It was a crazy week for the report, from a technical perspective. (Which I will briefly explain later!) But overall, results-wise, this week’s report feels steady. One thing jumps right off the page, though:
YouTube made a huge leap into the search results for therapists. While the usual suspects like LinkedIn and Psychology Today retain their dominance, YouTube surged forward in both appearance frequency and ranking movement. Read on to learn more!
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 |
78.1
|
▲ 0.1 | ▲ 0.3 |
6.8
|
▲ 0.4 | ▲ 0.4 |
| psychologytoday.com |
72.9
|
▼ 0.3 | 0.0 |
1.8
|
▲ 0.2 | ▲ 0.2 |
| facebook.com |
52.4
|
▼ 0.3 | ▲ 0.4 |
17.0
|
▲ 0.9 | ▲ 0.2 |
| healthgrades.com |
42.3
|
▼ 0.7 | ▼ 2.4 |
14.1
|
▲ 0.4 | ▲ 0.8 |
| instagram.com |
38.8
|
▼ 0.2 | ▲ 0.8 |
18.6
|
▲ 1.4 | ▲ 0.3 |
| mapquest.com |
36.3
|
▼ 1.4 | ▲ 0.2 |
18.1
|
▲ 1.2 | ▲ 0.8 |
| zocdoc.com |
32.6
|
▼ 0.1 | ▼ 0.1 |
8.6
|
▲ 0.6 | ▲ 0.6 |
| sharecare.com |
22.0
|
▼ 0.8 | ▼ 4.5 |
20.0
|
▲ 1.3 | ▼ 0.1 |
| headway.co |
21.0
|
▲ 0.9 | ▲ 1.6 |
8.7
|
▼ 0.4 | ▼ 1.7 |
| npidb.org |
20.2
|
▼ 0.5 | ▼ 4.1 |
22.6
|
▲ 3.8 | ▲ 2.9 |
| youtube.com |
18.2
|
▲ 13.9 | ▲ 14.6 |
29.9
|
▲ 2.1 | ▼ 3.5 |
| rocketreach.co |
17.9
|
▼ 0.5 | ▲ 1.8 |
18.4
|
▲ 2.4 | ▲ 3.1 |
| yelp.com |
17.8
|
▼ 0.4 | ▼ 1.0 |
25.4
|
▲ 2.6 | ▲ 0.2 |
| therapist.com |
17.6
|
▲ 0.3 | ▼ 0.6 |
12.6
|
▼ 0.8 | ▼ 1.7 |
| medicalnewstoday.com |
15.4
|
▲ 0.3 | 0.0 |
10.5
|
▲ 0.6 | ▲ 1.2 |
| researchgate.net |
14.7
|
▲ 0.7 | ▼ 0.8 |
31.4
|
▲ 2.2 | ▲ 5.5 |
| npiprofile.com |
13.4
|
▲ 1.0 | ▼ 0.2 |
29.2
|
▲ 4.0 | ▲ 3.1 |
| 7cups.com |
13.3
|
▼ 0.2 | ▲ 0.1 |
12.0
|
▲ 1.0 | ▲ 1.1 |
| mind-diagnostics.org |
13.2
|
▲ 0.1 | ▲ 0.4 |
4.1
|
▼ 0.1 | ▼ 0.5 |
| idcrawl.com |
13.0
|
▼ 1.4 | ▼ 1.7 |
32.1
|
▲ 5.0 | ▲ 5.2 |
| tiktok.com |
12.2
|
▼ 0.8 | ▼ 2.9 |
44.5
|
▲ 2.4 | ▲ 4.9 |
| therapyden.com |
12.1
|
▼ 0.6 | 0.0 |
11.3
|
▲ 1.6 | ▲ 1.4 |
| webmd.com |
11.8
|
▼ 1.7 | ▼ 3.9 |
28.9
|
▲ 5.2 | ▲ 2.8 |
| zoominfo.com |
11.8
|
▼ 1.8 | ▼ 1.3 |
20.8
|
▲ 1.7 | ▲ 2.7 |
| quickcounseling.com |
10.6
|
▼ 0.7 | ▲ 0.9 |
9.5
|
▲ 1.8 | ▲ 3.8 |
| healthline.com |
10.3
|
▼ 0.2 | ▼ 0.8 |
11.0
|
▲ 0.4 | ▲ 0.5 |
| growtherapy.com |
9.7
|
▲ 0.6 | ▲ 1.5 |
17.4
|
0.0 | ▼ 5.0 |
| nih.gov |
9.7
|
▼ 1.1 | ▼ 1.3 |
45.4
|
▲ 5.4 | ▲ 1.9 |
| marriage.com |
9.4
|
▲ 0.5 | ▼ 0.3 |
16.8
|
▼ 0.7 | ▼ 1.1 |
| helloalma.com |
9.0
|
▲ 0.2 | ▲ 0.1 |
10.0
|
▼ 0.4 | ▼ 0.5 |
