The most interesting development this week is the sudden surge from findatopdoc.com. It has appeared in our data before, but it was always lower down on the list, so honestly, we hadn't looked closely at it before. This week, however, it jumped more than 2 points in domain popularity and officially entered the top 30 for the first time. That’s a meaningful shift -- enough visibility that real people are likely landing on these profiles when they search for therapists by name. (But their average result position is #25, so someone would have to go to the third page of search results to actually see these links.)
And here’s where things get a little odd... Many of the profiles on findatopdoc.com (not all of them, but a substantial number) are clearly placeholders. And “placeholder” is putting it kindly. They often include a cookie-cutter bio such as:
"[FIRST NAME] [LAST NAME] is a counselor in [CITY], [STATE]. [FIRST NAME] evaluates patients using many different procedures, in order to determine what treatments must be carried out in order to properly assess their symptoms. Counselors provide consultation for each patient and their families."
I'm no Sherlock Holmes, but I'm guessing that therapists did not write this bio themselves.
The listed business hours are also suspiciously uniform across countless profiles:
- Mon: 09:00 AM - 05:00 PM
- Tue: 09:00 AM - 05:00 PM
- Wed: 09:00 AM - 05:00 PM
- Thu: 09:00 AM - 05:00 PM
- Fri: 09:00 AM - 05:00 PM
- Sat: Closed
- Sun: Closed
Knowing how varied therapists’ real schedules are, I’m comfortable saying these probably aren’t the actual hours these clinicians keep. And since these placeholder profiles can easily be mistaken for real ones, the whole thing risks misleading the people who land there. (For example, I know a fair amount of therapists have hours on Saturday -- just think of potential clients ruling out these therapists because these profiles say they don't have Saturday hours!)
The bottom line: findatopdoc.com has been around for a while, but this is the first time it has pushed high enough to appear consistently in therapist-name searches. And that makes it worth paying attention to... And seeing if your profile is listed on there!
Top 30 Websites for Therapists
These domains show up the most when searching for a specific therapist by name.
| Website | Domain Popularity | Search Result Position | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Score | 1 week | 4 week | Average | 1 week | 4 week | |
| linkedin.com |
79.5
|
▼ 1.0 | ▼ 0.4 |
7.1
|
0.0 | ▼ 0.5 |
| psychologytoday.com |
73.1
|
▲ 0.3 | ▲ 0.5 |
2.3
|
0.0 | ▼ 0.4 |
| facebook.com |
52.9
|
▼ 1.3 | ▲ 1.8 |
18.5
|
▼ 0.5 | ▼ 3.5 |
| instagram.com |
33.0
|
▼ 2.0 | ▼ 4.2 |
15.6
|
▼ 0.1 | ▲ 0.1 |
| mapquest.com |
31.9
|
▼ 1.1 | ▼ 1.5 |
15.0
|
▲ 1.0 | ▲ 1.7 |
| zocdoc.com |
30.0
|
▼ 1.5 | ▼ 2.0 |
8.2
|
▲ 0.3 | ▼ 0.3 |
| npidb.org |
23.6
|
▼ 2.9 | ▲ 1.8 |
19.2
|
▲ 2.2 | ▲ 1.1 |
| headway.co |
19.4
|
▼ 0.5 | ▲ 0.1 |
6.8
|
0.0 | ▼ 0.3 |
| healthgrades.com |
18.4
|
▼ 1.8 | ▼ 1.7 |
19.2
|
▼ 0.6 | ▲ 2.3 |
| rocketreach.co |
18.4
|
▲ 0.2 | ▼ 0.8 |
18.9
|
▼ 0.6 | ▼ 0.7 |
| sharecare.com |
18.4
|
▼ 0.2 | ▼ 0.8 |
19.3
|
▼ 1.6 | ▼ 1.8 |
| therapyfinder.com |
17.7
|
▲ 2.7 | ▲ 5.8 |
13.2
|
▲ 0.8 | ▼ 0.4 |
| youtube.com |
15.6
|
▼ 0.2 | ▼ 0.6 |
26.6
|
▲ 1.5 | ▲ 0.4 |
| npiprofile.com |
