You built the website. You earned the reviews. You did the local SEO the right way for a decade, and it worked. But your research-heavy parents and complex-case adults aren’t starting on Google anymore. They’re opening ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Claude and asking, in plain language, “who’s the best nervous system chiro near me?” They get a name back. The only question is whether it’s yours.
This episode breaks down Answer Engine Optimization (AEO), the layer almost nobody in chiropractic has touched yet, and how to find out where you stand today.
What we cover:
- Why strong Google rankings don’t get you into an AI’s answer, and what does
- The 5 signals that decide whether AI recommends you or the doc down the street
- Signal 1: Why the wording of your reviews matters more than how many you have, and how to prompt patients for specific, outcome-rich language AI actually reads
- Signal 2: The one I hate admitting. Health directories (Healthgrades, Zocdoc, WebMD) are getting sourced, and a pile of Google reviews alone won’t save you
- Signal 3: Third-party citations from referral partners (IBCLCs, sleep consultants) as high-trust signals
- Signal 4: FAQ content written as real plain-language answers, with proper schema underneath
- Signal 5: Schema, and how one plugin can quietly tell AI you’re a “product” instead of a medical business
The real-world gut check:
- A 30-second plugin dropdown that was telling AI site-wide that we sold a product, not care
- A competitor with fewer reviews and a worse site who beat me in AI search on three directory listings I didn’t have, closed by a VA in one afternoon
- The gap between “amazing office, highly recommend” and a review that names the complaint, the visit count, and the result
Here’s the bottom line: your content is good. Your credibility is real. What’s broken is your visibility infrastructure, and that’s fixable once you know it’s there.
The episode ends with a copy-paste Cowork prompt that audits your whole market in about 15 minutes so you know exactly what to fix first.
The window where this is an advantage instead of table stakes is open right now. It won’t be forever.
Run the audit, then reply and tell me what came back. I read every one. And share this with a doc who’s still pumping Google reviews thinking that’s the whole game.
00:00 AI Answer Land Grab 00:39 Test Your Visibility Now 02:17 Why Google SEO Isn’t Enough 04:51 What AEO Means 05:41 Signal 1 Review Language 07:00 Signal 2 Health Directories 08:56 Signals 3 to 5 Trust and Schema 11:21 Real Audit Fixes 13:22 The Opportunity Window 15:29 Run the Cowork Audit Prompt 17:56 Wrap Up and Challenge