AI search for Costa del Sol clinics

An expat in Fuengirola cracks a tooth. A visitor in Marbella wants a second opinion on implants. A family moving to Malaga needs a paediatrician who speaks English. More and more of them ask an AI assistant before they ask a friend.

The questions are specific: “English-speaking dentist in Malaga”, “is it safe to get veneers in Marbella?”, “private GP in Fuengirola that takes UK insurance”. The answers name clinics.

Health questions are trust questions

Choosing a clinic abroad is stressful. Patients worry about language, hygiene, cost and what happens if something goes wrong. AI engines know this. For health questions they lean hard on sources that signal trust:

• Named clinicians with qualifications and registration details.
• Independent reviews, especially ones that mention language and nationality.
• Health directories such as Doctoralia and Top Doctors, and insurer directories.
• Clear treatment pages that explain what you do, who does it, and roughly what it costs.

A clinic can be excellent and still invisible if none of this is written down where AI can read it.

Common gaps we see

The website is only in Spanish. Fine for local patients. But when an international patient asks in English, the AI has less to work with.

Doctors are anonymous. “Our expert team” tells a model nothing. “Dr Ana García, implantologist, trained in Madrid and London, speaks English and French” does.

Prices are missing. Patients ask about cost. Clinics that publish price ranges give AI something useful to say.

Reviews are thin or generic. Five stars and “very good” is less useful than a review that says the dentist explained everything in English.

What to do first

1. Ask ChatGPT and Gemini the three questions your best patients would ask. Note who gets named.
2. Add an English page for each main treatment, with the clinician’s name and languages.
3. Make sure your Google Business Profile lists languages spoken and accurate opening hours.
4. After each appointment with an international patient, ask for a review in their own words.
5. Add MedicalClinic or Dentist schema to your site with specialities and languages.

Staying within the rules

Spanish health advertising has strict rules, and rightly so. AI visibility is not about bold claims. It’s about accurate, factual, well-organised information, which is exactly what those rules ask for anyway.

See where you stand

Our free AI visibility check tests 10 patient questions across ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity, and compares your clinic with three others nearby.