A growing share of fertility patients now ask an AI assistant "who is the best IVF doctor near me?" before they ever open Google. If ChatGPT and Gemini do not know your clinic exists, you are invisible in the conversation that increasingly decides the shortlist. Here is how to get recommended.
Get recommended by AI by building the clinic and doctor as a well-defined, consistent entity across the web, adding structured data that machines can read, earning mentions and reviews on trusted third-party sources, and publishing answer-first content that directly answers the questions patients ask. Consistency and authority get you cited; a website alone does not.
GEO, generative engine optimisation, is the practice of getting recommended inside AI assistants. AEO, answer engine optimisation, is closely related, earning a place inside the direct answers of ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Google's AI Overviews. In fertility the stakes are high, because when a patient asks an assistant to name a good IVF doctor in their city, the two or three clinics it lists become the shortlist, and everyone else is simply not in the room. For the difference between these and classic search, see GEO vs AEO vs SEO and what answer engine optimisation is.
Assistants do not have a ranking page you can climb. They assemble an answer from what they understand about the world. Four things make your clinic understandable and trustworthy to them:
| Signal | What it means for a clinic |
|---|---|
| Entity clarity | The doctor and clinic exist as a clearly defined, consistent entity, same name, credentials and details everywhere online |
| Structured data | Physician, MedicalClinic and FAQ schema that state the facts machines rely on |
| Third-party corroboration | Mentions, listings, reviews and profiles on sources the AI already trusts, not just your own site |
| Answer-first content | Pages that answer real patient questions directly, in language an assistant can lift into its reply |
In fertility, patients and AI alike orient around the doctor, not the brand, which is why GEO and personal branding reinforce each other. The specialist has to exist consistently across their website, Google Business Profile, medical directories, professional bodies, YouTube and LinkedIn, backed by content that answers real patient questions directly and honestly, and by a steady flow of genuine reviews. The more an assistant sees the same trustworthy story everywhere, the more confidently it names the clinic. Assembling that corroboration, compliantly and consistently, is the actual work, and it is what our personal branding and SEO, GEO and AEO services exist to do.
NPR Design runs the SEO, GEO and AEO programme for Dr. Pratik Tambe alongside his website, personal branding and paid performance ads. Building him as a consistent, well-corroborated entity, from structured data to a video-led personal brand, helped establish him as a recognised fertility authority and brought a steady stream of new IVF enquiries.
See the work page and the Restore Dental case study for how authority and reputation compound into search visibility.
The next "near me" search may not happen on Google at all. It will happen in a chat window, and only the clinics the AI knows will be named.
GEO, generative engine optimisation, is the practice of getting a clinic and its doctor recommended inside AI assistants like ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews. It overlaps with AEO, answer engine optimisation. Instead of ranking a blue link, the goal is to be the clinic the AI names when someone asks it to recommend a fertility specialist.
They draw on how well-defined and consistent your entity is across the web, structured data, mentions and reviews on trusted third-party sources, and clear answer-first content that directly addresses the question. A doctor who is a recognised entity with consistent information everywhere is far more likely to be cited than one who only exists on their own website.
They share foundations like structured data and authority, but the goal differs. SEO earns rankings on search result pages; GEO and AEO earn a place inside the AI-generated answer. A fertility clinic needs both, because patients now research through both search results and AI assistants before they enquire. See GEO vs AEO vs SEO.
Citations inside AI answers typically begin to appear three to six months after consistent entity building, structured data, content and reputation work. It compounds with SEO, so the two are best run together rather than as separate projects.