One Colorado orthopedic group now earns nearly half of all the non-branded search value across 10 leading practices, and its lead grew over the past year. Webolutions compared October 2025 and October 2026 organic search data for 10 independent orthopedic, spine, sports medicine and foot and ankle practices that compete for patients along the Front Range. All 10 draw patients from the Denver area, whether through metro clinics or as statewide referral destinations. Orthopedic Centers of Colorado’s share of the group’s non-branded Organic Search Value rose from 39% to 48%. Two smaller practices doubled their share. Most of the rest lost ground, even as their own traffic numbers rose.
Meanwhile, Google’s AI Overviews spread quickly across orthopedic searches. The practices in this study appeared in AI Overviews more than twice as often as a year ago, and the gains went mostly to the practices that were already winning.
This study is part of Webolutions’ Digital Performance Research series. We name practices where their results offer a model worth following. Practices with less favorable findings are described by category.
Key findings
- One practice is pulling away. Orthopedic Centers of Colorado (OCC) now earns 48% of the group’s non-branded search value, nearly as much as the other nine practices combined.
- Content-led specialists doubled their share. The Foot & Ankle Institute of Colorado and Center for Spine & Orthopedics each roughly doubled their share of the market by publishing patient education that ranks for the questions people search.
- Six of 10 practices lost share of the group’s non-branded value, even though nearly every practice’s own traffic rose.
- AI Overviews arrived fast. The group’s AI Overview appearances rose from about 1,600 to nearly 3,500 in a year, and four practices captured virtually all of that growth.
- Brand demand isn’t new-patient demand. Three practices earn a fifth or more of their search value from people already searching their name.
- High-value subspecialty searches are still open. For searches like "spine surgeon denver," "sports medicine denver" and "hand surgeon denver," health systems and individual surgeons’ websites often outrank the large independent groups.
Why we measure share of non-branded search value
Organic Search Value estimates what a practice’s unpaid search traffic would cost if it bought the same clicks through Google Ads. Because searches with booking intent cost more, it shows whether a website ranks for the searches that bring in patients, not just how much traffic it gets. It also gives executives a number they notice: whether their website’s value is rising or falling against the competition.
We remove branded searches (searches for a practice’s own name or its locations) because those come from patients who have already chosen it. Non-branded searches, such as "orthopedic surgeon near me" or "torn meniscus treatment," come from patients who haven’t chosen a provider yet. That is where practices win or lose new patients.
This year we add one more step. Across all 10 practices, combined non-branded value rose from about $177,500 to about $629,100 a month, and combined estimated traffic nearly doubled. Some of that rise reflects real growth. Some reflects changes in Semrush’s click-cost and traffic estimates for healthcare searches, which lifted every practice at once. Raw year-over-year dollar changes would make nearly everyone look like a winner.
So we compare each practice’s share of the group’s non-branded value. Share holds the market constant. If a practice’s value doubled but the market’s value tripled, it lost ground, and share shows that.
The scorecard: 10 Colorado orthopedic practices, year over year
We name the practices whose results offer a model to follow. The others are described by category, and each will receive its detailed findings privately.
| Practice | Share of group, Oct 2025 | Share of group, Oct 2026 | Change | Non-branded value/mo, Oct 2026 | What is happening |
| Orthopedic Centers of Colorado (multi-specialty, 10+ metro locations) | 39.4% | 48.4% | +9.0 pts | $304,400 | Top-3 rankings nearly tripled; AI Overview appearances rose from 23 to 980 |
| Regional orthopedic and spine group | 14.2% | 9.5% | −4.7 pts | $59,900 | Most top-3 rankings in the group, but traffic grew far slower than the market; 20% of value is branded |
| Foot & Ankle Institute of Colorado (foot and ankle specialists) | 4.6% | 9.4% | +4.8 pts | $58,900 | Value spread across a deep library of patient-education articles |
| Multi-specialty orthopedic group | 11.5% | 8.7% | −2.8 pts | $54,400 | Rankings grew, but slower than the market; 28% of value is branded |
| Center for Spine & Orthopedics (Thornton) | 3.2% | 7.6% | +4.4 pts | $48,100 | Spine education guides and physician pages; top-3 rankings up 52% |
| Specialty sports medicine clinic | 10.9% | 7.4% | −3.5 pts | $46,500 | Traffic flat while the market’s nearly doubled; 38% of value is branded |
| Orthopedic and spine practice | 10.7% | 4.3% | −6.4 pts | $27,100 | Traffic grew fast, mostly from informational searches that rarely lead to appointments |
| Established Denver orthopedic group | 3.3% | 2.9% | −0.4 pts | $18,600 | Second-largest backlink profile in the group, modest non-branded reach |
| Colorado Spine Partners (spine specialists) | 1.0% | 1.0% | 0.0 pts | $6,500 | Lowest authority in the group, yet #1 for "spine surgeon denver" |
| Spine specialty practice | 1.1% | 0.7% | −0.4 pts | $4,700 | Traffic down 25%; top-3 rankings nearly halved |
| All 10 practices | 100% | 100% | $629,100 |
Share of the group’s combined monthly non-branded Organic Search Value, Semrush US database. See the methodology below.
