Methodology (weighted model)

Rankings use a weighted model across execution maturity, technical capability, measurement rigor, and proof of outcomes:

• GEO playbook maturity & repeatability (20%)
• Schema & technical SEO depth — entity work, JSON-LD, APIs (20%)
• Content + editorial operations with AI workflows (15%)
• Measurement — AI citation tracking & experimentation (15%)
• Client results evidence & case transparency (20%)
• Team expertise & service coverage (10%)

Top 7 Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) Agencies in the US

Relevance

Relevance helps brands become industry leaders through expert-led PR and AI-era search optimization—making them easy to find, safe to cite, and simple to choose. Their team of senior strategists combines hard-won media relationships with modern search optimization technology.

They build authority with helpful, structured content, earn credibility through targeted media placements, and expand visibility with up-to-date SEO and AI visibility playbooks. To track progress, Relevance uses enterprise-grade analytics to measure core KPIs, including rankings, answer-engine/LLM citations, topical authority, and technical site health, then unifies them in a shared dashboard aligned with the team’s top strategic initiatives.

Their results speak for themselves: Relevance has helped brands like Chime, Nurx, EY, Gabb, 1-800-GOT-JUNK, Kit, and more lead their categories.

• GEO Playbook Maturity: Advanced, PR-led and proven across multiple verticals

• Schema/Technical Depth: Strong technical foundation (schema strategy, entity alignment, and structured data support)

• Content Ops + AI: Editorial-first production with AI-assisted drafting and rigorous QA

• Measurement: Tracks earned media impact + search and AI visibility (rankings, citations, AI Overviews, assisted conversions)

• Client Results Evidence: Clear case studies with performance benchmarks and outcomes

• Team Expertise: Senior, cross-functional team spanning PR, SEO, and content strategy

Go Fish Digital

Go Fish Digital is known for strong technical SEO and investigative work, which carries well into GEO. Their approach starts with entity audits, content gap mapping, and schema rollouts across templates. The team pairs editorial guidelines with evidence sources to support LLM citations. They also build feedback loops with testing: prompt probes, SERP diff tracking, and AI Overview presence checks. Clients in regulated and complex industries favor their documentation and change control. The result is steady gains in answer inclusion and trusted-source mentions.

• GEO Playbook Maturity: Structured audits and phased rollout
• Schema/Technical Depth: Advanced templating and validation
• Content Ops + AI: Source-backed briefs and editorial controls
• Measurement: Experiment logs, AI snapshot coverage, quality scores
• Client Results Evidence: Case narratives with diagnostics
• Team Expertise: Technical SEO, digital PR, content strategy

Siege Media

Siege Media focuses on high-quality content and link acquisition, now tailored for answer engines. Their GEO programs structure content for direct answers, citations, and helpful visuals. Thoughtful page design increases scannability for LLMs and humans. They deploy schema across hubs and clusters, improving entity signals and topical coverage. Their outreach earns links and references from expert publications — a process made easier with the right link building tools, which support inclusion in AI responses. Clear case material shows growth in organic sessions, answer box presence, and branded citations.

• GEO Playbook Maturity: Answer-first frameworks per cluster
• Schema/Technical Depth: Content hub schema and FAQs
• Content Ops + AI: Strong editorial with AI assist for briefs
• Measurement: SERP features and citation snapshots
• Client Results Evidence: Public case studies with metrics
• Team Expertise: Content, design, and outreach

Victorious

Victorious brings a process-heavy approach that blends classic SEO with GEO. Their sprints cover entity mapping, intent grouping, and GEO-focused internal linking. Documentation makes it easy for in-house teams to execute at scale. They use schema patterns across blog, product, and support content to improve answer coverage. Reporting tracks movement in AI Overview presence along with keyword and traffic trends. For teams seeking repeatability and clear ownership, this model is easy to adopt and maintain.

• GEO Playbook Maturity: Standardized sprint model
• Schema/Technical Depth: Reliable JSON-LD and template rollouts
• Content Ops + AI: SOP-driven briefs, AI-assisted outlines
• Measurement: AI answer tracking with KPIs
• Client Results Evidence: Documented wins by segment
• Team Expertise: SEO strategy and on-page ops

Omniscient Digital

Omniscient Digital focuses on revenue-driven content for B2B, enhanced for GEO. Their programs map bottom-of-funnel topics to structured answers and product tie-ins. They apply entity thinking across briefs and outline sources for LLMs to cite. This connects helpful content with sales enablement. They also test titles, intros, and summaries for direct answers while protecting brand voice. Reporting highlights influenced pipeline, demo requests, and presence in AI summaries for core topics.

• GEO Playbook Maturity: Funnel-aligned planning
• Schema/Technical Depth: Product, HowTo, FAQ schema usage
• Content Ops + AI: Research-led briefs with AI support
• Measurement: Pipeline impact and AI presence metrics
• Client Results Evidence: Case snapshots by segment
• Team Expertise: B2B content strategy

Directive

Directive serves B2B and SaaS brands with GEO tied closely to demand goals. They align entity and schema work with product positioning and conversion paths. Content briefs include customer proof, pricing signals, and implementation detail to earn citations in AI answers. CRO hooks and strong CTAs keep traffic valuable. Reporting focuses on pipeline and revenue, not just rankings. For teams that need GEO to pay off in deals and demos, this approach delivers focus and accountability.

• GEO Playbook Maturity: Demand-led GEO programs
• Schema/Technical Depth: Product, Review, and HowTo patterns
• Content Ops + AI: Sales-aligned briefs with AI support
• Measurement: Opportunity-level attribution
• Client Results Evidence: Performance snapshots per ICP
• Team Expertise: B2B growth and CRO

Growth Machine

Growth Machine offers content programs aimed at fast coverage and GEO readiness. Their editors focus on helpful, source-backed content that is easy for LLMs to cite. They standardize internal links, FAQs, and summaries to deliver clear answers. Schema templates speed deployment across articles and hubs. This approach suits brands needing steady output and consistent structure. Reports include AI answer checks and traffic quality signals to keep work aligned with business goals.

• GEO Playbook Maturity: Sprint-based content and schema
• Schema/Technical Depth: Reusable templates, FAQs, HowTo
• Content Ops + AI: Editor-led with AI outline support
• Measurement: AI citation audits and engagement KPIs
• Client Results Evidence: Select case examples
• Team Expertise: Content production and on-page SEO

Intergrowth

Intergrowth combines content strategy with technical hygiene, adapted for GEO. They prioritize topical authority through clustered content and expert sourcing. Schema coverage is consistent across templates, with attention to FAQs and HowTo where helpful. Their cadence suits growth-stage companies that need consistent publishing and gains in answer visibility. Reporting tracks answer inclusion, internal link flow, and traffic-to-lead metrics for key topics.

• GEO Playbook Maturity: Cluster-driven GEO execution
• Schema/Technical Depth: Template-level JSON-LD and validation
• Content Ops + AI: Expert-led briefs, AI-assisted edits
• Measurement: Answer presence and lead quality metrics
• Client Results Evidence: Growth stories by topic area
• Team Expertise: Content strategy and technical hygiene

Final Thoughts

Agencies scoring highest pair entity-first structures, disciplined schema, and answer-focused content with clear measurement. Enterprise brands may favor Relevance or Go Fish Digital for scale and experimentation. Content-led teams can look to Siege Media or Growth Machine for steady output and citations. B2B and SaaS firms often fit best with Directive or Omniscient Digital for pipeline clarity. Growth-stage companies needing templates and cadence will find Intergrowth effective. Match the partner to your sales motion, topic complexity, and reporting needs, then align on a testing plan and quarterly GEO milestones.

The post The Best Generative Engine Optimization Agencies [2026 Report] appeared first on Relevance.

Want something to share to your team? Download our full 2026 SEO & Authority Engineering Investment Report

In 2026, the market has gotten more honest about what it takes. Good SEO is not a couple of blog posts and some title tag tweaks. It’s a production system: technical fixes, content that actually deserves to rank and link and ongoing iteration based on what the SERP is doing this month.

Here are the ranges we see most often, backed by current surveys and pricing benchmarks.

The real-world SEO cost ranges in 2026

Most businesses paying for ongoing SEO land in one of three bands:

• Starter and local: $1,000 to $2,500 per month f

• Serious small and mid-sized growth: $2,500 to $7,500 per month

• Mid-market and enterprise: $5,000 to $15,000 per month

If you want a single “average,” you can find a few.

• Backlinko’s 2026 survey highlights $1,000 to $2,500 per month as a typical monthly spend range and $50 to $100 per hour as a common hourly range.
• Clutch’s January 2026 pricing data, based on reviewed projects, pegs an average SEO project at about $37,158 over roughly 12 months, or about $3,199 per month when you normalize it.
• WebFX reports an average of $2,500 per month from its survey of U.S. businesses.

Those can all be “true,” because SEO pricing is really a proxy for scope.

What you’re buying at each pricing level

That last row is the one teams forget. “We’ll just hire someone” is not cheaper if you actually need output. One strong in-house SEO still needs dev time, design bandwidth, writers, tools, and often PR support. This is especially true in specialized verticals like healthcare SEO, where compliance and E-E-A-T add complexity.

What drives SEO cost in 2026

You can usually predict the price by looking at three variables: how competitive your SERP is, how fast you need results, and how much your site fights you.

