What’s the Deal With AI Search Results?
The rules of search engine optimization (SEO) are changing as companies like Google and Microsoft rely more and more on AI to generate search results and people become more accustomed to using tools like ChatGPT, Copilot, and Gemini to get information. Business owners — including dentists — wanting to strengthen or simply maintain their online presence and rank highly in local search results now need to consider how AI is transforming the digital landscape.
AI SEO in a Nutshell
As a digital marketing agency, one of our jobs is to create online content for our clients with SEO in mind. The fundamentals of SEO — strong content, authority, and local credibility — have not changed. AI simply adds a layer on top of that.
In essence, AI search blends regular search engine results with conversational answers. For example, if a practice’s website is structured correctly and already ranks well in search results, it will continue to do so, even with the addition of an AI summary at the top of the page.
For our clients, we’re not trying to chase AI placement. Our goal is to stick to the central tenets of SEO so AI will naturally pull information from our clients’ websites and other digital channels. Additionally, local SEO is still the top priority, which includes ensuring that the Google Business Profile should be complete, with current contact information. Local pages and reviews continue to drive SEO as well.
What Changes with AI SEO?
With the emergence of AI SEO, we have made some changes to take full advantage of AI searches. We’ve started combining conventional SEO principles with newer strategies that align with how AI searches for content. However, most of what we do for our clients is not changing because the fundamentals of digital marketing remain the same.
The content we produce will remain consistent, but with a few enhancements for AI purposes. In other words, we are still writing content that answers common questions, but we are structuring it so AI tools like ChatGPT and Gemini can easily understand and reference it. Our content will continue to focus on clear, helpful information, and the formatting will make it easy for AI-powered search engines to determine the subject. When we create long-form content, like articles and blogs, we already break it up into sections that are easy to scan and understand at a glance. Not only does this help people searching for specific information, but it also makes that information easy for AI tools to locate.
We will also continue to create and encourage other forms of digital content, including photos, videos, patient testimonials, and online reviews, which give search engines and AI authentic trust signals. Authoritative content, especially FAQs and topical blogs, is important because it demonstrates expertise that AI and search engines will pick up on.
The thing to keep in mind is that AI-powered search still relies on human-created expertise. We make sure the online content we create for our clients is timely, relevant, and answers real patient questions, so it is just as likely to appear in a Gemini blurb as in the Google search results.
