We build therapist websites and sell visibility plans, so we have an interest here. To keep this fair, every rule below comes from the rule’s own text or the body that wrote it, opened on October 23, 2026 and listed under References, and our own recommendations say so. You can build every page yourself. Our design fee includes “a page for doctors and other professionals who refer clients to you,” so we lean toward including one.
The pages at a glance. “Needed” means we think a practice site is incomplete without the page. Where a rule applies, the last column names it.
| Page | Status | What goes on it | Rule or source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Home | Needed | What you treat and where, your name with license details, your fee or insurance position, whether you are taking new clients, one next step | License details and fee wording: 1, 2 |
| About | Needed | Who you are, how you work, your training as you earned it | Credentials as you hold them: 1 |
| Specialty pages | Needed, one for each specialty you treat | Who it is for, what sessions look like, fees, next step | Google’s people-first and spam guidance: 3, 4 |
| Fees and insurance | Needed | Exact fee, insurance position, Good Faith Estimate notice | 2, 5 |
| Contact | Needed | Two ways to reach you, a reply time, 988 and 911 | 6, 7 |
| Privacy | Needed if HIPAA covers you or your site collects information; a short statement is a sound default | HIPAA notice of privacy practices, or a plain privacy policy | 8, 9 |
| FAQ | Recommended | Answers to the questions people ask before a first call | 10 |
| Accessibility statement | Optional | Your commitment, the standard you follow, how to reach you | 11 |
| Referring professionals | Optional | Who you see, how to refer, when you reply | Our recommendation |
What does the home page need to carry?
A visitor should be able to tell what you treat, where you practice, who you are, what it costs and what to do next. Our recommendation is five parts:
- The specialty and the place in the first heading or the line above it, such as “Anxiety therapy in Austin.”
- Your name beside a photo of you, with your license title next to it.
- Your fee or your insurance position: an exact fee, or “out of network.”
- Whether you are accepting new clients, with the date you last checked.
- One next step, such as a button to book a free call.
Only the license details and the way you state a fee come from rules. The rest is our judgment.
Where does my license line go, and does it change by state?
It goes on every page that advertises you, kept together and easy to find, and what it must contain depends on your state. Here are two states that differ.
In California, the Board of Behavioral Sciences (BBS) regulates advertising by its licensees in 16 CCR 1811, in a version that took effect April 1, 2026.12 Its fact sheet 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.” The required information “should be easy to find and appear relatively near each other.” A licensee must include their first and last name as filed with the Board, their license number, and their complete license title or an allowable abbreviation. The sheet gives two examples that “may not be considered in compliance”: a license number “in a very small font at the bottom of a long page,” or one “in a normal sized font but buried on a different page of your website.”1
New Jersey asks for more. For professional counselors, N.J.A.C. 13:34-29.3 says a licensee “shall include the following in all advertisements and professional representations”: the licensee’s name, the words “Licensed Professional Counselor” or “LPC” “followed by the 12-digit license number,” and the “street address and telephone number of the practice location.”13 The rule for marriage and family therapists, 13:34-9.3, follows the same pattern with its own titles.14 Both let a licensee petition the Board for a waiver of the street address requirement, and both name “maintenance of personal or client safety” as a ground. The text says “all advertisements” and does not name websites. Our reading is that a website is one; the Board decides.
Fill in a starting block with your own details exactly as your board lists them:
California: [First and last name as filed with the Board], [LMFT, LCSW or LPCC, or the full title]
[Complete license title]
License Number [number]New Jersey (counselor): [Name], Licensed Professional Counselor [12-digit license number]
[Street address of the practice location] · [Telephone]
Associates and trainees follow different rules. In California, a registrant must also give the name of an employer and a statement of supervision by a licensed person,1 and our guide on associate and pre-licensed therapists covers that. For California in depth, read our guide to the 2026 rule; for New Jersey, our New Jersey guide; for other states, start with therapist website rules by state.
What goes on the About page?
Say who you are, who you work with, how you work and what a first session is like, and claim only the training you hold. The BBS fact sheet allows reference to academic credentials “as long as your degree is earned (not an honorary degree or conferred without actual study) and representations and statements made about your degree are not misleading.”1 Our guide on writing your About and specialty pages gives outlines and the rules behind each line.
How many specialty pages do I need?
One for each specialty you actually treat, and no more. Google’s self-assessment questions for helpful content include “Does your content clearly demonstrate first-hand expertise and a depth of knowledge” and, as a warning sign, “Did you decide to enter some niche topic area without any real expertise, but instead mainly because you thought you’d get search traffic?”3
Each page must also say something the others don’t. Google’s spam policies give these as examples of doorway abuse: “Creating substantially similar pages that are closer to search results than a clearly defined, browseable hierarchy” and “Having multiple domain names or pages targeted at specific regions or cities that funnel users to one page.”4 In our reading, one page per city with the same text and a different place name falls on the wrong side of that. Our SEO for therapists guide sets out the wider order of work.
What must the fees and insurance page show?
It should show your fee, your insurance position and, if anyone pays you directly, a Good Faith Estimate notice written as text on a public page. Under 45 CFR 149.610, providers must inform “all uninsured (or self-pay) individuals of the availability of a good faith estimate of expected charges upon scheduling an item or service or upon request.” That information must be written “in a clear and understandable manner, prominently displayed (and easily searchable from a public search engine) on the convening provider’s or convening facility’s website, in the office, and on-site where scheduling or questions about the cost of items or services occur.”5
Three details change how you write it:
- Self-pay includes a person who has insurance “but who does not seek to have a claim for such item or service submitted to such plan or coverage.”