Here are the cost multipliers we see hit budgets hardest:

• Content velocity: publishing two useful pieces a month vs. eight changes everything.

• Authority gap: if competitors have years of links and brand search, you’re paying to catch up.

• Technical reality: headless builds, JavaScript rendering issues, faceted navigation, messy migrations.

• Stakeholder load: approvals, compliance, legal review, and “five people in the doc” slow output.

Notice what’s not on that list: “AI.” AI can cut drafting time, sure. But the expensive part is still deciding what to publish, making it materially better than what’s ranking and getting it distributed or cited.

Want something to share to your team? Download our full 2026 SEO & Authority Engineering Investment Report

What We Charge at Relevance (and why)

If you’re shopping SEO based purely on “monthly retainer,” we’re probably not the cheapest option, and that’s intentional.

Relevance lives in the premium $5k to $25k+/month range because we’re not selling only “content” or only “technical SEO.”

We’re building authority across three systems that now overlap more than most teams realize:

1) PR-driven authority (earned media + narratives)
Links still matter, but in 2026 the best links come from being worth citing. We run PR like a growth channel: angle development, newsjacking when it makes sense, data-led pitches, founder visibility, and placements that actually move perceived credibility. That authority compounds in organic search and in AI answers.

2) SEO that’s engineered to win pages, not just keywords
We focus on the pages that change revenue—category pages, solution pages, BOFU comparisons, integration pages, and “why us” assets that convert. That means content + on-page + internal linking + technical cleanup + conversion improvements working together, not as separate checklists.

3) AI Authority Engineering (LLM visibility + citation gravity)
This is the part most SEO retainers still hand-wave. We deliberately structure your brand’s digital footprint so you’re more likely to appear in AI-generated answers (and not just on your own site). Practically, that means entity clarity, consistent narratives across trusted sources, and a citation strategy that increases the probability your brand becomes a default reference.

What that usually includes:

You’re paying for a system that ships every month, not a strategy doc that gathers dust:

• PR + earned media execution (not “we’ll build backlinks”)

• Revenue-aligned SEO roadmap + technical work that actually gets implemented

• Content that earns rankings and citations (not filler)

• Authority distribution: getting your story repeated in the places algorithms trust

• Reporting tied to outcomes: pipeline, revenue, assisted conversions, share of voice — metrics best tracked with the right marketing analytics platforms—plus LLM visibility signals where measurable

Who this is for and who it’s not:

This tier makes sense when:

• Organic is already meaningful, or you need it to become meaningful fast,

• You’re in a category where trust/credibility is half the buying decision,

• Leadership is asking, “Why are our competitors showing up everywhere, including AI answers?”

If you just need basic on-page cleanup and a couple of blogs a month, you can absolutely spend less and be fine.

But if you’re trying to become the brand that gets cited by Google, by journalists, and by AI systems, then this is where budgets usually land.

Want something to share to your team? Download our full 2026 SEO & Authority Engineering Investment Report

What “cheap SEO” usually looks like (and why it’s expensive)

When someone offers SEO for $500 per month, they almost always have to do one of these:

They automate everything and send reports that look busy.

They outsource the work to the lowest bidder, and you get content that never earns links.

They focus on vanity metrics like “keywords tracked” instead of revenue, pipeline, or assisted conversions.

You’ll still spend money, you’ll still burn internal time, and six months later you’ll be explaining to leadership why nothing moved.

How to evaluate an SEO quote without getting played

The fastest way to spot a good provider is whether they talk about outputs or outcomes. Outputs are deliverables. Outcomes are what change in the business.

When you’re comparing proposals, ask for four things:

• A 90-day plan with specific shipping dates

• A content strategy tied to search intent and revenue

• How they earn links or citations, not “we build backlinks”

• Reporting that connects to conversions, pipeline or revenue

If they can’t show you what gets shipped in month one, don’t expect month six to be magic.

The overlooked line item: tools and data

Even if you hire an agency, you’ll probably still pay for some tooling internally. Common stacks include Google Search Console, GA4, a crawler like Screaming Frog, and a primary SEO suite. For a deeper dive into what’s available, see our reviews of the best keyword research tools and top link building tools. For example, Ahrefs pricing starts around $99 per month and scales up for larger teams.

Tools won’t replace execution, but they do affect how quickly you can diagnose problems and prove impact.

The bottom line

Today, most companies that take SEO seriously spend $2,500 to $7,500 per month all-in for an ongoing program, with smaller businesses often closer to $1,000 to $2,500 and competitive categories pushing $8,000+ fast.

The better question to take to your CFO is not “what does SEO cost?” It’s “what does it cost to keep renting every customer through paid, forever?”

Want something to share to your team? Download our full 2026 SEO & Authority Engineering Investment Report

Methodology

The insights in this article come from Relevance’s direct work with growth-focused B2B and ecommerce companies. We’ve run the campaigns, analyzed the data, and tracked results across channels. We supplement our firsthand experience by researching what other top practitioners are seeing and sharing. Every piece we publish represents significant effort in research, writing and editing.

We verify data, pressure-test recommendations against what we are seeing, and refine until the advice is specific enough to actually act on.

The post How much does SEO cost in 2026 appeared first on Relevance.

That’s where Relevance stands out. We’re one of the best agencies for healthcare SEO and GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) because we combine trust-building PR with modern, AI-era search strategy—built specifically for complex, regulated industries. The result is durable visibility that both humans and AI rely on when making high-stakes decisions.

What “Healthcare AI Visibility” Really Means

In healthcare, visibility isn’t just being found—it’s being trusted.

AI visibility is your brand’s presence and reliability inside AI systems, answer engines, and search. It combines:

• Authority: Demonstrable expertise across your clinical and service-line topics.
• Credibility: Third-party validation (media, associations, peer references, citations).
• Visibility: Technical readiness and structured content that AI and search engines can safely interpret and cite.

When all three are strong, AI systems surface your answers, media supports your claims, and patients (and B2B buyers) choose you with confidence.

Why Relevance is one of the best for healthcare SEO + GEO

Most agencies still treat PR, SEO, and content as separate workstreams. In healthcare, that separation creates risk and missed opportunity: strong messaging with no on-site proof, crawlable pages with nothing worth citing, or content production that never earns independent validation. Relevance is built to close those gaps.

Here’s how our approach works in practice:

1) PR that fuels healthcare GEO

Awareness only matters if it’s referenceable. We prioritize formats and outlets that AI systems already trust—expert commentary, data-led stories, credible bylines, and authoritative citations. Those placements also give healthcare audiences the third-party proof they expect when making decisions.

2) Cutting-edge healthcare SEO built for the AI era

We design content to be helpful to humans and unambiguous to machines—especially important in healthcare where nuance and accuracy matter.

• Topic + entity models map the universe of patient and buyer questions
• Clear structures (FAQs, comparisons, definitions, how-tos) reduce ambiguity
• Schema and internal linking clarify authorship, medical reviewers, services, locations, and policies

The result: content that’s easier to rank, safer to cite, and more likely to appear in AI-generated answers.

3) Measurement that connects visibility to patient growth and revenue

We track the fundamentals—rankings, AI/LLM citations, share of voice, topical authority, link quality, site health, organic conversions—and tie them to outcomes like:

• appointment requests / leads
• MQLs/SQLs (for healthcare B2B)
• opportunities, pipeline value, win rate
• CAC/LTV and payback

Dashboards make it obvious what moved and why—no mystery metrics.

4) Senior team + healthcare-ready playbooks

Your work is led by senior strategists across PR, editorial, and technical SEO. We pair real media relationships with technical rigor so content is both publishable and machine-readable—exactly what healthcare brands need to earn trust and scale results.

5) Built for regulated and high-scrutiny categories

Healthcare content has higher standards: compliance, accuracy, consistency, and traceable sources. We build systems that hold up under scrutiny:

• standardized claims, dates, definitions, and citations
• review-ready content workflows
• consistent entity signals across site + web

This is a big reason our results compound over time.

6) A track record of compounding results

We’ve helped brands become the obvious choice in their categories through durable organic growth, structured content, and PR-backed authority building—plus documented proof that strategic placements can influence how AI systems cite and reference brands.

How Relevance compares to other healthcare marketing agencies

Most firms optimize for one dimension—PR, SEO, or content. Relevance integrates all three around healthcare SEO + GEO, so people and AI can trust and cite you.

• SEO-only firms: Can improve rankings, but often lack credible sourcing and media proof needed for AI-era visibility.
• PR-only shops: Build reputation, but can’t ensure your site is structured for search and AI citation.
• Content studios: Produce volume, but without entity strategy, schema depth, or third-party validation, credibility plateaus.
• Generalist agencies: Manage channels, but rarely have the senior editorial + technical depth to win in regulated search.
• Tool-only vendors: Offer speed, but not judgment, compliance-ready sourcing, or brand trust.

Relevance wins because we combine: structured healthcare content + technical SEO + credibility-building PR—so your expertise becomes both discoverable and citeable.

How we work

Diagnose your authority gaps

We audit your content, entities, schema, and off-site footprint against your priority service lines, specialties, and buyer/patient questions—identifying what AI can cite today and what it can’t.

Build a healthcare SEO + GEO roadmap

We align PR, content, and technical work to close gaps quickly—prioritizing high-intent topics, missing proof points, and the sources AI already trusts.

Build proof patients and AI can trust

We publish structured, helpful content on your domain and secure third-party validation through targeted PR. We standardize claims, dates, definitions, and sources so your story stays consistent everywhere.

