In a world where more people are turning to ChatGPT before searching on Google, even the most valuable pharma content risks becoming invisible.
It may be easy to dismiss the role of artificial intelligence in pharma and the way HCPs and the patient population search for information, but we’re heading towards a world where AI searches will become the norm.
Many portals still rely on basic SEO, making it difficult for HCPs to efficiently find relevant information and answers to their queries; however, AI-powered search can address this limitation.
These tools don’t return a list of blue links; they summarize, cite, and synthesize.
And unoptimized content risks being left out of the conversation entirely.
People now expect content (including medical information) to be as accessible and synthesized as an AI response.
A recent analysis by Semrush reveals that those between the ages of 18 and 34 are using ChatGPT more often than Google. People between the ages of 35 and 44 are becoming more accustomed to using AI chatbots.
The gap is closing, and younger healthcare professionals are more adept with technology and will comprise the main workforce in a few years, overtaking baby boomers.
The problem? Pharma’s SEO playbook is outdated
Pharmaceutical websites and HCP portals have prioritized long-form content, static PDFs, slide decks, and compliance-heavy gated access.
These were designed for traditional Google indexing and keyword strategies and focused on driving traffic from other channels (for example, through sales reps).
These assets often resemble regulatory documents and provide little value to AI systems trained to prioritize clarity, structure, and user-centric responses.
Many platforms fail due to poor user experience and lack of engagement strategies, which diminishes their effectiveness.
Failing to identify HCPs’ prescribing behaviors in content strategy can further limit the effectiveness of HCP portals, as understanding these behaviors is crucial for delivering relevant information and optimizing engagement.
As for AI tools, a meticulously researched dosing guideline hidden in a gated PDF is unlikely to be summarized or cited. And if it’s invisible to AI, it might as well not exist in the near future.
An analysis by Eolas reported that over 45% of clinicians had used AI for clinical questions.
That’s an issue as healthcare professionals increasingly use AI as a supplementary tool, consulting it for insights while meticulously cross-checking its recommendations against their expertise or reliable sources.
To engage busy HCPs, it is crucial to deliver clear value through concise, relevant content that meets their high expectations and limited time.
The better these systems are and prove to be trustworthy, the more HCPs will use them.
And pharma needs to start preparing now.
1. The new search reality: from traditional SEO to AI Search Optimization (AISO)
Pharma companies have primarily relied on traditional SEO tactics to increase the visibility of HCP portals and medical websites.
That meant the usual: keyword-focused landing pages, long-form content, PDFs filled with clinical detail, and backlinks from authoritative domains.
This approach was effective in a world where HCPs used Google and were willing to dig through multiple search results.
But that world is slowly changing.
This shift in behavior calls for a new approach: AI Search Optimization, or AISO.
AI Search Optimization (AISO) is the practice of making your content discoverable and understandable by large language models and AI agents, not just search engines.
Unlike traditional SEO, AISO isn’t about ranking in Google’s top 10 links.
It’s about being cited, summarized, or recommended directly in an AI-generated answer.
That means key features of AI-optimized HCP portals should be great content structure, clarity, and machine-readability.
Traditional SEO vs. AI Search Optimization (AISO)
| Traditional SEO | AI Search Optimization (AISO) |
| Ranks pages based on keywords, backlinks, metadata | Selects and summarizes content based on structure, clarity, and trust signals |
| Optimizes for how humans search (short phrases) | Optimizes for how humans ask questions (conversational, complex queries) |
| Prioritizes HTML title tags, alt text, URL structure | Prioritizes structured data (schema), semantic clarity, and content summarization |
| Geared toward Google indexing and SERPs | Geared toward LLMs and AI engines (e.g. ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, Gemini) |
| SEO audits look for page speed, meta tags, etc. | AISO audits look at scannability, summarizability, and citation likelihood |
A recent CMSWire article explains it well:
CMSWire“Traditional SEO relies on search engines crawling links and ranking content by relevance. AI search, by contrast, synthesizes information across multiple sources to deliver direct answers, and often only credits a few.”
Does it mean that SEO is dead?
No, and it likely won’t be for a long time.
Traditional SEO still plays a vital role in making your content discoverable.
In fact, strong SEO is now a prerequisite for visibility in AI-powered search tools.
AI agents like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, Gemini, and Google’s AI Overviews often start with top-ranked content when generating summaries or answering questions.
