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If you’re new to the whole Artificial Intelligence Optimization concept, you’re certainly not alone. We’ve been focusing on it for several months now and by and large, our clients are up to speed about the importance of influencing how their brand and reputation is showcased in AI tools like Gemini and ChatGPT. But many medical practices are still in the dark. Before diving into some specifics about what we are doing to help with AI optimization, you may want to read our AI optimization overview for medical practices and check out our blog post from May about 7 Ways to Optimize Your Brand in AI.
With that background out of the way, let’s dive into some of the tactics that currently can be used to influence AI answers. How do we know this? Simple: we asked the tools themselves what they are relying on when formulating query responses. And given how quickly the landscape is changing, always keep in mind that tactics we discuss now are ripe to change even within the next 6 month timeframe. Still, we think AI optimization is such an important topic and could be such an advantage for early adopters that we want to share a look under the hood at what can be done now to optimize your practice in AI answers.
Expanded Website Schema Markup (Structured Data)
Think of schema as the cliff notes version of your site. They provide bots that crawl the site with guidance on what information is on each page and help to structure that data in a way that’s easily categorizeable and comprehensible for AI tools. Schema markup identifies content related to procedures, pricing, FAQs, and much more.
Why This Works
- Helps AI tools clearly understand services, pricing, and FAQs
- Improves eligibility for rich snippets to show in Google/Gemini results
- Boosts trust and accuracy in AI-generated answers
Increased High-Quality Inbound Links
Google’s search algorithm relies heavily on the model of sites linking to other sites as a signal of trust and authority. So far at least, so do most AI tools. But the key difference we have seen is in terms of quality, where links from more trustworthy and influential sources play an outsized role in AI recommendations.
Why This Works
- Backlinks remain a top ranking factor and signal credibility to search engines and AI
- Guest posts, thought leadership articles, and patient reviews create trusted content loops
Updated Doctor Profile Page
A surgeon’s profile on their website is (or at least should be) the most accurate, comprehensive, and trustworthy place to find their professional information. By expanding these pages regularly with richer content, recent patient reviews, and more, we are able to better position each surgeon to earn AI mentions.
Why This Works
- Strengthens expertise, authority, and trust signals
- Structured bio and reviews make it easier for AI to surface accurate info
- Recent media and credentials reduce risk of incomplete or inaccurate results
Optimized Google Business Profile
A practice’s Google Business Profile contains key information about the office, and is relied on by users as well as AI tools as a single source of truth. Optimizing the profile includes work such as adding keyword-rich services and product listings, tagging photos and videos of the office, and regularly uploading new content to the profile, including before and afters and FAQs.
Why This Works
- Gemini pulls directly from the Google Business Profile
- Regular updates (posts, FAQs, photos) create fresh, keyword-rich content for AI tool reference
- Reviews and activity show responsiveness and relevance (“buzz”)
Enhanced Local Listings
While the Google Business Profile is a prominent place for information about your practice, it is by no means the only area to find this information on the web. AI tools that compete with Google have an incentive to source information more widely, meaning that other local listing and directory sites also need to be updated with keyword-rich services, business descriptions, keyword-tagged photos and more.
Why This Works
- Consistent info across directories reinforces trust and accuracy
- Keyword-rich services and descriptions influence location-based answers in AI
- Photos/videos strengthen relevance and can surface in AI answers
Like we said at the start of this post, these are just a few of the tactics we are using right now to help our clients have the best possible positive impressions in AI engines. They are very likely not going to be the key tactics in a year’s time, and as always our focus is on determining what works best, staying current on the latest research and recommendations, and guiding our clients in ways that will keep them competitive as online users migrate to better and better tools to find the medical services they want and need.
