We build therapist websites and sell visibility plans, so we have an interest in this topic. To keep the guide fair, every rule we quote comes from a page that Google, Microsoft Bing, IndexNow or the body that wrote the rule publishes itself, opened on October 22, 2026 and listed under References. Where a recommendation is our own reading, we say so. Nobody is ranked, and you can do all of the work below yourself.
Here is the order of work. Treat the weeks as a sequence: move on when a phase is done. Google says that some changes “might take effect in a few hours, others could take several months.”1
| When | Do this | Why in this order |
|---|---|---|
| Weeks 1 to 2 | Verify your site in Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools. Write down your practice facts in one record. Fix the title and description of every page. | Reports first, then the fastest fix. |
| Weeks 3 to 6 | Give each service or specialty you really offer its own page. Add a plain statement of where you see clients and which states you serve by telehealth. Claim a Google Business Profile if you are eligible. Make every directory listing match your record. | These are what the titles point to, and they share one set of facts. |
| Weeks 7 to 12 | Link your pages to each other. Check your license details on every page. Look at what the reports show and publish your first new page. | Links need pages to exist, and reports need weeks of data. |
| Then, every month | Add one useful page or update an existing one. Recheck your facts. Read the reports. | Steady upkeep keeps pages accurate. |
What does SEO mean for a therapy practice?
SEO, or search engine optimization, means making your site easy for search engines to understand and easy for people to choose from the results. Google describes it as “about helping search engines understand your content, and helping users find your site and make a decision about whether they should visit your site through a search engine.”1 For a practice, that comes down to whether Google and Bing can reach your pages, whether each page says what you offer, for whom and where, and whether your name, license and contact details match everywhere they appear.
Appearing in Google costs nothing: “It doesn’t cost any money to appear in Google Search results, no matter what anyone tries to tell you.”2 The rest has no guarantee. The starter guide puts it this way: “There are no secrets here that’ll automatically rank your site first in Google (sorry!).”1 What a searcher sees also depends on the searcher: Search Console’s help says results “are specific to the time, place, device, and recent history of the person searching.”3 The aim is to be a clear, accurate answer for the people looking for what you offer.
This guide is for practices with their own website. Psychologists, and clinicians in states this guide does not name, should check their own board’s advertising rules.
What does Google say it looks for?
Google says to make helpful, reliable, people-first content, to use the words people search with, and to let its crawler reach your pages. Search Essentials has three parts: technical requirements, spam policies and key best practices. The first key practice on its list reads: “Create helpful, reliable, people-first content.”2
The technical requirements are short. Googlebot must not be blocked, the page must work (Google receives an HTTP 200 status code), and it must have indexable content.4 Google says “most sites pass the technical requirements without even realizing it,”2 though pages behind a log-in or tagged to stay out of the index fail, and meeting them still means “indexing isn’t guaranteed.”4
Google describes Search in three stages, and says “not all pages make it through each stage.” In crawling, it finds pages through links from pages it already knows and through sitemaps you submit. In indexing, it “analyzes the text, images, and video files on the page, and stores the information in the Google index.” In serving, it “returns information that’s relevant to the user’s query.” It also says it “doesn’t guarantee that it will crawl, index, or serve your page.”26
On quality, Google’s people-first page asks who made the content, how, and why. It calls the “why” “perhaps the most important question to answer about your content,” and says it should be that you are “creating content primarily to help people.”5 On the “who,” it asks: “Do pages carry a byline, where one might be expected?”5
Health topics carry more weight. Google says “trust is most important” among the qualities it calls E-E-A-T, and that its systems “give even more weight to content that aligns with strong E-E-A-T for topics that could significantly impact the health, financial stability, or safety of people.”5 The page does not name therapy, but a practice website talks about people’s health, so plan as though this bar applies.
A trust checklist you can apply to every page:
- A byline that links to an About page.
- An About page that states your license, title and training in your own words, as filed with your board.
- A named source for any fact or statistic.
- A published date and a “last reviewed” date, changed only when the substance changes.
- No promises of results.
- Practice facts (fees, availability, location) that match your record.
Which pages should a therapy website have for search?
