Digital Presence for a Leading Medical Specialist:
Web, SEO & AI Positioning
We designed the website and full digital strategy for Dr. Catalina Esmerado, a retina specialist ophthalmologist with over 20 years of experience in Barcelona. A digital presence built not only for today's search engines, but for the AI models that answer tomorrow's patients' questions.
Client
Oftalmología Esmerado
Year
2024 – Present
Services
Strategy, Web Design, SEO, AI Positioning
Website
01 — The Challenge
A leading medical specialist invisible in the digital world
Dr. Catalina Esmerado has over 20 years of retina specialisation, a Cum Laude doctorate from the UAB, a fellowship at McGill University in Montreal, a career at Quirónsalud and Viladecans hospitals, and publications in international scientific journals. In the medical world, her name is synonymous with rigour and trust. On the internet, she barely existed.
The challenge was to build from scratch a digital presence worthy of her actual career: not a simple directory listing, but an authority platform that would position her expertise in front of patients who are searching for her — and those who do not yet know they are — in a market as competitive as ophthalmological healthcare in Barcelona.
But there was a second challenge, more innovative and more urgent than it might seem: medical search is changing radically. A growing number of patients no longer search on Google; they ask ChatGPT, Perplexity or Gemini directly: "what is posterior vitreous detachment?" or "who is the best retina specialist in Barcelona?" The digital strategy had to address not only traditional SEO, but also positioning within the language models that increasingly influence patient decisions.
02 — Our Solution
A digital strategy built for two generations of search
We designed the website and content strategy around one principle: the doctor's real expertise had to be visible, comprehensible and citable. For patients, the language had to be accessible — free of alarmism — yet underpinned by the rigour that only comes from decades in the specialty. For search engines and AI models, information had to be structured in the way these systems understand and cite it.
The result is a content architecture built around more than 20 pathology pages and 8 treatment pages, each optimised to capture specific search intent and structured with semantic data that facilitates indexing by LLMs.
Medical authority web design
Professional, clean, mobile-first website that conveys clinical trust from the first second. Optimised for Core Web Vitals and performance across all devices.
Technical and content SEO
Hub & spoke architecture with more than 28 optimised content pages. Local SEO for Barcelona, Schema.org structured data for medical professionals and cross-linking between pathologies and treatments.
LLM positioning
Content structured to be cited by language models (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini). Direct answers to frequent questions, semantic entities and Q&A format optimised for generative AI.
Editorial content strategy
Defined editorial tone: medical rigour in language accessible to the patient, "free of alarmism". Style guide and publication process to maintain consistency over time.
03 — Process
Strategy first, execution second
Audit & Strategy
Analysis of the digital ophthalmology market in Barcelona, keyword research, competitor audit in SEO and LLMs, and definition of the content architecture.
Design & Visual System
Visual system design, typography, layout and components. Prototypes of the main pages validated with the doctor before entering development.
Development & Content
Web development, structured data implementation, and writing of more than 28 pathology and treatment pages optimised for SEO and LLMs.
Monitoring & Evolution
Tracking of Google positions, appearance in LLM responses, organic traffic evolution and generation of new content based on identified opportunities.
04 — The Strategy in Detail
Visible to the patient, citable by AI
The future of search is already here. And it needs answers, not pages.
When someone asks ChatGPT "what are the symptoms of posterior vitreous detachment?" or asks Perplexity "what is the treatment for diabetic retinopathy?", the model does not show a list of URLs: it generates an answer. And that answer is built from the sources the model considers most reliable, clear and well-structured.
We designed the content of each pathology and treatment page to be exactly that: a citable source. Direct question-and-answer structure, clear definitions at the start, verifiable medical information at the level of precision that LLMs value. The goal is not only to rank on Google, but to be the source that AI models cite when a patient asks about retina in Barcelona.
Perplexity AI
Generated response
Patient question
"What is posterior vitreous detachment and when should I see a doctor?"
Posterior vitreous detachment is a physiological phenomenon that appears with age due to liquefaction of the vitreous gel. In most cases it is benign, but it can cause symptoms such as floaters or flashes of light that should be assessed...
The website's content is structured to be the cited source in responses like this one.
Hub & spoke architecture
oftalmologiaesmerado.com
Authority hub
About me
E-E-A-T authority
+20 Pathologies
SEO + LLM
8 Treatments
Commercial intent
More than 28 pages built to capture every type of search.
The hub & spoke architecture places the doctor's profile as the central authority node, from which specific pages for each eye condition and available treatment radiate outwards. Each page captures a different search intent: from the patient who has just received a diagnosis ("what is an epiretinal membrane") to the one who is ready to act ("retinal detachment surgery Barcelona").
Internal linking between related pages reinforces the domain's thematic authority as a whole, and Schema.org structured data — implemented for physician, medical treatment and FAQ — improves both Google visibility and LLM indexing.
The doctor's real career, converted into digital trust signals.
Google evaluates medical content particularly according to the E-E-A-T criteria (Experience, Expertise, Authority, Trust). Here the doctor has exceptional credentials: over 20 years of specialisation, a Cum Laude doctorate, a fellowship at McGill University, service leadership at Hospital de Viladecans and membership of EURETINA.
We translated all of that career into explicit digital signals: a detailed professional profile, links to profiles on Quirónsalud, Teknon and Doctoralia, an optimised Google Business Profile, and citations in authoritative medical directories that reinforce local SEO for Barcelona.
+20 years of retina specialisation
E-E-A-T experience signal. Present in the profile, metadata and content of every pathology page.
Cum Laude Doctorate · McGill Fellowship
Academic credentials that reinforce authority in a sector where Google applies YMYL (Your Money or Your Life) criteria.
Local SEO: retina ophthalmologist Barcelona
Optimised Google Business Profile, consistent NAP, local mentions and geographic markup to capture proximity searches.
Citation network on medical platforms
Profile linked to Quirónsalud, Teknon, Doctoralia and Top Doctors to build an authoritative backlink network in the healthcare sector.
05 — Tech Stack
Technologies used
Stack chosen to enable the doctor to manage medical content autonomously, with the technical foundation needed for performance and SEO.
Web & CMS
- WordPress (CMS)
- Custom CSS
- Mobile-first design
- Core Web Vitals optimised
SEO & Structured Data
- Schema.org (MedicalBusiness)
- Schema MedicalCondition
- Schema FAQPage
- Yoast SEO Premium
Analytics & Performance
- Google Search Console
- Google Analytics 4
- Google Business Profile
- Cloudflare (CDN + security)
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