What good SEO and AI visibility work looks like for a therapy practice

Are SEO, AEO and GEO different jobs?

They are names for overlapping work. SEO (search engine optimization) helps Google and Bing find, understand and show your pages to someone looking for what you offer. AEO (answer engine optimization) and GEO (generative engine optimization) aim at direct answers and AI-written replies from tools such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot, Perplexity and Google’s AI Overviews.

Google’s AI optimization guide¹ says that, from Google Search’s point of view, optimizing for its AI features is still SEO, because those features are rooted in its core ranking and quality systems. Bing now uses the term GEO for its reporting on AI citations. For a therapy practice, that means one coherent program of work, priced as one program.

What should the foundations include?

Most of this is set up once and then kept current:

• An approved record of your practice facts. Your name as licensed, license type and number, services, who you see, location, telehealth area, fees, availability and how to book, written down and approved by you. Every page and profile is checked against it.
• A page for each service that answers what a prospective client needs to know: who it is for, the format, the cost and how to start.
• Technical access. Clear page titles and descriptions, a sitemap, content in real text, crawler rules that let the search and AI search crawlers you want reach the site, and Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools set up in your name.
• Structured data that matches the page. Google’s guidance on AI features² asks that structured data match the visible text.
• A site that works for everyone. Pages that load quickly on a phone, work with a keyboard and a screen reader, and lead to a contact route that actually delivers messages.
• A Google Business Profile where you are eligible, kept consistent with the website.

Google also says its AI features need no special AI file or markup. That is good news for a small practice: one set of well-built foundations serves search engines, AI tools and the people reading your site. Our SEO for therapists guide sets these foundations out as a 90-day order of work.

What does good ongoing work look like?

Search tools keep changing, and so do your practice details, so the work continues after launch. Good monthly work usually includes:

• New, useful pages and articles that answer questions prospective clients ask, drafted for you and published only after you approve them.
• Profile upkeep. Fees, hours and availability change, and directory listings fall out of step. Someone should compare them with your fact record on a schedule and correct what has drifted.
• Clear, current content. Bing’s February 2026 guidance³ recommends clear headings, supporting evidence and regular updates so AI answers draw on the current version of a page.
• Checks across platforms. A fixed set of questions asked on ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot, Perplexity and Google, repeated over time, with each platform reported on its own. The tools answer differently, so keeping them separate shows where your practice is described well and where it needs work.
• Careful experiments. New methods appear every few months. A good provider tries the promising ones, labels which are established and which are tests, and records what it observed.

Each accurate, useful page is one more source search engines and assistants can draw on, and one more answer for the reader who finds it directly.

What should a monthly report tell you?

Two things, kept apart:

1. Work done. Pages changed, articles submitted or published, profiles corrected, tests started or ended. You should be able to open each item and see it.
2. What was observed. Search impressions and clicks from Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools, Business Profile views and interactions, AI citations where a platform reports them (Bing now does for Copilot), sampled AI answers by platform, and the inquiry counts you log yourself, including how people say they heard about you.

Keeping these separate lets you see both the effort and the response to it, month by month. Google’s advice on hiring an SEO⁴ suggests asking how a provider measures success and whether they will share every change they make to your site, with their reasoning. Its Business Profile help⁵ adds that you have a right to know how many people view, click and interact with your profile.

What can an honest provider promise?

Work, described precisely. Google’s hiring advice is direct: “No one can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google.” If a provider says their changes will put you in first place, Google suggests finding someone else. Its Business Profile help says third parties cannot promise or directly influence a profile’s ranking, and its AI features documentation says Google may still not crawl, index or show a page that meets every requirement.

A good provider can promise specifics: which pages and articles you will receive and when, how often profiles and AI answers are checked, how quickly errors are fixed, and what each report will contain. You can check every one of those promises each month.

Who is responsible for what your website says?

In California, you are. The Board of Behavioral Sciences’ advertising FAQ⁶ (revised March 2026) treats a website as advertising. It also says that when an employer produces advertising that includes you, you as the licensee or registrant are still ultimately responsible, and the safest course is to treat a marketing provider’s work the same way. Business and Professions Code section 651⁷, which covers psychologists as well as BBS licensees, applies to advertising a licensee publishes or causes to be published, and treats statements likely to create unjustified expectations of good results as misleading.

That is why good providers send every page, article and profile change to you before it goes live, and keep claims about outcomes out of your copy. Psychologists answer to the Board of Psychology, which has its own rules; the same approval habit serves them well.

Who should own the domain, website and profiles?

You should. Questions worth asking before you sign:

• Whose name is on the domain registration, and can I log in to the registrar myself?
• Am I the owner of my Google Business Profile, with you added as a manager? Google notes that only profile owners control who has access.
• Are Search Console, Bing Webmaster Tools and analytics set up under my own account?
• Who owns the pages and articles you write for me?
• If I leave, can I take a copy of the site, how long will it stay online while I move, and is there a fee to transfer the domain?
• How long is the term, and what does ending early cost?

Good providers answer all six in writing. Our own answers are in the fair terms section of our pricing page. Our guide to what SEO services for therapists cost adds a contract checklist and a list of red flags.

This is general information, not legal advice. Check the primary texts, the Board’s advertising FAQ and B&P 651, and for your own situation ask the Board, your professional association’s legal or ethics line, or an attorney.