Give each service or specialty you actually offer its own page, and add the few pages every practice site needs. Bing’s guidelines say why under the heading “Focus Each URL on a Single Topic”: “URLs focused on a primary topic are more likely to be selected for grounding results.”6
| Page | What it should answer |
|---|---|
| Home | Who you are, who you see, where, and how to start, in a few lines. |
| About | Your name, license and title as filed, and your training in your own words. |
| One page per service or specialty | Who it is for, the format, where, what a first session is like, and how to start. |
| Fees | Your fee and payment options. See whether to list fees on your website. |
| Contact | How to reach you and what to expect. See what a therapy contact form should ask. |
| Where you see clients | Your office, if you have one, and the states you serve by telehealth. |
A service page can follow one skeleton every time:
- A heading that names the service the way a client would say it.
- One or two sentences on who it is for.
- The format (in person, by video, or both) and where.
- What the first session is like.
- Your fee, or a link to the fees page.
- How to book (for SimplePractice users, see adding SimplePractice booking to your website), and your name, title and license number in the same block as on every other page.
Link the pages to each other. Google says “the vast majority of the new pages Google finds every day are through links,” so link each service page from your home page and from related pages, with link text that says where the link goes.1
Write a page only for work you do. One of Google’s warning signs: “Did you decide to enter some niche topic area without any real expertise, but instead mainly because you thought you’d get search traffic?”5 Google also asks, “Does the content provide substantial value when compared to other pages in search results?”5 A page built from your own practice answers that better than a general explainer.
What do board advertising rules add to every page?
A page that promotes you is advertising under your board’s rules, so each new page needs the title and license details your board requires, and SEO work should never push them out of sight.
California is the clearest example. The Board of Behavioral Sciences’ advertising FAQ says: “A website is a type of advertising, so all of the information that you are required to provide in advertising must appear on your website.” It adds that the information “should be easy to find and appear relatively near each other,” and that a license number in a very small font at the bottom of a long page, or on a different page of the site, may not comply.7 Our reading is to build the name, title and number as one block that repeats on every page that promotes your services. Our California advertising rule guide covers what the block must contain.
Other states word it differently. Florida’s statute says a licensed marriage and family therapist “shall include the words ‘licensed marriage and family therapist’ or the letters ‘LMFT’ on all promotional materials, including cards, brochures, stationery, advertisements, and signs, naming the licensee,” with parallel wording for social workers and counselors.8 It does not use the word “website,” so if you are licensed in Florida, confirm with the board how it treats a page that names you.
Many boards have their own wording on titles, license numbers and supervisor names for associates. Our state-by-state research, last checked September 10, 2026, records those differences, but rules change, so the board’s current text is the source. Reviews are a separate question; see whether therapists can have testimonials or reviews before you ask anyone for one.
This section is general information, not legal advice. For your own situation, ask your board, your professional association’s ethics line, a lawyer or your liability insurer.
How should you write titles, descriptions and headings?
Give every page a title that is unique, short and says what the page is. Google’s title-link guidance asks for “descriptive and concise” text and says to avoid “vague descriptors like ‘Home’ for your home page.” It warns against stuffing: “there’s no reason to have the same words or phrases appear multiple times.” For branding, it suggests “just your site name at the beginning or end,” separated by a hyphen, colon or pipe.9
Descriptions work the same way. Google says “identical or similar descriptions on every page of a site aren’t helpful when individual pages appear in search results.”10 The snippet “is sourced from the actual content of the page,” so the first lines of a page matter too.1 Bing adds: “Missing, duplicate, or overly short title tags and meta descriptions may reduce indexing reliability, ranking, and eligibility for grounding results and citations.”6
Patterns you can fill in. Brackets are yours to complete with facts that are true for you:
| Page | Title | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Home | [Your name], [your title as filed] in [city] | [Who you see] in [city] and by video in [state]. Fees, what to expect and how to book. |
| Service page | [Service] for [who it is for] in [city] and online | How [service] works with [your name]: who it helps, what the first session is like, fees and how to start. |
| Fees | Fees and payment options: [practice name] | [Your session fee or range], how payment works, and when to expect a reply. |
| Contact | Contact [practice name] in [city] | How to reach [your name], what to include in a first message and when you reply. |
For headings, Google’s starter guide says that “there’s also no magical, ideal amount of headings a given page should have,” though semantic order is “fantastic for screen readers.”1 Use one main heading that matches the page’s purpose, and URL words a person would understand, such as /anxiety-therapy/.1 If your website builder will not let you edit titles, descriptions or URLs, learn that before you build more pages; our website builders comparison shows what each one lets you change.
