Optimize for AI Search: Does Your Practice Show Up on ChatGPT?
Search is changing, but it’s not disappearing. In this episode, I’m breaking down what AI search actually means for holistic health practitioners and why SEO is still the foundation of visibility. As more people begin their searches in tools like ChatGPT and Claude, they’re narrowing their options faster, often comparing just two or three practices instead of scrolling through ten websites. I share three practical prompts you can run today to see whether your business shows up in AI search results, where AI is pulling its information from, and what to do if the details are outdated, inaccurate, or missing entirely. This episode is about how to strengthen your website so it supports your visibility no matter how clients find you.
Key Takeaways
AI search is growing, especially among younger generations, but traditional SEO is still the foundation of online visibility.
AI tools pull information from your website and other trusted sources, so clear messaging and accurate SEO matter more than ever.
Running simple prompts in ChatGPT or Claude can show you whether your practice is visible and how it’s being described.
If AI shows outdated or incorrect information, it often points to inconsistent messaging or weak SEO structure, both of which are fixable.
If you aren’t showing up at all, it usually means your niche, location, or expertise isn’t clearly defined on your website.
Resources
Transcript
[00:00:00] Samantha Mabe: I am Samantha Mabe, website designer and founder of Lemon and the Sea, and this is Elevate Your Practice. If you're a holistic health practitioner ready to grow your practice without wasting time on things that don't work, you're in the right place. Each week I share a website, SEO, and marketing advice along with guest experts so you can bring in the right clients and feel confident about how you are showing up and serving the people that you help. Let's get started.
[00:00:38] This March, I'm gonna be doing a podcast and email series all about optimizing your website for AI search. I have been talking about AI and search and SEO for a few months now because I have seen it become more and more of a topic of conversation on social media, in blogs, and in videos with lots of conflicting information. I want to break down exactly what you need to be concerned about and how you can make sure that your practice is showing up in AI searches for people who are actually going to become clients and patients.
Search Is Changing, But SEO Is Not Dead
[00:01:18] The first thing you need to know is that search is changing, but it's not disappearing. Statistics are showing us that younger generations, millennials and even those younger, are starting their searches with tools like ChatGPT and Claude before they are going to Google. Part of what that is doing is it's giving them two to three results to start looking into instead of the first 10 that come up on a search engine.
[00:01:52] That doesn't mean they're not searching. All of the same ways that you were previously getting clients are still going to work. They're going to find you on Google. They're going to get referrals from people, but we're adding AI to that, and as we see more young people start to make decisions about their health and which practices they want to see, we do need to think about AI because that is where they are starting their searches.
[00:02:21] The ultimate thing that this tells us is that no matter where somebody is initially hearing your name, they are starting with a narrower field before they dive deeper into who they might be interested in working with. They are no longer going to be looking at 10 different practices. They're going to be narrowing in on somebody who has specific expertise and who is being recommended to them by a person or a tool that they trust. They're going to start with two to three practices in their comparison, which means you want to be one of those practices. There are a lot of ways to get there, but you don't need to panic and think we need to throw everything you've been doing out the window.
Why SEO is Still Critical
[00:03:12] If I can give you one thing to take away from this episode it is that SEO is not dead and it's not going anywhere. AI, just like search engines and other tools, gets its information from the same places: your website. SEO is still how you are telling the robots what your business is about. And if you've built your site strategically and you have a strong SEO foundation, you don't need to start over, you just need to make a few changes and then continue to build your strategy so that as more people are searching and as AI is getting to know those people, you are going to show up in front of people you can help who are specifically looking for someone with your expertise.
How to Run an AI Visibility Audit
[00:04:07] Before we dive into what you need to do on your website, I want you to run three prompts first. So grab a notebook and write these down. And then what you are going to do is you are going to go to ChatGPT or Claude or both and type in these prompts so that you can see what the results are going to be about your business.
[00:04:35] It is very important to note that if you are already using one of these tools, you do not want to search these prompts in your account. If I were to search for my business in my ChatGPT account, it knows a ton about me because I talk to it about things. You want to open it up in a signed out window so that you are not having it pull from anything that it already knows about you and your business. Instead, you want it to kind of be a fresh chat. Even a chat that is like not connected to everything else is not gonna work here.
[00:05:14] I find it easiest to log into a guest profile on Chrome and go to ChatGPT or Claude, and then don't sign in. It will let you do some free searches without doing that. That's the best way for you to get information. Then you are going to do each of these three prompts and you're gonna take note of what you find out. I would recommend doing each of them in a new chat, so it's not pulling information from what you are previously talked about.
Prompt #1: What Does AI Say About Your Business?
[00:05:47] Prompt number one is what can you tell me about your business? So what can you tell me about Lemon in the Sea? What can you tell me about Chesterfield functional medicine? Then you are going to just let it run its prompt and it's going to give you some information about your business. It should include a summary of what you do and who you work with. It might include lists of your specialties. It should include your location, and it might have next steps for reaching out or who it might be a good fit for. The AI is always going to spit out something a little bit different, which is fine. What we really want to look for here is to see where AI is pulling its information in the little tags that tell you which website that this came from, and if the information it has is correct. Is your location correct? Are your services accurate? Is your bio or the about the practice summarized correctly, or is it pulling outdated information?
