Customer Story
How Henry Ford Health’s SEO Team Outperforms Competitors in AI Search
Henry Ford Health is a leading non-profit healthcare system headquartered in Detroit, Michigan. The organization operates more than 550 care sites. As a large, integrated healthcare system, Henry Ford Health serves patients across a wide range of specialties and service lines.
113%
Increase in clicks across targeted pages where Schema App’s Entity Linking feature was applied
119%
Increase in impressions across targeted pages where Schema App’s Entity Linking feature was applied
Behind the scenes, a focused digital team ensures HenryFord.com functions as a clear, trusted front door to care.
Dave Bartkowiak, Digital Content Strategy Manager, leads Henry Ford Health’s digital content strategy, ensuring content is authoritative, patient-focused, and optimized for both traditional and AI-driven search. Brian Pawlowski, Digital Marketing Analyst and SEO expert, translates performance data into actionable insights that strengthen content strategy, user experience, and organic performance.
Together, they are responsible for SEO across HenryFord.com. And they are doing it with a team of three.
The Challenge: Competing in Traditional and AI Search
Healthcare is a highly competitive digital landscape. Patients search for trusted information, providers, and services. At the same time, search behavior is rapidly shifting toward AI-powered experiences. Henry Ford Health needed to win in both traditional SEO and AI-driven search.
To do that, they needed a scalable way to apply and manage structured data across a vast website with a small team. Prior to partnering with Schema App, entity-focused work was not a strategic priority.
As AI search matured, however, the stakes became clear. Visibility in AI Overviews and large language models would not be earned by content alone. It would depend on the maturity of their structured data and how well their entities were defined, connected, and governed.
Without a strong entity infrastructure in place, they risked losing visibility in emerging AI search experiences. At the same time, manually managing entity governance across hundreds of pages was not realistic for a three-person team. And in a competitive healthcare market, falling behind in structured data sophistication meant giving competitors an advantage in AI-driven discovery.
The team needed stronger visibility and control. Specifically, they needed to:
- Organize and view structured data in one place
- Manage entities efficiently across hundreds of pages
- Understand where entities were applied, URL by URL
- Gather insights to inform optimization decisions
With a small team supporting a large healthcare system, manual processes were not sustainable.
Before expanding their strategy, they wanted proof that entity optimization would drive measurable impact and strengthen their competitive position in both traditional and AI search.
Turning Point: Proving the Impact of Entity Linking
To validate their strategy, Henry Ford Health partnered with Schema App to run an experiment using Schema App’s Entity Linking feature.
The team implemented Entity Linking on a set of net new Careers pages. The goal was to strengthen entity connections and increase top-of-funnel organic visibility. And the results were clear.
After implementing Entity Linking, Henry Ford Health compared year-over-year organic performance on those pages and saw:
113%
Increase in clicks across key blog page sets where Schema App’s Entity Linking feature was applied
119%
Increase in impressions where Schema App’s Entity Linking feature was applied on those same page sets
These gains were measured by comparing the year prior to Entity Linking against the year after it was applied. The experiment demonstrated that entity optimization was not theoretical. It had a measurable impact on organic visibility and traffic.
“That got us really excited to be moving forward and looking for other ways to do it,” Dave says.
The success of this initiative played a major role in solidifying the decision to expand their entity strategy with Entity Hub, Schema App’s scalable entity SEO solution for search and AI. Henry Ford Health was already partnered with Schema App and deploying advanced Schema Markup across their site. Structured data was not new to their strategy. What changed was the scope.
After seeing measurable gains from Entity Linking, the team chose to deepen their investment. They expanded their work with Schema App to adopt Entity Hub, giving them greater visibility, control, and scalability in how entities were managed across HenryFord.com.
What began as a structured data implementation evolved into a more intentional, entity-driven strategy designed to compete in both traditional and AI-powered search.
Solution: Operationalizing Entity Optimization with Entity Hub
With proven results in hand, Henry Ford Health adopted Entity Hub to centralize and scale their entity strategy. Today, they use Entity Hub to optimize key service line pages, including tier-one specialties such as cancer. Entity Hub gives the team a clear view of how entities are distributed across the site.
As Dave explains, “If I can see an entity that is present on 900 URLs, it’s another way for us to look at how our top priority entities are covered across the site, and how that content is linked. I find that super helpful.”
Entity Hub enables them to:
- View every entity and associated URLs in one place
- See the exact Schema Markup applied
- Identify gaps or inconsistencies
- Align entity optimization with SEO keyword research
“It blends right into our SEO strategy,” Dave explains. “We’re doing our keyword research. Are we using the correct keywords? Are we finding patterns in our content? Entity Hub adds another layer of insight, helping us understand our content more deeply and ensure it aligns with how AI systems are interpreting and consuming it.”