15.3
|
▼ 0.9 | ▼ 0.2 |
32.2
|
▼ 1.8 | ▼ 4.4 |
| yelp.com |
15.2
|
0.0 | ▼ 0.8 |
19.5
|
▼ 0.2 | ▲ 1.1 |
| researchgate.net |
14.8
|
▲ 1.7 | ▼ 0.1 |
35.6
|
▼ 4.0 | ▼ 3.7 |
| mind-diagnostics.org |
14.2
|
▲ 0.2 | ▲ 1.2 |
3.9
|
0.0 | ▼ 0.2 |
| therapist.com |
13.7
|
▼ 0.9 | ▼ 3.2 |
11.4
|
▼ 0.3 | ▼ 0.6 |
| zoominfo.com |
13.6
|
▲ 1.8 | ▲ 3.5 |
20.2
|
▲ 0.9 | ▲ 0.4 |
| therapyden.com |
12.6
|
▲ 0.3 | ▲ 0.5 |
12.9
|
▼ 1.2 | ▼ 3.6 |
| 7cups.com |
12.5
|
▲ 0.3 | ▲ 0.1 |
11.0
|
▼ 1.4 | ▲ 1.9 |
| therapysolutionsforkids.com |
12.2
|
▲ 0.2 | — |
18.4
|
▼ 1.2 | — |
| medicalnewstoday.com |
12.2
|
▼ 0.7 | ▼ 2.4 |
10.1
|
▲ 1.1 | ▲ 2.2 |
| findatopdoc.com |
10.6
|
▲ 2.3 | ▲ 2.2 |
25.7
|
▼ 1.0 | ▼ 0.1 |
| webmd.com |
10.4
|
▼ 0.8 | ▼ 2.3 |
25.4
|
▲ 4.4 | ▲ 2.1 |
| tiktok.com |
10.4
|
▼ 0.9 | ▼ 1.0 |
44.7
|
▼ 0.3 | ▼ 1.4 |
| growtherapy.com |
10.2
|
▲ 1.1 | ▲ 1.2 |
19.8
|
▼ 3.6 | ▼ 3.3 |
| healthline.com |
8.7
|
▼ 0.7 | ▼ 0.3 |
10.6
|
▲ 1.7 | ▲ 1.0 |
| providerwire.com |
8.4
|
▼ 1.2 | ▼ 0.9 |
24.8
|
▲ 1.7 | ▲ 1.3 |
| helloalma.com |
8.0
|
▼ 0.6 | ▼ 1.0 |
9.0
|
▼ 0.3 | ▲ 0.4 |
The top domains haven’t changed much this week — LinkedIn and Psychology Today still hold the lead by a wide margin. But down in the mid-tier, findatopdoc.com is the standout mover. Its surge was enough to pull it into the top 30 for the first time, landing just behind more established directories and slightly ahead of several long-term mid-range sites.
It’s a reminder that new (or newly active) directories can climb the ranks quickly when they have enough auto-generated content behind them.
Top 10 Biggest Shifts in Domain Popularity
These therapist directories and other websites are now appearing more (or less) frequently when people search for specific therapists' names.
Compared to 1 week ago:
| Website | Score | Change |
|---|---|---|
| npidb.org | 23.58 | ▼ 2.92 |
| therapyfinder.com | 17.67 | ▲ 2.67 |
| findatopdoc.com | 10.58 | ▲ 2.33 |
| instagram.com | 33.00 | ▼ 2.00 |
| healthgrades.com | 18.42 | ▼ 1.75 |
| zoominfo.com | 13.58 | ▲ 1.75 |
| idcrawl.com | 7.25 | ▼ 1.67 |
| researchgate.net | 14.83 | ▲ 1.66 |
| zocdoc.com | 30.00 | ▼ 1.50 |
| facebook.com | 52.92 | ▼ 1.33 |
Compared to 4 weeks ago:
| Website | Score | Change |
|---|---|---|
| therapyfinder.com | 17.67 | ▲ 5.75 |
| instagram.com | 33.00 | ▼ 4.25 |
| zoominfo.com | 13.58 | ▲ 3.50 |
| therapist.com | 13.67 | ▼ 3.25 |
| idcrawl.com | 7.25 | ▼ 2.83 |
| medicalnewstoday.com | 12.17 | ▼ 2.41 |
| webmd.com | 10.42 | ▼ 2.33 |
| findatopdoc.com | 10.58 | ▲ 2.25 |
| datanyze.com | 5.00 | ▼ 2.08 |
| zocdoc.com | 30.00 | ▼ 2.00 |
Only a few websites saw notable changes this week, and findatopdoc.com was one of them — jumping more than 2 points compared to last week. That’s a significant one-week shift for a domain in this range.
Beyond this week's jump from "Find a Top Doc", a few other domains saw notable shifts too. therapyfinder.com continued its steady climb with a 2+ point gain, keeping its upward streak alive. On the other side of the spectrum, npidb.org dropped almost 3 points, marking one of its sharper weekly declines after spending a long time near the top of the mid-tier. And instagram.com slipped by 2 full points, but that's not very surprising for a social media platform... Those seem to shift up and down by a few points every now and then.