[00:06:57] If AI is pulling from something that is not your website to answer these questions, it could mean that your site isn't seen as the strongest authority source. Sometimes this is okay. If it is pulling your location from your Google business profile, that is a very trusted source, but if it is trying to gather information about your business from a Facebook page or somebody else's post about you, that means we need to fill in more information on your website. And we also want to make sure that none of the information is incorrect, and if it is, where is that coming from so that we can correct it.
Prompt #2: Are you being recommended for Your Specialty + Location?
[00:07:37] Prompt number two is find a something in your specialty in your location. Think about what people who actually come to see you would call you. So I could say find a website designer in Richmond, Virginia. I could say find a website designer who works with holistic health practitioners in Richmond, Virginia. This could look like find a naturopath in Richmond, Virginia or find a couple's therapist in North Chesterfield. You want to think about the terms that people are actually searching for. What do they actually call the location that you are located in and what would they actually call what you do? Not any of the industry jargon.
[00:08:22] The goal here is to see if you show up on the list that is generated. It's probably going to give a list of maybe five to seven people, and then it may ask if you want it to help you find the best option, or it may give you suggestions on which that might be best for you. But what you are trying to see here, baseline, are you showing up? Who else shows up? And then you can take a look and see what do their websites look like? How specific are they? Why might these people show up in this search over you or along with you? And how can you make sure that you are being recommended for people looking for what you do in the location that you serve?
Prompt #3: Are You Recommended for a Specific Condition?
[00:09:15] The third prompt is to ask, who is the best person in your industry in your location for a specific condition? So who is the best acupuncturist in Richmond for anxiety? Who is the best occupational therapist in Charlotte for sensory processing? Again, terms your people are actually searching for. And you want to see are you showing up?
[00:09:42] The more specific your prompt can get. The more AI is going to rely on niche messaging, blog content, FAQs. It's going to have to dive deeper and to give a response to somebody, and you want to make sure that those main things you want to be known for are actually getting you in front of people.
What Your AI Search Results Actually Mean
[00:10:08] So if you have run those three prompts and you have seen, am I showing up? Does it have the right information? Does it understand my niche and my market and my location? You have a couple of next step options.
[00:10:26] If you show up and all of the information is accurate in these three prompts, that is awesome and you have a really strong foundation to build on, and now your job is going to be to refine that, track if people are finding you from AI, and then continue to build out your content as you have time.
[00:10:46] If you are showing up, but some of the information is inaccurate or old, this usually means that either you have inconsistent information across the platforms where you've listed your business or that you are not very clear in your messaging and your SEO on your website, and those are all fixable things. If you are able to see where it's pulling that inaccurate information, that gives you a really easy to-do list task to go and fix it. If it's more generally outdated or doesn't reflect who you are currently working with, that means we need to go into your website and do some bigger content shifts and SEO changes to make sure that it's going to get accurate information.
[00:11:35] Outcome option number three is that you aren't showing up at all, and what this is usually pointing to is that your messaging is too vague. You don't have a very clear niche, or that your website isn't structured well and doesn't have a lot of content that AI can then pull from. This is not a failure on your part, it just means that you need to be clear on those points and then you need to clearly communicate them on your website and then into the other places that you are showing up.
What This Audit Does Not Tell You
[00:12:10] Before you run off and start trying to make updates, I do want to note that this audit does not tell you some important things that you do want to know. It does not tell you whether you're converting people into clients once they find you. It does not tell you whether your site is loading quickly, whether your mobile design works, or whether you have a good SEO structure. It only tells you about the visibility that your business has in AI searches. Next week we're going to talk about what actually makes AI understand who you are and how you can make sure that is heading in the right direction.
Your Website Should Work No Matter How Clients Find You
[00:12:54] But if you have gone through these prompts and you think, Ugh, this is messy. I am not showing up the way that I want. I know that I need to make changes, that's exactly what my 90 minute refresh is for. In 90 minutes, I can help you review what AI is pulling up, identify where we might need to have some clarity, and then help you clean up your SEO with keywords and niche information that is going to give you a really strong foundation to build on as you are trying to show up more in searches.
[00:13:28] You want your website to work as hard as you do, whether someone finds you on Google or asks ChatGPT for help in the middle of the night, or if they've gotten a referral from somebody else, no matter how they come across you, your website is the place where they are making the decision about whether or not to work with you, and so we want to make sure it is very clear if you are going to be a good fit and what the next steps are.
[00:13:57] Thanks for listening to Elevate your Practice. If you enjoyed today's episode, follow the show and leave a review. It helps more practitioners find these tips and start growing their practices with confidence. And don't forget to check out the show notes for links and resources from today's episodes. I'll be back next week with more strategies to help you build a thriving practice.
