AI is all the craze, and now search engines like Google are beginning to integrate AI tools into their search results. What does that mean for the future of private practices and their websites?
Well, for starters, it means a few questions…
- Will Google’s AI search results show up ahead of my site?
- Does Google’s AI mean potential clients wont clickthrough to my website?
- Do I have to change my digital marketing strategy to meet the demands of AI?
The answers to the above are, “No,” “No,” and “No,” respectively. AI tools may be here, but they won’t change the website-landscape as much as you may think.
Instead, search engines and their AIs are going to refine search, rather than outright change them. So, don’t worry any more than usual.
To understand what’s coming we have to understand some aspects of Search, and, particularly, what Google is doing to integrate AI into their results.
Introducing CHERPs: Google’s AI Integration
Danny Godwin, of SearchEngineLand.com, coined the acronym, CHERP (Chat Experience Result Page) to describe Google’s AI integration. It’s a good term so we’re repeating it here (we’ll see if it catches on).
In essence, this means (for some results), Google will act like a chatbot.
So, if you search a question, such as, “What are some examples of narcissistic behavior,” Google may generate a chat box. The feature is still experimental, and has not been rolled out, so we have to show what it looks like using images that SearchEngineLand has taken:
Searchers can then ask additional questions, as shown at the bottom of the screenshot.
So, there’s a bit of back and forth. In that way, the person searching can find their answer on the Google Search results page, rather than going to a website.
Bing is already trying something like the above—which is one way it’s distinguished itself in the AI Race:
As shown by Bing, the answer to our question is a mishmash of multiple sources, and the AI cites those sources in its answer, e.g. medicalnewsdaily.com, psychologytoday.com, etc. The AI doesn’t automatically generate a result: it needs websites created by people to give an answer.
Private Practices Don't Rank For Terms That Show In The CHERPs
The terms that CHERPs will display for are not terms that Private Practices typically rank for.
We can see this now. If I type my above example into Google Search Results (i.e. “examples of narcissistic behavior”) what I get are big, generalized websites, like Medical News Today and Healthline:
What we don’t see in the above are any local practices, because what’s being searched is not associated with local practices.
The point being… search terms which will ping Google’s CHERPs are not terms that Private Practices rank for.
The ones they do rank for will still show Private Practices in the results.
Where Will Google’s AI Draw It’s Data?
Whether the AI is Google or Bing or whatever, the generated result will always collate search engine results—which may include your website.
So, AIs do not act independently of the information they draw upon, i.e. Google’s AI still needs websites to function. Now, Google is mining every website in their index and feeding it back into their AI systems—unless you choose to opt out.
(Which we don’t recommend. As then your website loses out on appearing in AI-generated results.)
The point being… the information Google displays on Search Results—whether it be in the standard search or part of Google’s AI—will still come from your Private Practice website (for relevant searches). Google’s AI cannot replace people: the people who build and maintain websites.
(In fact the term “AI” is a bit of a misnomer: they’re not intelligent at all, not in the way that HAL from 2001: A Space Odyssey was intelligent. We’re not going into too much detail, but what you should know is that these AIs are more like probability models than any type of intelligence, i.e. they don’t think.)
What Google Really Wants…
Here’s a brief aside to understand one reason why Google is introducing the chatbot (CHERPs) feature…
Google wants to keep people within the Google ecosystem. That means, ultimately, Google doesn’t want you to leave “google.com” when you search. If Google could display exactly what you want on Google, they would.
Though that’s probably not possible.
A good example of this is Google Business Profile (GBP): a way for potential clients to interact with businesses without ever leaving the search engine.
Of course, this doesn’t work for everyone. While it’s easy enough to order pizza through Google Business Profile, the same can’t be said for potential clients of private practices—who click through to a website.
The CHERPs Won't Always Display For Every Search
Now, while CHERPs display for questions, like our above narcissism example, they’re not likely to display for search queries like “anxiety therapy near me”.
Think about it…
Google wants to display the best results to its searchers. Afterall, if it doesn’t, people will finally migrate to another search engine.
Therefore, Google’s desire is always to meet the searcher’s desire.
If Google thinks what people are searching for is a local therapist, Google is going to display local therapists, not their chatbot, which can’t provide local therapy.
Instead, Google will deliver the Google Business Profile (GBP) 3-pack, as it does now, and show those therapists who have optimized both their website and their GBP.
How Does Google Feel About AI-Generated Content, Anyway?
Google also does not care how content is generated, whether by people or AI, so long as it’s high quality, as they said in February:
“Our focus on the quality of content, rather than how content is produced, is a useful guide that has helped us deliver reliable, high quality results to users for years.”
At the end of the day, all Google cares about is quality. If the information is high-quality and meets the expectations of searchers, Google will display it in results.
Now, a lot of AI-generated content is quite poor on its own. So, regardless of how your content is created, just make sure that it’s providing value.
Google’s AI Is Not Something to Be Concerned About For Private Practices
AI is here, and it’s not the dystopia (or utopia) that science fiction has predicted for the last century. Instead, AI, as employed by search engines, is more like an addition to the way things already operate.
The CHERPs will be employed for some search results, but it’s unlikely to display for terms that connect private practices and potential clients.
At the end of the day, the same SEO metrics matter as they always have: a sound website, an optimized GBP, and an active blog (among other metrics).
And it’s these metrics that will continue to work together to help Privates Practices rank on Google.