That means if your page already ranks on the first page of Google, it’s much more likely to be seen and cited by these tools.
However, SEO today encompasses more than just keyword density or backlinks.
Ongoing content creation is essential for supporting both SEO and AI-powered search optimization efforts to surface relevant content, as it strengthens your digital infrastructure and drives engagement across HCP portals.
To engage busy HCPs, it is crucial to deliver clear value through concise, relevant content that meets their high expectations and limited time. A strong value proposition in HCP portals is essential, as it clearly communicates the unique benefits to healthcare professionals and encourages ongoing engagement by minimizing registration friction.
To succeed in this new hybrid world of traditional and AI search, SEO must evolve. It must:
- Focus on comprehensive topic coverage that addresses real user (and HCP) intent
- Deliver structured, easy-to-summarize content, not just long pages of text or gated PDFs
- Demonstrate expertise, trust, and originality, which both search engines and AI models reward
- Include question-based phrasing that mimics the natural way professionals now ask AI tools for help
So, SEO isn’t dead; it’s just getting smarter.
Think of it this way: Good SEO gets you indexed. Great AISO gets you summarized.
As Tom Vaughton, CEO of SEO agency Varn, said during our webinar, “HCP portals that actually work:”
Tom Vaughton“If your HCP portal content isn’t optimized for how doctors and HCPs search today, it’s invisible, even if it’s brilliant.”
To thrive in the AI search era, pharma websites and HCP portals must blend SEO with AI Search Optimization.
One supports the other, and together, they ensure your content remains findable, trustworthy, and ready to be surfaced by both humans and machines.
2. How AI Search changes the game for HCP engagement
More and more physicians are skipping Google entirely. They’re asking ChatGPT for dosing guidelines.
A recent survey and analysis by Impiricus and CMI Media Group revealed some interesting stats: 51% of HCP respondents reported using generative AI tools in their work.
What’s more interesting is that the use distribution is not equal among specialties — 71% of primary care physicians are using AI in their work, compared to 36% of dermatologists.
Going a step further, the research also analyzes how these AI tools are used, showing that those who prefer to tap into AI are doing it for:
- 42% Clinical decision support & medical questions
- 32% Documentation & charting
- 10% Drafting emails, letters, & other writing
- 10% Prior authorizations
- 6% Research Summaries
Given the data, most of these use cases represent potential opportunities for pharma companies to address on their portals and other websites and apps.
This new approach to researching and gathering information online indicates that pharma companies must adapt quickly to capture as much of the HCP engagement as possible.
By embracing digital tools and interactive features, pharmaceutical companies can increase HCP engagement, improve content discoverability, and ensure that their portals remain a trusted source of up-to-date information.
The pharma-specific challenge and opportunity
Yes, HCP portals must remain gated, especially in the European Union. But that doesn’t mean your content has to be invisible to AI.
The opportunity lies in structuring what can be public, such as:
- Executive summaries of gated content
- Non-promotional scientific insights
- FAQs, dose comparison tables, and metadata-rich abstracts
- References to guidelines and publicly available evidence
Integrating HCP portals into effective omnichannel strategies is essential for ensuring data completeness and delivering personalized communication to healthcare professionals.
You can then signal to AI tools what your portal contains without violating compliance.
Let’s get into the nitty-gritty and see what are some of the practical strategies you can apply for better AI search optimization.
3. Practical steps to optimize your HCP portal for AI search
3.1 Structure content for AI visibility
Unlike traditional search engines that crawl and index at scale, many AI systems operate with timeouts, prioritize structured clarity, and rely on visible context to generate useful responses.
If content isn’t optimized for these behaviors, it may be skipped altogether, even if it contains valuable information.
Here’s how to structure your content for maximum AI visibility:
Place key information high on the page
AI crawlers and summarizers often stop reading after a few seconds or tokens. Place the most important facts, takeaways, and answers at the top of each page to ensure they’re captured. This means key data should come before introductions, disclaimers, or brand messages.
Use semantic markup (schema.org)
Structured data, such as FAQ, Breadcrumb, and VideoObject, helps AI systems understand the type and purpose of your content.
For pharma-specific content, consider adding markup around authorship (Person) and medical terms where possible.
Create “teaser” pages for gated content
A good workaround for login-protected pages is to create public-facing “teaser” pages with summaries of the gated documents: key findings, bullet lists, key visuals, and CTAs to register.