Semrush US database · share of the 10 practices’ combined non-branded Organic Search Value, Oct 2025 vs Oct 2026
Read the right-hand columns together and the picture is clear: three practices gained ground, one of them decisively, one held steady, and six lost share in a market that grew around them.
Who wins Denver’s core orthopedic searches
Share of value tells you who is winning overall. The search results show where. We reviewed Google’s top 10 organic results for six searches a Denver patient might use to find orthopedic care.
| Search | #1 result | Notable page-one results |
| orthopedics denver | Panorama Orthopedics & Spine Center | OCC #2 |
| orthopedic surgeon denver | UCHealth | OCC #2 |
| spine surgeon denver | Colorado Spine Partners | OCC #3 |
| sports medicine denver | UCHealth | OCC #6 |
| orthopedic urgent care denver | Orthopaedic & Spine Center of the Rockies | OCC #8 |
| hand surgeon denver | An individual surgeon’s website | Directories and health systems |
Semrush top-10 organic results, US database, October 2026.
Three patterns stand out:
- OCC’s reach is the widest. It appears on page one for five of the six searches, which is consistent with its share of the market.
- Ranking #1 for one search isn’t the same as owning the category. Panorama holds the top spot for "orthopedics denver," one of the most valuable generic searches in the market, Colorado Spine Partners holds it for "spine surgeon denver," and Orthopaedic & Spine Center of the Rockies holds it for "orthopedic urgent care denver." Each is a strong position that others in the group could learn from.
- Health systems and individual surgeons own many subspecialty searches. UCHealth, Denver Health, HCA HealthONE and Intermountain Health appear repeatedly, and an individual surgeon’s website ranks first for "hand surgeon denver." For independent groups with dozens of physicians, subspecialty and physician pages are an underused opportunity.
Health-system orthopedic programs aren’t benchmarked in our scorecard, because their websites cover every specialty and can’t be compared fairly on search value. But they are competing for the same patients on the same search pages.
Five patterns behind the numbers
1. AI Overviews are rewarding the practices already in front
A year ago, the 10 practices appeared in Google’s AI Overviews about 1,600 times across the keywords Semrush tracks. Today it is nearly 3,500. Almost all of that growth went to four practices:
- Orthopedic Centers of Colorado rose from 23 AI Overview appearances to 980.
- Orthopaedic & Spine Center of the Rockies rose from 469 to 895.
- Panorama Orthopedics & Spine Center rose from 79 to 331.
- BoulderCentre for Orthopedics & Spine rose from 149 to 358.
Three other practices appeared in fewer AI Overviews than a year ago. AI answers cite a short list of sources, and they increasingly sit above the regular results. A practice that isn’t cited is missing from the first answer many patients read. We found the same concentration in our study of mental health platforms, where just two platforms account for 60% of the AI Overview citations we tracked. Learn more in our complete guide to AI search optimization.
2. Growing isn’t the same as gaining ground
Nine of 10 practices grew their estimated search traffic this year. Five of them still lost share, because the market grew faster.
- A multi-specialty orthopedic group nearly doubled its traffic and grew its top-3 rankings. Its share of the group’s non-branded value still fell from 11.5% to 8.7%.
- A specialty sports medicine clinic held its traffic steady while the group’s combined traffic nearly doubled. Its share fell from 10.9% to 7.4%.
Both practices would see healthy numbers in a report that compares them only to last year. Against the competition, both are losing ground. Our study of Denver home-services companies found the same pattern: two companies grew their traffic and rankings yet lost more than half of their market share.