Make it machine-readable

We apply schema, entity and author clarity (including reviewer signals when needed), internal linking, and content patterns that improve parseability and citation likelihood.

Measure and refine

We monitor rankings, AI citations, media validation, and conversions—then iterate to lift qualified demand, pipeline, and close rates.

What you’ll typically see within 90–180 days

• Clearer information architecture around your service lines and entities
• Credible third-party articles and quotes validating your expertise
• Increased presence in AI-generated answers for high-intent questions
• Improved rankings and organic conversion rates on priority pages
• Measurable impact on pipeline creation and growth metrics

(Timelines vary based on starting authority and competitive landscape. We prioritize durable gains over short-term spikes.)

Ready to win healthcare SEO + GEO?

If you want your healthcare brand to be easy to find, safe to cite, and simple to choose, let’s talk. Relevance will diagnose your current visibility—and build a roadmap that ties SEO and GEO improvements directly to patient growth, pipeline, and revenue.

The post Why Relevance is one of the best agencies for healthcare SEO/GEO appeared first on Relevance.

The firms below were evaluated on specialization, measurable results, and client feedback. Each entry includes strengths, common engagement sizes, and signals of operational quality.

The scoring favors proven outcomes in competitive US service areas and transparent delivery. (For a deep dive into healthcare SEO fundamentals, see our healthcare SEO guide.) Agencies were assessed using the following methodology (weighted  criteria):

• Measured outcomes — 30% (traffic growth, lead/patient conversions)
• Healthcare specialization & portfolio depth — 20%
• Public review quality & retention — 15% (Clutch/G2/Google; client retention where available)
• Compliance practices — 15% (HIPAA processes, BAAs, PHI handling)
• Technical SEO & local SEO at scale — 10%
• Pricing clarity & reporting transparency — 10%

Agencies for healthcare companies wanting visibility in search.

Quick infographic

1. Relevance

Relevance combines PR, digital PR, and content to strengthen entity signals for GEO. Their approach improves brand mentions, knowledge panel inputs, and structured content. This suits companies needing both visibility and reputation reinforcement across search and AI assistants.

Their executive team is also very public about their playbook, SEO/GEO pricing, & healthcare SEO case studies.

• Measured outcomes: 2–5× organic leads in select service lines (documented cases)
• Healthcare focus: Healthcare-led; strong with multi-location/provider growth
• Core capabilities: PPC + SEO + AEO/GEO, PR, and content
• Founder-led + tenure: Founded 2009; founder-led; ~14+ years experience
• Notable clients: UnitedHealthcare, Nurx, Happyeats
• Recognition: #1 global content marketing agency (2022); #88 on Inc. 5000; mentions in Forbes, USA Today, Inc., and more
• Geo / delivery: Columbia, Palo Alto, Salt Lake City; works nationwide
• Pricing + reviews: $10k–$40k+/mo; 4.8–5.0 reviews

2. WebFX

WebFX operates at scale with specialized healthcare pods. It blends technical SEO, content operations, and strong analytics. Public reviews cite clear deliverables and reliable timelines. Healthcare pages emphasize PHI-aware workflows and editor-reviewed content. The firm’s data platform helps forecast traffic and track conversions by channel. For clinics and hospital service lines, WebFX is often chosen for capacity, documentation, and predictable project management. Pricing spans from SMB to enterprise, with custom roadmaps for multi-site rollouts.

• Measured outcomes: Strong case-study culture; publishes performance metrics and outputs

• Healthcare focus: Broad agency with a strong healthcare pod

• Core capabilities: Full-service SEO + content + PPC

• Founder-led + tenure: Founded 1996; founder/CEO-led; scaled operations

• Notable clients: KOA; Hydroworx; CEMB USA (public case studies)

• Recognition: Founder has Forbes contributor page; awards/milestones in company history

• Geo / delivery: US-based with multiple locations; serves national clients

• Pricing + reviews: $5k–$40k+/mo; reviews typically 4.8–5.0

3. Rankings.io (Dental)

Rankings.io specializes in dental SEO, including DSOs and private practices. Its narrow focus supports playbooks for service pages, local packs, and review velocity. Clients report gains in call volume and appointment requests for high-value procedures. The agency emphasizes content quality, E-E-A-T signals, and link acquisition that aligns with healthcare guidelines. Engagements often include GBP optimization, location page architecture, and reputation programs integrated with SEO goals.

• Measured outcomes: SEO outcomes centered on legal rankings + lead generation

• Healthcare focus: Not healthcare-specific (legal SEO)

• Core capabilities: SEO for law firms (personal injury + legal practices)

• Founder-led + tenure: Founded 2013; founder/CEO-led; growth credentials cited

• Notable clients: Client names not consistently public (case-study oriented)

• Recognition: Inc. 5000 mentions referenced in founder profile

• Geo / delivery: US-based (Marion, IL noted)

• Pricing + reviews: $6k–$30k+/mo; reviews typically 4.9–5.0

4. Scorpion

Scorpion serves many healthcare systems, urgent care, and specialty groups. The firm integrates websites, listings, SEO, and paid media. Healthcare teams apply local SEO at scale for multi-location groups and track patient journey metrics. Public feedback highlights full-service delivery and strong technology. Some reviews mention variance by account team, which is typical for large providers. Scorpion is a fit for organizations seeking bundled media with SEO and centralized reporting.

• Measured outcomes: Platform + marketing stack designed for performance + scale

• Healthcare focus: Healthcare + multi-location programs

• Core capabilities: Marketing + technology platform for service businesses (incl. healthcare)

• Founder-led + tenure: Founded 2001; founder returned as CEO; 20+ years history

• Notable clients: Confluence Health; Frederick Health; Marin Health; Valley Health (WebAwards list)

• Recognition: Leads 2025 Healthcare WebAwards (press release)

• Geo / delivery: Multiple US offices (Dallas, Valencia, Salt Lake City, etc.)

• Pricing + reviews: $8k–$60k+/mo; reviews typically 4.5–4.9

5. Intrepy Healthcare Marketing

Intrepy works solely with healthcare providers. Its SEO programs pair clinician-vetted content with local SEO and review growth. Case stories show higher rankings for procedure keywords and steady gains in appointment requests. Teams are praised for responsiveness and clear education for practice staff. Intrepy suits specialist groups and mid-sized practices that want focus and hands-on strategy without enterprise overhead.

• Measured outcomes: Practice growth + patient acquisition focus via SEO/paid

• Healthcare focus: Provider-focused SME (healthcare-heavy)

• Core capabilities: Medical SEO + paid media + web design for practices

• Founder-led + tenure: Founded 2014; founder-led; ~10+ years based on founding

• Notable clients: Tennessee Orthopaedic Clinics; CONA; NORE Women’s Health (case studies)

• Recognition: Positioned as “award-winning” (site copy); leadership details public

• Geo / delivery: Orlando-based; serves practices across the US

• Pricing + reviews: $4k–$20k+/mo; reviews typically 4.9–5.0

6. Tidal Health Group

Tidal Health Group is a niche healthcare firm focused on organic growth for medical practices and hospitals. Its approach centers on search intent mapping, patient-friendly content, and location architecture. The agency is known for strong messaging that aligns with clinical accuracy. Clients point to steady visibility gains in competitive specialties and reliable monthly reporting. Engagements often bundle SEO, analytics, and content governance.

• Measured outcomes: Authority-building + patient acquisition emphasis

• Healthcare focus: Specialized in healthcare

• Core capabilities: Healthcare marketing focused on authority + acquisition

• Founder-led + tenure: Founded 2011; co-founder/CEO cited; ~14+ years based on founding

• Notable clients: Manhattan Cardiology; Pelvic Rehabilitation Medicine; “Maimo” (examples)

• Recognition: CEO feature mention referencing EO / Inc.com (per company blog)

• Geo / delivery: Headquartered NYC; serves healthcare orgs broadly

• Pricing + reviews: $7k–$35k+/mo; reviews typically 4.9–5.0

7. Thrive Internet Marketing Agency

Thrive is a full-service agency with a strong local SEO practice for clinics and multi-location groups. Healthcare clients value the mix of on-page improvements, GBP optimization, and review programs. Public reviews often mention responsive account teams and helpful reports. Thrive suits practices that want steady organic growth and clear deliverables without heavy custom development. Its packages scale from single-location clinics to regional groups.

• Measured outcomes: Local visibility + lead-gen focus; healthcare program examples

• Healthcare focus: Generalist with healthcare capability; strong local SEO

• Core capabilities: SEO + PPC + web + social (incl. healthcare programs)

• Founder-led + tenure: Founded 2005; founder-led; “20 years” noted in anniversary story

• Notable clients: Burleson Animal Emergency Hospital (healthcare example)

• Recognition: Inc. 5000 streak referenced on healthcare page

• Geo / delivery: Arlington, TX origins; distributed team across states/countries

• Pricing + reviews: $3k–$18k+/mo; reviews typically 4.7–4.9

8. Healthcare Success

Healthcare Success is a healthcare-only agency with deep roots in provider marketing. Its SEO programs align brand positioning with service-line search demand. Clients reference quality content, structured site builds, and ongoing optimization. The firm is a fit for groups that want strategy-heavy SEO with clear messaging and analytics. Engagements often include on-page optimization, content calendars, and cross-channel recommendations.