In the top domains list, the steady leaders continue to shine. LinkedIn and Psychology Today dominate the landscape, showing that professional directories and networks are still the first places people land when searching for therapists. Right behind them, Facebook and Instagram keep their presence, though they shift around more. It's probably fair to say that social platforms will be volatile week-to-week.
The big surprise is YouTube, which surged forward this week. It’s possible that Google’s algorithm is favoring video content more heavily right now, surfacing YouTube results where directories used to dominate. What I'm seeing is that if you're a therapist and you were interviewed by someone or published your own video, and your name is in the title or description of the uploaded video, that video is now one of your search results -- when maybe that video never even appeared previously. (If you're looking at your own personal search report, these "new" search results are flagged with star icons.)
I'm excited to see what YouTube looks like in next week's report -- will it continue to increase its presence, was this just a fluke for one week, or will it stabilize? Only time will tell.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| youtube.com | 18.17 | ▲ 13.92 |
| zoominfo.com | 11.83 | ▼ 1.84 |
| webmd.com | 11.83 | ▼ 1.67 |
| psychfaq.com | 5.33 | ▼ 1.50 |
| idcrawl.com | 13.00 | ▼ 1.42 |
| mapquest.com | 36.33 | ▼ 1.42 |
| usnews.com | 8.58 | ▲ 1.41 |
| nih.gov | 9.67 | ▼ 1.08 |
| npiprofile.com | 13.42 | ▲ 1.00 |
| headway.co | 21.00 | ▲ 0.90 |
Compared to 4 weeks ago:
| Website | Score | Change |
|---|---|---|
| youtube.com | 18.17 | ▲ 14.59 |
| sharecare.com | 22.00 | ▼ 4.50 |
| npidb.org | 20.25 | ▼ 4.08 |
| webmd.com | 11.83 | ▼ 3.92 |
| tiktok.com | 12.25 | ▼ 2.92 |
| makertherapy.com | 6.67 | ▲ 2.50 |
| healthgrades.com | 42.33 | ▼ 2.42 |
| signalhire.com | 8.58 | ▼ 2.34 |
| usnews.com | 8.58 | ▲ 2.08 |
| yellowpages.com | 8.00 | ▼ 1.83 |
Looking at shifts in domain presence, the clear story is YouTube’s rocket boost. It jumped by nearly 14 points compared to last week -- a massive surge.
On the losing side, it's notable that the questionable directory I mentioned last week, PsychFAQ, dropped a bit. But if you click that link to look deeper, you'll see that their results are now ranking higher -- from #23 to #16 on average. While that might not seem like that big of a deal, remember -- #23 is on page 3 of results, while #16 is on page 2. Far more folks will see (and click) these links on page 2 compared to page 3.
