This blog is part four of a four-part series. Check out part three to learn about the AI data pipeline.
In our previous posts, we explored the “invisible engine” of centralized provider and location data, and then delved into the technical pipeline that funnels this information to AI models. Now, it’s time to bring it all together with actionable strategies. This isn’t just about traditional SEO anymore; it’s about optimizing your entire digital presence for AI-driven experiences, a new imperative called Generative Experience Optimization (GEO).
When a patient seeks local healthcare, AI platforms employ distinct yet interconnected mechanisms to find and present answers. Understanding these differences is key to optimizing your presence:
- Google AI Overviews & AI Mode: Google’s AI (powered by Gemini) directly synthesizes information from its vast web index, including highly structured data from your website (via Schema Markup) and directly from your Google Business Profiles. It uses this to generate concise summaries, knowledge panels, AI conversations, and local map packs.
- Bing / ChatGPT: ChatGPT, integrated into Bing as Copilot, sends queries to Bing’s real-time search index. It then collects information from the top 20-30 organic search results (websites that rank well on Bing) and applies its own algorithms to synthesize a natural, conversational answer.
- Perplexity.ai & Other Generative AIs: These platforms generally operate by searching the web and synthesizing information from various authoritative online sources they deem relevant, often prioritizing well-structured and highly credible content from the top search results of underlying engines.
Despite their varied approaches, a common thread emerges: your web content, structured data, and authoritative local listings are what fuel them all. Your generative experience optimization strategy must ensure your information is so robust and well-optimized that it appears within these critical sources, regardless of the AI accessing it.
Actionable Strategies for AI Local Search Optimization
To ensure your health system’s providers and locations appear prominently in the changing landscape of AI-powered search, a multi-faceted approach focusing on foundational data and optimization is essential.
- Fortify Your Website as AI’s Primary Source
Your health system’s website is the single most important asset for AI tools. Agents frequently reference business websites when they appear in search results.
- Action: Implement comprehensive structured data using Schema.org markup, including LocalBusiness, Organization, Physician, FAQ, and hasOffer/availability schema where applicable. This provides explicit signals to all AI models, making your address, hours, contact info, services, and testimonials easily digestible.
- Action: Explicitly include and tag all key business details: address, hours, phone number, services, and customer testimonials. Pages with rich metadata are far more likely to be picked up and cited by any AI.
- Action: Craft human-friendly content that also reinforces local relevance. Use neighborhood names, landmarks, and locally relevant language to benefit both traditional SEO and the AI’s understanding of your local presence.
- Optimize Your Google Business Profile & Bing Places Listing
These platforms are direct feeds for Google’s AI and critical influencers for Bing/ChatGPT.
- Action: Leverage a centralized platform to claim, verify, and meticulously update your Google Business Profile, Bing Places for Business, and other critical local listings (e.g., Apple Maps). This ensures your single source of truth for provider and location data is accurately reflected across all major search platforms, feeding AI with consistent, real-time, and verified information directly. Kyruus Health utilizes our centralized provider and location data management system to ensure accuracy across all platforms. This system facilitates real-time updates, handling the process on your behalf.
- Leverage Reputable Review Platforms for AI-Ready Social Proof
Online reviews serve as a powerful signal for AI platforms in assessing quality and sentiment. AI models digest structured review data (average rating, review count, keywords from comments). In healthcare, reviews drive action with about 94% of patients today using online reviews to evaluate providers.
- Action: Actively encourage genuine, positive, and recent reviews on prominent platforms like Google and Healthgrades.
- Action: Proactively respond to all reviews (positive and negative) to demonstrate engagement and build social proof, which AI models use to assess sentiment and credibility. Kyruus Health provides a centralized platform for managing AI reviews and responses, significantly reducing the workload for your teams. Through close collaboration, Kyruus Health can also manage these responses, ensuring brand consistency and quick turnaround.
- Cultivate Local Authority Through Directories & Media Mentions
AI platforms value mentions and backlinks from authoritative local sources as signals of legitimacy and relevance.
- Action: Seek opportunities to earn links and mentions from trusted local directories (e.g., Chamber of Commerce), reputable local media, and industry-specific health directories.
- Action: Ensure your health system’s information is consistent across all local and niche listings.
- Champion NAP Consistency Across All Digital Footprints
This is a foundational principle for both search engines and AI platforms. Any discrepancy in NAP (Name, Address, Phone number) data across your website, local listings, and social profiles can confuse them, leading to your business being overlooked or misrepresented.
- Action: Implement rigorous processes to ensure consistent, accurate NAP data across every single online profile your health system maintains. From your website to your social profiles to your Bing Places listing, everything should match.
- Transform Content for Conversational AI
The way people search with AI is fundamentally different; they ask full, conversational questions.
- Action: Adapt your content strategy to this conversational style. Create robust FAQ sections with local queries (e.g., “What are the urgent care wait times in Downtown Seattle?”).
- Action: Publish long-form blog content and comprehensive service pages that directly anticipate and answer natural language user queries (e.g., “How to Choose a Pediatric Allergist in Your Neighborhood”). Use structured headings and clear answers.
- Action: Incorporate geo-specific keywords and location-based schema markup within content to reinforce regional presence for AI.
- Action: Regularly monitor top search results on Google and Bing for your key terms and conversational queries to understand what content AI is likely to see and cite, and adjust your strategy to compete effectively.
This means that existing, well-executed SEO efforts are not obsolete; they are amplified for AI visibility. Health systems should view their overall digital marketing and SEO investments as a comprehensive strategy that benefits both human and AI-driven search, rather than treating generative experience optimization as a separate, niche, or conflicting discipline. A strong, well-maintained digital presence is universally beneficial and necessary for securing local patient acquisition in the AI era.