For Med-Spas & Aesthetic Practices
Know exactly where your practice stands before you spend on anything else
For med-spa owners, medical directors, and aesthetic salon operators who cannot say, with evidence, where they actually rank against the two or three practices patients are comparing them against.
Every engagement is directed by a technical specialist and reviewed before delivery.
What this is
The Surface Intelligence Audit is a measured read of where your practice stands across Google, the local map pack, and AI answers, with your closest local competitors scored on the same real treatment-question panel, before you commit to anything else. It is a specialist-reviewed reading, benchmarked against the practices patients are actually comparing you to, returned as a ranked list of what to fix first.
The problem
Why med-spas lose here
Most med-spa owners have a strong intuition about how they are doing and no measured evidence for it. They know their appointment book, but not whether they appear when a nearby patient asks an AI engine who does the best filler in town, or how their Google Business Profile compares to the clinic two blocks over.
That blind spot has a cost. A 2026 index of aesthetic AI citations found two manufacturer groups account for roughly 80% of the drug and device citations engines return for treatment questions, meaning most local practices are already missing from a large share of the answers patients read, and most have no way to know it without measuring directly.
Generic SEO reports make it worse, not better. They typically score technical factors that have little to do with how an aesthetics buyer actually decides, and they almost never include the AI-answer surface or a same-panel comparison against your real local competitors, the two things that would make the report actionable.
The evidence
What the numbers show
Google Business Profile signals account for roughly 32% and review signals roughly 20% of local-pack ranking weight, with a distinct AI Search Visibility category introduced for the first time in the 2026 edition.
established Whitespark, Local Search Ranking Factors, 2026 edition.
A business ranking in Google's top local-pack results has less than even odds of also appearing in AI local recommendations.
emerging BrightLocal, "How AI Is Impacting Local Search," 2025-2026.
Two manufacturer groups account for roughly 80% of the drug and device AI citations engines return for aesthetics queries, and about 25 brands hold close to 95% of citation share.
emerging 5W Public Relations, The Med Spa & Aesthetic Medicine AI Visibility Index 2026.
45% of consumers had used an AI tool to find a local business recommendation in the trailing year as of 2026, up sharply from a year earlier.
emerging BrightLocal, Local Consumer Review Survey 2024/2026.
How it works
The work, made checkable
- 01
Read your Google Business Profile the way an aesthetics patient reads it
We audit your primary and secondary categories, attributes, services, treatment menu, service areas, photos, and the fields most practices leave blank, weighted for how a local aesthetics search actually resolves rather than generic local-SEO defaults.
- 02
Sample your real treatment questions across AI engines
We run a frozen panel of your real patient questions, such as best place for lip filler near me or is Morpheus8 worth it, across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Copilot, and Google AI Overviews, and record how often your practice is named versus a manufacturer brand or a competitor.
- 03
Score your closest local competitors on the same panel
You do not learn much from your number alone. We score the two or three practices patients are actually comparing you to on the identical Google Business Profile, review, and AI-answer panel, so the gap is measured, not assumed.
- 04
Check your entity consistency across directories and provider locators
We verify your name, address, and phone across universal directories and the aesthetics-specific ones, including Yelp, RealSelf, Healthgrades, and manufacturer provider locators, because an engine that cannot confidently identify your practice cannot confidently recommend it.
- 05
Read your review profile
We assess review count, recency, and response practice against your named competitors, flagging where a thin or stale profile is costing you the local-pack and AI-answer signal that recent review velocity carries.
- 06
Return a ranked fix list, not a data dump
The deliverable is a specialist-reviewed report ordering the corrections that move your Machine-Readiness Score first, with your competitors' scores shown alongside yours so the priorities are obvious rather than buried in a spreadsheet.
Included
What is delivered
- Aesthetic Machine-Readiness Score read across Google Business Profile, local map pack, AI-answer, and reputation signals.
- Frozen panel of real treatment questions run across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Copilot, and Google AI Overviews.
- Same-panel scoring of your two to three closest local competitors.
- Name, address, and phone consistency check across universal and aesthetics-specific directories and manufacturer provider locators.
- Review profile read: count, recency, and response practice, benchmarked against named competitors.
- A ranked, specialist-reviewed fix list ordering the corrections most likely to move your position first.
The outcome
What it moves
- A measured Machine-Readiness Score across the four pillars that matter for an aesthetics buyer: classic search, the local map pack, AI answers, and reputation.
- A clear picture of how you compare to the specific practices patients are actually choosing between, not a generic industry benchmark.
- A documented, dated read of your presence in AI answers for real treatment questions, reported as a share-of-answer rate with a confidence band.
- A ranked list of the corrections that move your position first, so any further spend is scoped against evidence rather than guesswork.
Straight answers
Questions
How is this different from a free SEO audit tool?
A free tool exports technical scores nobody reads and stops there. This audit is weighted specifically for how an aesthetics buyer decides, includes a real AI-answer panel most tools skip entirely, and scores your named local competitors on the identical panel so the gap is measured, not assumed. A specialist reviews the findings before you see them.
Do you guarantee a specific Machine-Readiness Score or ranking after the audit?
No. The audit measures where you stand today; it does not promise a future ranking, review count, or AI citation. Map-pack placement depends heavily on proximity outside anyone's control, and AI-answer selection is undocumented and changes constantly. We report the number, including where it is weak.
What happens after the audit?
You get the ranked fix list and the competitor comparison to act on however you choose, with no obligation. If you want us to execute the fixes, that scopes into the Med-Spa & Salon Visibility System, agreed in writing against what the audit actually found.
Can you audit a non-medical aesthetic salon, not just a licensed med-spa?
Yes. The audit adapts to your regulatory footprint. A medical practice performing injectables and lasers gets the full compliance-weighted read; a non-medical salon offering facials or waxing gets the same visibility mechanics without the medical-board-specific checks that do not apply.
Provenance
Sources
- Whitespark, Local Search Ranking Factors, 2026 edition (established)
- BrightLocal, "How AI Is Impacting Local Search" and Local Consumer Review Survey, 2025-2026 (emerging)
- 5W Public Relations, The Med Spa & Aesthetic Medicine AI Visibility Index 2026 (emerging)