I recently read an Inc. Magazine article in which Google senior vice president of knowledge and information Nick Fox shared his best practices for appearing in AI-driven search results. What stood out most was how closely his guidance aligned with what we’ve observed firsthand while working with many of the largest health systems in the country. As AI increasingly becomes the front door to healthcare discovery, Fox’s perspective reinforces a reassuring truth: the fundamentals still matter.
At the same time, it highlights two important shifts healthcare marketers must understand — first, the growing value of user-generated content on independent websites, and second, the fact that while search engines tend to reward uniqueness, answer engines increasingly reward consensus.
What’s the Difference Between SEO and AEO?
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) refers to the practice of optimizing digital content so it ranks highly in traditional search engine results pages. Answer Engine Optimization (AEO), by contrast, focuses on ensuring that AI-powered answer engines — such as Google Gemini, ChatGPT, Perplexity and Claude — accurately understand, trust, and reference your organization when responding directly to user questions.
As more consumers shift their behavior from browsing links to asking questions, optimizing for AI search has become one of the most pressing issues facing chief marketing officers this year. As three-time Inc. 5000 honoree Orbit Media Studios chief marketing officer Andy Crestodina told Inc. last month, “Marketers are losing their minds because organic traffic from search is down.”
Yet despite the anxiety, the underlying playbook has not fundamentally changed.
SEO and AEO Share Many of the Same Best Practices
“The way to optimize, to do well in Google’s AI experiences, is very similar — I would say the same — as how to perform well in traditional search,” said Nick Fox, senior vice president of knowledge and information at Google, during a recent episode of the “AI Inside” podcast with Jeff Jarvis and Jason Howell. “It really does come down to: Build a great site. Build great content. The way we put it is: Build for users. Build what you would want to read.”
In other words, organizations that invested early in clear, credible, user-first content are not starting from zero in the AI era. Strong fundamentals — accurate information, helpful answers, consistent provider data across your website and trusted third-party sites, and ensuring your site is technically sound — remain the foundation for visibility, whether the interface is a list of blue links or a synthesized AI response.
Where AEO Begins to Diverge: Consensus Over Uniqueness
One important distinction, however, is worth noting. Traditional search engines tend to reward uniqueness — original perspectives, differentiated content, and novel takes. Answer engines, on the other hand, increasingly reward consensus.
When AI systems generate answers, they are synthesizing information across many sources and prioritizing facts, claims, and sentiment that are consistently validated across the open web. Increasingly, appearing in AI answers requires not just publishing content on your own site, but ensuring that the key information is corroborated across multiple reputable and independent sources.
This is especially true in healthcare, where trust, credibility, and real-world experience heavily influence how AI models respond to questions like:
- “Is this hospital good for orthopedic surgery?”
- “Which doctors have the best patient reviews?”
- “Who should I trust for urgent care near me?”
Keys To Success Include User-Generated Content and Independent Validation
Fox also emphasized the importance of incorporating “authentic, user-generated content” for corroboration. “It’s not AI or the web,” he said. “It’s actually the two of those coming together in a coherent way. That is where the magic is.”
Verified patient reviews are one of the strongest forms of real-world validation available to healthcare organizations. They reflect lived experience, provide independent confirmation of quality and service, and offer AI systems a trustworthy signal that extends beyond marketing claims.
Low-Risk AI Strategies to Increase AI Visibility
Publishing verified patient reviews on your website and independent Ratings.MD listings creates an authoritative trust signal for AI models and provides independent validation of the experiences patients have with your organization.
Lastly, one emerging trend that appears to be delivering significant value is using AI to distill thousands of verified patient reviews into clear, credible summaries that highlight satisfaction trends, common themes, and frequently mentioned conditions and procedures.
Just like Amazon product summaries, RatingsMD AI Overviews distill your published patient comments into clear, credible insights — making it easier for both patients and AI systems to recognize what sets your providers and urgent care clinics apart. Benefits include:
- Boost AI Visibility – Significantly increase the chances your reviews are cited in AI answers.
- Own the Narrative – Shape how your system is presented when patients ask AI who to trust.
- Secure + Compliant – Only summarizes reviews you’ve already published. No PHI. No added risk.
- Human Verified – All AI Overviews are reviewed and approved by authorized users before publication.
RatingsMD is the only vendor that can automatically generate AI Overviews at scale — for all providers, locations, specialties, and departments — and effortlessly publish them to our independent listings and your website.
If you’d like to understand how easily this can be deployed across your organization (or for a single service line) we’d welcome the opportunity to schedule a 30-minute conversation to walk through our unique capabilities in more detail.