Yes, ranking on Google still matters, because AI answer engines like ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews largely pull from the same web signals that determine traditional search rankings. A hematology/oncology practice with weak search visibility gives these AI tools less accurate, less current information to work with when a patient asks "who treats multiple myeloma near me." Strong search presence and strong AI visibility are not competing priorities — one feeds the other.
How traditional rankings and AI answers connect
Search engines and AI answer tools both crawl the web, index practice websites, read reviews, and reference directories to build a picture of who a clinic is and what it treats. AI Overviews and chatbot answers are generated by summarizing sources that already rank well or appear consistently across trusted platforms. If a hematology/oncology practice's website is thin, outdated, or hard for search engines to understand, AI tools have less reliable material to draw from when a patient asks about treatment options or local specialists.
This is not a coincidence of how the technology happens to work right now — it is structural. A practice that has never invested in that foundation is starting from behind in both systems at once, not just one.
Patients also rarely use only one tool. Someone diagnosed with a blood cancer might ask ChatGPT a general question about treatment centers, then open Google to check reviews and confirm the practice accepts their insurance, then search the practice name directly to look at physician bios. Each of those touchpoints depends on the practice showing up clearly and consistently. A gap in any one of them — a Google Business Profile that hasn't been updated, a website that loads slowly, physician credentials that are hard to find — weakens the whole chain a patient follows before booking a consultation.
Why abandoning search would hurt AI visibility
Stepping back from search optimization on the assumption that AI has replaced it would actually reduce how often a practice appears in AI-generated answers, because those answers are built substantially from the same crawled, indexed, and cited content that supports search rankings. A practice that stops maintaining its site or ignores its online reviews becomes harder for both systems to recommend, not easier.
Some oncology practice owners hear about AI search and assume it operates independently of Google, so keeping up with search rankings feels like chasing an older priority. That assumption creates risk. AI answer engines do not have an independent, separate index of medical practices — they lean on the existing web, including the same directories, review platforms, and websites that search engines rank. A practice that lets its digital presence go stale is not just falling behind on Google; it is becoming less visible to every AI tool that references Google's index or similar underlying data.
There's also a trust dimension specific to oncology. Patients researching a hematology or oncology diagnosis are often making a high-stakes decision under emotional strain, and they look for signals of credibility: board certifications, patient outcomes described in reviews, clear explanations of treatment approaches, and physician bios that establish expertise. Both search engines and AI tools weigh these credibility signals when deciding what to show or cite. A practice that has stopped tending to that information is quietly losing ground in front of the exact audience it most needs to reach — people trying to decide, often quickly, who will manage their care.
What a combined presence looks like for a cancer clinic
A combined presence means the practice's website, Google Business Profile, physician bios, and patient reviews are accurate and specific enough that both a human clicking through search results and an AI tool summarizing an answer arrive at the same clear, correct picture of what the practice offers. For a hematology/oncology clinic, this looks like clearly named subspecialties, current physician credentials, plain-language descriptions of treatments offered, and reviews that reflect real patient experiences.
Concretely, this means a website that names specific conditions treated (leukemia, lymphoma, myeloma, solid tumor oncology, infusion services) rather than only general terms like "cancer care," because specificity helps both search engines and AI tools match the practice to a patient's specific question. It means physician bios that state board certifications, fellowship training, and areas of focus in a way that's easy to find and easy to quote. It means a Google Business Profile with correct hours, locations, and services, since inconsistent or outdated listing information creates confusion that both systems struggle to resolve in the practice's favor.
It also means patient reviews are current and substantive. A three-year-old review pool with no recent additions signals staleness to both a human reader deciding where to go and an AI system judging which practices are actively serving patients well. Encouraging patients to leave specific, recent feedback about their experience supports visibility in both traditional search results and AI-generated summaries, because recency and specificity are exactly what both systems reward.
None of this requires a practice to master new technology or run parallel campaigns for "AI search" versus "Google search." It requires treating the practice's existing digital presence — website, listings, reviews, physician information — as a single asset that both systems read from.
Where to focus limited time
For an oncology practice with limited administrative time, the highest-value focus is keeping the core information accurate and complete: physician credentials, subspecialties, locations, hours, and patient reviews. These same details support both traditional search ranking and AI-generated answers, so fixing gaps here produces returns in both places at once rather than requiring separate effort for each channel.
Start with the Google Business Profile, since it is often the first and most frequently updated source both patients and AI tools reference for hours, location, and services. Next, review the practice website for outdated physician information, vague service descriptions, or slow load times, since these issues affect how easily any system, human or AI, can understand and recommend the practice. Finally, build a habit of encouraging and responding to patient reviews, since a thin or stagnant review profile is one of the clearest signals of a practice that isn't actively managing its visibility.
Practices with more than one location or multiple specialists should also confirm that each physician and each location has distinct, accurate representation online.
A quick self-audit before you decide what to fix
Before assuming your visibility is fine, or assuming it's a lost cause, answer these plainly:
- If you searched your own practice name on Google right now, would the hours, locations, and services listed be correct?
- Do your physician bios clearly state subspecialties and credentials in language a worried patient could quickly understand?
- When was the last time a patient left a review, and does your current review profile reflect the practice as it operates today?
- If you asked an AI tool "who treats your specific subspecialty near me," would you expect your practice to come up — and would you be comfortable with what it might say if it did?