By Hayden DeMars, Founder of Northview Agency, and Connor Kimball, Co-founder & CEO of Cairrot

Key Takeaways

Most functional medicine, wellness, and chiropractic websites I review are not losing leads because the business is bad.

They are losing leads because search engines, AI platforms, and real patients do not have enough clear information to understand what the practice offers, where it offers it, and why it should be trusted.

The same issues show up over and over again:

Missing offering pages
Weak keywords in titles, H1s, H2s, and image alt text
Social profiles that are not properly connected to the website
Google Business Profiles that are underbuilt and underused
Not enough dedicated content around the services that actually drive calls

But these simple issues are usually the exact reason a practice is invisible in Google, ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude, and Google’s AI Overviews.

My process is pretty straightforward. First, I establish the baseline. I want to know how many calls and leads are coming in, where they are coming from, what services are already getting found, and what services are basically invisible.

Then I use Cairrot to track the AEO side of the equation. Visibility by offering and region. Organic traffic from both search and AI. Crawl activity. AI platform visibility. The stuff that tells me whether a practice is actually being understood by the systems that now influence patient decisions.

After that, I move into the work: homepage optimization, offering pages, internal links, Google Maps, review responses, social video content, and high-intent blogs.

Clients who follow this process usually see movement within 30 days and real lead growth by 90. One functional medicine client went from about 3 discovery calls per month to 13 in his best week within 90 days.

About a third of American adults turned to AI chatbots for health information in the past year, according to KFF in 2026. Pew Research Center also found that nearly half of U.S. adults have now used tools like ChatGPT or Gemini, up from about a third in 2024.

So what does that mean?

It means when someone in your city asks ChatGPT, “Who is the best functional medicine doctor near me for thyroid issues?” or “What chiropractor near me specializes in neurological rehab?” your practice either shows up or it doesn’t.

This guide walks through exactly how I take functional medicine, wellness, and chiropractic practices from invisible to findable, rankable, and citable using the same process I use with clients at Northview Agency.

The Most Common AEO Issues I Find on Wellness Websites

Before I ever talk tactics with a new client, I can usually predict what I am going to find. It is almost always some version of the same problems. The business might be solid. The doctor might be great. The offer might be genuinely helpful. But the website does not explain it clearly enough for search engines, AI platforms, or patients.

That is where things take a turn.

1. Missing offering pages

Most practices have one “Services” page that lists everything they do in a few bullet points.

It usually looks something like this:

Hormone therapy
Gut health
IV nutrition
Chiropractic care
Functional medicine
Red light therapy
Weight loss
Neurological rehab

That might be fine for a quick menu, but it is not enough for getting ranked on ChatGPT. The problem is simple: search engines and AI platforms recommend pages, not vague lists. If you offer hormone therapy, gut health protocols, and IV nutrition, but all three live on one generic services page, you are not giving Google or AI search engines enough to work with.

You are basically saying, “Here is everything we do. Good luck figuring it out.” Which, as a strategy, is not great.

Every core offering needs its own dedicated page. If you want to rank for it, get cited for it, or show up when someone asks an AI tool about it, that service needs a page that clearly explains what it is, who it is for, where it is offered, why your practice is credible, and what the patient should do next.

A strong offering page usually answers:

What is the service?
Who is it for?
What symptoms, conditions, or goals does it relate to?
What happens during the first visit?
Why is this practice qualified to help?
Where is the service offered?
What should someone do next?

2. Weak or irrelevant words in the places that matter most

Your title tag, H1, H2s, and image alt text are some of the highest-leverage spots on your website, and most wellness websites waste them. I constantly see homepages with an H1 like “Welcome to Our Practice,” which tells me nothing. More importantly, it tells Google, ChatGPT, and Perplexity nothing.

If you are a functional medicine doctor in Austin, your H1 should say something closer to “Functional Medicine Doctor in Austin,” not “Helping You Feel Your Best.” That line might sound nice, but it does not help search engines understand what you do. The words you use in key places matter because they define the page, giving search engines and AI systems context about your services, your location, and your relevance.

