When AI Thinks a Job Board Is a Health Expert
At a glance: An SE Ranking study analyzing over 50,000 searches reveals how Google AI Overviews select health sources. The findings: domain authority beats expertise, YouTube gets cited more than any hospital, and only 0.5% of sources come from scientific publications. This article summarizes the key takeaways for SEO, UX, and management.
Imagine googling your symptoms. The AI answers. And the source is... a career website.
Not a joke. This is actually happening.
A recent study by SE Ranking analyzed over 50,000 health-related searches and 465,823 citations in Germany. Germany was chosen deliberately – strictest regulations, highest standards. If weird things happen there, they happen everywhere.
And yeah, weird things are happening.
The Uncomfortable Truth: Authority Beats Expertise
The most surprising finding: PraktischArzt – a career portal for doctors – ranked #5 among the most-cited sources for health questions. Not a university hospital. Not a medical journal. A job board.
And #2? NDR – a German public TV broadcaster. Beating every specialized medical portal.
AI doesn't ask: "Who has the credentials?" It asks: "Who has the strongest domain authority? Whose content is easiest to parse?"
And sometimes the site with 10,000 FAQ articles wins against the specialist clinic with three PDFs.
The Numbers That Hurt
| Source Type | Share in AI Overviews |
|---|---|
| "Less reliable" sources | 65.6% |
| Government health portals | < 1% |
| Scientific publications | 0.5% |
The institutions we're supposed to trust are basically invisible to AI. Go figure.
I'm not sure if that's good or bad. Probably both. But it's definitely the new rulebook.
The Top 10 Is Dead
Here's where it gets really interesting for SEOs:
| Ranking Position | Share of AI Sources |
|---|---|
| Top 10 | only 36% |
| Top 20 | 54% |
| Top 100 | 74% |
Let that sink in. Almost two-thirds of AI sources are pages you'd never find in a normal Google search. And over a quarter rank so far back that no human ever scrolls there.
That page ranking at position 47? Could suddenly be the main source for the AI answer. Your lovingly optimized landing page at position 3? Gets ignored.
What AI loves vs. what it ignores
What AI loves:
- FAQ pages with direct answers
- Comparison articles and buyer guides
- Definitions and explainers
- Anything that can be summarized in a sentence
What it doesn't love:
- Marketing speak
- Text without clear structure
- Pages that take three paragraphs to get to the point
Dr. YouTube Will See You Now
This one didn't surprise me honestly, but the numbers are still wild: YouTube is the most-cited source for health AIOs – more than any hospital, government agency, or medical journal.
The guy filming explainer videos in his basement is beating the Mayo Clinic. At least in the AI's eyes.
And this despite YouTube often ranking at position 11 or worse in organic results. But hey, who needs a medical degree when you've got good lighting and chapter markers?
A study on YouTube videos about prostate cancer found that 77% contained biased or misleading information. Only one-third of the most-viewed medical videos actually come from healthcare professionals. The majority? Bloggers.
AI prefers formats that are easy to summarize:
- Video transcripts
- Step-by-step guides
- Q&A formats
That's basically fast food for the algorithm. Easy to digest, quick to serve.
Oh, and in case you thought ChatGPT was better: When ChatGPT actually cites sources (which happens in only 0.25% of cases), the #1 most-cited source is... Reddit. I wish I was joking.
What This Means for Management
Here's the part I always explain to clients first:
AI doesn't reward the smartest. It rewards the clearest.
Sounds obvious, but the consequences are massive:
| Strategy | What It Means |
|---|---|
| Scale beats one-offs | One brilliant expert article moves nothing. Dozens of aligned pages build trust. |
| Clarity beats depth | AI needs statements it can "safely" cite. Direct answers, clear definitions, no hedging. |
| Backlinks still matter | When there are multiple equivalent sources, classic authority still decides: Who gets linked? Who gets mentioned? |
The Actual Point
Google AI Overviews appear on over 82% of health-related searches. This isn't an experiment anymore. It's the new default.
And the logic applies beyond healthcare. It applies to SaaS, e-commerce, finance, legal, real estate – basically everything.
The three questions AI asks:
- Can I understand this easily?
- Can I justify citing this?
- Is it safe to quote?
If you can answer yes to those three questions, you have an advantage in 2026.
If you're still focused on rankings alone, you're missing half the game.
Honestly, I find this liberating. It means: Clear, good work can win. Even without a massive budget. Even without academic credentials.
You just have to understand how the new machine thinks.
Source: SE Ranking – Google AI Overview Health Study (January 2026)