Brian highlights another key benefit: identity clarity.
For a healthcare organization, having control over how its brand and services are understood and represented by AI systems is critical. Structured data and entity optimization now form part of the foundation of Henry Ford Health’s AI strategy.
“It’s part of the foundation, absolutely,” Dave says. “We have to have this structured data in the background. We know it.”
This consistent win in structured data is a direct result of their investment in brand sovereignty. While competitors leave their representation to chance, Henry Ford Health is explicitly defining its narrative for AI.
Looking at the different types of entities identified in our content, you realize we are all those things. We are a location. We are a medical clinic. We are part of cities. All of those are identifiable as us. When you associate them with your pages, it gives AI or any other bots more knowledge about who you are as an organization.”
— Dave Bartkowiak, Digital Content Strategy Manager, Henry Ford Health
A Seamless Workflow for a Small Team
With only three people responsible for SEO across the entire domain, automation and support are essential. Entity Hub fits naturally into their workflow. It does not disrupt content creation. Instead, it supports strategic content and SEO decisions.
“It hasn’t necessarily changed our workflow,” Dave explains. “But it’s boosting our confidence in our strategy. We know what we can do. We’ve seen some success, so let’s look for more avenues to apply this.”
The Henry Ford Team also shared that their Customer Success Manager plays a critical role in this partnership’s success.
“Any question we have, our Customer Success Manager is able to answer and help us understand how we should actually be using Entity Hub and applying the recommendations,” Dave says. “They’ve made it so easy for us.”
Brian adds, “Our Customer Success Manager has all the stats. Everybody’s asking us, ‘Are we using Schema Markup?’ And we can confidently say, ‘Yeah, and we’re way ahead of everybody else.’”
The Results: Stronger AI Visibility and Competitive Advantage
Henry Ford Health measures performance using an enterprise SEO platform that provides visibility into both traditional and AI-driven search metrics.
They closely monitor:
- Google AI Overview visibility
- ChatGPT visibility
- Mentions and citations
- Competitive structured data performance
Their SEO platform evaluates multiple competitive factors across search performance, including technical elements like metadata, content structure, and structured data. According to Dave, structured data is where Henry Ford Health consistently stands out.
When the platform compares us across several technical categories, structured data is the area where we consistently win,” he explains. “It shows that our Schema Markup is stronger than our competitors’.”
— Dave Bartkowiak, Digital Content Strategy Manager, Henry Ford Health
Even when competitors outperform them in other technical areas, structured data remains a reliable strength.
“We know we have to do work in other areas,” Dave says. “But not in structured data. Whoever made the decision to partner with Schema App years ago made the right one. We’re seeing the benefits now. We’re reaping the rewards.”
In AI-driven search environments, they focus specifically on brand visibility through mentions and citations. At the same time, the team remains focused on what matters most: helping patients navigate their care journey.
“We’re trying to help people find a doctor,” Dave says. “That’s what we’re here to do. Our job is to make that journey easier, not create friction along the way.”
Entity optimization strengthens that journey by improving the clarity and accuracy of how Henry Ford Health appears across both traditional search results and AI-powered experiences.
Entity Hub Gives Henry Ford Health A Confident Foundation for AI Search
Search is evolving quickly. AI Overviews and large language models are reshaping how patients discover healthcare providers. For Henry Ford Health, structured data and entity optimization are no longer optional. They are foundational.
With Entity Hub, Henry Ford Health has:
- Centralized control over structured data
- Clear visibility into entity distribution
- Measurable organic gains from Entity Linking
- Competitive edge in AI search
- Confidence in strategic conversations with leadership
“We know it’s important to have this structured data in today’s search landscape, more than ever,” Dave says. “To be able to say we have a strong foundation in place is amazing.”
By validating their strategy with measurable results and scaling it with Entity Hub, Henry Ford Health has positioned itself to compete and win in both traditional and AI-driven search.
If your organization is working to strengthen its visibility in AI search, now is the time to build a scalable entity strategy. Connect with Schema App to learn how Entity Hub can help you operationalize entity optimization and build a strong foundation for AI search.
Dave Bartkowiak
Digital Content Strategy Manager
Henry Ford Health
We know we have to do work in other areas… But not in structured data. Whoever made the decision to partner with Schema App years ago made the right one. We’re seeing the benefits now. We’re reaping the rewards.”