Blog

How Perplexity picks med spas (and how to be one it cites)

By Visibility Audit Co. Published October 29, 2026.

Short answer: Perplexity looks things up on the web when someone asks, then writes a short answer with numbered links to its sources. It can only recommend your med spa if it can read pages that confirm what you offer and where you are. Make every treatment page crawlable, keep your listings consistent, earn reviews that name the treatment, and check the citations.

How Perplexity answers "best med spa near me"

Perplexity is built around web search. Perplexity's crawler documentation describes PerplexityBot as the crawler that is "designed to surface and link websites in search results on Perplexity," and Perplexity-User as the agent that, when someone asks a question, "might visit a web page to help provide an accurate answer and include a link to the page in its response." In practice, every answer lists its sources, so you can see exactly where it got its information.

Perplexity doesn't publish how it ranks or chooses which businesses to name. Anyone who claims to know the exact formula is guessing.

The citations tell you where to show up

Search for your own treatments and city, then open every numbered source. For med spa searches you'll often see clinic websites, booking platforms, review sites, local directories and forum threads. That mix varies by city and treatment, so check your own market rather than trusting someone else's list. If a directory or booking site keeps showing up and you're not on it, or your profile there is out of date, that's your first fix.

Make sure Perplexity can read your site

Perplexity names two agents, and they behave differently:

PerplexityBot builds Perplexity's search results. Perplexity says it is "not used to crawl content for AI foundation models" and recommends "allowing PerplexityBot in your site's robots.txt file" if you want to appear in its results.
Perplexity-User fetches a page when a user asks a question. Perplexity says that because a user requested the fetch, it "generally ignores robots.txt rules."

So blocking PerplexityBot in robots.txt can keep your pages out of Perplexity's search results. Also check your firewall or CDN. Perplexity's docs walk through allowing its bots in Cloudflare's WAF and warn that Cloudflare's Bot Fight Mode "can still challenge Perplexity bots" even with an allow rule. And if your treatment menu only exists inside a JavaScript booking widget, put the key facts in plain text on the page too.

One page per treatment, written to be quoted

Give each treatment you want to be known for its own page: neurotoxins, fillers, laser hair removal, microneedling, and so on. Each page should say plainly:

what the treatment is and which city or neighborhood you offer it in;
who performs it and their credentials;
a "from" price, if you publish prices;
short answers to the questions clients actually ask, like downtime and how long results last.

Use the same treatment names everywhere: on your site, your booking platform and your listings. And keep medical advertising rules in mind. Avoid outcome promises, and follow your state's rules on before-and-after photos and testimonials. Check with your compliance advisor if you're unsure.

Listings and booking platforms

Use the same name, address, phone number and treatment list on your Google Business Profile, Yelp, your booking platform profile and any aesthetics directories you're on. Claim the profiles that show up in your own Perplexity citations first, since those are the pages it's already reading.

Reviews that name the treatment

A review that says "great lip filler results with no bruising" gives an AI answer far more to work with than "great experience!" Ask clients to mention what they had done. Never pay or offer discounts for reviews: Google strictly prohibits incentivized reviews.

When you reply, don't confirm that someone is a client or mention their treatment, even if they did. Keep replies general and take the conversation offline.

Schema for a med spa

Schema.org defines MedicalBusiness as "a particular physical or virtual business of an organization for medical purposes," which fits most physician-supervised med spas. Some spas fit DaySpa better. Here's an illustrative example for a made-up clinic. Everything in it should match what's visible on the page:

<script type="application/ld+json">
{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "MedicalBusiness",
  "name": "Example Aesthetics",
  "url": "https://www.example.com/",
  "address": {
    "@type": "PostalAddress",
    "addressLocality": "Tampa",
    "addressRegion": "FL",
    "addressCountry": "US"
  },
  "hasOfferCatalog": {
    "@type": "OfferCatalog",
    "name": "Treatments",
    "itemListElement": [
      {"@type": "Offer", "itemOffered": {"@type": "Service", "name": "Laser hair removal"}},
      {"@type": "Offer", "itemOffered": {"@type": "Service", "name": "Dermal fillers"}}
    ]
  }
}
</script>

Schema won't force Perplexity to name you. It keeps your facts clear and consistent. For the full walkthrough, see our LocalBusiness schema guide.

Testing Perplexity for your clinic

Try prompts like "best med spa in [city]," "where to get lip filler in [city]," "[clinic name] reviews" and "affordable laser hair removal near [neighborhood]." Run each one on two or more days. Record who's named and which sources are cited, then compare with ChatGPT and Google. For how practices show up on Google specifically, see how practices show up in Google AI Overviews. You can also run a free AI visibility check to confirm PerplexityBot isn't blocked in your robots.txt.

See whether Perplexity, ChatGPT and Google AI Overviews name your med spa for the treatments you sell, and who they name instead. The $49 AI Visibility Snapshot: 10 buyer-intent prompts, an AI-readiness scan and your top 5 fixes, as a PDF within 48 hours. Or see our AI search visibility audits for local businesses.

FAQ

How does Perplexity decide which med spas to recommend?

Perplexity searches the web, writes an answer and links its sources. It doesn't publish its ranking rules, so focus on what you control: crawlable treatment pages, consistent listings and specific reviews.

Does blocking AI bots in robots.txt keep my clinic out of Perplexity?

Blocking PerplexityBot can keep your pages out of Perplexity's search results. Perplexity says its user-triggered fetcher, Perplexity-User, generally ignores robots.txt.

What should a med spa treatment page include to get cited?

The treatment name, your city, who performs it and their credentials, a starting price if you publish one, and short answers to common client questions, all in plain text.

Do booking platforms and directories affect Perplexity answers?

They can be among the sources Perplexity cites. Open the citations for your own treatment and city searches to see which ones matter in your market, and keep those profiles accurate.

How do reviews affect med spa recommendations in AI search?

Reviews that name the treatment give AI tools specific facts to repeat. Never offer incentives for reviews, and keep replies free of any client or treatment details.

How do I check whether Perplexity recommends my med spa?

Run treatment-plus-city prompts on at least two days, record who's named and what's cited, and compare with ChatGPT and Google.