• Measured outcomes: Healthcare performance marketing outcomes (SEO/PPC/strategy)

• Healthcare focus: Healthcare-only agency

• Core capabilities: SEO + PPC + strategy for patient acquisition

• Founder-led + tenure: Founded 2006 (some sources 2007); co-founder/CEO; ~20 years

• Notable clients: Beach House Center for Recovery; Neurotherapeutix; Pomona Valley Health Centers (CEO page)

• Recognition: CEO/co-founder profile + interviews cite industry leadership

• Geo / delivery: Irvine, CA; serves clients across the US

• Pricing + reviews: $10k–$50k+/mo; reviews typically 4.6–4.9

9. Tebra (PatientPop)

Tebra, which includes PatientPop, offers an integrated platform for practices. Its SEO combines website templates, content, listings, and reviews. The model suits clinics seeking an all-in-one stack with standard SEO deliverables. Public reviews range from strong to mixed, often tied to expectations on customization. Practices that want speed to value and bundled tools may find Tebra efficient, especially for single and small multi-location groups.

• Measured outcomes: Scale + practice growth platform outcomes; not client-name oriented

• Healthcare focus: Practice platform + SEO services for providers

• Core capabilities: Websites + SEO services + growth platform

• Founder-led + tenure: Post-merger leadership; CEO is Kareo founder; founded via merger

• Notable clients: Not emphasized; scale cited as 100k+ providers supported

• Recognition: Merger coverage + company press releases

• Geo / delivery: CA-based (Irvine/Santa Monica cited); serves US practices

• Pricing + reviews: $1.5k–$6k+/mo; reviews typically 4.2–4.7

10. Practice Builders

Practice Builders is a long-standing healthcare marketing firm serving many specialties. SEO programs include on-site optimization, content calendars, and local listings. Client feedback varies by location and plan, with many citing helpful account managers. It fits practices that prefer a familiar brand with standard SEO services and the option to add patient marketing programs. Budgets are friendly for smaller groups testing consistent SEO.

• Measured outcomes: Volume/scale claim: 16,000+ providers served (client names not emphasized)

• Healthcare focus: Healthcare-focused legacy firm

• Core capabilities: Practice growth + patient acquisition marketing

• Founder-led + tenure: Founded 1979; founder-led status unclear; “40+ years” claim

• Notable clients: Not emphasized; volume claim is primary

• Recognition: Trade publication profiles + vendor listings mention long operating history

• Geo / delivery: Irvine, CA; serves across North America/US

• Pricing + reviews: $3k–$15k+/mo; reviews typically 3.8–4.4

Video explainer

What top experts are saying on best healthcare SEO techniques

Blake Davis

Blake Davis calls out out a major shift in healthcare SEO: if your content isn’t clear, structured, and trustworthy enough for AI systems to confidently reference, you’re already falling behind. For mental health clinics especially, authority and clarity now matter as much as rankings themselves.

Final Thoughts

Multi-location providers and health systems should favor Cardinal or Scorpion for scale and location architecture. Dental groups align well with Rankings.io. Practices seeking a platform-led approach can consider Tebra for bundled tools. If hands-on healthcare expertise and white-glove content matter, Intrepy, Tidal Health Group, and Healthcare Success stand out. WebFX and Thrive offer strong delivery with wide pricing bands. Match partner selection to service-line goals, compliance needs, and the level of customization desired, then confirm the fit through references, sample reports, and a clear 90-day roadmap.

The post Best Healthcare SEO / GEO Agencies In The US (2026 Research) appeared first on Relevance.

The hard truth is that most press releases are written like compliance documents. They’re technically correct, painfully safe, and completely ignorable. Meanwhile, editors and reporters are triaging inboxes at warp speed, looking for a reason to say “yes” without doing extra work.

The good news is that getting noticed is more about being clear than gimmicky. It’s about making your release easier to understand, easier to trust, and easier to turn into a story.

Below are the five moves we lean on when a release actually needs to break through.

1) Lead with the “why now,” not the “what”

Most releases open with a company announcing something. That’s not a story. A story has stakes, a trend, or a problem that just reached a tipping point.

Instead of: “Company X launches Feature Y,” try: “As [industry shift] accelerates, Company X launches Feature Y to solve [pain].” You’re not adding fluff. You’re giving the journalist the headline scaffolding they already need.

A quick way to test this is to ask: if you removed your company name from the first paragraph, would anyone still care? If the answer is “no,” the release is starting in the wrong place.

2) Make the headline do actual work

Reporters don’t read releases top to bottom. They scan. Your headline and subhead are the doorway—most releases never earn the click because the doorway is vague.

A noticed headline usually does at least two of these:

• Names the outcome (what changes for the reader/market)
• Includes the specific angle (category, audience, or constraint)
• Hints at proof (data point, traction, partners, first/only)

If you’re stuck, write three versions and force each one to answer “So what?” Then pick the one that feels slightly uncomfortable because it’s specific. Specific is what gets remembered.

3) Give them the story assets inside the release

A press release that gets picked up quickly is one that removes friction. That means you’re packaging a story in the easiest way to pick up;.

Think of it like you’re building a “journalist kit” without calling it that:

• A clean, punchy first paragraph that can be pasted directly
• One quote that sounds like a human (not a brochure)
• One proof point that demonstrates this is real (numbers, customers, adoption, study, etc.)
• A line that clearly explains who this matters to (and why)

We’ve seen releases die because the quote is empty (“thrilled,” “excited,” “game-changer”) and the proof is missing. Even if the news is legit, the release doesn’t feel legit until it carries something verifiable.

4) Pitch the release like a human, not a distribution service

Distribution can help with footprint, but “noticed” usually comes from the pitch—the first message that lands in someone’s inbox.

The trap is writing a pitch that sounds like you’re requesting a favor. The better approach is writing a pitch that sounds like you’re handing them a story they can run fast.

Here are five subject line patterns we’ve used (and seen work) when the angle is strong:

• Data: “New data: [surprising stat] in [industry]”
• Trend: “Seeing [trend] spike—here’s what we’re launching because of it”
• Local/vertical: “[City/vertical] angle: [what changed]”
• Contrarian: “The thing everyone gets wrong about [topic]”
• Exclusive: “Offering you first look: [what’s new] + customer proof”

Then, keep the email short. Two tight paragraphs beats six fluffy ones. Your goal isn’t to “explain everything.” Your goal is to make them curious enough to open the release and confident enough to reply.

5) Borrow credibility instead of trying to “sound credible”

This is the part founders and marketers hate hearing: you can’t write your way into authority if you haven’t built any external proof.

The releases that get traction tend to have at least one credibility anchor:

• A recognizable publication angle (timely, relevant, specific)
• A credible partner, customer, or expert voice
• A proof point that shows momentum
• A positioning that’s clearly differentiated (not “we’re also doing AI”)

One of our favorite examples of this is a book launch campaign we supported for Michael Bungay Stanier. The goal wasn’t just “get coverage,” but to position him as the go-to expert for workplace relationships—not another generic leadership voice. That meant targeting premium business outlets and placing him in contexts that signal authority (like expert lists), so the credibility compounds long after launch.

That same idea applies to product releases. If you can’t borrow credibility from a partner or major customer yet, borrow it from clarity and proof: the sharpest angle, the cleanest explanation, and one real metric that signals “this is happening.”

One release, one idea

If you try to announce three things, you’ll get coverage for none. Pick the single story you want the market to repeat, then make every paragraph reinforce it.

The post 5 ways to get your press release noticed appeared first on Relevance.

In 2026, the equation has more steps—and fewer guarantees. Google increasingly answers queries directly. Chat-style search is siphoning intent into closed interfaces. And brands are waking up to a new scoreboard: AI/LLM visibility (whether you’re mentioned and cited in AI answers).

Here are 61+ stats & reports that capture the shift.

The search results page is becoming the product

Search is no longer just a directory—it’s increasingly an answer interface. As AI Overviews expand, the battle shifts from “winning a blue link” to being included in the synthesized response that sits above everything else. That changes how brands measure success: visibility and citation placement become as important as rank.

1) AI Overviews (AIOs) reached their “one-year” milestone on May 14, 2024. (BrightEdge)

2) AIOs now appear in 11%+ of Google queries. (BrightEdge)

3) That’s a ~22% increase in AIO presence since debut. (BrightEdge)

4) Total search impressions increased 49%+ in BrightEdge tracking since AIO launch. (BrightEdge)

5) Click-throughs declined nearly 30% since May 2024 in the same BrightEdge analysis. (BrightEdge)

6) Search Engine Land summarized that as a ~30% year-over-year CTR drop alongside AIO expansion. (Search Engine Land)

7) Longer, complex queries shown in AIOs grew ~49% since May 2024. (BrightEdge)

8) “Ranking-style” queries in AIOs fell ~60%. (BrightEdge)

9) Comparison queries in AIOs fell ~14%. (BrightEdge)

10) The industries with the strongest AIO presence include Healthcare, Education, B2B Tech, and Insurance. (BrightEdge)

Pew’s dataset makes the “zero-click” story painfully concrete

A lot of AI SEO talk is anecdotal—Pew brings receipts. Their behavioral dataset shows exactly how user clicks change when an AI summary appears, and how often people simply stop browsing after getting an answer. For marketers, this is the clearest evidence that traffic is being structurally compressed, not temporarily “down.”

