On this page
Query fan-out is when an AI search system splits one question into several related searches and combines the results into one answer, and Google says both AI Overviews and AI Mode may use it. Curve Compliance's AI Visibility shows how often AI assistants, including ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Google AI Mode, Perplexity, Claude and Gemini, name and cite your practice for the questions your patients ask. AI Visibility is a feature in Curve Compliance, and Curve also offers it as a managed service.
Next step. Want to see how AI assistants answer the questions your patients ask, and who they name? Book a call to see AI Visibility on your own questions, or to talk about the managed service.
What Google says query fan-out is
Google's AI features page says AI Overviews and AI Mode may use a fan-out technique, “issuing multiple related searches across subtopics and data sources,” to develop a response. While a response is generated, Google's models find more supporting pages, which lets Google “display a wider and more diverse set of helpful links associated with the response than with a classic web search” (Google Search Central, AI features and your website).
Google's optimization guide defines query fan-out as “A set of concurrent, related queries generated by the model to request more information and fetch additional relevant search results to address the user's query.” Its own example: “if the original user's query is "how to fix a lawn that's full of weeds", fanout queries might include "best herbicides for lawns", "remove weeds without chemicals", and "how to prevent weeds in lawn"” (Google, optimizing for generative AI features).
The AI Mode help page describes the same thing from the searcher's side: AI Mode works by “dividing your question into subtopics and searching for each one simultaneously across multiple data sources. It then brings those results together to provide an easy-to-understand response” (Google Search Help, AI Mode).
Here is an illustration in healthcare terms, ours rather than Google's. A patient who asks which telehealth therapy services treat anxiety and take insurance could set off related searches about telehealth therapy for anxiety, online therapy that accepts insurance, and how a first telehealth session works. A page that answers one of those well can become a supporting link, even if it never matches the whole question.
Other assistants run several searches too
Fan-out is Google's term, but the behavior shows up across assistants. Each row is from the assistant's own help page.
| Assistant | What its help page says | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Google AI Overviews and AI Mode | They may issue “multiple related searches across subtopics and data sources” to develop a response. | Google Search Central |
| Google AI Mode | “It divides your question into subtopics and searches for each one simultaneously.” | Google Search Help |
| ChatGPT | “ChatGPT search typically rewrites your query into one or more targeted queries that it sends those providers.” After the first results, it “may send additional, more specific queries to other search providers.” | OpenAI Help Center |
| Perplexity | Its research mode “performs dozens of searches automatically, reads hundreds of sources, reasons through material autonomously, and delivers comprehensive reports in just 2-4 minutes.” | Perplexity Help Center |
| Claude | When Claude searches the web, “Claude processes multiple sources to find relevant content.” | Claude Help Center |
Location gets folded into those searches. OpenAI's example: when someone in the San Francisco area asks for good restaurants near them, “ChatGPT may rewrite your prompt into the search query "top restaurants San Francisco."” (OpenAI). For a clinic, that means the city can be part of the search that decides which pages get read. Write the city into the local questions you check for the same reason.
How to spot fan-out searches in Search Console
Search Console counts AI features under its normal rules. Its help page says “AI Mode groups the user's question into subtopics and searches for each one simultaneously, and users can go deeper,” and “If a user asks a follow-up question within AI Mode, they are essentially performing a new query” (Search Console Help). Search Console's help describes no separate fan-out label, so you look for the shape. Using Google's regex filter (Search Console Help, advanced filtering):
- Open the Performance report for Search results and keep Queries selected.
- Google says to “Click + Add filter in the filters row,” choose Queries, then “Choose Custom (regex).”
- Enter
(\S+\s+){7,}to keep queries of eight words or more. Google says “The RE2 syntax is used” and that “Default matching is a "partial match."” - Or use one regex for long questions, such as
^(how|what|which|who|where|why|can|does|is|are|should)\s(\S+\s+){6,}. - Read what is left. Queries that pack a specialty, a city, an insurance and a requirement into one long sentence read like a system wrote them, not a person.
What is left is a rough list, not a verdict. Some long queries are simply people typing full questions. Look for the ones that read like a checklist, and for clusters of long queries that land on the same page.
Turn fan-outs into questions you track
A fan-out query tells you what an assistant needed to know. The patient question behind it is what you want to track. Group the long queries you find by the question a patient would have asked, then keep the ones that lead to appointments: commercial, comparison and local questions, more than general information.
