More pages isn’t always more Google
There’s an old temptation in clinic marketing: generate a page for every town within twenty miles — “Physio in Ware”, “Physio in Hertford”, “Physio in Hoddesdon” — all basically the same page with the place name swapped. This week someone at Google confirmed what we’ve long suspected: that approach usually produces pages Google considers spam or close to it, and worse, a pile of old low-value pages can make Google lose faith in your whole website — even the good parts. And once that trust is gone, cleaning up doesn’t fix things overnight; Google said recovery takes real time and effort.
To be clear, area pages themselves aren’t the villain. A page for a town you genuinely serve — with real local detail like the clinicians patients will actually see, parking and directions, and the conditions people from that area come in with — is still a perfectly good idea. It’s the copy-paste-and-swap-the-town-name version that does the damage.
What this means for you: a smaller website of genuinely useful pages beats a big one of copies. If a previous agency ever filled your site with near-identical location pages, that’s worth a proper look — quietly pruning them now protects everything else you publish. (If we look after your site, this is exactly the kind of thing we prune.)
Source: Search Engine Journal — Google says old low-value pages may affect site recovery
People ask AI — but they book through Google
Last week we told you most people still check a business out on Google before contacting it, even when an AI tool suggested it. New research this week backs that up with bigger numbers: when people first go looking, search engines get about 54% of the action and AI tools about 38% — but when it’s time to actually pick up the phone or book, AI use collapses. People take the AI’s suggestion, then head back to Google, the phone, or good old word of mouth (which has held steady for a decade) to seal the deal.
What this means for you: AI gets you onto the shortlist; your Google profile, your reviews and your reputation win the booking. Nothing about that changed this week — which is rather the point.
Source: Near Media — fragmented discovery and how people actually choose
Scammers are hiding fake phone numbers in Google photos
A genuinely sneaky one. Scammers have been uploading computer-generated photos to businesses’ Google listings — photos with their own phone number printed across the image, sometimes displayed as prominently as the main photo. A patient Googles the clinic, sees a number in the photo, rings it… and gets the scammer. One scammer alone had planted over 150 of these photos before Google stepped in.
What this means for you: anyone can add photos to your Google listing, not just you. Open your clinic on Google Maps this week, look through the photos, and if you spot one with a phone number on it that isn’t yours, report it. (For the clinics whose profiles we manage — we’re checking this week.)
Source: Search Engine Roundtable — the phone-number-in-photo scam
An email from Google that isn’t junk (for once)
Members of the public can suggest changes to your Google listing — your opening hours, even your clinic’s name — and if nobody objects, those changes can simply go live. Google has now started emailing owners when someone suggests an edit, with the subject line “Does this look right to you?” and simple Yes/No buttons. The catch: you get about 4 days to answer.
What this means for you: given how much genuine junk mentions Google, this one’s easy to bin by mistake. Tell whoever reads the clinic inbox: an email asking to confirm a change to your Google listing is real and needs a quick yes or no.
Source: Search Engine Roundtable — Google’s “Does this look right to you?” emails
Google knows more about your clinic than your Google listing does
Researchers dug into how Google Maps works under the bonnet this week and found that your Google listing is really just the front window of a much bigger file Google keeps on your clinic — one built from almost 800 different sources across the web, weighed up by roughly 72 different signals. In other words, Google isn’t only reading what you typed into your listing; it’s cross-checking what directories, websites and databases everywhere say about you.
What this means for you: if your address, phone number or clinic name is out of date on some directory you’d forgotten existed, Google notices the disagreement. Consistency everywhere — boring as it sounds — is a genuine ranking asset. It’s a core part of the SEO work we do, and this research is a nice confirmation of why.
Source: Search Engine Land — inside Google Maps: 72 ranking signals
Those question boxes on Google are now answered by AI — here’s how to be the answer
You know the “People also ask” boxes on Google — “How long does sciatica take to heal?”, “Do I need a referral to see a physio?”. As of this month, 97% of those answers are written by Google’s AI, up from about 12% just over a year ago. And the AI has to get its answers from somewhere: it quotes websites that answer patient questions clearly and credibly, and when it recommends local businesses it leans on directories, review sites and local “best of” lists.
What this means for you: two things earn your clinic a place in AI answers — genuinely helpful content on your website that answers the questions patients actually ask, and a healthy presence on the directories and local lists AI trusts. Both are the unglamorous groundwork we bang on about, now with a shiny new reason to exist.
Sources: Search Engine Roundtable — People Also Ask now answered by AI · Search Engine Journal — how local businesses build visibility in AI search · Whitespark — the 2026 playbook for AI visibility
Questions about any of this? Just ask — explaining it is literally what we’re here for.