Every week, the MSP team breaks down the dental marketing news that actually matters, from Google updates and AI search changes to social media trends, SEO shifts, and reputation management surprises.
This Week’s Drilldown:
- Hackers claim they stole millions of patient records from healthcare giant McKesson
- Calls and clicks keep falling as Google Maps becomes the final destination
- Google’s August 2026 spam update hit rankings harder than normal, and AI manipulation is now officially covered
- Google is dynamically expanding AI Overviews for some queries, pushing organic results further down
- Facebook Groups are now Google’s #2 forum source, just behind Reddit
- Quick hit: Google Search Console’s AI performance report is now available worldwide
A Major Healthcare Data Breach Is a Good Reminder to Check Your Own Security
What happened: A hacking group called ShinyHunters claims it stole roughly 284 million patient data records from McKesson, one of the largest pharmaceutical and medical supply distributors in the country, and is demanding a $55 million ransom. The group says it got in by tricking McKesson employees into handing over access through phishing and social engineering, not by exploiting some sophisticated technical flaw. McKesson is just the latest name in a string of healthcare breaches this year, and notably, the same hacking group has previously claimed credit for a breach at DentaQuest, a dental insurance company.
Why dentists should care: This isn’t a story about your practice specifically, but it’s a useful reminder of how these breaches usually happen. It’s rarely some elaborate hack. It’s almost always a person on staff clicking the wrong link or answering a convincing phone call. Dental practices handle exactly the kind of sensitive patient data these groups are after (names, birthdates, Social Security numbers, medical details), which makes basic staff awareness one of the most effective things you can actually control.
What to do next:
- Make sure your team knows how to spot phishing emails and knows never to grant account access based on an unexpected call or message, even one that sounds legitimate
- Confirm your practice management software and any patient communication tools use two-factor authentication wherever it’s available
- If you haven’t reviewed your practice’s data security basics in a while, this is a good nudge to do it
Your Rankings Look Fine, But Are Your Calls Actually Dropping?
What happened: New data is putting numbers behind something local businesses have been quietly noticing. Even when Google Maps rankings hold steady, calls and clicks from those listings have been declining over time. The reason comes down to where Google increasingly wants the interaction to happen. More features, more information, and more of the actual decision-making are happening directly inside Google Maps and Google’s local pack itself, rather than sending someone to your website or prompting an outbound call. One analysis specifically tracked this exact pattern in the dental industry a couple of years ago and found a sizable decline in clicks to call buttons, even for well-ranked profiles.
Why dentists should care: If you’ve looked at your Google Business Profile insights and thought “my ranking looks the same, so why do I feel like I’m getting fewer calls,” this is likely why. Google is increasingly trying to keep the entire experience, from discovery to decision, inside its own ecosystem.
What to do next:
- Don’t rely on ranking position alone as your success metric anymore. Track actual calls, direction requests, and website clicks from your profile over time
- Make sure every bit of information a patient might need (hours, services, insurance accepted, photos) is filled out directly on your profile, since that reduces friction at the exact point where Google wants the decision to happen
- Keep your profile’s engagement features (messaging, booking links) active, since those are increasingly where the interaction happens now
Google’s August Spam Update Hit Harder Than Usual, and It Now Covers AI Manipulation Too
What happened: Google finished rolling out its August 2026 spam update, and third-party tracking found it was unusually disruptive. A top 10 ranking URL was about 1.8 times more likely to completely disappear from the top 100 results during this update compared to normal search fluctuation. Separately, Google quietly updated its spam policy language a few months back to specifically include attempts to manipulate generative AI responses in Search, meaning tactics aimed purely at getting scraped into an AI Overview now carry the same penalty risk as traditional spam tactics.
Why dentists should care: If your practice’s rankings shifted unexpectedly in the past couple of weeks, this update is a likely explanation, especially if nothing else about your site changed. The AI manipulation policy update is worth knowing about too, since it signals Google is starting to treat “content written purely to get cited by AI” the same way it treats old-school keyword stuffing.
What to do next:
- If you noticed a ranking drop around August 18-21, check whether it lines up with this update before assuming something else is wrong
- Avoid any content strategy built around gaming AI citations rather than genuinely answering patient questions
- As always with spam updates, the safest path is simply publishing accurate, useful, original content about your practice and services
AI Overviews Are Now Expanding to Take Over Even More of the Page
What happened: Google confirmed it’s testing a change where, for certain queries, AI Overviews automatically expand to their full length by default, removing the “Show more” button entirely and pushing traditional search results even further down the page. Google says this only happens for queries where its systems determine a fuller answer is more helpful, and it will cancel the expansion if a user has already started scrolling past it.
Why dentists should care: This is another incremental step in the same direction we’ve been tracking for months: Google search results are looking more like a full AI answer and less like the traditional list of links. It’s not something to act on directly today, since it’s a limited test, but it reinforces why showing up well inside an AI-generated answer (through clear content and a complete Business Profile) matters just as much as traditional ranking now.
