Field Report · 01
Reclaiming the front line
How a US cancer research network won its share of voice back from AI Overviews.
Sector
Healthcare · Cancer research network
Region
United States
Duration
6 months
Services
Technical SEO · Digital PR · Entity strategy
The brief
A nationally recognised US cancer network with a strong baseline of authority was quietly losing high-intent service queries to AI Overviews and paid-heavy competitors.
The situation
The team knew traffic had softened, but couldn't pinpoint where. Rankings looked stable in the tools — impressions weren't. The real leak was AI Overviews absorbing informational queries and citing adjacent (thinner) publishers instead of the network itself.
Turning point
We stopped optimising for the ten blue links and started optimising for the citation. Every priority page was rebuilt to give LLMs a reason to name the brand as the source, not the runner-up.
The playbook
Three moves that changed the trajectory.
Technical sweep across service templates
Cleared render-blocking issues, removed self-cannibalising URLs and rebuilt schema to match the exact query intent.
Digital PR into medical publications and .edu domains
Earned mentions in the outlets LLMs already trust — university health desks, oncology journals, patient-advocacy bodies.
Entity reinforcement
Rewrote author bios, added structured data linking clinicians to their institutions, and made the brand the shortest path to the answer.
Sound familiar?
Facing a similar problem? Let's talk.
Fifteen minutes on a call is usually enough to know if we're a fit — and where we'd start.
The outcomes
What the numbers did next.
In their words
"For the first time in eighteen months, we're being named — not just linked to — in the answers our patients see."
— Head of Digital, US cancer research network
Let's work together
Want a report like this one?
Tell us your domain and the goal. We'll come back with a snapshot and an honest read on what's realistic.