3. Brand demand isn’t new-patient demand
Three practices earn a fifth or more of their search value from people already searching their name or locations. For one of them, it is 38%.
A strong brand is an asset. But branded searches come from patients who have already chosen you. Practices that rely on them grow only as fast as their reputation spreads by word of mouth and referrals. The practices that gained share this year earn almost none of their value from branded searches: they win patients who are still deciding. Multi-office dental groups show the same reliance on their names. In our study of Denver dental practices, most of the value the groups earn from Denver searches comes from patients searching a brand plus a neighborhood.
4. Authority isn’t the constraint
Backlink authority helps a site rank, but it didn’t decide who won this year.
- Colorado Spine Partners has the lowest Authority Score in the group (12), yet ranks #1 for "spine surgeon denver." A focused site built around one specialty can outrank much larger domains.
- The Foot & Ankle Institute of Colorado doubled its share with an Authority Score of 27, below most of the group.
- An established Denver orthopedic group has the second-largest backlink profile in the study, with links from more than 5,300 websites, but earns just 2.9% of the group’s non-branded value.
In Webolutions’ four-stage framework, first introduced in our benchmark of Denver technology companies, this is a gap between Authority Capacity and Ranking Strength: the authority exists, but the content and structure needed to turn it into visibility don’t.
5. Education that doesn’t lead to an appointment
One orthopedic and spine practice grew its traffic substantially, mostly through articles that answer general questions, such as how to treat a sprained ankle at home. Those pages attract readers, but most of them want information, not an appointment. Its traffic is worth about $0.86 per visit, less than half the group average of $1.79, and its share of the group’s non-branded value fell from 10.7% to 4.3%. General education is also the content most exposed to AI answers. In our study of Colorado fertility providers, one education-focused platform lost 95% of its AI Overview appearances.
Patient education pays off when it does two jobs: it answers the question, and it gives the reader a clear next step toward care, such as when to see a specialist, which physician treats the condition and how to book. The two content-led practices that gained the most share, profiled below, connect their education to the conditions they treat and the physicians who treat them.
What the winners did differently
Orthopedic Centers of Colorado: breadth at scale
OCC operates more than 10 locations across the Denver metro, and its website reflects that footprint. It ranks for more than 21,000 keywords, up from about 15,000 a year ago, and its top-3 rankings nearly tripled, from 313 to 905. Its homepage ranks #4 nationally for "orthopedic" and #2 for "ortho," but those head terms account for only about 8% of its value. The rest is spread across thousands of condition, treatment, physician and location pages.
Almost none of OCC’s search value comes from its own name. It wins patients who haven’t chosen a practice yet, and AI Overviews now cite it on 980 searches, more than any other practice in the study.
Foot & Ankle Institute of Colorado: answering the questions patients ask
The Foot & Ankle Institute of Colorado doubled its share of the group’s non-branded value, from 4.6% to 9.4%, with an Authority Score below most of the group. Its value comes from a deep library of patient-education articles that answer specific questions: what a high arch means, why an ankle pops, what an extra bone in the foot can cause. No single keyword accounts for more than a fraction of a percent of its value. That spread makes its visibility durable: losing any one ranking barely registers.
Center for Spine & Orthopedics: expert content and physician pages
Center for Spine & Orthopedics, based in Thornton, more than doubled its share, from 3.2% to 7.6%, and grew its top-3 rankings by 52%. Its detailed lumbar spine anatomy guide ranks in the top five for searches about specific vertebrae, and its physician pages rank #1 for its surgeons’ names. Patients researching a spine condition find the practice’s expertise, then find the physician who treats it.
The common thread
All three winners earn their value from patients who are still deciding, not from their own brand. Each built depth, through many locations and services or through focused education on the conditions it treats. And each turned that depth into rankings across thousands of searches, rather than depending on a few high-volume terms.
What this means for your practice’s marketing
Whether you lead marketing for an orthopedic group or another specialty practice, these findings point to five questions worth asking:
- Are you measuring against the market or against yourself? If your report shows growth, check whether your competitors grew faster. Share of non-branded value answers that question; year-over-year totals don’t.
- How much of your search value is your own name? Separate branded from non-branded value. If more than a quarter is branded, your website is serving patients you already have more than patients you could win.
