When a patient asks ChatGPT or Google's AI "who's a good chiropractor near me for sciatica," the answer names a few clinics. Which ones depends partly on what the AI can read and understand about each clinic.
So we looked. In September 2026 we checked 1,132 chiropractic clinics we found on Google Maps across 14 US cities. We ran each website through the same free scan anyone can run at First Answer. We report totals only and name no clinics.
What did we find?
Most clinic sites have the technical basics but are missing the content patients ask about.
- 7% of clinics (80 of 1,132) had no website listed at all. An AI assistant has nothing of theirs to read or cite.
- About 1 in 10 websites (102 of 1,052) turned our scanner away. If a site blocks automated visitors, some AI assistants may not be able to read it either.
- 91% of readable sites (860 of 950) had no Spanish content we could find. That's in cities like San Antonio, El Paso, Miami and Albuquerque.
- Only 1 in 4 had a page about sciatica, one of the most common reasons people look for a chiropractor.
- Only 38% had an FAQ answering patient questions.
How did we check?
We read each clinic's homepage and up to 10 linked pages, plus robots.txt and the sitemap, and ran 10 checks on them.
The checks at the time were: can AI crawlers get in, are there pages for common conditions, is there an FAQ, is there business schema and FAQ schema, is there Spanish content, is there a clear title and description, a sitemap, a phone number on the homepage, and do the homepage links work.
For the full set of 1,132 clinics we used each clinic's overall result. For the detailed numbers below we re-ran a full scan on a random sample of 291 readable sites on September 23, 2026.
Do most clinic sites get the technical basics right?
Yes. Most clinic sites pass the technical checks:
| Check | Sites that passed (sample of 291) |
|---|---|
| Sitemap found | 89% |
| Phone number on homepage | 85% |
| Clear title and description | 83% |
| AI crawlers allowed in robots.txt | 97.6% |
So most clinics aren't losing out on AI search through some technical mistake. The gaps are in the content.
Where are the gaps?
The gaps are in what the site says: condition pages, FAQs and Spanish content.
| Check | Sites that passed (sample of 291) |
|---|---|
| Business schema (LocalBusiness or medical) | 51% |
| FAQ content | 38% |
| Pages covering 4+ of 8 common conditions | 32% |
| FAQ schema | 16.5% |
| Spanish content | 7.6% |
Patients ask AI assistants specific questions: "chiropractor for pregnancy back pain," "do chiropractors help with headaches," "chiropractor after a car accident." A site with a plain page answering that question gives the AI something to point to. Most sites we checked didn't have one.
We report schema numbers because we measured them, not because schema is a shortcut. When Ahrefs tracked 1,885 pages that added schema, AI citations barely moved (Ahrefs). Google says structured data isn't required for its AI features (Google Search Central).
Which conditions are most often missing?
Sciatica, pregnancy and kids were the least covered: each had a page on about 1 in 4 sampled sites.
| Condition | Sites with a page (sample of 291) |
|---|---|
| Auto injury | 43% |
| Back pain | 37% |
| Neck pain | 36% |
| Headaches | 31% |
| Sports injury | 25% |
| Sciatica | 25% |
| Pregnancy | 24% |
| Kids | 23% |
One caveat: we read the homepage and up to 10 linked pages, so a site with a condition page buried deep in its navigation could be counted as missing it. These numbers are the floor, not the ceiling.
How many clinic sites have Spanish content?
Very few: 90 of the 950 sites we could fully read had Spanish content we could find, so 860 did not.
Many of these cities have large Spanish-speaking populations. If a clinic's team speaks Spanish, one good Spanish page on its most common condition is a small job that very few local competitors have done.
How did clinics score overall?
The median result was 6 of 10 checks passed, across the 950 fully readable sites. 7 sites passed everything. 42% passed half or fewer.
What should a clinic fix first?
Make sure your site lets visitors in, then write one plain page for the condition you treat most. The cheapest wins, in order:
- Make sure your site lets visitors in. If your hosting or security plugin blocks automated traffic, AI assistants may skip you.
- Add a plain page for each condition you treat most. Say what it is, how you help, and what a first visit looks like.
- Add an FAQ page with real patient questions. Use each question as a heading and answer it in the first sentence below.
- If your team speaks Spanish, add one Spanish page.
Google's own guidance says there's no special trick for AI features: the same SEO basics apply (source). That's good news. These fixes are ordinary website work, and most clinics haven't done them yet.
Want to see where your clinic stands? The scan is free and takes about 20 seconds.