This allows AI to index the value of your content without breaching compliance protocols.
Optimize for conversational, question-based queries
Tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini are trained to answer natural questions, such as “What are the latest safety concerns with SGLT2 inhibitors?” rather than keyword-heavy prompts.
Reflect this behavior in your content by including Q&A sections, conversational headings, and long-tail questions that HCPs are likely to ask.
Use intent modeling based on how HCPs search: dosage comparisons, clinical evidence, safety considerations, or MOA (mechanism of action) overviews.
Use clear headings, bullet points, and relevant visuals
AI loves scannable formats, which means that common recommended search engine optimization tactics, such as using H2/H3 headings, concise paragraphs, bullet lists, and charts, also work effectively here.
Infographics, annotated diagrams, or embedded explainer videos also increase the likelihood of inclusion in summaries or visual overviews.
If PDFs are required, duplicate key content in HTML summaries
If you must use PDFs, create an HTML page summarizing its key points in structured text. Not only does this make it accessible to AI, but it also enhances SEO and improves the user experience for mobile visitors.
3.2 Demonstrate Authority, Trust, and Relevance
AI search engines don’t just look for relevant information — they look for reliable information, which translates into signals of credibility.
When it comes to HCP portals, this means showcasing clinical rigor, professional expertise, and transparency at every turn. Leveraging HCP insights and demonstrating a deep understanding of HCP needs is also crucial to building trust and ensuring your portal stands out.
Here’s how to build that trust:
Display E-E-A-T signals: Expertise, Experience, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness
Originally coined by Google, these signals now also influence AI search tools.
One of the key steps is to make sure your content reflects medical expertise (e.g., authored by specialists) and real-world experience (e.g., clinician insights or case studies).
Achieve this by displaying author names, credentials (e.g., MD, PhD), and affiliations alongside qualifications on teaser and inside gated content.
AI tools utilize this metadata to determine whether the content is medically reliable and worthy of citation.
Next, ensure the authoritativeness of your content by referencing affiliation with respected journals, clinical guidelines, medical journals, and product SPCs (Summaries of Product Characteristics).
The MLR review process checks the trustworthiness of your content, but it’s essential to signal it for AI crawls by properly linking your claims to easily accessible sources.
Use up-to-date, comprehensive, and well-cited content
AI systems value recency and thoroughness. Make sure your content reflects the latest data, guidelines, and treatment options, and ensure that all updates and additions focus on delivering relevant content for HCPs.
Include citations and links to original sources. Integrating up-to-date treatment guidelines into your content is essential to support healthcare providers’ clinical decision-making and enhance the clinical relevance of your portal.
When multiple articles on the same topic exist, AI tends to prefer the one that covers it comprehensively and clearly references supporting evidence.
These credibility signals aren’t just for Google anymore; they’re now essential for getting cited in AI-generated answers HCPs rely on daily.
3.3 Implement technical SEO for AI
AI systems have tighter timeouts, limited patience for messy code, and a preference for speed and structure.
Technical optimization of your digital tools is a requirement for visibility in the new AI-driven search landscape.
Here’s how to make your portal technically ready:
Ensure crawlability: check robots.txt, sitemaps, and firewall rules
It’s common for pharma portals to have authentication walls. However, you can still allow limited crawler access by setting up proper rules in robots.txt, submitting structured sitemaps, and whitelisting trusted AI crawlers (where appropriate).
Make sure you have intuitive navigation and fast loading
Design your portals for AI as well as humans. Unfortunately, our in-depth analysis of HCP portals revealed that most portals offer cumbersome access, including lengthy forms and registration processes, which discourages physicians from signing up and leads to low HCP portal adoption.
At the same time, features such as breadcrumbs and easy filtering are largely missing, making website navigation more difficult. Aligning portal navigation and features with typical HCP workflows can significantly improve usability and ensure the platform meets the real-world needs of healthcare professionals.
Start by highlighting key sections, reducing login steps, adding easy-to-use navigation, and ensuring fast loading speeds.
AI tools prioritize speed because of API rate limits and tight response timeouts.
A slow-loading page is more likely to be skipped. Use lightweight design, compress images, enable browser caching, and test your portal on mobile devices regularly.
