Healthcare marketing Q&A · ICG Editorial

How can I check whether ChatGPT recommends my clinic?

Check by asking ChatGPT the same questions your patients ask, such as "good dermatologist for acne scars in Pune", in a fresh chat with memory off, and noting whether your clinic is named and which sources it cites. Repeat each question a few times, because answers vary. Run the same set in Gemini, Perplexity and Google's AI Overviews, and track the results monthly in a simple sheet.

How do I test ChatGPT properly, step by step?

Use a clean session so your own history does not bias the answer. Write down a fixed list of patient-style questions, run each one in ChatGPT with search enabled, and record whether your clinic appears, where in the answer, and which websites ChatGPT cites. Repeat monthly with the same list.

Start clean. Use a logged-out window or turn off memory and custom instructions. ChatGPT may otherwise remember that you own the clinic.
Write real questions. Mix treatment, location and concern: "Where can I get dental implants in Lucknow?", "Which hospital in Indore does knee replacement?", "Is there a fertility clinic near Whitefield?"
Add your location. ChatGPT may use approximate location, so name the city or area in the question.
Ask each question several times. Answers change between runs. A clinic named once in five runs is weaker than one named every time.
Record the sources. Note every website ChatGPT links. These are the sources you need to be present and accurate on.
Ask about your clinic by name. "What do you know about [clinic name] in [city]?" shows whether its facts about you are correct.

What should I record each month?

Keep a simple sheet with one row per question per tool. Record whether the clinic was named, its position in the list, whether competitors were named, which sources were cited, and whether any fact about you was wrong. Over a few months this shows whether your visibility is improving.

Column	What to note	Why it matters
Question	The exact wording used	Lets you repeat the test fairly
Tool	ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity or AI Overviews	Each draws on different sources
Named?	Yes / no, and in how many of the runs	Shows how consistently you appear
Position	First, middle or last in the list	Earlier mentions get more attention
Sources cited	Each linked website	Tells you where to improve your presence
Errors	Wrong address, old doctor, closed branch	Wrong facts cost calls and trust

Also check your analytics. Visits from chatgpt.com, perplexity.ai and gemini.google.com usually appear as referral traffic in Google Analytics 4, though some arrive as direct visits. If that number rises, AI tools are sending people to you even if you have not caught it in your manual tests.

Where do AI tools find information about doctors and clinics?

AI tools lean on a mix of sources when they answer local healthcare questions: your own website, your Google Business Profile, doctor-listing directories, hospital pages, news mentions and review sites. The more these agree about your clinic, the more confidently an AI names you.

That is why the sources column in your sheet matters. If ChatGPT keeps citing one directory for your city, make sure your listing there is complete and correct. If it cites a competitor's treatment page, look at how that page answers the question compared with yours. Do not try to game these sources with fake reviews or paid mentions; as of October 2026, the NMC guidelines of 6 October 2026 restrict testimonials and inducements, and fake reviews damage trust quickly.

Your Google Business Profile is a common source for local questions. Keep it accurate and active. ICG's Google Business Profile management covers categories, services, posts and review responses.

How to promote doctors online so AI tools recommend them?

Make the clinic easy to verify. Publish one clear page per treatment and per doctor, keep clinic details identical everywhere, earn genuine reviews, and get mentioned on credible local and medical sites. Within NMC rules, doctors can publish genuinely educational content in their own name with qualifications and registration number.

Open each treatment page with a short, plain answer that an AI could quote.
Add doctor pages with qualifications, registration number and areas of practice.
Use schema for the clinic, doctors and FAQs.
Make sure your robots.txt does not block search or AI crawlers by mistake.
Fix every wrong fact you found in the test at its source.

Small files such as llms.txt are optional; see whether a clinic website needs llms.txt.

Can ChatGPT do SEO for my clinic, or do I need help?

ChatGPT can help you draft questions, summarise competitors' pages and suggest FAQ wording. It cannot audit your crawl access, fix your listings or build the citations that make AI tools trust you. Testing is free and you can do it yourself; improving the results is ongoing work.

ICG's healthcare AEO service runs this test across ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and AI Overviews for your key treatments and cities, then fixes the gaps. Retainers start from ₹20,000 a month, scoped to your clinic. For what ChatGPT can do on its own, read can ChatGPT do SEO for a clinic.

Detailed answers

ChatGPT generates each answer fresh, and when it searches the web it may pull slightly different sources each time. Your location, the exact wording and any memory settings also change the result. That is why you should run each question several times in a clean session and count how often your clinic is named, rather than trusting one run.

Find where the wrong fact comes from. Check the sources ChatGPT cites, then correct your website, Google Business Profile and any directory listings showing old details. Keep the clinic name, address, phone, hours and doctor list identical everywhere. Corrections take time to be picked up, so re-test after a few weeks.

No paid option guarantees that ChatGPT's answers will recommend your clinic. Advertising products in AI tools, where they exist, are separate from the answer itself and follow their own policies. Being named in answers comes from clear, accurate content and a consistent presence on sources the tool trusts. Avoid anyone promising guaranteed AI recommendations.

Monthly is enough for most clinics. Use the same question list each time so the results are comparable, and check after major changes such as a new branch, new doctors or a website rebuild. Pair the manual test with Google Analytics 4 referral data from AI tools to see whether visits are rising.

Not exactly. AI Overviews draw on Google's own search index, while ChatGPT uses its own search and crawler. Both favour clear, accurate pages from sources that other sites agree with. A clinic strong in Google's organic and local results often shows up in AI Overviews, but ChatGPT visibility should be checked separately.

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