In this video, Etna Interactive’s Director of Marketing Strategy, Jessica White breaks down how AI has changed content creation for medical and aesthetic practices, and why a polished, AI-assisted draft is not the same thing as a strategic one. As publishing gets faster and cheaper, the real advantage shifts to practices who know which content is worth building and which ground they’ve already covered.
Follow along to learn why more pages don’t equal better visibility, what separates good content from content that actually earns rankings and trust, and how to decide between updating an existing page, publishing a supporting blog post, or building something new.
Video Transcription:
Hi, I’m Jessica White with Etna Interactive. And today we’re going to take a little time to talk through how AI is changing content creation, what good content actually looks like, and how your practice can decide whether to create something new or to update what you already have. Let’s go ahead and get into it.
POLISHED IS NOT STRATEGIC
Many of you know AI has lowered the time and the cost required to produce something that looks really polished and publish-ready. But just because something looks polished does not mean it is strategically valuable.
So even with production being faster and cheaper than it ever has been, you still need to invest in the development, publishing, and upkeep of content. And more, in this case, definitely does not mean better.
This means when you’re evaluating whether to add new content to your site, you should first ask yourself just a few basic questions. Is patient interest and demand strong enough to justify the investment? Does the topic support a procedure or a service that you want to see grow in your practice? And finally, what does the site already answer? What can you already leverage that exists today to amplify your positioning?
These decisions aren’t something AI should be making on your behalf. Once you’ve decided to make the investment, the quality standard the piece needs to meet needs to come from Google. Let’s go ahead and discuss what that is.
GOOGLE JUDGES THE RESULT, NOT THE METHOD
Google’s position on AI-generated content is a little nuanced. Just because something was created with AI does not mean that Google is going to penalize you, at least not today.
Google says that generative AI can be really useful when researching a topic and adding structure to original content. That describes a legitimate role in the content creation process, but it does not make raw AI output ready to publish.
Drafts still need a meaningful review, where an expert is verifying all the information is correct, adding expert perspective, aligning it with the practice’s voice, and shaping it to answer prospective patients’ questions and educate them on their options.
Google is just as direct about volume. Its own guidance states that a high quantity of pages does not make a website higher quality or even more relevant to users. Google also says you don’t need a separate piece of content for every keyword variation you’re targeting. Google’s systems understand relevance when the wording in a user’s search doesn’t exactly match the wording on a page.
That standard is especially important in elective healthcare. Google gives more weight to strong experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness for topics that can significantly affect health or safety. Google calls these Your Money or Your Life topics, or YMYL, because they affect health, safety, or financial decisions.
So the question isn’t about whether AI touched the draft or how many pages you have on your site. It’s whether the published content is accurate, original, relevant, and worth the patient’s time. A quantity race in content is a race to the bottom. Let’s discuss how you can set yourself up to win the content game.
GOOD IS WHERE MOST CONTENT STOPS
Here’s the good news. Most sites stop at good. And to be frank, good should be the floor. So first, we’re going to discuss what good looks like and how you can surpass it.
To achieve good content, it must be accurate and aligned with how your users search in your market. It must include dedicated pages for your procedures, services, staff, and locations, and be reviewed by a qualified expert. AI, with some oversight, can already get you to “good.” But when everybody has AI in their pocket, “good” is often not good enough, and you have to be more strategic about how you approach content going forward.
So what does “better” look like? Better goes further, layering in unique provider perspectives that anticipate both primary and secondary questions users will ask and provide satisfying answers to those questions. It also contextually connects related topics to guide users and crawlers to related pages on your site, making it easy for them to find what they’re looking for.
So, how do you achieve the best content? The best content is backed by your own results, experience, and proof points. It includes unique insights and points of view nobody else can offer, drawing on your provider’s expertise, skill, and training, as well as their perspective on techniques and patient care protocols.
It demonstrates real experience at the provider and brand level for any procedure or service. And finally, it’s content that someone is actively maintaining. Reviewing and updating content as your practice and the evidence or proof points around it change is mandatory at this level. You should never create content with the mindset that you’ll publish it once and walk away.
Creating the best content isn’t easy, but when you get it right and the content earns its place in a larger site strategy, it’ll help you grow. It’ll build your visibility and your credibility. Beyond the creation, you have to ask yourself: What do you need the content to do? And that’s exactly what we’re going to talk about next.
KNOW WHAT YOU NEED BEFORE YOU BUILD IT
All right, you’ve landed on a topic. The next decision is: What job does the content actually need to do? And there are 4 ways this can go. Before you jump into building something new, remember what we already covered. More pages does not equal better visibility.
So the first question isn’t, “What should I create?” It’s, “What do I already have that could do this job?” That’s why the first option is the simplest: Use what exists.
If you already have a piece of content that covers the topic, if creating something new would just split traffic or compete with a page you already have, or if the existing page is already earning visibility, the answer isn’t a new page. It’s maintaining what you have and only updating it when there’s a material change.
If you’re already ranking well for a topic with a piece of content, small maintenance updates may be necessary, but larger changes and overhauls to a page should generally be avoided.
But “use what exists” only works if what exists is actually working. That’s where stronger content coverage comes in. If you have a page or post on this topic, but it’s thin, outdated, or incomplete, patients are asking questions the current page doesn’t answer, or the page is already ranking but not as well as it could, the move isn’t a new page. It’s a better version of the one you already have.
That’s often the fastest way to improve visibility because you’re not starting from zero. You’re pushing a page that already has traction over the finish line.
The next option is a supporting blog post. A post can make a lot of sense when a topic is a specific question, comparison, or concern. It also fits when a patient needs to understand something more specific before they’re ready to book. That could be something like what goes into costs, their options, and which procedure is right for their particular concern.
The content’s primary job is to inform, not necessarily to convert patients directly, though there are some exceptions to that rule. A good post should always point back to the service or procedure page it’s referencing, and it should feed interest toward the page instead of competing with it or sitting there disconnected.
And then we have the fourth option: Add a new page. So when do you actually need one? Everybody jumps to this option first, but it should really be the last one on your list.
You need one when you’re dealing with a distinct service, procedure, location, or provider that doesn’t already have a page on your site, or when there’s enough real demand to justify building one instead of tucking a mention into something else you already have.
If you get this right, whichever of the four ends up being right for your practice and your unique situation, you’re answering real patient questions. You’re building visibility for something you actually want to grow at your practice. And you help move patients closer to booking more consistently.
If you get it wrong, you have pages competing against each other for the same search terms. Important information is scattered across your site and possibly disconnected. And you have more pages that your team has to keep accurate as things change.
Checking what you already have isn’t a one-time thing, or it shouldn’t be. It has to be part of how you actively manage your content going forward. Honestly, you should be doing a meaningful review about once a year or so, or when there are meaningful changes at the practice.
Remember, AI has made publishing content easier and faster for everyone. But careful curation and strategic oversight of your site’s content will serve you far better than mindless content creation.
YOU DON’T HAVE TO DO THIS ALONE
And finally, if everything we just covered sounds like a lot to manage on top of everything else you have going on in your practice, you’re right. And you don’t have to sort it out by yourself.
If you’re already working with us and you want to know what’s next in your content plan, talk to your account manager, who will walk you through your current plan and what’s next to keep you growing.
If you’re not a client yet, this is exactly the kind of work we do. And we deal with practices every day who need help understanding and curating a content strategy that works for them.
Reach out and let’s talk about where your content strategy is right now and how we can get you growing going forward. Thank you so much.
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