Search is shifting from rankings to recommendations. When someone asks Google or ChatGPT to recommend a plastic surgeon or a dentist, the first thing they see isn’t ten blue links. They get a generated short list of names, each with a few reasons why the providers are worth visiting.
Those reasons come from somewhere. Often, they come from specific details on a provider’s website. Here’s what that looks like in practice, and how two MyAdvice clients used website optimization to leverage unique information and start earning those recommendations.
AI Tools Look Up Recommendations in Real Time
AI systems already know a lot from their training data. They can explain what a tummy tuck is or who can file a slip-and-fall accident claim without searching anything. But a recommendation, like “who’s the best surgeon near me?”, isn’t a fixed fact built into training data. To answer it, the AI performs a web search (or multiple searches) during a process called grounding and gathers proof points to support its answer.
These tools are motivated to get recommendations right. If an AI tells someone to buy the worst-reviewed running shoe on the market, that person may never use the tool again. So the AI looks for evidence it can trust before it recommends anyone: specific facts it can find, verify, and attribute to one provider.
Generic Content Gives AI Nothing to Recommend You For
Most practice websites cover the same ground: what the procedure is, who’s a good candidate, what recovery looks like. That information still has value, but the AI already knows it. Claims like “experienced,” “compassionate,” and “personalized care” don’t help either, because every competitor says them too.
What gives an AI a reason to pick you is information it can’t find anywhere else: a named technique, a specific protocol, a detail about your facility, or local knowledge your patients need. Search professionals call this “information gain.” At MyAdvice, we call these details golden nuggets. Unique, helpful content has mattered all along. AI search is just making the payoff much easier to see.
A Plastic Surgeon’s Screening Process Became How Google Describes Her
Dr. Ellen Mahony is a board-certified plastic surgeon in Westport, Connecticut. Before her new website launched, her pages covered much of the same ground as every other surgeon’s, and AI tools had little to say about her beyond her credentials. Meanwhile, a nearby competitor with a named, published drainless tummy tuck technique was consistently singled out for it.
That didn’t mean he was a better fit for every patient. It meant the AI had more specific facts to support recommending him.
We hear this from a lot of providers: We all do basically the same thing. It’s almost never true. Once we asked specific questions, the unique details came out quickly, including:
- A tummy tuck technique using progressive tension sutures, which lets most patients recover without surgical drains
- A pain-control plan built around nerve blocks and non-narcotic medication
- Liposuction screening that checks skin thickness and elasticity before recommending the procedure, and recommends a different procedure when liposuction won’t deliver
- In-person breast implant sizing with real tops and bras, instead of computer-generated previews
- A Keller Funnel and antibiotic irrigation as part of her implant safety protocol
We added these details to her liposuction, tummy tuck, and breast augmentation pages, along with a quick summary near the top of each page so patients can scan the important details and AI systems can pull them out. The process took only a few hours. Much of the information was already public in years of her answers to patient questions online. We gathered it, asked her to confirm what was still accurate, and suggested a few areas where she could add more.
The results: we ran repeated local searches for all three procedures in a clean browser. In Google’s AI Overviews, Dr. Mahony appeared in the top three every time and was listed first in six of ten results. In half of those results, Google described her in specific detail.
Liposuction is the clearest example. In every liposuction result, Google described her as known for thorough candidacy screening, assessing skin elasticity and thickness before recommending the procedure, a detail from the quick summary on her liposuction page. In one result’s comparison table, her key focus was listed simply as honest candidacy screening. A detail from her page had become the way Google distinguishes her from every other surgeon in town.
To see whether this held up beyond our own searches, we ran a deeper analysis for this article using an AI visibility monitoring tool that tracks ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google’s AI Mode and AI Overviews. Across local procedure questions that didn’t mention her by name, Dr. Mahony appeared in about 7 of every 10 AI answers, more than any other surgeon tracked, and her drainless tummy tuck technique came up as a positive reason to choose her.
We saw the same thing in ChatGPT when it found her pages. When asked about a patient’s worries over implant sizing and infection, it cited her in-person sizing process and implant safety protocol, and noted that her published approach to size selection was unusually detailed. ChatGPT’s answers vary more from one search to the next, but when it read her pages, her details are what set her apart.
What We Learned About Which Details Work Best
Not every detail performed equally, and the differences are useful for any practice:
- Details only you can claim beat details anyone could claim. A drainless tummy tuck used to be distinctive, but several surgeons nearby now offer it, and one AI answer even noted that drain-free tummy tucks have become common. Her liposuction screening approach, described in her own specific terms, surfaced every time.
- The top of your page matters most. In some results, Google described her using the general introduction at the top of her page instead of the specific details in the summary just below it. When the first paragraph on a page includes a specific detail or two, whatever the AI grabs is useful.
- Named techniques and published details are powerful. Competitors who won specific questions did it with a named, published technique or a published statistic. Those are exactly the kinds of details AI systems repeat.
A Dental Practice Earned a Top AI Citation in Two Days
Adler Advanced Dentistry is in Boulder, Colorado, near the University of Colorado campus. The practice already had a page for CU students and parents, but it said little beyond “we’re nearby.”
We looked at what a parent actually needs when their child at CU Boulder has a dental emergency, and we found facts no competitor had put together:
- CU Boulder’s student health center doesn’t offer dental care.
- Many people online confuse CU Boulder with CU’s Anschutz dental school, about 30 miles away in Denver.
- Students without a car need a realistic way to get to the office, so we verified actual transit times and specific bus routes from different parts of campus.
We turned this into a blog post written for worried parents, with every claim checked against its source.
The results: before we published, Google’s AI Overview for “help me find an emergency dentist for my child attending cu boulder” named six other practices and never mentioned Adler Advanced Dentistry. We published on a Monday. By Wednesday, the AI Overview cited the practice by name twice and listed its website as the top source.
Is a Basic Service Page Still Worth Having?
Yes. Standard service pages tell Google and AI tools which services you offer, and that supports your visibility in local map results. In every search we ran for Dr. Mahony, she was the first practice in Google’s local map results, and each time Google showed a note under her listing saying “Their website mentions tummy tuck” (or the procedure searched), pulled directly from her website. A standard page keeps you in the running. Unique details are what earn you the recommendation.
What If I Don’t Have Time to Provide Details?
You probably need less time than you think. Adding one unique data point or claim can move the needle. It can also be a gradual effort. You can start by providing a few details for your priority services. For Adler Advanced Dentistry, we found the details through research after learning that their target patients included students at CU Boulder. The biggest hurdle is usually believing the details will matter.
Does This Guarantee a First-Place Recommendation?
No. AI answers vary from one search to the next, and no one can guarantee a specific result. Specific, verifiable details make you a stronger candidate more often, and they give AI tools accurate facts to share when they do mention you.
Share What Makes Your Practice Different
Your practice already does things differently. Maybe it’s a technique you’ve refined, a protocol your patients appreciate, or local knowledge no one else has written down. Let’s make sure AI search knows it. Share your details with our team.
