How Patients Find (and Trust) Health Info

Your patients aren't Googling you and landing on your website anymore. That foundation has shifted, and as healthcare marketers, the moment we've been nervously anticipating is officially here.In this week's episode, Hedy & Hopp’s CEO & Founder Jenny Bristow talksabout how patients are actually finding and trusting health information today,what that means for your content strategy, and what to do about it.The AI Search Shift:The numbers tell the story: ● 88% of healthcare-related queries now trigger an AI Overviewat the top of Google search results● Organic click-throughs drop more than 50% when one appears● Healthcare site referral traffic from Google is down about35% year over year● 1 in 4 adults are now using AI tools for health information● About 40% of patients use AI directly to research providersWhat Triggers an AI Overview:AI Overviews are most commonly triggered by longer, more specific,research-style queries — showing up 74% of the time for those, compared to 36%for short queries. A search like "dermatologist near me" may be unaffected for now. But "how can I tell if a mole on my arm is potentially cancerous?" is almost certain to trigger one. The goal shifts from ranking in the top three to being cited, and that's where Answer Engine Optimization(AEO), also called GEO, comes in.The EEAT Model:Google and AI tools evaluate health content through the lens of Experience,Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness (EEAT). Real clinician involvement, cited sources, and dated reviews are three of the most important signals for showing up in AI Overviews. The good news: educational content hasalways performed better with patients too. Educational posts historically get 2 to 3 times more engagement than promotional ones, and patients who engage witheducational content are 60% more likely to book and 40% more likely to referothers.What to Actually Do About It:Start with an audit of your last quarter of content and ask: what percentage is "why you should choose us" versus "here's something useful to know?" From there, build content structured around real patient questions,lead with the answer up top, add schema markup so AI can parse your content, get clinicians visibly credited with bylines and review stamps, and keep yourstats and clinical information current.Connect with Jenny:Email: [email protected]: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennybristow/If you enjoyed this episode, we'd love to hear your feedback! Please consider leaving us a review on your preferred listening platform and sharing it with others.