Posted on January 31, 2025

Understanding Google AI Overviews: The Impact on Healthcare SEO

Google’s search results continue to evolve beyond the traditional “10 blue links.” Among recent innovations, AI Overview has emerged as a significant development that healthcare website owners need to understand. This isn’t just another algorithm update – it’s likely a fundamental shift in how people interact with search engines and are presented answers to questions. Let’s explore how Google’s AI Overview is revolutionizing the way healthcare practices manage their digital presence in search results.

What are AI Overviews in Google?

Google AI Overview brings another shift in how certain kinds of search results are presented, particularly for those quick-answer style queries. It uses artificial intelligence to generate concise, direct answers to user queries directly within search results. This feature is designed to provide users with quick, relevant information without requiring them to click through to a website. 

Back in Sept 2023, the AI overviews for informational medical queries looked like this:

Today, they look like this:

While the Overviews are still designed to provide quick answers, UI/UX changes (re: link icons next to answers) in today’s version provide optionality for users to click through to listed websites, while prioritizing scannability with highlighted text, boxed key points, and images. This shift aligns with Google’s push to streamline quick-answer queries and deliver immediate, high-quality summaries.

Think about how you search Google. You either need a quick answer (how many ml in an oz?), or you are attempting to do something (things to do in Boston). With AI Overviews, Google has decided to start handling way more of the quick answer style queries themselves. While this arguably improves the search experience for users, it also reshapes how businesses and content creators approach SEO.

Overview pulls from various high-quality sources to create summaries that fulfill user intent quickly. Google handling these style queries is going to result in lower clicks and traffic to your website. However, AI will continue to reference brands and products in its responses, and you’ll want your brand to be among those it mentions.

Google’s AI Overview Impact on Click-Through-Rate

Google’s AI Overviews are typically triggered by these types of searches:

  • Short Facts
  • Consquence
  • Comparison
  • Reason
  • Definition
  • Boolean
  • Instructional

The impact of AI Overviews varies depending on the type of query. Top-of-funnel informational searches will see reduced click-through rates (CTR) as users find immediate answers in the AI-generated summaries. 

In July 2024, Healthline Media reported 45% of the medical keywords they tracked returned an AI overview. Glacial is currently compiling it’s own tracking report for specific specialties, but our estimates are that almost all medical related keywords that fall into one of the above buckets will be triggering an overview answer.

However, bottom-funnel, high-intent and local related searches, like “eye doctor near me“, remain unaffected, which is critical for medical practices as these lower-funnel, high-intent, “I’m-actively-looking-for-a-service-provider” searches drive the majority of patient leads.

Keep in mind that not all clicks are equal.

If your website is losing clicks, take a moment to evaluate what kind of traffic is being affected. Likely traffic is down because an old blog post used to rank first overall for a niche question, where as now an AI overview appears and becomes a zero click search.

Before stressing about traffic being down month over month, confirm if the drop is tied to lead generating service and location pages, or supporting content.

Google does not provide any AI overview segmented data in their analytics platforms, so marketers will have to do some extra digging (and simulated searches) to hypothesize and find the root source of any decrease or increase.

Adapting your strategy is key. By balancing concise, digestible information with in-depth content, you can maintain visibility, reinforce brand credibility and remain part of the decision-making process, even if users engage differently than before.

Impact of AI Overview on Traditional SEO Metrics

As AI-generated summaries reshape search results, traditional SEO metrics are evolving. Here are some general stats to consider:

  • 52% of links featured in AI overviews come from top-10 ranked sites
  • Preview links show 80% correlation with top-10 results
  • Rankings in AI Overview and traditional search results operate independently
  • Results show high volatility due to overviews being AI-driven generation

While these general trends provide context for AI’s broad impact on search, let’s examine how specific areas of search marketing are being affected:

Organic SEO

AI Overviews click-through or impression data does not show in Google Search Console or Google Analytics. This creates a significant blind spot for marketers trying to measure their content’s true reach and performance.

Local SEO

The map packs fall under the navigational and local service-based search intent queries. As of January 2025, we’re not seeing any AI overviews appear for these style searches (i.e. LASIK Seattle). 

These style queries have long been the searches that bring patient leads, so it’s good to see for now that the area is unaffected for practices. When reviewing site traffic metrics, these continue to be the most important to check when looking into any traffic declines. Was it “ophthalmologist Nashville” that dropped, or “what is the bump on my eye?”.

Paid Search 

The introduction of AI Overview has notably influenced how users interact with search results, particularly for healthcare-related queries. Research indicates that when AI Overview appears for health-related searches, advertisements also show up 65% of the time, creating a more complex competitive landscape.