Your practice name and domain are a related choice. Google’s starter guide says keywords in a domain name or URL path have “hardly any effect beyond appearing in breadcrumbs,”1 and our guide to keywords in your practice name or domain covers what that means for therapists.
What about location pages and telehealth across states (without near-duplicates)?
Write one honest statement of where you see clients and one page per service, not one page per town. Pages that swap only a city name come close to patterns Google’s spam policies describe, and Google says such policies can lead to “a page or an entire site being ranked lower or completely omitted from Google Search.”2
Google’s doorway abuse policy lists “having multiple domain names or pages targeted at specific regions or cities that funnel users to one page” and “creating substantially similar pages that are closer to search results than a clearly defined, browseable hierarchy.” Its keyword stuffing policy names “blocks of text that list cities and regions that a web page is trying to rank for.” Its scaled content abuse policy covers “using generative AI tools or other similar tools to generate many pages without adding value for users,” “no matter how it’s created.”11 Google’s generative AI guide applies it to content written for every variation of how people search.12
A version that holds up:
- One page per service, written from your real work, naming your office city and the states you serve once, in natural sentences.
- One “where I see clients” section or page with your office address, if you have one, and the states where you offer telehealth.
- A separate location page only for a real place with its own address, hours or clinicians. That is our reading of the policies, not a Google statement. If the page would read the same with the city swapped, do not publish it.
Telehealth adds its own question. Rules on seeing clients across state lines vary, so list only states where you are sure you may practice, and ask the board in each state before you add it. Wording you can adapt, after your board or insurer checks it:
I see clients in person at [street address, city, state].
I see clients by secure video in [state list]. You need to be in one of those states during the session.
[Your name], [title as filed], license number [number], [state].
How do Google Business Profile and directories fit in?
They are a second place where search engines and clients learn your facts, so they have to match your website. Not every practice can have a Google Business Profile. Google’s eligibility page says “a business must make in-person contact with customers during its stated hours,” and lists “brands, organizations, artists, and other online-only businesses” as ineligible.13 If you see clients in an office, you may qualify. If you work only by video, read the page before you try, and never invent an address. Our local SEO and Google Business Profile guide covers each setup, including telehealth-only practices. Google’s representation guidelines ask you to present the business “as it’s consistently represented and recognized in the real world across signage, stationery, and other branding” and to keep your address or service area “accurate and precise.”14
Keep one record of your name, license, address or service area, phone, fees, availability and booking link, and copy from it every time. Google’s AI features page lists checking that your Business Profile information is up to date among the habits that still matter.15
Do you need to do anything special for AI answers like ChatGPT and Google’s AI Overviews?
No. For Google, the answer is stated outright: “There are no additional requirements to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode, nor other special optimizations necessary.”15 A page needs to be indexed and eligible to be shown with a snippet, and “you don’t need to create new machine readable files, AI text files, or markup to appear in these features,” nor is there “special schema.org structured data that you need to add.”15 Google’s guide to generative AI features says llms.txt files will “neither harm nor help your site’s visibility or rankings in Google Search.”12
Bing’s guidelines state that “Bing and Copilot search experiences rely on the same core crawling, indexing, and ranking foundation as traditional search.”6 Bing also asks site owners to use sitemaps and IndexNow so it learns about new and changed pages quickly.6 IndexNow lets a site notify search engines when a URL is added, updated or deleted, and engines that adopt it agree to share submitted URLs with the other participating engines.16 Some website platforms send these notices for you, and Bing Webmaster Tools shows whether yours does.17
The right preparation for AI answers is the same as for search. For where assistants find practice information and what you can check, see do people actually use ChatGPT to find a therapist.
How do you measure progress?
Use the free reports from Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools, and read them once a month. Google’s getting-started page begins with these steps: “Verify site ownership,” then “Make sure Google can find and read your pages.”18 You can verify through your domain name provider or by uploading an HTML file, so you need not add tracking code to your pages, though Google notes that some site hosting platforms do not allow every method.19 Whether to run Google Analytics at all is a separate privacy question; see our guide on Google Analytics and HIPAA.
