SEO for therapists who want to be found by the right clients.

SEO for therapists is the work of making a practice's website show up when someone searches for the kind of help that practice offers: a clear niche, a dedicated page for each specialty, visible credentials, and a technical base Google can read. The goal is not more traffic for its own sake. It is more inquiries from clients who are a good fit.

Therapy SEO covers four kinds of work. A technical base Google can crawl and read, from indexing to page titles and descriptions. One page per specialty and modality, written around how clients actually search. Trust signals: credentials, practice and FAQ schema, and a Google Business Profile for in-person practices. And articles that answer the questions people ask before they book a first session. I start with an audit of your site, then fix the issues that cost you the most inquiries first.

For most private practices, yes. A directory listing brings inquiries only while you pay for it, and referrals depend on other people's calendars. A website that ranks for your specialties brings clients who searched for exactly what you offer, month after month, with no fee per lead. One practice I work with went from about one organic visit a month to more than 500 clicks from Google and three and a half times the website inquiries.

The ones that combine a specialty, a location and a modifier, such as "trauma therapist NYC" or "infertility therapist". Broad terms like "therapist NYC" look attractive but are held by directories and large group practices. The best keywords for a therapy website name the problem you treat, the method you use and the place you are licensed, because that is how people looking for help search. Each one gets its own page.

Yes. SEO for psychologists, counselors, social workers and other mental health professionals follows the same logic as SEO for therapists: people search by the problem, the method and the place, not by the license. What changes is the vocabulary on the page, such as testing and assessment for a psychologist or a named modality for a counselor. Private practice SEO for a solo clinician and for a group practice differ mainly in scale: a group needs a page per clinician and per specialty, and clear internal links between them.

Plan for three to six months. In months one to three the technical fixes and core pages go in and Google rediscovers the site; a new or updated page usually takes two to three weeks to register. Rankings start to appear between months three and six, and from month six the content compounds, because each new page builds on the authority of the last.

Rarely, and it is usually the wrong fight. Broad terms like "therapist NYC" are held by directories and large group practices. A solo or small practice wins on the combination of specialty, location and modifier, for example "psychodynamic therapy NYC" or "EMDR therapist Brooklyn". Those searches are smaller, far easier to rank for, and the people behind them already know what they need.

No, but it helps, and it does not have to be a treadmill. One to three pieces a month is enough to build momentum. You write about what you want to write about; I bring the briefs, the keywords and the questions people are asking, so your expertise meets an actual search. If you would rather not write at all, I draft and you review for clinical accuracy and voice.

Yes. Telehealth works best as a modifier on each service page ("online EMDR therapy in New York") instead of a standalone page, and every state you are licensed in should be named in the copy and in the schema. Practices licensed in several states often get a dedicated page per state.

They can only cite what they can find. AI assistants pull from indexed web content, so the same foundations apply: clear specialty pages, question-led articles, FAQ and practice schema, and credentials attached to everything you publish. If Google cannot find your practice, AI tools will not find it either.

Squarespace most often, plus Wix, WordPress and Framer. Almost every fix on a therapy site is settings-level and needs no developer. The platform changes the implementation, not the strategy.

Yes. A therapy website is where a visitor decides whether they trust you, so the voice matters more than the keyword. I capture your tone of voice before writing a word, and every page is written for the person reading it first and the search engine second.