SEO/AEO Important titles

The biggest places I check first are:

Title tags
H1s
H2s
Meta descriptions
Image alt text
Navigation labels
Internal link anchor text
Service page headings

If Google can’t understand it, why would ChatGPT or Gemini?

3. Social media profiles that are not properly linked to the website

Your Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, TikTok, LinkedIn, or whatever channels you are using should connect back to your website. Your website should also connect back to them.

A practice has an Instagram account posting videos every week, but the profile does not link clearly to the website. Or the website has social icons that go nowhere. Or the YouTube channel exists, but it is disconnected from the actual brand ecosystem. That matters because these links help search engines and AI platforms connect your entities together.

Your website, social profiles, Google Business Profile, doctors, content, services, and location should all reinforce each other. The more connected those signals are, the easier it is for AI and search engines to understand that you are a real, active, trustworthy business.

4. An unoptimized Maps profile with no dedicated content

Your Google Business Profile is often one of the biggest drivers of local calls. Most practices treat it like a digital business card they set up once and forgot about.

How not to do SEO/AEO

The common issues are usually obvious:

No service listings
No fresh photos
No regular posts
Unanswered reviews
Weak or incorrect categories
No clear link between the website and the Google Business Profile
No dedicated website content supporting the services they want to rank for

Then they wonder why a competitor is showing up above them in Maps. AI search still needs trusted local data to understand which businesses are relevant, credible, and worth recommending. If your Google Business Profile is weak, you are making that harder than it needs to be.

How I Start With Every Client

The first thing I want to know is simple: how many calls and leads are coming in right now, where are they coming from, and which services are actually getting found? Most practices do not have a clean answer.

They might know they got a few calls from Google. They might know someone found them through Maps. They might have some GA4 data, some Google Search Console data, a few form fills, and a general feeling that “SEO is working” or “SEO is not working.”

That is not enough. I want to know what is actually happening.

So when I start with a client, I use Cairrot to get the AEO baseline and understand where the practice stands across AI search, traditional search, and crawl activity. This is one of the reasons I use it so heavily.

Getting started with SEO/AEO

I need to see:

Which offerings the practice is visible for
Which regions they are showing up in
Where AI platforms are missing them
How often bots are crawling the site
Which service areas need stronger content
Whether the website is giving search engines and AI tools enough context
What should probably get fixed first

And honestly, it is the best platform I have used for this. Not because it magically does the work for me. It doesn’t. But because it helps me see the gaps faster. That is the whole point of a good platform. It should help you diagnose the problem, prioritize the work, and prove whether the work is actually moving anything.

Before I decide whether we need to rewrite the homepage, build new offering pages, clean up internal links, optimize Google Business Profile, or create high-intent blogs, I want the data.

The AEO KPIs I track in Cairrot

Once the baseline is set, I track three core AEO KPIs inside Cairrot:

Visibility by offering and region
Organic traffic from both search and AI
Crawl activity on the website

These are the numbers that help me understand whether the practice is becoming easier for search engines and AI platforms to find, understand, and recommend.

1. Visibility by offering and region

I don’t just want to know if the website “ranks.” That is too vague. I want to know whether the practice shows up when someone asks ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude, or Google about a specific service in a specific area.

For example, if a functional medicine clinic offers hormone therapy, gut health, thyroid support, and weight loss, I want to know how visible they are for each of those offerings in the market they actually serve.

Same thing for a chiropractor. If they offer sciatica care, prenatal chiropractic, auto accident care, spinal decompression, or neurological rehab, I want to know which of those services AI platforms understand and which ones are basically invisible.

That is where Cairrot is useful. It helps me see the visibility gaps by service and region, not just overall traffic. A typical new client starts around 40/100 on visibility.

2. Organic traffic from both search and AI

Traditional Google traffic still matters. A lot. I don’t buy the “SEO is dead” thing. Usually, when someone says SEO is dead, they are either selling something or they stopped doing SEO well.

