Therapist Search Report

This week’s edition of the report is relatively stable, with no giant shifts like last time.

So here's our focus or tip for therapists this week: Make sure the results that show up for your name are the ones you actually control. A solid professional profile or two, plus a clean social media presence, can crowd out some of the murkier directories that occasionally bubble up. We'll talk more about that later on in this report. (If you feel like just quickly scrolling to the bottom!)

Across the top domains, Psychology Today remains one of the most visible presences, far outpacing most of the competition. Facebook and Instagram are still frequent players, though with week-to-week swings. And of course, LinkedIn is still the powerhouse of directories... for all professions.

The broader mix above highlights that well-established therapist directories tend to hold their ground, while social and smaller sites shift around more unpredictably week-to-week.

Looking at appearance scores, the biggest drop this week came from Healthgrades, which fell more than 5 points. Why? We don't really know. They have quite a few therapists in their directory (hundreds of thousands, I believe?), but search algorithms can be a mysterious thing!

And while YouTube slipped slightly compared to last week, its overall growth across the past month still stands out as one of the more dramatic movements we’ve tracked. If it's jump last week was due to an algorithm update, it makes sense that it was a one time jump -- and then it will maintain its higher presence in search results going forward.

Nothing major to point out here... Just a reminder that even small ranking shifts matter. Showing up consistently at #10 and then moving up to #9 means that your link is that much closer to being clicked on. Search results are overwhelming, so it really does make a difference.

This week's snapshot reinforces a simple strategy: control what you can. The best defense against questionable directories is to fill the first 10 to 20 slots with results you trust and manage. These "neutral" or reliable profiles are often easy to claim and keep updated.

Here are some steps you can follow to help protect your professional identity:

1. Create or refresh your LinkedIn profile with current professional details.
2. Set up or update your Psychology Today listing. I know this costs money, so it's understandable if it's skipped. But if you're looking for an easy win, maybe it's worth it.
3. Set up a professional Facebook business page for your professional identity. Literally just your name plus your credentials is sufficient, plus some background details.
4. Add a professional Instagram profile, similar to the Facebook account above.
5. Check whether you're already included in reputable directories, and update your information if you are.
6. If you don't have your own website, create one -- even if it means just creating a free one on Google Sites and registering a domain for 10 bucks. It doesn't need to be fancy! Just informative -- and you 100% control this (unlike all of these other suggestions).

Note that for social media, you should create separate professional profiles, not rely on your personal ones. And it's not like you need to then become a social media marketing guru -- just toss up a profile, and given the power of these social networks and their ability to rank super high, you might see it become one of your top search results in a matter of weeks. (Also, have these social media profiles link to your own professional website -- it'll give that website extra juice and have it rank higher too, so a double win.)

By taking these steps, you can fill much of the first two pages of search results with sources you control. That makes it far easier to notice when something unusual pops up -- and far less likely that a client will stumble onto an inaccurate or unauthorized profile.

That's it for today -- have a wonderful week!

Jon