What to do next:
- No immediate action needed, since this is still a limited test
- Keep treating your website content and Google Business Profile as equally important, since both feed into how AI tools describe your practice
- Expect Google to keep nudging search results to look more like AI Mode over time
Facebook Groups Just Became Google’s Second Biggest Forum Source
What happened: New data shows public Facebook Group posts now appear in about 38% of Google’s “Discussions and forums” search results, putting Facebook in second place behind Reddit and ahead of Quora. Every single Facebook link in that data came from a public Group, not a personal profile or business page.
Why dentists should care: We’ve talked a few times about Reddit becoming a bigger source of trusted recommendations. This is a reminder that local Facebook Groups, like a town’s parents’ group or neighborhood community page, can carry that same weight. A question asked in one of those groups about local dentists can genuinely show up in Google’s search results, not just within Facebook itself.
What to do next:
- If your community has an active local parents’ or neighborhood Facebook Group, it’s worth knowing what’s being said there about dental practices, including yours
- Being a genuine, helpful presence in relevant local groups on social media (not just posting ads) can pay off both directly and through this kind of visibility
- Don’t overlook Facebook Groups just because Reddit has gotten more attention lately, they’re playing a similar role
Quick Hit: Google Search Console’s AI Performance Report Is Now Available Everywhere
The AI search impressions report we mentioned back in Issue 5, the one that separates AI Overview and AI Mode impressions from your regular search data, has now rolled out worldwide. If it wasn’t available in your Search Console account before, it likely is now. Worth a quick check with whoever manages your SEO to confirm you have access and to start tracking this data going forward.
Action Items
| Update | What It Means | What To Do | Priority |
| McKesson data breach | Healthcare data breaches are increasingly caused by phishing, not hacking | Review staff phishing awareness and account security basics | High |
| Calls/clicks falling despite steady rankings | Google increasingly keeps the interaction inside its own ecosystem | Track actual calls and clicks, not just ranking position | High |
| August 2026 spam update | Rankings shifted more than usual this update, AI manipulation now covered | Check if a ranking change lines up with this update before troubleshooting elsewhere | Medium |
| AI Overviews auto-expanding | Some search results now show a full AI answer by default | No action needed yet, keep content and profile info strong | Low |
| Facebook Groups in Google forum results | Local Facebook Groups can now show up in Google search results | Stay aware of what’s said about your practice in local groups | Medium |
| Search Console AI reports go global | AI search impression data is now available in every account | Confirm access with your SEO provider and start reviewing it | Low |
MSP’s Take
Two threads run through this week’s news. The first is a security reminder. The McKesson breach happened because people got tricked, and it didn’t even include some unstoppable 90’s hacker. That’s worth a quick staff conversation regardless of how big or small your practice is. The second is the continuation of something we keep circling back to: Google wants the entire patient journey, discovery, research, and decision, to happen inside its own ecosystem, whether that’s an AI Overview that never sends a click, a Maps listing that never needs your website, or a spam policy that now polices AI manipulation directly. Neither trend calls for a dramatic response, but both are worth factoring into how you think about visibility and security going forward.
Learn More
- Hackers claim millions of patient records stolen during data breach at healthcare giant McKesson – TechCrunch
- Calls and clicks keep falling as Google Maps becomes the destination – Search Engine Land
- Google’s August 2026 spam update hit rankings harder than normal – Search Engine Land
- Google is dynamically expanding AI Overviews for some queries – Search Engine Land
- Facebook Groups Are Google’s No. 2 Forum Source – Search Engine Journal
- Google Search Console AI Reports Rolled Out Worldwide – Search Engine Journal
Frequently Asked Questions
Should I be worried about a data breach at my dental practice after the McKesson news?
The McKesson breach doesn’t directly affect your practice, but it’s a reminder that most healthcare data breaches start with phishing or social engineering rather than complex hacking. Reviewing basic staff security habits, like recognizing phishing attempts and using two-factor authentication, is one of the most effective things a practice can do.
Why are my calls going down even though my Google Business Profile ranking hasn't changed?
Google is increasingly designed to keep the entire patient interaction, from discovery to decision, inside its own ecosystem rather than sending traffic to your website or prompting a phone call. Track your actual calls and clicks over time rather than relying on ranking position alone as a success measure.
What caused the ranking changes I saw in late August?
Google’s August 2026 spam update rolled out between August 18 and August 21 and was more disruptive than typical updates. If your rankings shifted during that window without any other clear cause, this update is a likely explanation.
Do local Facebook Groups actually show up in Google search results?
Yes. Public Facebook Group posts now appear in about 38% of Google’s “Discussions and forums” search results, making Facebook the second most common source in that section, behind Reddit. A conversation in a local community group could show up in Google search.
How can I see how my website performs specifically in Google's AI Overviews?
Google Search Console’s AI performance report, which separates AI Overview and AI Mode impressions from regular search data, has now rolled out worldwide. Check with whoever manages your SEO to confirm it’s available in your account.
Adrian Lefler is the CEO and Co-Founder of My Social Practice and a recognized dental marketing expert with nearly two decades of experience. He is a trusted voice in dental marketing, AI in dentistry, and emerging technology, and he hosts BYTE SIZED, a podcast focused on dental AI, innovation, and technology.
