online appearance, right? And then we have off-page SEO. These are actions that you take outside of your website. And I want

Real Authority Beyond Your Website

Speaker 16:49

you to think about ways that you can also build authority outside of your website. This could be speaking on a podcast, being interviewed by local media, writing guest articles, participating in community events, earning mentions from local organizations, or publishing original insights. Now, let's take a, a step back, because I think that these all sound great, right? You're like, "Oh, that would be great if I could do those things." But I wanna make sure that they're also tied to profitability. So if there's a community event that you can participate in that's gonna get you a backlink to your website and also is going to help you target your ideal patients, yes, yes, and yes, say yes to it. If you have the opportunity to speak on a podcast that's going to help your authority and help you target your target audience, yes, yes, yes, say yes to it. If you can get interviewed by local media and it's going to help you drive more traffic to your website and increase your overall authority and visibility, then yes. But if you're going on a podcast to speak about something that isn't business related or that isn't going to help you target your audience and isn't going to be aligned with that authority that you're trying to attract, then it's okay to say no, right? Same goes with participating in community events. They should be aligned with your target audience AI systems are consistently trying to determine who is credible, and authority signals like these help answer that question. But let's just say they didn't for a second, right? Let's just say being interviewed by local media didn't help with AI, but it did bring in new patients. It would be worth it. If writing an article for someone helped you draw in new patients, even though it didn't boost your AI search ability, would it be worth it? Heck yeah. So we wanna look at things overall. We talked about social media, right? Maybe you do a post on social media about Shockwave, right? Maybe it doesn't help with your AI, even though it should, and it will, but it would still generate more interest in your services and hopefully bring in new patients. This is why we like to center SEO at the core of your marketing plan, because when SEO is done correctly, it works well with other marketing efforts, right? So what should clinics focus on right now based on what we're hearing from Google and Bing? Well, you should absolutely strengthen your Google Business Profile listing. You should keep your business information consistent everywhere, and this goes back to your NAP, your name, your address, and phone number. But again, it goes beyond that. It goes into your branding. It goes into your services. It goes into the modalities. It goes into the conditions that you treat. You should collect detailed patient reviews, not just good old five-star reviews, but detailed reviews. You should create helpful services pages and conditions pages that go into detail. You should stay active on social media without feeling like it's a full-time job. You should build authority through partnerships and community involvement. Earn mentions and links from trusted websites, so that is not going out and talking to some shady SEO company that tells you that they can get you all these backlinks.

A Practical AI Visibility Checklist

Speaker 20:55

And you should continue investing in local SEO fundamentals. Notice what's not on that list. There's no secret AI tricks, there's no magic prompts, and there's no shortcuts. The clinics winning in AI search are usually the clinics that have built a strong digital foundation. We would love to help you on your way with this. If you haven't already, please be sure to visit propelyourcompany.com. There, you can sign up for a free training that we're hosting that will help you and go into more detail about how to improve your online presence. You can book a discovery call. You can book a Google Business Profile audit. You can find tons of amazing resources. The biggest mistake I see clinic owners making right now is chasing every new AI trend while ignoring fundamentals. Google and Bing are essentially telling us the same thing Make it easy to understand who you are, what you do, where you're located, and why patients trust you. When your website, Google Business Profile listing, reviews, social media, and online mentions all tell the same story, AI becomes much more confident recommending your clinic. The future of SEO isn't about gaming algorithms, and for clinics that focus

Stop Trend Chasing And Get Help

Speaker 22:26

on that, the opportunities ahead are enormous. Again, if you'd like help improving your clinic's visibility in Google Search, Google Maps, and AI-powered searches, visit propelyourcompany.com and schedule a discovery call. We'd love to help you identify opportunities and create a plan for improving your online visibility.