The way patients find doctors has fundamentally changed. ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews now answer health questions directly—naming only 3-5 providers instead of showing a page of options. Gartner predicts traditional search will drop 25% by year's end.
What Still Works:
Traditional SEO remains essential—70% of patients still search locally. Google Business Profile optimization, reviews, and healthcare directory citations power both Map Pack rankings AND feed the data AI systems cite. Strong E-E-A-T signals serve double duty: they rank in Google and get extracted by AI.