But AI traffic matters too. So I use Cairrot to help separate what is happening in traditional search from what is starting to happen across AI platforms. I want to know whether the practice is only getting found in Google, or whether it is also starting to appear in AI-driven discovery paths.

That distinction matters, because if ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude, or Google’s AI Overviews are starting to mention a practice, that is a completely different kind of visibility than a normal blue-link ranking.

3. Crawl activity

Crawl activity is one of the most overlooked metrics. How often are search engine and AI bots actually visiting and reading the site?

You can have the prettiest service page in the world, but if it is not discoverable, crawlable, and connected to the rest of the site, it is just sitting there looking pretty. Which is nice. But pretty does not book calls.

This is where Cairrot helps me understand whether the site is actually being seen by the systems we care about. If crawl activity is weak, that tells me we may need to fix technical access, internal linking, content structure, sitemap issues, or the way important pages are connected. Basically, Cairrot helps me answer the question I care about most at the start of every engagement:

What is stopping this practice from being found? Once I know that, I can prioritize the work.

Sometimes the answer is homepage optimization. Sometimes it is missing offering pages. Sometimes it is Google Business Profile. Sometimes it is internal linking. Sometimes it is content depth. Usually, it is a combination.

I want the baseline, the gaps, and the order of operations.

Here is a full breakdown on why these metrics matter : The AEO Metrics and SEO KPIs That Actually Measure AI Visibility.

My First-Priority AEO Tactics for Wellness Websites

1. Homepage optimization

The homepage gets rewritten around what the practice actually does and where it does it.

That means the page needs to clearly explain the practice, the location, the core offerings, and the next step for a patient.

Optimize homepage for SEO/AEO

Usually, I am looking at:

A keyword-relevant H1
Clear H2s for each core offering
An updated title tag
A stronger meta description
Internal links to the most important service pages
Image alt text that describes real services instead of “IMG_4032”

Search engines use these signals to understand the page. AI systems use structured and repeated context to understand the business. If your homepage is vague, everything downstream gets harder.

2. Offering pages: updated or built from scratch

Each core service gets its own dedicated page written around the actual questions patients ask before they book. Not fluffy service copy. Actual useful information.

A good offering page should explain:

What the service is
Who it is for
What symptoms, goals, or conditions it relates to
What happens during the first visit
What makes the practice credible
Where the service is offered
What someone should do next

The homepage links to offering pages. Offering pages link to related blogs. Blogs link back to service pages. Location pages support regional relevance. Everything points search engines and AI platforms toward the pages we actually want recommended.

With Dr. Condos at Northlakes Chiropractic in northern Minnesota, we focused this entire step on his neuro-intensive programs because that was his highest-value, most differentiated offering. That decision paid off in a way I’ll cover in the results section below.

3. Maps optimization and review responses

This is consistently one of the fastest wins. The Google Business Profile gets fully built out with the details search engines, AI platforms, and real patients need to trust the practice.

That usually includes:

Correct primary and secondary categories
Every important service listed
Fresh photos
Regular posts
Review responses
Updated business information
Links back to the right website pages

And yes, I mean responding to every single review. Good reviews. Bad reviews. Weird reviews. Reviews where someone just leaves five stars and no context, because apparently we are supposed to respond to those too.

Once we implemented Google Business Profile optimization across my wellness clients, they started ranking higher across platforms. The calls that followed were coming from organic visibility instead of thousands of dollars a month in Facebook ads.

4. Video content on socials

Short-form video does two jobs. First, it builds trust with patients. Second, it creates active social proof around the people, services, and topics your practice wants to be known for.

A doctor explaining one condition or treatment on camera is more useful than most polished brand videos. It does not need to be overproduced. Phone-quality is fine.

That could be:

“What causes chronic bloating?”
“How do I know if my thyroid is actually the issue?”
“When should someone see a chiropractor for sciatica?”
“What happens during a functional medicine intake?”
“How long does neurological rehab usually take?”

Those videos can support your site, your social profiles, your brand entity, and your patient trust all at once.