- The information must also be orally provided “when scheduling an item or service or when questions about the cost of items or services occur,” so the website notice is one part of the duty.
- The rule’s deadline for an estimate a self-pay person requests, which must be in writing, reads: “Not later than 3 business days after the date of the request.”
The regulation describes what the notice must do and supplies no fixed wording. This draft is ours, a starting point to check against the rule:
Good Faith Estimate. If you do not have health insurance, or you have insurance and choose not to use it for your sessions, you can ask me for a Good Faith Estimate of what your sessions are expected to cost. Ask when you schedule or any time you have a question about cost. When you ask, I provide it in writing within three business days.
For the fee itself, California’s advertising statute says: “Any price advertisement shall be exact, without the use of phrases, including, but not limited to, ‘as low as,’ ‘and up,’ ‘lowest prices,’ or words or phrases of similar import.”2 Other states word this differently. Our guide on listing fees on your website goes through it.
What does the contact page need?
It needs two ways to reach you, a reply time you can keep, and a plain statement of what to do in an emergency. SAMHSA’s crisis page says: “If you or someone you know is in danger or having a medical emergency, call 911 or go to your nearest emergency room.” It adds that anyone “struggling or in crisis” can call or text 988 or chat at 988lifeline.org.6 We did not find a federal rule that requires a private practice to show 988 on its website, so treat it as our recommendation and check with your board.
Keep the link to your contact page in the same place on every page. WCAG 2.2 success criterion 3.2.6 (Level A) says that help mechanisms repeated across a set of pages must “occur in the same order relative to other page content,” and its explanation says a help mechanism, “such as a contact phone number,” may be on the page or “a direct link to a contact page.”7 For the form, see what a contact form should ask.
What belongs on a privacy page?
It depends on two questions: whether HIPAA covers you, and whether your site collects personal information. CMS’s covered-entity page says: “Providers who submit HIPAA transactions, like claims, electronically are covered.”15 If you are covered, 45 CFR 164.520 says a covered entity that “maintains a web site that provides information about the covered entity’s customer services or benefits must prominently post its notice on the web site and make the notice available electronically through the web site.”8
California’s online privacy law requires an operator of a “commercial Web site” that collects personal information from California visitors to “conspicuously post its privacy policy.” The policy must list the categories of information collected and the third parties it may be shared with, say how you announce changes, give an effective date, and disclose how you respond to “do not track” signals.9 If your site collects nothing, say so in plain words.
Whether you are covered, and whether the California law reaches your site, are legal questions. Our guides on HIPAA and therapist websites and Google Analytics and HIPAA help you find out.
Do I need an FAQ page?
No, but a short one that answers what people ask before a first call earns its place. Write the headings as the questions themselves: cost, insurance, in person or online, how the first call works, cancellations and emergencies. Google announced that its FAQ rich result “will no longer appear in Google Search starting May 7, 2026,” so write it for readers.10 Our guide on the path from inquiry to first session shows where the questions come from.
Do I need an accessibility statement?
We could not confirm a US rule that requires one on a private-practice site. If you publish one, the W3C says it “should contain at least the following”: a commitment to accessibility for people with disabilities, the accessibility standard applied (such as WCAG 2.2), and contact information in case users encounter problems.11 A version to adapt, true only if you test the site first:
I want this website to be usable by everyone. I aim to follow the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2. If something on this site is hard for you to use, tell me at [email or phone] and I will help you another way and fix the problem.
The Good Faith Estimate notice must also be made available “in accessible formats.”5 Our guide on ADA and WCAG basics covers the rest.
Should I build a page for referring professionals?
It is optional, and worth it if doctors, schools or other clinicians send you clients. Put four things on it: who you see and who you do not, how to refer, when you reply, and what you need from a referrer. Send referrers to a phone number or an email address, not a form, and keep clinical details off the page. This is our recommendation, not a rule. Our guide on referral relationships goes further.
Should I add an AI statement or a ChatGPT answer?
Both are optional. If you want them, we can also draft a short statement of how your practice uses AI and an answer to “Can I use ChatGPT instead of therapy?”, checked against your state’s rules, for you to approve. The law differs by state, so read our guide to AI therapy laws and your practice website before you publish either.
Where does this guide stop?
It stops at the rules we quoted: California’s BBS fact sheet and Business and Professions Code, two New Jersey board rules and the federal notice rules. Other boards and states differ, and rules change. This is general information, not legal advice. For your own situation ask your licensing board, your professional association’s legal or ethics line, or an attorney.
Questions therapists also ask
Can my whole site be one page?
Yes, a one-page site can carry every required detail. The trade-off is that you cannot send someone searching for one specialty to a page about it, and required information gets harder to keep easy to find on a long page.1
Where do testimonials and reviews go?
Nowhere on this list. Whether and how a therapist may use them depends on the board and the ethics code, and our guide on testimonials and reviews explains the rules.
Does a group practice need different pages?
It adds pages for each clinician and each service. The BBS says that when an employer’s advertising includes you, you are “ultimately responsible even though you did not produce the advertisement,” so each clinician’s page needs that clinician’s own license details together.1 Our group practice website guide covers the structure.
Where to start
List the specialties you really treat, gather your license details exactly as your board lists them, and write the fees page first, because it carries the most rules. If you want a fully custom site of up to 10 pages with your license details placed to meet your state board’s advertising rules, from $149 a month ($119 a month billed annually) after a $499 design fee, find the plan that fits your practice.
If you want a site built and kept for you, see website design for therapists.