For years, the visibility of a private clinic was quite simple: to appear on Google. First in organic results and then in Google Maps.
That is still the case. But it is no longer the only thing.
More and more patients do not start by searching on Google. They also go to ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity or other AIs and directly ask which clinic they should go to.
And this changes the rules.
Because we are not talking about the same scenario. They do not work in the same way. And, looking at the data, a clinic can perform very well in one… and practically not exist in the other.
If you work with clinics or have one, this already affects you and it is worth taking into account.
What the Google Maps Data Shows
A study of visibility in Google Maps that analyzed 100 dental clinics in Madrid (Spain), one of the most competitive markets in Spain. The idea was simple: to see what differentiates the clinics that appear at the top from the rest.
And there are several points that break what many take for granted.
The first: more reviews does not mean better ranking.
The clinic with the most reviews in the entire study (more than 2,200) does not even appear among the first 30. On the other hand, another with fewer than 100 reviews does appear in the top 10.
There is no clear relationship between the volume of reviews and position.
With the average rating something similar happens. The difference between the top 10 and the lower positions is barely 0.05 points. Moving from 4.7 to 4.9 stars, by itself, does not change much.
So, what does make the difference?
This is where the pattern appears.
The best positioned clinics are not those that accumulate the most, but those that work their profile better:
- They respond to reviews consistently
- They publish recent updates
- And they use more secondary categories
This last point is key.
Each additional category allows appearing in more types of searches. However, many clinics still use only the main category.
The result? They lose visibility in more specific searches such as implants, orthodontics or cosmetic dentistry.
In the end, Google Maps does not reward volume so much as consistency and how well structured the profile is.
How AIs Respond When You Ask for a Recommendation
Here the question is different: how do ChatGPT, Gemini or Perplexity build their response when someone asks them to recommend a clinic?
And here it is better not to overcomplicate it.
The analysis does not go into which clinics they recommend or why. It focuses on how the response text is built: whether they use lists, whether they include warnings, whether they add mentions to sources or whether they speak in the first person.
If you want to see the full study on how generative AI systems recommend clinics, centered on the question “What clinics [type of clinic] would you recommend in [city]?”, you can download it directly.
What can be seen is that each system has a fairly marked way of responding. Some tend to longer and more developed texts, others go more straight to the point. They also change in how they structure the information or in whether they include certain nuances.
But there is something that influences more than anything else: how you ask the question. It is what really changes the form of the response.
The type of clinic influences, but much less.
In the end, more than what they recommend, what is repeated is how they say it.
Two Different Systems, One Underlying Idea
Although Google Maps and AI systems work differently, there is something that repeats in both.
Visibility is not for whoever invests the most or whoever accumulates the most reviews.
It is for whoever has the information clear, organized and consistent.
And this changes the approach.
Because it is no longer enough to work only on local SEO or manage reviews. You have to look at the whole: how the digital presence of the clinic is built and what information is available.
Google interprets it in its own way. AIs, in theirs.
But patients increasingly use both before making a decision.
And that is where the change is.
Author bio:
José Francisco Ouviña (Frenchy) is a consultant specialized in Google Maps visibility and local SEO for clinics in Spain. His work focuses on how clinics appear in local search results and how AI systems recommend local businesses.