11) Pew’s analysis used browsing data from 900 U.S. adults (March 1–31, 2025). (Pew Research Center)

12) Pew analyzed 68,879 unique Google searches. (Pew Research Center)

13) 12,593 of those searches produced an AI summary. (Pew Research Center)

14) In Pew’s sample, 18% of Google searches produced an AI summary. (Pew Research Center)

15) 58% of respondents conducted at least one search that produced an AI summary in March 2025. (Pew Research Center)

16) When an AI summary appeared, users clicked a traditional result link in 8% of visits. (Pew Research Center)

17) Without an AI summary, users clicked a traditional result link in 15% of visits. (Pew Research Center)

18) Users clicked a link in the AI summary itself only 1% of the time. (Pew Research Center)

19) Users ended their browsing session after a page with an AI summary 26% of the time. (Pew Research Center)

20) Users ended their browsing session after a page without an AI summary 16% of the time. (Pew Research Center)

21) In Pew’s study, the median AI summary was 67 words. (Pew Research Center)

22) AI summaries ranged from 7 to 369 words. (Pew Research Center)

23) 88% of AI summaries cited three or more sources. (Pew Research Center)

24) Only 1% of AI summaries cited a single source. (Pew Research Center)

25) Just 8% of one- or two-word searches produced an AI summary. (Pew Research Center)

26) 53% of searches with 10+ words produced an AI summary. (Pew Research Center)

27) 60% of searches beginning with question words (“who,” “what,” “when,” “why,” etc.) produced an AI summary. (Pew Research Center)

28) 36% of searches that used full sentences (noun + verb) produced an AI summary. (Pew Research Center)

29) Wikipedia, YouTube, and Reddit were the most frequently cited sources across AI summaries and standard results in Pew’s analysis. (Pew Research Center)

30) Those three sources accounted for 15% of sources in AI summaries (and 17% in standard results). (Pew Research Center)

31) .gov sources were linked more often in AI summaries (6%) than standard results (2%). (Pew Research Center)

Zero-click isn’t a vibe—it’s measurable behavior at scale

Clickstream studies help quantify what most teams are already feeling in analytics: fewer searches turn into visits. When only a fraction of searches produce an open-web click, classic SEO KPIs (sessions, CTR) become lagging indicators. The strategic implication is simple: you need visibility metrics that capture influence without a click. For help with that, check out our reviews of the best AI search visibility tools and our guide to tracking brands in ChatGPT and Perplexity.

32) For every 1,000 Google searches in the U.S., only 360 clicks go to the open web (clickstream-based estimate). (SparkToro)

33) For every 1,000 Google searches in the EU, only 374 clicks go to the open web. (SparkToro)

34) Bain estimates organic web traffic is down ~15% to 25% as zero-click usage rises. (Bain)

35) Bain reports ~80% of consumers rely on AI/zero-click results for at least 40% of their searches. (Bain)

LLM visibility: citations are consolidating, referrals are thinning

Chatbots can mention you without sending you traffic—and increasingly, they do. Citation share is concentrating among a small set of “trusted” domains, while outbound referrals fluctuate or decline. Brands that don’t track mentions and citations risk losing mindshare even if their traditional rankings look fine.

36) Referral traffic from ChatGPT to websites fell 52% since July 21, 2025 in an analysis of 1B+ citations and 1M+ referral visits. (Search Engine Land)

37) Reddit citations rose 87% since July 23, 2025, reaching 10%+ of ChatGPT citations. (Search Engine Land)

38) Wikipedia citations rose 62% from its July low, reaching nearly 13% citation share. (Search Engine Land)

39) Wikipedia, Reddit, and TechRadar accounted for 22% of all citations in that dataset. (Search Engine Land)

40) Those top three sites’ citation share grew 53% in a month. (Search Engine Land)

The market is still Google-first—but the “AI layer” is a new battleground

Google still dominates distribution, but discovery is splintering into multiple AI surfaces: AIOs, chat assistants, and standalone answer engines. That means your content strategy has to travel well—structured, attributable, and easy to quote. The winners won’t just rank; they’ll get picked.

41) Google maintains 90%+ search market share, even as AI discovery expands. (BrightEdge)

42) ChatGPT grew 21% in a month in BrightEdge’s snapshot of AI discovery platforms. (BrightEdge)

43) BrightEdge describes Perplexity and Gemini as roughly 1/10 the size of ChatGPT (in that snapshot). (BrightEdge)

44) Similarweb’s January 2026 Global AI Tracker: ChatGPT held ~64.5% of gen-AI chatbot site visits. (Search Engine Journal)

45) Similarweb’s January 2026 Global AI Tracker: Gemini reached ~21.5% of gen-AI chatbot site visits. (Search Engine Journal)

Commerce is following attention into AI

Where shoppers research, revenue follows. The early data suggests generative AI is moving beyond novelty into a meaningful referral and decision-support channel—especially in retail. For SEO leaders, this is the clearest argument that AI visibility isn’t just brand-building; it’s pipeline.

46) AI-driven traffic to U.S. retail sites rose 1,300% YoY (Nov 1–Dec 31, 2024). (Adobe)

47) AI-driven traffic was up 1,950% YoY on Cyber Monday 2024. (Adobe)

48) By July 2025, Adobe reported AI-driven retail traffic up 4,700% YoY. (Adobe)

49) AI-driven traffic was up 1,100% in January 2025 vs. a July 2024 baseline. (Adobe)

50) AI-driven traffic was up 3,100% in April 2025 vs. that same July 2024 baseline. (Adobe)

51) Adobe’s consumer survey: 38% have used generative AI for online shopping. (Adobe)

52) Adobe’s consumer survey: 52% plan to use generative AI for shopping this year. (Adobe)

53) Shoppers arriving from generative AI sources were 10% more engaged than non-AI sources, per Adobe. (Adobe)

54) Adobe reported 32% longer visits for AI-referred shoppers. (Adobe)

55) Adobe reported a 27% lower bounce rate for AI-referred shoppers. (Adobe)

GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) is moving from theory to practice

GEO is the emerging discipline of optimizing for inclusion in generative answers, not just ranking in lists. The research is valuable because it treats AI visibility as measurable—and therefore improvable—through changes to content structure, evidence, and clarity. In other words, there’s a playbook forming, and it looks different from classic SEO. Want to put it into practice? See our hands-on review of the best GEO tools.

56) Researchers introduced “Generative Engine Optimization (GEO)” as a framework for improving visibility inside generative engines. (arXiv)

57) GEO-bench includes 10,000 queries for evaluation. (arXiv)

58) The paper reports GEO can boost visibility by up to 40% in generative engine responses. (arXiv)

59) The paper highlights that GEO effectiveness varies by domain, pointing to the need for vertical-specific tactics. (arXiv)

The publisher problem is no longer theoretical

Publishers are the canary in the coal mine: when platforms answer questions directly, the sites that used to monetize those answers feel it first. Their projections highlight a broader risk for any content-driven business model—relying on search as a guaranteed distribution channel is becoming a fragile assumption.

60) Reuters Institute: publishers expect search traffic to decline ~43% over the next three years. (Reuters Institute)

61) Search Engine Land summarized the same report: news executives expect search referrals to drop 40%+ over three years. (Search Engine Land)

What these stats mean

The takeaway isn’t “SEO is dead.” It’s that SEO is being unbundled into two jobs:

1. Ranking (traditional SEO) — still necessary.
2. Being selected and cited inside AI answers (GEO / AI visibility) — increasingly decisive.

If you want a clean KPI set for 2026, track:

• AIO inclusion rate (are you cited in AI Overviews for priority queries?)
• LLM citation share (how often ChatGPT/Perplexity/Gemini cite you vs. competitors)
• Brand answer rate (do AI answers mention you when you’re relevant?)
• Prompt coverage (how often you appear for “best,” “vs,” “how to choose,” troubleshooting, and “alternatives to” queries)

The post 61+ AI SEO Statistics (2026) appeared first on Relevance.

We’ve been doing this long enough to see the same pattern over and over: the sites that win aren’t the ones that write the most. They’re the ones that consistently choose keywords with real demand, clear intent, and a realistic path to ranking—then build pages that actually match what searchers are trying to do.

Keyword Analysis is the backbone of any SEO and content marketing strategy. To rank your page for your target keyword, you need to first conduct a thorough keyword analysis.

Luckily, there are plenty of free and paid tools available online that make your work a little easier. But choosing a genuine and worthy keyword tool from among those is difficult.

That is why we have come up with a list of the best keyword analysis tools that will surely help you discover the most profitable keywords in no time.

Let’s start.

1. Google Keyword Planner

Google Ads keyword planner has been one of the most trusted and well-known keyword analysis tools among digital marketing and SEO professionals for a long time.

The main purpose of using the keyword planner tool is to access the average monthly search volume of relevant keywords. This helps you determine the profitability of your targeted keywords or key phrases.

Features:

• With keyword planner, you can find new and related keyword ideas on any topic along with average monthly search volume, competition, top of page bid (low range & high range) to understand the commercial intent of the keywords.
• You will get an overview of the traffic forecast for your targeted keywords.
• You can find out the search data for weekly, monthly, quarterly and yearly basis.
• You can enter your competitor’s URL to find out the profitable keywords which are already ranking on Google and other search engines.
• If you want to run a PPC ad along with your SEO campaign, keyword planner helps you find out and target more profitable keywords.
• Google keyword planner does not show the exact search volume of keywords anymore unless you run an active paid ad campaign. However, this tool will help you understand multiple variations of keywords.