A question can name a city, such as best pelvic floor therapist in Tampa, so you can follow what patients in each city you serve are told. See what AI visibility is and how to track AI Overviews and AI Mode.
Answer them without writing a page per query
It is tempting to publish one page for every long query. Google says not to: “While it might be tempting to create separate content for every possible variation of how people might search (for example, by focusing on other queries that people have asked, or fan-out queries), doing so primarily to manipulate rankings or generative AI responses in Google Search violates Google's scaled content abuse spam policy” (Google). The same guide says “you don't have to worry that you don't have enough "long-tail" keywords or haven't captured every variation of how someone might seek content like yours.”
- Fold the answer into the page that owns the topic. Add a section or an FAQ answer to the service or condition page, rather than a thin new page.
- Answer the sub-question plainly. One or two sentences that state the fact, then the detail.
- Keep the clinician in the loop. Have a clinician review any answer on a medical topic before it goes live.
- Pace it. Decide how many pieces your clinicians can review each week, and answer the most valuable sub-questions first. See a content roadmap clinicians can keep up with.
- Measure the change. Compare how often AI answers name you, AI visits to the page and the bookings from them, before and after each change.
How Curve Compliance helps
AI Visibility is a feature in Curve Compliance, and Curve also offers it as a managed service. AI Visibility shows where competitors are named and you aren't, who leads each topic, and which sources AI cites. It ties AI answers to the visits and bookings they bring you. It turns what it finds into a weekly roadmap sized to what your clinicians can publish, with medical topics flagged for clinical review. It measures what each published piece changes. AI Visibility asks AI assistants only the marketing questions you track, screened for PHI first, never anything about a patient.
With the managed service, Curve's team sets up your questions, competitors and topics, writes the pages on your roadmap, and makes the technical fixes that help AI assistants read your site. Your clinicians review and approve anything medical before it goes live. If your developer manages your site, Curve's team hands them the exact fixes. Each month, Curve's team walks you through your results on a call and sends a one-page report. AI Visibility is available on request: book a call to get started. For how each assistant cites pages, see ChatGPT visibility and where AI gets healthcare answers.
In one AI Visibility program we've run, for a HIPAA-focused healthcare software brand, AI assistants named or cited the brand in more than half of their answers to its 40 core buyer questions about five weeks in. Across 184 buyer questions, its site was cited in more AI answers than any competitor's, more than 2.5 times as many as the nearest one.
Sources, checked November 2, 2026: Google Search Central, AI features and your website; Google Search Central, optimizing for generative AI features; Google Search Help, AI Mode; Search Console Help, impressions, position and clicks; Search Console Help, advanced filtering and comparison; OpenAI Help Center, Searching the web with ChatGPT; Perplexity Help Center, How does Perplexity work?; Claude Help Center, Enable and use web search.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is query fan-out?
Query fan-out is when an AI search system splits one question into several related searches and combines the results into one answer. Google says AI Overviews and AI Mode may use it.
Does ChatGPT use query fan-out too?
OpenAI doesn't call it that, but its help page says “ChatGPT search typically rewrites your query into one or more targeted queries” and may follow up with “additional, more specific queries” (OpenAI).
How do I find fan-out queries in Search Console?
In the Performance report, add a Queries filter with Custom (regex) and keep only long, question-shaped queries (Search Console Help). Then group what is left by the patient question behind it.
Does Search Console label fan-out queries?
Search Console's help describes no fan-out label. It does say AI Mode searches subtopics simultaneously and that a follow-up question in AI Mode counts as a new query (Search Console Help).
Should I write a page for every fan-out query?
No. Google says creating separate content for fan-out queries primarily to manipulate rankings or AI responses “violates Google's scaled content abuse spam policy” (Google). Add the answer to the page that owns the topic instead.
Do I need llms.txt or special markup for AI Mode?
Not for Google. Google says “You don't need to create new machine readable files, AI text files, markup, or Markdown to appear in Google Search (including its generative AI capabilities), as Google Search itself doesn't use them” (Google). For other assistants, see llms.txt for healthcare websites.
Is AI Visibility a Curve feature or a managed service?
Both. You can use AI Visibility as a feature in Curve Compliance, or Curve's team can run it for you as a managed service. AI Visibility is available on request: book a call to get started.
Talk to Curve Compliance
Next step. Want to know how often AI assistants name your practice when patients ask about your specialty? Book a call to see AI Visibility on your own questions, or to talk about the managed service.