Patient Engine @GetPatEngine

Practice owners: Google is rolling out new Business Profile performance reports to some accounts. When yours updates, skip the views number. Look at calls, direction requests and booking clicks. Those are patients raising their hand. Who in your office checks that every month? Or does nobody?

BrightLocal ran 200,000 local searches through ChatGPT, Google AI Mode and AI Overviews. Google Maps named a tracked business in 66% of searches. The AI tools named one only 32 to 38% of the time. Ranking on Maps doesn't mean AI recommends you. Here's the part practices should care about: business websites made up 93% of the unique sites AI pulled from. Your treatment pages matter. Each one should say what you treat, where you are, and how to book. Want to see what AI says about your practice? DM me for a free AI visibility assessment.

I changed the question I ask when I check a practice. It used to be: does ChatGPT name you? Now it's: where does it stop naming you? Most practices show up fine in their own town. One town over, they're close to invisible. Those patients still need care. They just book with whoever AI names. If you want to see where your line is, DM me. I'll run a free AI visibility assessment across your town and the towns around it.

Neil Patel's team surveyed 10,392 people this month about what makes them remember a brand and look it up later. Seeing an ad got an influence score of 2.1 out of 5. Seeing the brand recommended by AI got 4.2. Reading positive reviews got 4.7. For a practice, that's worth sitting with before you raise ad spend. Ask ChatGPT who you'd recommend for your main treatment in your town. Then read your last 20 reviews. That's what a new patient sees before they book.

Practice owners: Google looks to be moving the Posts section higher up in the Google Business Profile panel. That panel is what a patient sees right before they tap call or book. When did you last post there? And if you posted today, what would it be? New-patient openings this week, a treatment you want more of, the insurance you take?

Glenn Gabe re-ran his test today. ChatGPT, Claude and Perplexity still can't read page content that loads with JavaScript. They see the menu and footer and not much else. Gemini and Copilot did better. A lot of practice websites are built that way. Quick test for yours: Paste your main treatment page into ChatGPT and ask it for the first and last paragraph. If it can't give them to you, it can't use that page to send you a patient either. Glenn's write-up: gsqi.com/marketing-blog… Or DM me and I'll check it as part of a free AI visibility audit.

Practice owners: When did you last read your Google reviews start to finish? Not the star rating. The actual words. When a patient asks an AI assistant who to see, those words are a big part of what it has to go on. "Great experience" doesn't give it much. A review that names the treatment and the town gives it something to repeat. What do yours actually say?

Google Search Console now shows when your pages appear in AI Overviews and AI Mode. If you own a practice, have someone pull that report this week. Then check one thing. Are the pages showing up your treatment and booking pages? Or an old blog post with no way to book? AI answers only help if the page they send patients to gets them on the schedule.

Practice owners: Have you ever asked ChatGPT who the best provider in your specialty is near you? Did your practice come up? Reply with what you found. Or DM me for a free audit and I'll check for you.

Most practices don't have a lead problem. They have a follow-up problem. Old patients who haven't been back in 18 months already know you, trust you, and live nearby. Reactivating them is usually faster than finding strangers.

Quick test you can run today: Call your own front desk at 12:15pm. If it goes to voicemail, that's where your new patients are going too. Fix lunch coverage or forward calls before you spend another dollar on ads.

I've audited 35 Chicago-area practices. The typical AI visibility score was under 5 out of 20. Here's what that looks like from the patient's side: Someone two towns over asks ChatGPT who does Invisalign near them. They get three names. None of them are you. They book with one of those three. That's the patient I care about getting in your door. Want to see what AI tells patients in your area? DM me for a free audit.

Google said this week it's testing a section at the top of AI Mode and AI Overviews that points people to the official site for what they're looking for. For a practice, that's the link a patient taps right before they call or book. If your website doesn't clearly read as yours, a directory can take that spot. Quick check: Same practice name, address, and phone on your site as on your Google profile. Your practice name in your homepage title. A real About page with your doctors and your location.

When a patient asks ChatGPT for a dentist, dermatologist, or med spa near a town, the model looks for an answer it can lift. Most practice sites I see lead with vibes: "excellent care," "compassionate team," stock photos. That gives AI almost nothing to quote. A better page answers the exact question in plain language: what you treat, where you are, who it's for, and one concrete reason to trust you. If a human can't find that in 10 seconds, neither can the model.

@jdellamora Completely agree!

Question for practice owners: Has a new patient ever told you "ChatGPT recommended you"? Or "I asked Google's AI and you came up"? I'm curious how often front desks are hearing this yet. Reply or DM me. I read everything.

Quick fix most practices can make this week: Make sure your name, address, phone, hours, and list of treatments match everywhere. Your website. Google Business Profile. Yelp. Healthgrades. Insurance directories. AI assistants pull from all of those. When the details conflict, it's harder for them to trust you enough to recommend you. Want to know where yours don't match? DM me for a free AI visibility audit.

We do free AI visibility audits for private practices. Ten questions, two AI tools, one page. You'll see exactly where you show up and where you don't. DM me.

The towns 20 minutes from your office are full of patients asking AI assistants for recommendations. Almost none of your competitors show up there either. First mover wins.

5-minute check for practice owners: Ask ChatGPT "who's the best [your treatment] near [neighboring town]?" Then repeat it for the 2 or 3 towns your patients drive in from. Your own town is the easy part. The towns next door are where most practices I audit disappear.