How we use it

We treat Keyword Planner like a reality check, not the whole strategy. It’s the first place we go when we want to sanity-check demand and see whether a topic is truly searched at scale or just “talked about” on social media.

If we’re building a content plan, we’ll pull clusters of closely related terms from Planner and use them to pressure-test whether a term should be a pillar page or a supporting blog post. It’s also one of our go-tos when we’re trying to estimate commercial intent fast—those bid ranges aren’t perfect, but they’re directionally useful.

2. Semrush

SEMrush is considered as one of the most comprehensive all-in-one SEO tools which offer competitor based keyword research option along with the traditional approach.

Here you just need to add the URL of your competitor and it will show all the keywords that are ranking for your competitor’s website.

Features:

• Organic Position – You can determine the position of your URL in Google and other search engines for your target keyword.
• Traffic Percentage – You can find out the average percentage of traffic your website is getting from various search engines.
• CPC value – You can understand the commercial value of any keyword by the average Cost-per-Click metric.
• Keyword Difficulty – It provides the keyword difficulty number which indicates how easy or difficult to rank for a keyword.
• Long Tail keywords – SEMrush shows the keywords with less competition that helps you find out more long tail keywords to target.

How we use it:

Semrush is our “show me what’s working for them” tool. If a competitor is consistently outranking you, we’re not guessing why—we’re pulling their ranking keywords, mapping the pages, and looking for patterns in what Google is rewarding.

We also use Semrush early in a campaign when stakeholders want quick wins. The fastest path to wins is usually not reinventing the wheel—it’s finding the keyword pockets your competitors already proved can drive traffic, then building a better, clearer version of the page.

3. Ahrefs

Ahrefs Keyword Explorer tool has become one of the most popular keyword research tools because of its user-friendly interface and the amount of data it provides.

The best part is you can make a list of your target keywords directly from its dashboard without maintaining an excel sheet which saves you a lot of time.

Features:

• Ahrefs has a huge database of keywords and it uses clickstream data that shows you how many clicks you will get from search engines for your targeted keywords.
• Ahrefs allows you to filter the list of suggested keywords according to search volume and keyword difficulty.
• It provides you detailed SERP (Search Engine Result Page) analysis report that shows the number of search traffic of your top ranking pages.

How we use it:

Ahrefs is where we go when we want to make keyword decisions with fewer blind spots. We use it to build keyword lists, but more importantly, we use it to understand the SERP landscape—what kinds of pages are ranking, what it takes to compete, and whether a keyword is actually worth chasing.

It’s also how we spot “content opportunities hiding in plain sight.” Sometimes the best keyword isn’t the big obvious one—it’s the term with decent volume where the top results are thin, outdated, or not matching intent. Ahrefs helps us find those cracks.

4. KWFinder

KWFinder is another fastest growing keyword research and analysis tool that helps you to target the keywords that drive more visitors to your website and generate more leads and conversions.

This tool has three types of keyword research options: suggestion based, autocomplete and question based keywords.

Features:

• Using its question-based keyword research option, you can easily target the long tail keywords that are based on problem-solving. This will help you to get more visitors who are searching for a particular solution.
• It provides the keyword difficulty score that helps you know whether you can rank for your keyword or not.
• KWFinder has both free and paid plans. As a beginner, you can try out the free version to see the effectiveness of this tool. Else, you can go for the paid plan to access its advanced features.

How we use it:

KWFinder is one of our favorite tools for teams that want speed and clarity without a steep learning curve. When we’re moving fast—especially on new sites or smaller brands—we’ll use KWFinder to find lower-competition terms that can start driving traffic sooner.

We lean on the question + autocomplete angles when we’re building content that’s meant to convert. In practice, those longer, more specific queries often bring in visitors who are closer to a decision—and they’re usually easier to rank for than the head terms.

5. Answer the Public

Answer the Public is a question-based keyword analysis tool which provides a long list of alphabetically sorted keyword suggestions. This tool is also helpful to generate topic and content ideas.

Features:

• It provides questions related to your keyword along with various prepositions to filter your search.
• When you type a keyword or topic in its search box it shows you the various questions through graphical visualization that people have already asked on that topic.

How we use it:

We use Answer the Public when we’re trying to get inside the customer’s head. It’s less about “keywords” and more about language: what people are worried about, how they phrase problems, and what questions they ask before they trust a solution.

This is especially useful when you’re creating content that needs to feel human (and convert), not just rank. We’ll pull the best question angles, then build sections and headings directly around them—because if you answer the exact question someone typed, you usually win the click.

6. Moz keyword Explorer

Moz Keyword Explorer is one of the leading keyword analysis tools in the market. It offers advanced keyword research data to find out profitable keywords that improve the visibility of your website on various search engines.

Features:

• Moz helps you identify the relevant and profitable keywords that you can target to drive more traffic to your website.
• You can import, export and build your own keyword list using this tool.
• It shows the detailed information about the keywords such as its total search volume, priority, difficulty, organic click-through rate etc.

How we use it:

Moz is great when we need a second opinion and a cleaner view of prioritization. When we’re choosing between multiple keywords that all seem viable, Moz helps us stack-rank them using a blend of difficulty, CTR potential, and priority signals.

We also like Moz for building and maintaining keyword lists for ongoing content programs. It’s not just “do research once.” The best teams revisit their targets, spot what’s improving, and adjust the plan as the site gains authority.

7. LongTailPro

LongTailPro is another very useful tool that is specially designed to provide various long tail keywords on any particular niche. It is a great tool to find out more targeted and less competitive keywords on any topic.

Features:

• After searching with the seed keyword you can get hundreds of keywords suggestion. Apart from that it also shows the exact search volume of the keywords, bidding price per click, keyword competitiveness, and many other useful metrics. You can check up to 200 keywords at a time.
• You can find long tail high CPC keywords.
• You can easily import and export keywords data in excel sheets.
• Check your competitors’ keywords performance.
• Additionally, with Rank Tracker facility you can easily check the ranking and performance of individual webpages on search engines.
• Apart from Google, you can check your keywords ranking on other major search engines such as Yahoo, Bing, Baidu etc.

How we use it:

LongTailPro is what we use when we want to go deep, fast—especially in niche categories. If you’re in a space where a handful of long-tail topics can reliably drive leads, this tool helps you uncover those terms without spending hours manually digging.

It’s also strong for building early momentum. We’ll often use long-tail keywords as “traction content”—the posts that rank sooner, start building internal links, and create topical depth. Then we work our way up to the harder, higher-volume terms once the site has more authority.

Over to You

Definitely, these are not all the powerful keyword analysis tools available on the internet. Though, this list can be a good starting point to finding out the best keyword tool that fits into your requirements and budget. At the same time, develop your SEO skills to intuit the effectiveness of keywords even before you start using those on your webpages.

Finally, let us know if you are using any other keyword analysis tool that brought you exceptional results in terms of ranking, traffic, and conversion.

The post 7 powerful keyword analyzers we use discover profitable keywords appeared first on Relevance.

The online healthcare industry can be brutal. Competition is fierce, and major healthcare providers like the Mayo Clinic, Johns Hopkins, or government organizations like the CDC typically win that coveted #1 spot in the SERPs. 

So what can you do to stand out in such a tough space?

As with most things in life, I think one of the best ways to find the answer is from the experience of others.

Four takeaways from our Telehealth SEO work 

To succeed in digital marketing, small and mid-size healthcare brands must build credibility through consistent, high-quality content marketing. They must invest in high-quality, targeted educational libraries that align with their core mission and that use SEO strategies to help show up in search engine results.

How do I know this works? Because I’ve seen it up close and personal over a 5-year span.

Here are four takeaways on how critical that content and SEO marketing strategy is in healthcare marketing. They come from a case study where we helped a telehealth company rank better for key commercial terms. 

View our most recent update of this client’s progress.

1. Always start with thorough research

I’m going to assume you operate in the healthcare industry. Picture this with me for a second. Imagine a patient comes in, and you a healthcare provider hand them a prescription without even looking at them or saying a word. 

Crazy, right? If you don’t skip the diagnosis stage for your patients, you shouldn’t do so with your SEO strategy or content marketing, either.

That’s why, when we started working with the telehealth brand, we performed an SEO audit, did keyword research, crawled their site, and observed their existing paid campaigns and social media marketing. We wanted to understand where they stood, their strengths and weaknesses, and their technical foundation.

We always do this because you have to know where you currently stand if you want to set goals and strategies that will work — and trust me when I say that this is a very important part of the process. Too often, we’ve seen brands balk at paying for strategy. They want to jump to the visible, measurable stuff. The problem is, if you don’t research and strategize, your action plan will inherently be weak, uninspired, and possibly even flawed. If you want to know where you should place the most value in the process, it’s here, in your strategy.

In this case, we found the brand had a solid foundation for building topical authority in the health space, but it wasn’t perfect. For instance, they had a robust FAQ library, but it was on ZenDesk, not their site, which meant they were missing out on SEO and traffic benefits. Their content was also limited in scope, they lacked internal linking, and they weren’t maximizing the impact of their existing content.

The Takeaway: Always start with a thorough analysis of where you are if you want to maximize your chances of getting to where you want to go. You will miss key optimization opportunities on a site if you don’t first review your current state.

