What AI can find out about care homes: our study of 9,807 homes in England
What our November 2026 study of 9,807 care homes in England found: 19% reached our top visibility band and six in ten have fewer than ten Google reviews.
Almost every care home is on Google, but most give AI assistants little detail to go on. In November 2026 we scored 9,807 homes in England on what a family or a machine can find online, and 19% reached our top band.
Six in ten of those on Google have fewer than ten reviews.
Some families have started asking AI assistants which care home to choose. What matters is which homes those assistants can see well enough to mention.
We analysed 9,807 care homes in England to see how much evidence each one has online.
Here’s what we found, and what the best homes do differently.
How do AI assistants decide which care homes to recommend?
AI assistants assemble answers from the web evidence they can find, such as a home’s website, its reviews and directory listings like carehome.co.uk. What they can see depends on everything else you do online.
An AI doesn’t “know” your home. When a family asks it for recommendations, it pulls together whatever evidence exists across the open web and the sources it trusts, then forms an answer.
If that evidence is thin, with no website, few reviews or sparse listings, the AI has little to go on. It is more likely to name homes it can see clearly.
Visibility to AI, in other words, is the sum of your wider online presence.
How much can be found about care homes online?
Only 19% reach our top band. Nearly every home has a Google listing, but the typical one has just 7 reviews.
The basics are mostly there. The detail often isn’t. Of the 9,807 homes we analysed:
19% (1,848 homes) reach our top band.
99% have a Google listing, but about 30% of those listings look unclaimed.
About 10% (937 homes) have no website that we could find.
The typical home has just 7 Google reviews, and 5,932 homes have fewer than ten.
The national average Visibility Score is 60/100, and only 203 homes (2%) score under 25.
The score is our own measure of what can be found online. We did not ask an AI about every home.
None of this requires a big budget to fix.
Does better care mean better visibility?
Only a little, and that’s the surprising part. On our measure, a home’s CQC rating makes little difference to how easy it is to find online. Outstanding-rated homes score just 8 points above Inadequate ones.
You’d assume the best homes would be far easier to find. They aren’t. When we lined up visibility against CQC rating, the scores moved only slightly:
Outstanding homes average 64
Good homes average 60
Requires Improvement homes average 59
Inadequate homes average 56
Four numbers within 8 points. And 11 Outstanding-rated homes have no website that we could find. Some of the finest care in the country is hard for families to find.
Brilliant care and being easy to find are two different jobs, and the second often goes undone.
Do big care groups dominate AI recommendations, and can independents compete?
AI assistants often name large groups, but not only them. In our November 2026 test of eight AI tools on dementia care in Exeter, a home from a small local operator was named almost as often as the leading group’s.
Big groups also score higher on our measure: 73 on average, against 56 for single-home owners. We think that is down to deeper online evidence, such as more pages, more reviews and more consistent listings.
It says nothing about the quality of their care.
Independents start at a disadvantage here.
The hopeful part is that independents that had built genuine visibility were named alongside them. You can close much of that gap with effort.
An honest caveat: our test covered one city, one type of care and one day, so treat it as a pointer rather than a measurement.
The visibility scores, though, cover all 9,807 homes.
What should a care home do now?
Build the evidence AI relies on: a real website, more reviews and consistent directory listings. Most homes have plenty of room to improve.
The to-do list isn’t exotic:
Have a real website that clearly states who you are, where you are, and what you offer. If you don’t have one, that’s step one.
Grow your reviews. Invite every family. Only about 8% of homes with a Google listing have 30 or more, so going from 7 to 30 would put you well ahead.
Get your listings consistent across Google, carehome.co.uk and other directories, with the same name, address and details everywhere.
Publish a little useful content that answers the questions families actually ask.
Consider testing ChatGPT adverts once the foundations are there. OpenAI restricts health services and does not name care homes, so test one advert first. See our set-up guide and overview.
Because few homes have done all of this, even modest effort can help you stand out.
25 years in brand, digital and marketing, six of them only in care. Barry writes the Quick Wins email every week and still answers the phone.
The questions people ask. Answered in a line or two.
How do AI assistants choose which care homes to recommend?
They assemble answers from web evidence, such as your website, reviews and directory listings like carehome.co.uk. Nobody outside these companies knows exactly how they choose, and nobody can promise you a mention.
How visible are care homes online?
In our November 2026 analysis of 9,807 homes in England, 19% scored in our top band and the typical home had just 7 Google reviews.
The score is a guide to what can be found online, and no AI was tested on each home.
Why isn’t my care home showing up in ChatGPT?
Often because the online evidence is too thin, with a weak website, few reviews or inconsistent listings.
AI can only recommend what it can find, so gaps in your wider online presence keep you out of its answers.
Do AI assistants favour big care groups?
In our early testing they often named large groups like Barchester, Bupa and Care UK. We think that reflects deeper online evidence, and it says nothing about their care.
Independents that had built real visibility were named too.
How do I make my care home visible in AI search?
Build the basics AI relies on: a clear website, more genuine reviews, and consistent directory listings, plus a little content answering families’ real questions.
Most homes have plenty of room to improve, so even modest effort can help.