- Are you cited in AI Overviews for the conditions you treat? AI citations are concentrating among a few practices. Find out which of your service and condition searches show an AI Overview, and whether you are in it.
- Does your content match the care you provide? Educational content earns value when it answers questions about conditions you treat and leads readers toward an appointment. Traffic from unrelated questions inflates reports without filling schedules.
- Are your physician and subspecialty pages working? Individual surgeons’ websites and health systems are winning subspecialty searches. Detailed physician, subspecialty and location pages are often the fastest way for a multi-physician practice to compete.
Our SEO services build the authority and rankings behind questions 1, 2, 4 and 5, and our AI search optimization services address question 3.
Methodology
The practices. We combined two lenses. Business competitors are independent Colorado orthopedic, spine, sports medicine and foot and ankle practices that compete for the same patients. Search competitors are practices that appear in Google’s top 10 results for core Denver orthopedic searches. Semrush’s national competitor report mostly returned out-of-state practices that share condition keywords, so we used the local search results to confirm who Denver patients actually see. Health-system orthopedic programs (UCHealth, Denver Health, HCA HealthONE and Intermountain Health) appear as context but aren’t benchmarked, because their domains cover every specialty. Advanced Orthopedic & Sports Medicine Specialists was excluded because it operates as a division of OCC.
The data. All figures come from the Semrush US database. Current figures are live data pulled October 30, 2026; year-ago figures are from Semrush’s October 2025 snapshot. Measures include organic keywords, top-3 positions, estimated traffic, Organic Search Value, AI Overview positions and Authority Score.
Non-branded value. We identified branded keywords as those containing each practice’s name, including location variations, and subtracted their value (estimated traffic × cost per click) from each practice’s total. For the year-ago snapshot, branded value was calculated from each practice’s highest-value branded keywords.
Share of value. Because Semrush’s healthcare click-cost and traffic estimates rose across the entire group, we compare each practice’s share of the group’s combined non-branded value rather than raw dollar changes.
Limits. Organic Search Value is a modeled estimate of what traffic would cost to buy through Google Ads. It isn’t revenue, and it doesn’t measure appointments booked. AI Overview counts reflect the keywords Semrush tracks, not every search.
Frequently asked questions
Which Denver orthopedic practice has the most search visibility?
In our study of 10 Colorado orthopedic practices, Orthopedic Centers of Colorado earns 48% of the group’s non-branded Organic Search Value and appears on page one for five of six core Denver orthopedic searches.
How are AI Overviews affecting orthopedic practices?
Across the 10 practices we studied, AI Overview appearances more than doubled in a year, to nearly 3,500. Four practices captured almost all of that growth. Practices that aren’t cited are increasingly missing from the first answer many patients read. Even strong rankings don’t guarantee clicks. In our study of Denver SaaS companies, one company kept nearly all of its top-10 rankings but lost 57% of its non-branded traffic as AI Overviews appeared above the results.
What is non-branded Organic Search Value?
It is the estimated monthly cost to buy, through Google Ads, the traffic a website earns from searches that don’t include its own name. It shows whether a practice is winning patients who haven’t chosen a provider yet.
How can an orthopedic practice improve its search visibility?
Start by measuring your share of non-branded value against competitors, not just against last year. Then build condition, subspecialty and physician pages that connect patient education to appointments, and earn citations in AI Overviews. A Marketability Audit identifies exactly where a practice’s authority, rankings and AI visibility break down.
The Webolutions perspective
For more than 30 years, since John Vachalek founded Webolutions in Denver in 1994, we have helped organizations adapt each time search changed the rules. Healthcare is changing faster than most industries. Patients research conditions, compare practices and read AI-generated answers before they ever call for an appointment. The practices that win are the ones visible at each of those moments, not just when someone types their name.
This study shows the patterns across one market. A Marketability Audit shows exactly where your practice stands within it. The audit is a confidential, in-depth engagement that compares your non-branded Organic Search Value year over year, benchmarks you against the competitors that matter most to your growth and pinpoints where your authority, rankings and AI visibility break down. You receive a prioritized plan to fix them.
Contact Mike at Webolutions to discuss a competitive analysis and website Marketability Audit.
Explore more studies in our Digital Marketing Research series, see our SEO results and learn how we helped Colorado Advanced Orthopedics grow monthly organic search traffic 482%.