2. Identify and go after the big opportunities

Marketing used to be a fairly limited activity. In the digital marketing age, you have limitless opportunities. From SEO and back-end optimization to email, social, on-site, and digital PR, there is an endless list of owned, earned, and paid ways to promote your brand.

The question is, where should you direct your limited resources?

For our telehealth client, we analyzed the site by service line to see where traffic was coming from. We pulled in keyword research to identify targets based on these service lines, too. At the same time, we studied other areas of existing healthcare marketing to see what was working and what wasn’t.

Our goal was to tie all this information into their digital marketing strategy to reinforce and build on what was already working. If you silo your marketing effort, you’ll end up wasting resources and, at times, even working against yourself. Instead, use a holistic, knowledgeable approach to figure out the best places where you can put fresh emphasis and focus.

With our client, we found their core service line was actually capturing a decent amount of bottom-of-funnel (or BoFu) traffic. That was great news, and we were able to use it to focus on improving middle- and top-of-funnel marketing in that area. 

We applied a similar approach to auxiliary service lines and identified numerous opportunities for further improvement. We evaluated each one’s ROI, such as average cart value, one-time vs repeat purchases, and lifetime value, and set our priorities based on that information.

The takeaway: Don’t put your efforts into something that won’t perform well. Always invest in improving and complementing the marketing that is already working. But make sure you’ve reviewed core information to create a strong, data-backed strategy.

3. Figure out your starting point

All of this leads you to your starting point. (I know, it’s easy to feel exhausted just getting here, but hear me out. It’s worth it!) 

Once you’ve studied your current situation and invested in finding and prioritizing opportunities, you’ve set the stage. Now, it’s time to pick your starting point. Some primary factors to consider when choosing include:

• Figuring out if your content is educational, helpful, and following E-E-A-T best practices. 
• Ensuring your content is focused on topical areas where you want to build brand awareness and industry authority. (Optimize or eliminate everything else.)
• Determining how much traffic you’re getting and where in the funnel you need to focus on increasing those numbers.
• Assessing your backlink portfolio and considering where you can feed that credibility through third-party validation from authoritative sites.

Use your assessments from sections one and two to guide how you choose from this list. 

With our telehealth brand work, we found, along with a healthy content library, the brand already had a solid foundation for SEO. They were also using pay-per-click, internal and external PR functions, and a conversion rate optimization agency and social media team. 

In other words, all of the pieces for success were there, and we didn’t need to reinvent the wheel. We just needed to orchestrate everything so that it produced the synergy and results they were looking for.

The takeaway: When shaping digital healthcare marketing strategy, don’t reinvent what’s working. Perfect it. And ensure all areas of marketing are supporting each other so any one area isn’t working in a silo.

4. Focus on the end user

So far, my advice has been about technical elements, gauging metrics, and observing marketing activities. My final thought is to focus on the end user throughout your detailed planning. Everything else is important, but you always want the user in mind while you’re considering them.

SEO is the best example of where this can go astray. It’s tempting to focus on search engine results when using SEO. But that isn’t the goal. SEO works with content marketing to improve the user experience. The goal should always be to use search engine optimization to get your healthcare services and content in front of the right people.

That means you want to create a comprehensive library of robust SEO content that meets user needs at all stages of the funnel. You can use it to secure backlinks from external outlets, create social media content, and boost your credibility—but always keep that end user in mind.

By doing that, we were able to not just provide our telehealth client with genuinely good, optimized content but also ensure that it spoke to customer needs and pain points, serving their audience at every step.

The Takeaway: Always keep the end-user in mind. Write for the reader instead of a search engine if you want to actually create useful content that will engage and help people.

The results of good healthcare SEO & GEO

Okay, so if you do all of these things I’m recommending, what does it look like? What does it accomplish? After three years spent creating 146 online pieces and seeing 700 assets and links for our telehealth client, here are a few of the biggest takeaways:

• They had a 119% increase in conversion rate.
• They experienced a 254% bump in pageviews on optimized pages.
• They saw a 358% climb in the number of terms that were ranking #1 in Google SERPs.
• They had a 142% growth spurt in terms of ranking 2nd to 10th in those SERPs.

I also noticed that over the course of the partnership, new services ranked quicker for important terms as they benefited from the synergy of the site’s overall success. This is key to show that if you focus and put the effort in one topical authority area at a time, you’ll be rewarded when it comes time to move to the next.

Learning and moving forward to greater success

As we look back, there are also a few things I’ve learned from the telehealth case study that I think we could have done better. 

For instance, I wish we could have created more content in those three years to match their expanding service lines. I also wish we could have added more first-person perspectives from healthcare providers, clinicians, and patients. 

These aren’t shortcomings. Every marketing strategy requires some sacrifice. As the marketing world evolves, though, it’s always important to have these in mind as we form each new plan moving forward. 

As you look over the four lessons above, what stands out to you? Where are you already killing it with your healthcare digital marketing strategy? Where can you use some help? 

If you find you’re looking for a partner as you sort through things, reach out for a free strategy session with our team at Relevance. We can shed light on your current situation and orient you toward future success, even in an industry as crowded as healthcare.

The post Healthcare SEO Case Study: How Content, PR, + SEO Scaled a Telehealth Brand appeared first on Relevance.

This page is structured like a “stats hub” you can keep coming back to when you need quick numbers for decks, strategy docs, and stakeholder conversations.

In this article

• Top AI visibility statistics
• AI Overviews and AI Mode statistics
• AI citation and source selection statistics
• Clicks, zero-click, and traffic shift statistics
• AI assistant adoption statistics
• Measurement and tracking statistics
• AI visibility statistics: Your questions answered
• Key trends and takeaways for 2026

Top AI visibility statistics

A snapshot of the most important numbers shaping how AI-driven search and assistants affect visibility, traffic, and discovery today.

• Google’s AI Overviews reached 2B+ monthly users, spanning 200+ countries/territories and 40 languages. (blog.google)
• AI Overviews appeared on 6.49% of keywords in January 2025, climbed to nearly 25% in July, then settled at 15.69% in November 2025 (Semrush analysis of 10M+ keywords). (semrush.com)
• Google search impressions were up 49% YoY, while CTR was down 30%, attributed to AI Overviews (BrightEdge data reported by Search Engine Land). (Search Engine Land)
• In Pew’s March 2025 browsing-data study, clicks to traditional search results dropped from 15% (no AI summary) to 8% (with AI summary). (Pew Research Center)
• Pew also found only ~1% of visits with an AI summary produced a click on a cited source link inside the AI summary. (Pew Research Center)
• 76% of AI Overview citations come from top-10 ranking pages, and 86% come from pages ranking in the top 100; the median ranking of cited URLs was 3. (Ahrefs)
• AI Overviews “zero-click” dynamics are messy: Semrush found AIOs often appear on queries that already skew zero-click, but on the same terms, clicks were slightly higher after AIOs appeared, and overall zero-click rate for AIO keywords declined since Jan 2025. (semrush.com)
• SparkToro’s clickstream-based study estimated that in the US, only 360 out of 1,000 Google searches lead to a click to the open web. (SparkToro)
• Worldwide search engine market share in Nov 2025: Google 89.94%, Bing 4.22%, Yandex 2.18% (StatCounter). (StatCounter Global Stats)
• As of July 2025, 64.35% of global web traffic came from mobile devices (compiled from StatCounter data). (Soax)
• AI-referred website sessions increased by more than 500% in the first half of 2025 (SearchEngineLand)

AI Overviews and AI Mode statistics

Data that shows how often Google’s AI experiences appear, how they’re evolving, and what types of queries they impact most.

• AI Overviews were called out by Google as a product with 2B+ monthly users in official earnings remarks. (blog.google)
• Google said AI Mode launched in the U.S. and India and was “going well” (earnings remarks). (blog.google)
• Semrush reported AI Overviews were 13.14% of US desktop queries by March 2025 (up from 6.49% in January 2025). (Digital Marketing Depot)
• Semrush found AI Overviews were predominantly informational (~88%), with commercial/navigational rising over time. (Search Engine Land)
• BrightEdge-reported shifts (as covered by Search Engine Land) include 7× growth in 8+ word queries, 48% rise in “technical terminology”, and a 400% increase in citations coming from positions 21–30. (Search Engine Land)
• Google is expanding ads in AI Overviews to desktop and bringing ads to AI Mode (Think with Google / Google Marketing Live 2025). (Google Business)

AI citation and source selection statistics

Insights into which sources AI systems choose to cite, how ranking influences citation, and where opportunities exist beyond position one.

• 76% of citations in AI Overviews are from top-10 pages, 86% from top-100, and cited URLs have a median SERP rank of 3. (Ahrefs)
• Writesonic study of 1M AI Overviews: AI Overviews averaged ~4–5 citations, with a reported maximum of 33 in their dataset. (Writesonic)
• The same Writesonic study reports an 81.10% chance at least one top-10 URL is cited in an AI Overview. (Writesonic)
• Pew found the most frequently cited sources in AI summaries included Wikipedia, YouTube, and Reddit, together representing ~15% of AI summary sources. (Pew Research Center)
• A practical implication of the above: traditional ranking still matters a lot, but “page 1 or bust” is no longer the whole story—especially with rising citation from positions 21–30 (BrightEdge / SEL). (Search Engine Land)

Clicks, zero-click, and traffic shift statistics

Evidence of how AI answers are changing click behavior, reducing traditional traffic, and reshaping what “search success” means.

