AI Overviews for Healthcare Marketers: Insights From Our 100+ Keyword Analysis
Google’s AI Overviews have emerged as a prominent feature in the digital search landscape, particularly for healthcare-related queries. These automated summaries appear at the top of search engine results pages (SERPs), offering users quick answers drawn from various sources. For healthcare marketers, understanding how these AI Overviews function—and how they differ from traditional search results—has become essential for navigating this shifting space.
Our analysis of over 100 healthcare URLs has uncovered valuable insights that challenge common assumptions about AI Overviews and provides a clear path forward for healthcare content creators.
Research Methodology
We used a comprehensive two-part approach to understand the relationship between AI Overviews and traditional search results for healthcare content:
- We developed a custom crawler to map AI Overviews for healthcare queries, capturing data from both the overviews themselves and the corresponding first and second page SERP results.
- We analyzed multiple factors including reading level (using the Flesch Reading Score), word count, domain types, page structure elements, and structured data presence.
This approach allowed us to identify patterns specific to healthcare content in AI Overviews and determine which factors correlate with inclusion in these prominent search features.
Key Findings: The Fundamentals That Matter
Our analysis revealed several key insights about healthcare content in AI Overviews:
Reading Level Consistency: The average reading score and level remains nearly identical between AI Overview results and regular SERP results. Both maintain an approximately 8th-grade reading level, suggesting that content complexity is not a major differentiating factor for inclusion in AI Overviews.
Word Count Differences: AI Overview featured content averages 1,706 words—145 words less than the average for all SERP results (1,851 words). This indicates that while comprehensive content is important, extreme length may not be necessary for AI Overview inclusion.
Title, H1, and URL Structure: These elements showed consistent patterns across both AI Overviews and general SERP results, reinforcing the importance of basic SEO fundamentals.
Domain Preferences: For healthcare terms, .org domains appeared more frequently in AI Overviews compared to other search results, where .com domains predominated. This suggests Google may give additional weight to .org sites for healthcare information in AI Overviews, potentially reflecting a preference for non-commercial sources of medical information.
Page Structure Elements: Every piece of content featured in AI Overviews contained H1 tags and proper title elements, while some regular SERP results lacked these basic structural components.
Structured Data Presence: 76% of content featured in AI Overviews included structured data, while 24% did not. This suggests structured data provides an advantage but is not an absolute requirement.
Cross-Page Visibility: 50.5% of links on the first page of search results also appeared in AI Overviews, compared to 28.7% from the second page. This indicates that while front-page content has a better chance of appearing in AI Overviews, second-page content still has meaningful opportunities for inclusion.
How AI Overviews Actually Work
A deep dive into Google’s patents for AI-generated content reveals a fascinating insight into how AI Overviews function. Contrary to what many might assume, Google’s AI system first creates its response to a query and then searches for sources to support that response—not the other way around.
This “response-first” approach has significant implications for content creators. Rather than simply hoping your content will be sourced for AI Overviews, understanding what the AI system is likely to generate for a particular query can help you align your content with those potential responses.
Healthcare queries in particular see an extremely high presence of AI Overviews—with informational health queries showing AI Overviews approximately 99.2% of the time. This prevalence makes understanding the system especially critical for healthcare marketers.
However, this high rate of AI-generated content for healthcare information raises important concerns about the risk of AI hallucinations—instances where the AI generates plausible but incorrect or misleading information. This is particularly concerning in the healthcare space, where accuracy is paramount.
Strategic Implications for Healthcare Content
Our findings reinforce that solid SEO fundamentals remain essential. Content that performs well in AI Overviews generally demonstrates:
- Proper page structure with appropriate heading hierarchy
- Clear, direct answers to common questions
- Appropriate reading level for the target audience (typically around 8th grade)
- Authoritative domain extensions, with .org having an edge for healthcare topics
- Implementation of relevant structured data
The 50.5% overlap between front-page results and AI Overview sources suggests that optimizing for traditional search ranking still provides significant benefits for AI Overview visibility.
However, the “response-first” methodology of AI Overviews opens new strategic possibilities. Healthcare marketers should consider:
- Conducting AI Overview “gap analyses” by comparing existing content against what appears in AI Overviews for target keywords
- Aligning content with the topics and points commonly addressed in AI Overviews for relevant queries
Ensuring content directly addresses user intent while maintaining accuracy and authority
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Future Considerations
User testing reveals interesting patterns in how people interact with AI Overviews. Many users initially perceive these features as advertisements and may skip over them. Others rely heavily on the overviews without clicking through to source material. This varied user behavior suggests that while AI Overview presence is valuable, it doesn’t eliminate the need for traditional search visibility.
Since our initial research, we’ve already observed evolution in Google’s implementation of AI Overviews, including:
- Features appearing in other parts of the SERP
- Expanded availability to younger users
- Removal of the sign-in requirement to view AI Overviews
These rapid changes underscore the need for ongoing monitoring and adaptation as AI features continue to evolve.
Recommendations for Healthcare Content Teams
Based on our findings, we recommend healthcare content teams take the following practical steps:
Conduct an AI Overview Audit: For your highest-priority keywords, analyze what AI Overviews currently display and identify gaps between your content and these summaries.
Optimize Fundamentals First: Ensure all content follows SEO best practices with proper structure, clear answers to user questions, and appropriate reading levels.
Implement Structured Data: While not essential, structured data provides an advantage for AI Overview inclusion.
Consider Domain Strategy: For healthcare information, .org domains appear to have an advantage in AI Overviews. Consider this when planning domain strategies.
Monitor AI Overview Presence: Track which of your content appears in AI Overviews and how this correlates with other performance metrics.
Coordinate SEO and Advertising Efforts: As AI Overviews alter the visibility of traditional search results, ensure that SEO and paid search strategies complement each other.
Final Thoughts
Our analysis reveals that AI Overviews for healthcare content largely reward the same quality signals that have always been important for search visibility—authoritative content that directly addresses user needs with clear structure and appropriate reading levels.
However, the unique “response-first” methodology used by Google’s AI systems creates both challenges and opportunities for healthcare marketers. By understanding how AI Overviews generate content and then match sources, marketers can better align their content with these increasingly prominent search features.
In this shifting landscape, maintaining flexibility and continuing to monitor changes will be essential for healthcare content teams seeking to maintain and grow their search visibility. The principles of providing clear, authoritative, well-structured information remain fundamental—even as the mechanisms for delivering that information to users continue to evolve.