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 | 47.0% | 23.8% | 6.5% | 5.4% | 5.1% | 5.1% | 5.7% | 4.8% | 4.5% | 3.8% |
| mind-diagnostics.org | 5.4% | 2.5% | 2.6% | 1.6% | 1.1% | 0.5% | 0.1% | 0.5% | 0.4% | 0.1% |
| linkedin.com | 1.3% | 5.0% | 11.6% | 10.9% | 12.0% | 10.1% | 6.6% | 7.2% | 6.3% | 7.1% |
| humantold.com | 1.2% | 3.0% | 0.3% | 0.2% | 0.1% | 0.3% | 0.8% | 1.1% | 0.6% | 0.4% |
| therapist.com | 0.6% | 1.9% | 1.3% | 1.8% | 2.6% | 1.7% | 2.1% | 1.8% | 1.7% | 1.6% |
| headway.co | 0.5% | 4.0% | 3.0% | 3.5% | 2.0% | 2.0% | 0.8% | 1.2% | 1.3% | 1.1% |
| growtherapy.com | 0.5% | 2.6% | 1.9% | 1.1% | 0.7% | 0.4% | 0.3% | 0.3% | 0.5% | 0.5% |
| zocdoc.com | 0.4% | 2.5% | 8.2% | 4.9% | 5.0% | 3.1% | 3.3% | 2.7% | 3.4% | 2.4% |
| mapquest.com | 0.3% | 0.5% | 0.7% | 1.4% | 2.3% | 2.6% | 2.9% | 3.4% | 2.4% | 2.7% |
| instagram.com | 0.2% | 0.6% | 1.8% | 3.0% | 3.3% | 2.5% | 2.3% | 3.0% | 2.6% | 2.4% |
| healthgrades.com | 0.2% | 0.5% | 1.9% | 3.4% | 3.4% | 3.6% | 3.8% | 2.2% | 3.9% | 2.9% |
| facebook.com | 0.1% | 1.3% | 2.2% | 3.3% | 2.6% | 3.1% | 4.5% | 3.9% | 4.1% | 4.1% |
| medicalnewstoday.com | 0.1% | 0.2% | 1.2% | 1.4% | 1.8% | 1.9% | 1.9% | 1.7% | 0.6% | 0.9% |
| All Others | 42.2% | 51.6% | 56.8% | 58.1% | 58.0% | 63.1% | 64.9% | 66.2% | 67.7% | 70.0% |
I don't expect this chart to change that much week-to-week. (Although I'd love to create an animation week-to-week of this particular visualization... I'll add it to my ever-growing to-do list!) But this chart does help surface some websites that maybe get overlooked by the other prominent players.
For example, hey, remember MapQuest? Sure, we don't print out our driving directions anymore, but it's still a top result if you happen to have your business address listed on their website. And here's a pro-tip: Why not make sure your business address is listed? That's an easy way to get a top search result for your name occupied by a neutral third-party, rather than a ghost directory that's misleading (at best).
Okay, so I said there were technical challenges in running the report this week. To summarize, Google completely changed how anyone who analyzes search results aggregates those search results. (How convenient for us, this early on in TherapistSearchReport.com!) They used to allow us to retrieve the top 100 search results for any given query -- but now, they only provide the top 10 search results. To account for this, I now retrieve the first 10 pages of results (each with 10 results) to get those same top 100 search results. (So yes, this report now takes longer to run and costs 10x as much! But that is okay -- still well worth it!) Again, this issue didn't just affect this report -- it affected anyone or any platform that does any sort of deep SEO analysis.
Why do I emphasize this? Well, we also saw this huge leap for YouTube this week. And as a reminder, Google owns YouTube. Google is definitely making some changes on their side -- not just in how they allow others to retrieve results, but also in how those results are ranked. Perhaps a response to the ever-increasing impact of AI? Who am I to speculate on this sort of thing!
Please, as you review your personal search result (which I hope you sign up for!), I hope you'll let me know of any questionable/fishy links that you see. I'd love to investigate more, and honestly, you (the therapist) might notice them first. When analyzing the data, I'm often focused on the most popular websites, while you'll be more likely to notice one-off oddities that might become bigger players in the weeks to come!
And with that, this concludes the third edition of this report.
Thanks for reading!
Jon
