SEO for therapists and private practices
Almost every local business is chosen on other people’s reviews. Yours cannot be. That single constraint changes what a therapy website has to do, and most of them have not been rebuilt around it.
The one local category where you cannot ask clients for reviews
Professional ethics codes discourage soliciting testimonials from clients, and for good reason. The practical consequence is that the signal carrying almost every other local decision — a wall of recent reviews — is largely unavailable to you. What has to replace it is specificity: exactly who you work with, exactly how you work, what a session costs, and whether you have room this month. Vagueness is the enemy here in a way it is not in a trade.
The search itself is private. It happens late, usually on a phone, often after weeks of not doing it, and usually in symptoms rather than professions — not being able to stop worrying, panic in meetings, a teenager who has stopped talking, a marriage that has gone quiet. Somebody in that state is not comparing credentials. They are looking for a page that sounds like a person and describes something they recognize.
And two questions decide it, in this order: what it costs and whether you have openings. The directories answer both in a single screen, which is why they collect the traffic. Most practice websites answer neither, which is why the traffic goes there.
- FitWho you work with, described in the words a person would use about themselves
- CostThe fee. Whether you take insurance, or provide a superbill, or offer sliding scale
- OpenWhether you have openings at all, and roughly when
- YouA real photograph and a paragraph in your own voice, rather than a stock office
What therapy SEO involves
Specialty pages written in the client’s language
Anxiety, trauma, couples work, adolescents, grief, ADHD in adults — each as its own page, described the way somebody living with it would describe it rather than the way it appears in a diagnostic manual. One page listing twelve specialties reaches nobody looking for any of them.
Fees, insurance and superbills, stated plainly
The session fee, the plans you are in network with, whether you provide superbills for out-of-network reimbursement, and whether any sliding-scale spots exist. This is the single most searched thing about a private practice and the most commonly omitted, and omitting it does not make the question go away.
Availability, kept current
A line saying whether you are accepting new clients, updated monthly. It is the highest-value maintenance task on the site: it removes wasted inquiries when you are full, and it converts unusually well when you are not, because somebody who has finally worked up to reaching out will not wait through a waitlist.
Profile, directories and answers that hold up
A Business Profile with correct categories and hours, consistent details across the therapy directories, and page text specific enough that an assistant asked for a trauma therapist in your city can name you accurately — a discipline we cover under answer-engine optimization.
The channel that mostly does not suit this work
Paid search for therapy is expensive, heavily restricted in what it will let you say, and often a poor match for a solo practice whose entire capacity is six new clients a quarter. There are exceptions worth taking seriously: a group practice with several clinicians to fill, a cash-pay specialty with a clear economic case, a new location, or recruiting clinicians. Outside of those, the money almost always does more work in pages, directories and availability than in an ad account.
PPC for therapists, explained the same way Or read the plain SEO vs PPC comparison
Therapy SEO, answered plainly
What is SEO for a therapy practice, concretely?
Specialty pages written in everyday language, a good page about you, clear fees and insurance information, a current statement of availability, consistent listings across the therapy directories, and a Google Business Profile that is accurate. Reviews play a much smaller role here than in any other local category.
Should we be worried about reviews we cannot ask for?
You should stop treating their absence as a failure. Nobody in this category has many, and the decision moves to the things you can control: how precisely you describe the work, how human the writing is, whether the fee is stated, and whether you have room. A practice that does those four things well is not disadvantaged.
Do we still need a website if we are listed in the directories?
The directories are excellent at capturing search and poor at holding a relationship. They will send you clients, and they will send the same client to four other practices at the same time. A website is where somebody reads enough of your voice to choose you specifically, which is also what makes the first session easier.
Should we publish our fees?
Yes, in almost every case. The alternative is that people assume the highest number they have heard, or they email to ask and never reply to the answer. Publishing the fee also protects your time: the inquiries that arrive are from people who already know and have decided anyway.
What should we look for in an SEO company for therapists?
Someone who understands the ethical constraints of the profession, who will write in plain human language rather than clinical marketing copy, who does not propose review-generation schemes, and who puts fees in writing before anything is signed.
See what somebody finds at eleven at night in your city
A free written review of your rankings, your Business Profile and your ad account — specific findings, back within two business days, yours to keep either way.
Get your free Search ReviewRequest your free Search Review
Four quick fields — and written findings within two business days, yours to keep either way.