Create an llms.txt file to manage AI crawler permissions
Similar to robots.txt, the emerging llms.txt (Large Language Models crawler rules) standard allows site owners to signal how and whether their content can be used by AI agents. However, many pharma portals have yet to adopt standards like llms.txt, which limits their readiness for AI integration. While still evolving, adopting this early signals your readiness for AI integration and helps you manage content governance in an LLM-driven future.
4. How to track AI visibility and engagement
AI search isn’t a black box. If you know where to look, you can measure the performance of your content across AI platforms.
Analyzing portal use, user behavior, and HCP data is essential for tailoring content and features to HCPs’ needs, ensuring that engagement and personalization are optimized.
From AI-driven traffic sources to featured snippet appearances and content engagement metrics, there are clear signals that show whether your HCP portal is resonating with your audience and gets the visibility it deserves in AI tools.
Here’s how to keep a pulse on your AI visibility and optimize based on real insights.
4.1 Monitor AI-driven traffic and citations using Google Analytics, Peec.ai, and Google Search Console
Traditional tools like Google Analytics and Google Search Console remain essential, but they now need to be read with a new lens.
Watch for new referrers (e.g., Perplexity.ai or Claude.ai), sudden spikes from AI-generated summaries, or specific branded queries that resemble AI suggestions.
These tools can help you identify which gated pages attract clicks via public summaries and serve as an indicator of what works and what doesn’t.
You can also turn to platforms like Peec.ai to gain visibility into when and where AI systems are citing your content, providing insights beyond standard SEO dashboards.
These analytics tools not only track traffic sources but also provide valuable insights that can enhance HCP engagement strategies, enabling field sales representatives to optimize their outreach efforts.
4.2 Evaluate engagement: time on page, conversion from teaser to login, downloads
Key metrics to monitor how HCPs engage include the time they spend on a teaser page before registering or logging in, the number of document downloads, and conversions to gated content. Analyzing past behavior, such as previous interactions and content engagement, can help refine engagement and conversion strategies.
If your AI-optimized summaries aren’t converting, revisit the structure, clarity, trustworthiness, or calls to action.
4.3 Track snippet and AI summary appearances (featured snippets, AI Overviews, Perplexity citations)
Use incognito searches or SEO tools to monitor whether your content appears in featured snippets (Google), AI Overviews (SGE), or is cited in summaries on AI-driven chatbots.
4.4 Continuously update and test content based on performance and AI search trends
Content that performs well today may be outdated or less relevant next month.
Build a content operations loop: monitor trends and assess underperforming assets to identify areas that aren’t performing well. When updating content, ensure that changes do not contribute to content overload, as excessive or poorly organized information can reduce user engagement.
Consider A/B testing different teaser formats or question structures to learn what AI tools prefer to summarize and cite.
5. Looking Ahead: The Next Frontier
We’re standing at the edge of a shift that will fundamentally change how HCPs interact with medical content.
As AI-powered tools become the primary gateway to information, replacing traditional search engines, the rules of digital visibility are being rewritten in real time. Innovative tools are simplifying complex health data, enabling healthcare providers to make informed decisions and enhance engagement.
What does this mean for pharma websites and portals?
It means that staying relevant will no longer depend solely on search rankings or gated access.
It will depend on how well your content speaks to and is understood by AI tools that synthesize, summarize, and recommend.
The question is no longer “Are we optimized for Google?” but rather “Are we visible to AI?”
Early adopters of AI Search Optimization (AISO) will not only gain more visibility but also trust.
By making portals structured, accessible, and useful for both humans and machines, you can position your pharma company as the go-to source in this new search paradigm.
Organizations that are uniquely positioned with advanced data and technology will have a significant competitive advantage in this evolving landscape.
Future-proofing your digital presence starts now:
- Audit your content and technical aspects of your site through the lens of AI visibility
- Iterate regularly to keep pace with new tools and behaviors.
- Educate your teams on the principles of AISO and embed them into every new initiative.
Smarter discoverability will be the basis for the next generation of HCP engagement.
In addition, predictive analytics and predictive modeling will shape the future of HCP portal optimization, enabling more personalized and effective engagement strategies.
These data-driven approaches will help anticipate the needs of healthcare providers, optimize outreach, and ultimately support better patient care. Focusing on patient outcomes and patient care will be central to future strategies, ensuring that every digital initiative contributes to improved clinical results and overall health.
