How visible are South Bay medspas in AI search?

1 · What we measured

For each practice we ran roughly 28 real patient-style queries — “best botox in [city]”, “where to get filler near me”, cost and comparison questions — against each of the five engines, and recorded whether the practice was named in the answer. Google AI Overviews runs on a smaller set of 16 queries, because Google only shows an AI Overview for some searches. We counted verified runs only.

Seven practices is a small, early sample — directional, not the last word — but the pattern is already clear, and the ranks span from #1 in their local set down to the bottom third.

2 · Most practices are missing from most AI answers

Across the seven practices, the typical clinic appeared in only about a quarter to a third of answers on the conversational engines:

• ChatGPT — named the practice in ~32% of answers
• Claude — ~29%
• Gemini — ~29%
• Perplexity — ~25%
• Google AI Overviews — ~2%

In other words, for the questions patients actually ask, the average practice was absent roughly two out of three times — even on its best engine.

3 · Google AI Overviews barely names anyone

The starkest number is Google AI Overviews — the AI summary at the very top of a normal Google search. Across all seven practices, the local clinic appeared in under 2% of those answers, and six of the seven were absent entirely.

But this is not the clinics uniquely failing. We read the actual Overviews: for medspa questions, Google’s AI Overview tends to answer generically — typical price ranges, what to expect — and names very few specific clinics for anyone. So the box most patients see first rarely recommends a medspa at all. Nobody is winning it yet, which makes it an opening rather than a dead end.

4 · The engines disagree — so one tool can’t measure this

A practice can be highly visible on one engine and invisible on another. One clinic in our sample appeared in 89% of Perplexity answers but only 13% of Google AI Overviews. Another showed up in 64% of ChatGPT answers and 0% of Google AI Overviews. Checking a single surface would give you a badly wrong picture either way — which is why we measure all five.

5 · Ranking #1 locally does not mean AI recommends you

Two of the practices we audited rank #1 in their local set. They still missed 40–100% of answers on individual engines, and one appeared in 0 of 16 Google AI Overview queries. Being the best-known clinic in town is not the same as being the one AI names.

6 · What this means for your medspa

Patients increasingly ask AI for recommendations, and the answer is a short list — there is no page two. If you are not on it, you are not in the running for that patient. The good news: most local practices are barely visible, so the field is wide open, and the signals that move these engines — consistent structured data, a named human behind the brand, third-party mentions and reviews — are buildable.

That is what we measure and fix. A full AI visibility audit scores your practice across all five engines — ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Google AI Overviews, and Perplexity — and ranks the fixes by projected lift. The methodology explains exactly how.

7 · Methodology and limits

Seven practices is an early, convenience sample — the practices we have audited so far — with local ranks spanning #1 to the bottom third. Google AI Overviews is measured on fewer queries (16) by design, because it does not appear for every search. These are single-snapshot measurements, and the engines change continuously. We will update these numbers as the sample grows, and we do not name the audited practices.