(Northview Agency Client)

5. High-intent blogs

I am not talking about “5 Wellness Tips for Fall.”

I am talking about blogs that answer the exact questions someone asks right before they book.

Questions like:

What does this treatment cost?
How long does it take?
Who is it for?
What should I expect at the first visit?
Is this right for my symptoms?
What are the alternatives?
When should I see a specialist?
How do I know if this is the right next step?

What Results Actually Look Like: 1, 3, and 6 Months

I set expectations honestly with every client. So I’ll do the same here. AEO and SEO are not magic. You do not publish one service page and wake up the next morning with ChatGPT sending you 30 patients.

What usually happens is more gradual. The site becomes easier to crawl. The service pages become clearer. The Google Business Profile gets stronger. AI platforms start getting better context. Rankings move. Visibility improves. Calls start increasing. Then it compounds.

Month 1: Foundation

In the first month, the work usually includes:

Setting up baseline tracking in Cairrot
Reviewing current calls, leads, and traffic sources
Identifying the weakest offering and region visibility gaps
Cleaning up homepage messaging and metadata
Starting or updating the most important offering pages
Improving internal links
Building out the Google Business Profile
Watching crawl activity start to move

Calls may not change much yet, and that is normal. The work is starting to make the business easier for search engines and AI platforms to understand. That is the first step. You have to become understandable before you become recommendable.

Month 3: The inflection point

Month 3 is where it usually gets real. This is the point where I expect to see meaningful movement in visibility, rankings, traffic, and calls.

Dr. Harrison, a functional medicine doctor, came to me getting about 3 new discovery calls per month. Within 90 days of implementing this process, he had his best week ever: 13 new discovery calls in a single week.He was also one of the first clients where I could point directly to an AI platform as part of the patient journey. A new patient found him through Claude.

Dr. Condos at Northlakes Chiropractic saw something we had never seen in his practice before. Right around the 90-day mark, after we built out his neuro-intensive program pages, he started getting calls about those programs from the metro area four hours away.

Patients were willing to drive half a day to see him from a market he had never really reached before. Purely from organic visibility.

Month 6: Compounding

Month 6 is where the work starts compounding.

By this point, the offering pages have aged. Reviews have stacked up. The blog library is deeper. The Google Business Profile has more activity. AI platforms have more content to pull from. The practice is showing up for more offerings in more regions.

By month 6, the strongest clients usually have:

More visibility across specific services
Stronger local rankings
More qualified organic traffic
Better AI search presence
More calls from patients who already understand the offer
Less dependence on paid ads for every lead

Frequently Asked Questions

What’s the difference between AEO and SEO?

SEO is about optimizing your website to rank in traditional search results like Google. AEO, or Answer Engine Optimization, is about optimizing your business to be cited, recommended, and understood by AI platforms like ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, and Google’s AI Overviews.

How long before I see new patients from this?

Usually, I expect foundation work in month 1, meaningful movement by month 3, and compounding results by month 6. Every client is different, but 90 days is the most common inflection point I see.

Do I still need to run ads?

You can. But our main priority is to bring the clinic enough patients so you dont have to.

Does this work for small or rural practices?

Yes. Northlakes Chiropractic is in northern Minnesota and started pulling patients from a metro area four hours away. That matters because it proves a point I care a lot about: specificity beats size.

What is Cairrot, and do I need it?

Cairrot is the AEO tracking platform I use to measure visibility, AI traffic, crawl activity, and where a business is showing up across AI search experiences. Through Cairrot, I can track how a practice shows up across ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude, Google AI Overviews, and other AI search experiences. That gives me a clearer picture than traditional SEO tools alone.

Learn More About AEO for Wellness Brands

If you run a functional medicine, wellness, or chiropractic practice and you want to know where you actually stand, this is where I start. I’ll review your site, pull your baseline visibility, look at your offering pages, check your Google Business Profile, see how connected your social profiles are, and tell you honestly what your first three tactics should be.

The AEO/SEO Guide for Functional Medicine, Wellness, and Chiropractic Practices: My Exact Client Process