The pattern is undeniable
Look at this screenshot.
I searched "Best orthopaedic surgeon in Melbourne" and Google's AI Overview did something fascinating. It didn't just return search results. It actually named surgeons. Mr. Ilan Freedman, Dr. David Sime, Mr. Andrew Gong, Dr. David Slattery, Mr. Surjit Lidder.
And here's where it gets interesting. I went down the rabbit hole. Checked out every single surgeon that got named. And they all have one thing in common.
Every. Single. One. Has their own personal website.
And this should make every surgeon without a personal website deeply uncomfortable: every single one of these surgeons has their own website. Not a profile buried in Epworth's directory. Not a bio page on Melbourne Orthopaedic Group's site. Their own domain. Their own digital real estate. Their own brand.
This isn't coincidence. This is the algorithm telling us exactly what it values.
Google's AI doesn't just match keywords - it reads your story
Something fundamental shifted in 2024 when Google rolled out AI Overviews. The old game was about keywords, backlinks, and technical SEO tricks. The new game is about something much harder to fake: semantic understanding.
Google's AI now reads content the way a human would. It understands context, intent, and relationships between concepts.
It now reads. Like actually reads and comprehends content the way you or I would. It's looking at a webpage and asking: Who is this person? What's their story? Where did they train? What makes them special? Do other credible sources back up what they're claiming?
This is where E-E-A-T becomes critical. Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness. Google has always cared about these signals, but AI Overviews have amplified their importance exponentially. The algorithm isn't just ranking pages anymore, it synthesises and recommends specific people by name. And it's only recommending people it trusts.
Think about what that means for a surgeon relying on a hospital profile page. That page wasn't written to tell your story. It wasn't optimised to communicate your unique training, your fellowship in Switzerland or Harvard, your subspecialty in anterior hip replacement. It's a template. A generic bio alongside fifteen other surgeons. The AI reads it and sees... nothing distinctive. Nothing that screams "this is a top surgeon worth recommending."
I did the research. The pattern is obvious.
So I looked up every surgeon Google's AI recommended. And man, the pattern is so clear it's almost funny.
Mr. Ilan Freedman? He's got melbournehipsurgeon.com.au. His whole site tells this story about training in Paris with some renowned hip surgeon named Dr. Frederic Laude at Clinique du Sport, plus another fellowship in the UK. It positions him as the anterior approach guy. The kinematic alignment knee guy. Very specific. Very memorable.
Dr. David Sime? He's got davidsime.com.au. His narrative is all about his Masters from University of Edinburgh, fellowship at Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, then sports knee surgery at Fortius Clinic in London - which is apparently a FIFA-certified centre of excellence. Site mentions he worked with English Premier League players and Olympic athletes.
I can keep going...
That's not generic hospital bio energy. That's story. That's what keeps you reading and interested.
Five surgeons. Five personal websites. 100% correlation.
Every single one controls their own narrative. Every single one has a platform that tells their unique story, their approach to surgery, their sub-specialty. And crucially, every single one appears in Google's AI Overview when someone searches for the best orthopaedic surgeon in Melbourne.
The surgeons on hospital profile pages? Nowhere to be seen.
Here's what's actually happening under the hood
Okay so let me nerd out for a second because this is actually fascinating.
Google's AI is trying to answer a genuinely hard question: "Who are the best orthopaedic surgeons in Melbourne?" To answer that, it needs what the SEO people call "semantic authority". This is basically a clear, consistent signal that a person is actually expert in a thing.
When your information is scattered across hospital directories and group practice websites and random aggregator listings, the AI sees fragmented signals. It can't build a coherent picture. Each source tells a slightly different story. Different emphasis. Different details. It's noise.
But when you have your own website? You control the whole narrative.
You decide which subspecialties to emphasise. You decide how to frame your training. You decide which keywords appear naturally and repeatedly. You create one authoritative source that the AI can actually trust.
Your personal website, done right, becomes that authoritative source.
The language trick the top surgeons use
Here's something subtle I noticed looking at the sites that rank well.
They use language strategically. Not keyword stuffing - that's dead. But deliberate semantic signalling.
Dr. David Sime's website naturally works in phrases like "top knee surgeon" and "leading knee surgeon in Melbourne" throughout his content. Not crammed in awkwardly. Woven into genuine descriptions of his practice. One page talks about his work as a specialist knee surgeon. Another covers ACL reconstruction. Another discusses robotic knee replacement.
Each mention reinforces the connection between his name and knee surgery expertise. The AI sees these patterns across multiple pages and builds confidence: okay, this person is genuinely a leading knee specialist.
Now think about how patients actually search. Nobody types "orthopaedic surgeon with fellowship training in arthroscopic procedures of the lower extremity." They type "top knee surgeon Melbourne" or "best ACL doctor near me."
Normal human language. Words like "top" and "best."
When your website uses this same language naturally in real content about your actual experience, you're speaking to both audiences. Patients find it relatable. The AI finds the signals it needs.
The numbers are kind of scary
AI Overviews now show up in over 50% of all Google searches.
Ten months ago? That number was 25%.
This thing is accelerating fast. And the surgeons who show up in these AI answers didn't get there by accident. They built websites that tell their story. They created content that establishes authority. They played the long game.
The surgeons without personal websites? They're basically invisible in the searches that matter most. When someone types "best hip surgeon Melbourne" and Google's AI generates an answer, you're not in it. You can't be. There's no authoritative source for the AI to pull from. No story for it to tell.
You could be the most skilled surgeon in your specialty. You could have trained at the best institutions on earth. You could have outcomes that blow everyone else away.
What this means for your digital future
AI Overviews now appear in over 50% of all Google searches. That number was 25% just ten months ago. By the time you read this, it's probably higher still. This isn't a trend that's going to reverse. This is the future of search.
And the surgeons who show up in these AI-generated answers aren't there by accident. They've invested in their own digital presence. They've built websites that tell their unique story. They've created content that establishes semantic authority across their subspecialties.
The surgeons who don't have personal websites? They're essentially invisible in the most important searches. When a patient types "best hip surgeon Melbourne" and Google's AI generates an answer, that answer won't include you. It can't. There's no authoritative source for the AI to pull from. No coherent narrative for it to synthesise. No semantic signals for it to trust.
You might be the most skilled surgeon in your specialty. You might have trained at the best institutions. You might have outcomes that rival anyone in the country. But if Google's AI doesn't know your story, you don't exist in the moments that matter most - when patients are actively searching for someone like you.
The uncomfortable reality
Here's the uncomfortable reality: the surgeons winning at this game aren't necessarily better surgeons. They're surgeons who understood earlier that digital presence is now part of the game. They invested in their own platform. They wrote content that speaks to both patients and algorithms. They played the long game while everyone else was hoping the old rules would stick around.
The good news? It's not too late. The patterns are clear. The playbook is visible. Google's AI rewards personal websites that demonstrate genuine expertise, tell compelling stories, and establish semantic authority through consistent, authentic content.
The question is whether you're going to build that digital foundation or continue hoping that a hospital profile page will somehow be enough in an AI-driven search landscape.
Want to build something that actually gets you recommended?
At BusyBeeDoc, we build websites specifically for surgeons who want to show up when AI does the answering. We get how Google evaluates authority, how semantic signals work, and how to tell your story in a way that both patients and algorithms trust.
If you're tired watching less qualified surgeons show up in AI Overviews while you stay invisible, let's fix that. Check out busybeedoc.com and see how we help surgeons own their digital presence in the AI era.