Bing’s checklist starts the same way: open a free account, then add and verify your website.20 Bing can import a site you already verified in Search Console.21
| Report | What it shows | What it cannot tell you |
|---|---|---|
| Google Search Console, Performance | Clicks, impressions, click-through rate and average position, with the queries and pages behind them. The default view is the past three months.3 | Who the searchers were. Results differ by person, so position is an average.3 |
| Google Search Console, Page indexing | It lets you “see which pages Google can find and index on your site” and why others are not indexed.22 | Whether an unindexed page should be. Google says not to expect 100% coverage, only the canonical pages.22 |
| Bing Webmaster Tools, Search performance | Clicks, impressions, click-through rate, average position, crawl errors and indexed pages for up to the past six months.23 | History from before you added the site: “you cannot see backdated data.”23 |
| Bing Webmaster Tools, AI Performance | Total citations, average cited pages, grounding queries and page-level citations across Microsoft Copilot and Bing’s AI summaries (public preview).24 | Ranking or importance: Bing says average cited pages “does not indicate ranking, authority, or the role of any page within an individual answer.”24 |
Google says sites appearing in AI Overviews and AI Mode “are included in the overall search traffic in Search Console,” within the Performance report’s “Web” search type,15 and its AI guide points to a separate Generative AI performance report.12
The reports show impressions and clicks, not who contacted you. Keep a simple log of inquiries and ask people how they found you.
What should you avoid?
Avoid anything done mainly to manipulate rankings. Bing’s guidelines say sites that do so may see “reduced rankings, suppressed grounding visibility, loss of grounding eligibility, ignored structured data, or removal from the Bing index.”6 Google’s spam policies name the tactics that tempt small practices:
- Keyword stuffing. “Filling a web page with keywords or numbers in an attempt to manipulate rankings,” including “repeating the same words or phrases so often that it sounds unnatural.”11
- Link schemes. Link spam includes “buying or selling links for ranking purposes,” “excessive link exchanges,” and “low-quality directory or bookmark site links.”11 In our reading, paying a directory so clients can find you is not the same as buying links to rank; if a vendor sells you “links,” ask which one it is.
- Scaled content. Many pages made mainly to rank, “no matter how it’s created,” including AI text produced in bulk without added value.11
- Fake freshness. Google’s warning sign: “changing the date of pages to make them seem fresh when the content has not substantially changed.”5
AI tools are not banned. Google says using automation “to produce content for the primary purpose of manipulating search rankings” violates its spam policies, and that for topics that affect people’s lives or well-being, content “must be highly accurate and consistent with established expert consensus.”5 If AI helps you draft, you are still the author of what your page says about your license, training and services, and a person who knows the facts should check every line.
Should you hire help?
You can do the first 90 days yourself, and you may still hire help for the time it saves. Google’s page on hiring an SEO is the checklist to use, whoever you consider, us included, and our guide to what SEO services cost lists published prices. It suggests asking “what kind of results do you expect to see, and in what timeframe?” and whether the SEO follows Search Essentials.25 If they offer an audit, grant “read access to Search Console” and not write access at that stage.25 It also says “No one can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google” and warns against SEOs who “allege a ‘special relationship’ with Google, or advertise a ‘priority submit’ to Google.”25
For what good work and honest reporting look like, see what good SEO and AI visibility work looks like for a therapy practice. If your current site cannot do these jobs, replacing it is a separate decision, and our guide to what a therapist website costs covers the prices. Whoever does the work should send each page to you before it goes live, because you answer to your board for what it says.
Questions therapists also ask
How long does SEO take?
Google says changes “might take effect in a few hours, others could take several months,” and suggests waiting a few weeks before judging whether a change helped.1
Do I need a blog?
You need useful pages, and a blog is one way to publish them. Google says there is no “magical word count target,” and that useful content will likely matter more to your presence in results than its other tips, so write a page when you have something real to say.1
Does schema markup help?
It is optional. Google says structured data “isn’t required for generative AI search,” and that it must match the visible text on the page.1215 Get your titles, pages and facts right first.
Can I write a page for each city near me?
Only if each is a real, different place with its own facts. Google’s doorway abuse policy names pages targeted at specific cities.11 One page per service and one clear statement of where you see clients is safer.
Where to start
Open Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools today and verify your site, then fix the title of your home page. That is weeks 1 and 2, and it costs nothing.
If you would rather have this done for you, we build websites with these basics in place, and our Visibility plan then improves one page or profile every month, checks what AI tools say about you each quarter and reports how each change was checked. Find the plan that fits your practice.