• CTR down 30% YoY while impressions up 49% YoY, attributed to AI Overviews. (Search Engine Land)
• 8% of visits resulted in a click on a traditional result when an AI summary appeared vs 15% when it didn’t. (Pew Research Center)
• ~1% of visits with an AI summary produced a click on a source link inside the AI summary. (Pew Research Center)
• 360/1,000 US Google searches lead to an “open web” click (the rest end on Google or go elsewhere in-Google). (SparkToro)
• Across 2025, the overall zero-click rate on keywords with AI Overviews slowly declined since January, despite AIOs being more common on historically zero-click query types. (semrush.com)

AI assistant adoption statistics

Usage and growth metrics for AI assistants like Google AI, ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity that define the new discovery landscape.

• Google’s CEO said AI Overviews grew to 2B monthly users, and also cited growth in Google’s AI products in 2025 earnings communications. (blog.google)
• TechCrunch reported an earnings-call update that AI Overviews hit 2B monthly users, up from 1.5B in May 2025, and mentioned Gemini app MAU growth as well. (TechCrunch)
• MarketWatch (citing The Information / Sensor Tower) reported ChatGPT at ~810M monthly active users and Gemini at ~346M MAU (with Google citing higher). (MarketWatch)
• Business of Apps estimated Perplexity reached ~45M active users in H2 2025 (up ~20M YoY). (Business of Apps)

Measurement and tracking statistics

An overview of what can and can’t be measured today, and how teams are adapting KPIs to account for AI-driven visibility.

• Google Search Console currently does not break out AI Overview impressions: when an AI Overview appears, those impressions are counted in the same dataset as “regular” impressions. (Search Engine Journal)
• In practice, that means many teams are shifting KPIs from “organic clicks” to some mix of: AIO inclusion rate, citation rate, brand mention rate, and share of voice across AI answers. (Brightedge)

AI visibility statistics: Your questions answered

Straightforward answers to the most common questions marketers ask about AI Overviews, clicks, and citation behavior.

How often do AI Overviews show up?
Semrush measured AI Overviews at 6.49% of keywords in Jan 2025, peaking near 25% in July, and landing at 15.69% in Nov 2025. (semrush.com)

Do people click the sources inside AI summaries?
Pew’s March 2025 analysis found source-link clicks inside AI summaries happened only ~1% of the time. (Pew Research Center)

Do AI summaries reduce clicks to websites?
Pew found traditional-result clicks were 15% without an AI summary vs 8% with an AI summary. (Pew Research Center)

Does “ranking #1” still matter for getting cited?
It matters a lot. Ahrefs found 76% of AIO citations came from top-10 results, and the median rank of cited URLs was 3. (Ahrefs)

Key trends and takeaways for 2026

Forward-looking insights on where AI visibility is headed next and what teams should prioritize going into 2026.

• Expect more monetization pressure inside the AI layer: Google is already expanding ads in AI Overviews and bringing ads to AI Mode. (Google Business)
• Attribution and linking are now political issues: Google has said it will add more in-line links in AI Mode, amid regulatory scrutiny and publisher pressure. (The Verge)
• Visibility will fragment across surfaces: AI Overviews, AI Mode, Gemini app, and AI-native tools (Perplexity, ChatGPT-style assistants) each have different citation behavior and UX. (blog.google)

The post 41+ AI visibility statistics & reports for 2026 appeared first on Relevance.

It’s not a blog. It’s not an email welcome flow. It’s not “posting consistently.” It’s a system that pulls the right people toward you—then does the work of turning interest into revenue without you paying for every single click.

At Relevance, we sit at the intersection of PR, SEO, and AI visibility, which means we get to see inbound from every angle: what earns demand, what captures it, and what compounds over time. The best eCommerce teams don’t do inbound as a tactic—they run inbound as an engine.

So if you’re trying to make inbound actually move numbers (not just create “content”), these are the three types we see work again and again for eCommerce.

First, what “inbound” really means for eCommerce

Inbound is any marketing that customers choose to engage with because it answers a question, solves a problem, or helps them decide. In eCommerce, that typically shows up as: search demand, social discovery, email/SMS relationships, reviews, comparisons, and “someone told me to buy this.”

The trap is thinking inbound equals top-of-funnel traffic.

Real inbound has a second half: it captures the visit, builds trust fast, and gives people a reason to come back (or buy now). Otherwise, you’re just funding Google’s index and Instagram’s entertainment budget.

The 3 types of inbound marketing (the ones that actually scale)

Here’s the simplest way we frame inbound for eCommerce—three “pull” engines you can build and stack:

• Search Inbound (SEO + content that captures intent)
• Subscriber Inbound (email/SMS + lifecycle automation that monetizes attention)
• Social Proof Inbound (UGC, reviews, PR, community—trust that sells for you)

That’s it. Three types. Three compounding loops. Most brands are weak in at least one—and that’s usually the one holding them back.

1) Search inbound: when customers raise their hand first

Search inbound is the cleanest version of demand capture: someone wants something, they type it into Google (or an AI search experience), and you show up with the best answer.

For eCommerce, “best answer” isn’t always a product page. A lot of the money is in the messy middle—research mode—where people are asking questions like:

They’re trying to pick a size. Compare materials. Figure out whether the “viral” version is legit. Or find the best gift for a specific scenario they don’t want to get wrong.

Search inbound wins when you stop writing for “traffic” and start writing for decision-making.

A practical example we’ve seen work: a brand selling premium kitchen tools published a simple “Which knife do I need?” guide with real photos, use cases, and care tips. It didn’t just rank—it became their highest-converting non-product page because it reduced anxiety and made the purchase feel obvious.

Mini takeaway: Search inbound isn’t blogging. It’s merchandising for people who haven’t met you yet.

Where search inbound breaks (and how to fix it)

Most eComm SEO fails for one of three reasons:

1. The content is generic (could have been written by anyone, and Google knows it).
2. The content doesn’t connect to product selection (so it can’t monetize).
3. The site experience can’t convert the visit (slow pages, weak PDPs, confusing navigation).

If you want search inbound to be a growth channel, every “inbound” article should have a clear bridge to product discovery—without turning into a sales pitch.

2) Subscriber inbound: your email/SMS list as a demand engine

Subscriber inbound is what happens after the first visit—when you stop “renting” attention and start owning it.

Email and SMS are still the most underrated inbound lever in eCommerce because they don’t just convert; they smooth out the whole business. They make your launches louder, your promotions cheaper, your inventory moves faster, and your CAC less fragile.

But the brands that win here don’t treat email as “newsletters.” They treat it like a personalized shopping assistant that shows up at the exact right moment.

Think about your own behavior: you don’t wake up wanting “brand updates.” You want clarity, inspiration, and a nudge when you’re close to buying. Subscriber inbound is how you deliver that nudge without paying Meta again.

Mini takeaway: If search inbound captures intent, subscriber inbound captures timing.

The underrated play: turning education into automated revenue

One of the cleanest plays in eCommerce is pairing educational content with a lifecycle sequence.

Example: someone reads a “how to choose” guide → opts in for a sizing checklist → gets a short sequence that answers common objections → ends with a curated collection that matches what they cared about.

When done well, it feels helpful, not pushy. And you stop relying on discounts as your only conversion lever.

3) Social proof inbound: trust that pulls people in

This is the inbound type most teams feel but don’t systematize.

Social proof inbound is the flywheel of: people see others talking about you → they believe you’re legit → they search you, click you, save you, or buy → more people talk about you.

UGC, reviews, creator content, community, and PR all live here. What they have in common is simple: they make your brand feel safer to buy from.

And in eCommerce, “safe” is a conversion multiplier.

We’ve watched brands with perfectly fine products struggle because they had no visible trust layer. Then they add real customer photos, honest comparison content, and a handful of credible mentions—and suddenly the same traffic converts at a completely different rate.

Mini takeaway: Social proof inbound doesn’t just create awareness—it reduces perceived risk.

A quick real-world example from our work

Spoonful of Comfort is a great illustration of social proof + search inbound working together. By leaning into authority-building content (rooted in real customer needs) and earning high-quality links/mentions, they grew page views by 217%, increased organic conversions by 75%, and saw branded traffic rise 171%—all while building trust in a category where the purchase is emotional and high-stakes.

That’s what social proof inbound does: it makes the purchase feel like the obvious choice.

How to pick the right inbound type to focus on first

If you’re resource-constrained (most teams are), don’t try to do all three at once. Start with the one that matches your current bottleneck:

If you’re not getting enough new customers consistently, start with Search inbound.

If you have traffic but it’s not turning into repeatable revenue, build Subscriber inbound.

If you’re converting “okay” but you’re stuck competing on price, invest in Social proof inbound.

Then stack the next one. That’s how inbound becomes a system instead of a random pile of tactics.

The simplest way to think about inbound in 2026

Inbound for eCommerce is a pull-based growth engine built on three loops:

Be findable (search). Be remembered (subscribers). Be trusted (social proof).

When those three are working together, your brand stops feeling like it needs to “fight” for every sale—and starts feeling like it’s being chosen.

If you want, tell us what you sell (category + average order value + primary acquisition channel), and we’ll map which of the three inbound types will move the needle fastest for your store.

The post The 3 types of inbound marketing for eCommerce businesses appeared first on Relevance.