How Do Private Clinics Get Named by ChatGPT?

How ChatGPT decides which clinic to recommend

When a patient asks something like ‘who is the best private dermatologist in Guildford?’, ChatGPT (with search switched on) runs its own web searches, reads a handful of pages, and writes an answer that names the practices it feels confident about. Gemini, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews work in broadly similar ways.

Three things matter in that process. First, whether your clinic turns up in the sources it reads at all. Second, whether those sources agree about who you are, where you are and what you do. Third, whether the AI is comfortable recommending you. In healthcare that last step is stricter than in most sectors, because the AI is trained to avoid recommending anything that could harm someone.

This is why ranking well on Google is not enough. AI answers draw on directories, review sites, professional registers and editorial mentions as much as on your own website.

Six things that get a clinic named

These map directly onto the six pillars of the GROWTH Score™, the framework we use to measure AI visibility for clinics.

1. Be one clear entity (Ground Truth)

Your clinic name, address and phone number should be identical everywhere: website, Google Business Profile, directories and social profiles. Add MedicalClinic and Physician schema to your site so the AI knows exactly what you are and who works there. Mismatched names or old addresses make the AI unsure whether it is looking at one clinic or two.

2. Let the AI read your site (Retrievability)

Check your robots.txt does not block GPTBot, OAI-SearchBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot or Google-Extended. Make sure key pages load without JavaScript and are not hidden behind a cookie wall. A surprising number of clinic websites are invisible to AI crawlers because of a single line in a settings file.

3. Write pages that answer patient questions (On-page Answers)

Give every core service its own page. Open each page with a direct, two or three sentence answer to the question a patient would ask. Add genuine FAQs with FAQPage schema. AI assistants quote clear, self-contained answers; they skip vague marketing copy.

4. Get independent sources to agree (Wider Web Authority)

AI assistants lean heavily on third parties for healthcare. In the UK that means Doctify, Top Doctors, WhatClinic and the NHS and CQC listings; in the US, Healthgrades, Zocdoc and Vitals. Reviews on two or more independent platforms, local press and podcast appearances all add weight.

5. Prove your clinicians are qualified (Trust Signals)

Name your clinicians, list their qualifications and link each one to their public register entry (GMC, GDC, NMC, HCPC or a US state medical board). Put a named, qualified author on clinical content. For a cautious AI, register-verified credentials are often the deciding factor between two otherwise similar clinics.

6. Test what the AI actually says (Head-to-Head Visibility)

Ask ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity the questions your patients ask, in their words, and record who gets named. Repeat monthly. This is the only way to know whether the work above is paying off, and it often reveals competitors you did not know you had.

Common reasons good clinics are left out

• The website blocks AI crawlers, often by accident.
• The clinic is listed under slightly different names on different sites.
• Services are bundled on one page, so there is no clean answer to quote.
• Clinicians are not named, or their credentials are not linked to a register.
• Few or no reviews outside Google.
• Outdated directory listings with old addresses or phone numbers.

How long does it take?

Technical fixes such as crawler access, schema and consistent details can be made within weeks. Being named more often in AI answers usually builds over two to six months, as directories update, reviews accumulate and AI systems refresh what they know. It is compounding work, not a switch.

Where to start

Start by measuring. Our free AI Visibility Snapshot scores your clinic across all six pillars and shows you, word for word, what ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity currently say when patients ask for your services.

Frequently asked questions

Written by Dr Andrew Greenland, medical doctor and founder of The AI Growth Clinic.