Domain Presence in the Top 10
This is a breakdown of the most common domains found at each search result position. The first 10 positions are the most critical, as they appear on the first page, so this breaks it down for positions 1 through 10.
| Website | Search Result Position | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
#1
|
#2
|
#3
|
#4
|
#5
|
#6
|
#7
|
#8
|
#9
|
#10
|
|
| psychologytoday.com | 48.0% | 19.7% | 5.6% | 4.7% | 4.9% | 5.0% | 5.5% | 6.2% | 6.7% | 6.9% |
| mind-diagnostics.org | 6.0% | 2.3% | 3.1% | 1.8% | 0.2% | 0.9% | 0.5% | 0.6% | 0.2% | 0.1% |
| linkedin.com | 1.5% | 5.8% | 12.6% | 12.8% | 12.3% | 8.9% | 6.3% | 6.7% | 5.7% | 4.9% |
| humantold.com | 1.3% | 2.6% | 0.3% | 0.0% | 0.1% | 0.0% | 0.2% | 0.0% | 0.3% | 0.1% |
| headway.co | 0.8% | 3.7% | 3.9% | 3.5% | 1.5% | 1.8% | 0.9% | 0.5% | 0.7% | 0.9% |
| zocdoc.com | 0.6% | 2.3% | 7.5% | 7.0% | 3.9% | 3.0% | 3.5% | 1.7% | 1.3% | 2.0% |
| growtherapy.com | 0.4% | 3.0% | 2.0% | 0.5% | 0.5% | 0.7% | 0.3% | 0.1% | 0.3% | 0.4% |
| sondermind.com | 0.4% | 2.2% | 1.7% | 0.5% | 0.2% | 0.3% | 0.2% | 0.2% | 0.2% | 0.1% |
| mapquest.com | 0.3% | 0.6% | 1.3% | 2.0% | 2.0% | 2.6% | 2.7% | 3.3% | 3.0% | 2.5% |
| facebook.com | 0.1% | 1.2% | 2.7% | 3.0% | 4.2% | 3.3% | 2.5% | 4.4% | 4.6% | 3.2% |
| instagram.com | 0.1% | 0.9% | 1.8% | 3.1% | 2.9% | 2.5% | 2.4% | 1.6% | 2.5% | 3.0% |
| therapyden.com | 0.0% | 1.1% | 2.2% | 1.5% | 1.1% | 1.0% | 1.1% | 0.4% | 0.3% | 0.3% |
| therapyfinder.com | 0.0% | 0.3% | 1.1% | 2.0% | 1.4% | 1.7% | 1.4% | 1.7% | 1.2% | 1.1% |
| All Others | 40.5% | 54.3% | 54.2% | 57.6% | 64.8% | 68.3% | 72.5% | 72.6% | 73.0% | 74.5% |
In the top positions, the usual pattern continues: Psychology Today dominates the #1 slot, while LinkedIn fills most of the mid-page-one positions.
findatopdoc.com isn’t breaking onto page one, but it’s started showing up more often around the 20–30 range — enough to make it part of the broader ecosystem clients may stumble across when searching for a therapist by name.
This week highlights how quickly a directory can rise once it gains even a small burst of visibility. Domains like findatopdoc.com aren’t new -- they’ve existed quietly for years, occasionally grabbing the attention and clicks of therapy-seekers -- but one small upswing can suddenly put thousands of placeholder therapist profiles in front of potential clients. (Unfortunately, I don't have an explanation as to why there was a shift this past week.)
I'm repetitive with this, but I think it's worth repeating:
Only you as an individual can really track how you're being represented online in search results.
With this report, I try to highlight broader shifts, and this week's finding is a great example. This website findatopdoc.com had a shift, and so now I can take a closer look. But therapists have had profiles listed there for months or years, and I'm guessing many had no idea.
If you come across a website that is listing your profile like this (and without your permission), please send me an email! Maybe this website isn't in the top 30 of this report, but I want to know about it -- so I can report on it here, and do some further digging! Here's my email: jon@zapstarsolutions.com
And if you haven't already, sign up for our personal search report, so that we can help do this tracking for you! You'll get an email each week with an update on the search results for your name. (And it's for free -- our gift to this great community.)
Have a wonderful Thanksgiving if you're in the United States, and if you're not, I hope you find an excuse to enjoy a nice turkey, mashed potato, stuffing, and cranberry sauce dinner with family and friends.
Jon