Should I Optimize Content for Visibility in AI-Generated Summaries?

Optimizing for AI-generated summaries involves structuring your content to be easily digestible and directly address user queries. While optimization for AI Overview shouldn’t be your primary focus, certain practices can improve visibility:

For informational content:

  • Focus on concise, factual presentation
  • Include relevant statistics and structured information
  • Minimize computational complexity for crawling
  • Prioritize clarity over keyword density

For local visibility:

  • Maintain accurate directory listings
  • Focus on geographical relevance
  • Ensure consistency across local citations

How Do You Rank a Medical Website in Google’s AI Overview?

Google’s AI Overview pulls information from high-quality sources to generate quick, authoritative answers. To increase your chances of being featured, your content must be well-structured, relevant, and aligned with user intent.

Focus on User Intent and Context: Answer questions directly. Provide concise, accurate answers to common user queries.

Creating Efficient, Crawlable Content: Conduct keyword research to identify and incorporate terms users are searching for. Use clear headings, bullet points, and lists to make your content scannable. 

Providing Clear, Factual, Authoritative Information: Focus on E-A-T. Establish Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness in your content.

Maintaining Strong Traditional SEO Fundamentals: Ensure your website follows core SEO best practices, including fast load times, mobile optimization, and structured data. Strong technical SEO, high-quality backlinks, and well-optimized metadata help maintain visibility alongside AI-generated search results.

By combining these strategies, you can increase your chances of being included in AI-generated summaries.

The Technical Aspects of AI Overviews

The output of a Google result page is a combination of multiple different algorithms that come together to deliver a final search result.

For the AI Overviews algorithm, the main factor is content relevance and semantics. Google’s algorithms understand words in mathematics. Each word has a mathematical value plotted in a multi-dimensional space. Using vector embeddings, these algorithms take your query and compare it against passages from indexed website content for the closest relevant mathematical values.

In nerd speak: To appear in AI Overviews, your content should be concise, factual, and structured with simple subject-verb relationships to answer the user’s query as efficiently as possible. Bonus points if you can also provide unique perspectives and first-party data alongside your answers. 

Is it Bad if I Don’t Rank in the Google AI Overview?

Not ranking in the AI Overview doesn’t mean your SEO efforts are failing. Traditional rankings still matter, and not all queries trigger AI-generated summaries.  Some users prefer clicking through to full articles rather than relying on summaries, depending on their needs.

It’s also important to consider audience behavior. For instance, some industries or topics may see less reliance on AI summaries, making traditional SEO strategies equally valuable. While appearing in the overview is advantageous, it’s not the sole determinant of success.

For medical practices, the real focus should be on the types of searches that drive patient conversions. While AI Overview visibility can enhance brand awareness, it’s the bottom funnel, service-specific queries that have the biggest impact on appointment bookings. 

Here’s why traditional SEO and high-intent searches remain the most critical for practice growth:

  • Most patient leads come from service-specific and location-based queries
  • Bottom-funnel searches typically drive actual appointments
  • Brand mentions in AI overviews, while valuable, aren’t critical for practice growth

Key Takeaways for Medical Providers

Google AI Overview represents a significant shift in how Google gives users information online. However, it’s not about completely overhauling your SEO strategy—it’s about adopting.

AI Overviews are volatile. They rely on a different algorithm than traditional search results, meaning what appears today may disappear tomorrow as Google fine-tunes its models and indexes new content.

For medical practices, understanding AI Overview’s role within the broader SEO landscape helps maintain perspective on its actual business impact. While it signals an evolution in search, its influence on patient acquisition may be less significant than initially assumed.

As you consider these key insights, it’s important to focus on actionable strategies that will ensure your medical practice adapts effectively. Here are some essential takeaways to guide your SEO efforts in light of the evolving Google AI Overview:

  1. AI Overview primarily affects top-of-funnel, informational content that already has a low conversion rate and was already being answered with featured snippets.
  2. Focus optimization efforts on service-specific and location-based queries.
  3. Maintain high-quality, efficient content that aligns with user intent.
  4. Monitor changes, but continue prioritizing traditional SEO fundamentals, especially Local SEO.
  5. The intersection of AI Overviews and Paid Ads will be important to watch over the next 12 months.

If you’re looking for ways to refine your digital strategy and maintain your practice’s visibility amidst evolving search trends, reach out to discuss how we can support your practice’s SEO goals and ensure you’re well-positioned in both traditional search and AI-generated results.