This week's report feels a little quieter, but not without its own surprises. LinkedIn continued its steady climb, now above 80 in overall visibility, while NPIDB and NPIProfile made big jumps into the top 20. Those two are worth taking a look at, because they're not traditional directories at all -- they're databases that republish public information from the National Provider Identifier (NPI) registry. So not just therapists, but all sorts of medical professionals.
Here's a quick summary on NPIs: Every licensed healthcare provider in the U.S. is assigned an NPI (National Provider Identifier) number, which is meant for billing and identification across systems. But a growing number of websites are taking that public data and turning it into searchable profiles. It's accurate in a technical sense, but not particularly useful for someone actually trying to find a therapist. (But spoiler alert: The data is public and super accessible -- and therefore super easy to chuck out onto the web for some easy clicks.)
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 |
80.3
|
▲ 2.9 | ▲ 2.3 |
7.0
|
▼ 0.4 | ▲ 0.1 |
| psychologytoday.com |
73.1
|
▲ 0.5 | ▼ 0.1 |
2.1
|
▼ 0.2 | ▼ 0.1 |
| facebook.com |
53.8
|
▲ 1.6 | ▲ 1.0 |
14.8
|
▲ 0.7 | ▲ 3.1 |
| instagram.com |
37.6
|
▲ 0.5 | ▼ 1.4 |
16.1
|
▼ 0.1 | ▲ 3.8 |
| mapquest.com |
33.8
|
▼ 0.7 | ▼ 3.9 |
15.8
|
▲ 0.8 | ▲ 3.6 |
| zocdoc.com |
32.0
|
▲ 0.2 | ▼ 0.7 |
7.6
|
0.0 | ▲ 1.6 |
| npidb.org |
24.7
|
▲ 3.0 | ▲ 3.9 |
21.4
|
▼ 0.6 | ▲ 5.0 |
| sharecare.com |
21.2
|
▲ 1.7 | ▼ 1.5 |
20.2
|
▼ 3.1 | ▲ 1.1 |
| headway.co |
19.3
|
▼ 0.5 | ▼ 0.8 |
7.2
|
▼ 0.8 | ▲ 1.2 |
| healthgrades.com |
18.8
|
▲ 0.5 | ▼ 24.2 |
20.8
|
▲ 1.4 | ▼ 6.2 |
| rocketreach.co |
18.4
|
▼ 0.1 | 0.0 |
17.7
|
▲ 0.3 | ▲ 3.1 |
| therapist.com |
17.7
|
▲ 1.0 | ▲ 0.4 |
11.4
|
▼ 1.1 | ▲ 0.4 |
| npiprofile.com |
16.5
|
▲ 2.3 | ▲ 4.1 |
28.0
|
▲ 0.4 | ▲ 5.2 |
| youtube.com |
16.0
|
▲ 1.3 | ▲ 11.8 |
25.5
|
▼ 2.2 | ▲ 6.5 |
| yelp.com |
15.8
|
▲ 0.6 | ▼ 2.5 |
20.3
|
▼ 1.7 | ▲ 7.8 |
| medicalnewstoday.com |
14.9
|
▼ 0.8 | ▼ 0.2 |
11.6
|
▲ 0.7 | ▼ 0.6 |
| researchgate.net |
14.4
|
▲ 0.5 | ▲ 0.4 |
31.2
|
▼ 1.4 | ▲ 2.4 |
| webmd.com |
13.4
|
▲ 1.0 | ▼ 0.1 |
27.6
|
▲ 1.3 | ▲ 6.5 |
| mind-diagnostics.org |
13.0
|
▲ 0.1 | ▼ 0.2 |
3.2
|
▲ 0.2 | ▲ 0.8 |
| 7cups.com |
12.7
|
▲ 0.2 | ▼ 0.8 |
12.2
|
▼ 1.0 | ▲ 0.8 |
| tiktok.com |
12.6
|
▲ 0.1 | ▼ 0.4 |
41.3
|
▲ 1.8 | ▲ 5.6 |
| therapyden.com |
12.3
|
▲ 0.1 | ▼ 0.4 |
10.0
|
▲ 1.1 | ▲ 2.9 |
| idcrawl.com |
11.8
|
▲ 1.2 | ▼ 2.7 |
31.5
|
▼ 3.4 | ▲ 5.6 |
| zoominfo.com |
11.8
|
▲ 0.6 | ▼ 1.9 |
20.3
|
▼ 0.8 | ▲ 2.2 |
| healthline.com |
8.8
|
▼ 0.2 | ▼ 1.7 |
13.1
|
▼ 3.0 | ▼ 1.7 |
| helloalma.com |
8.7
|
▼ 0.2 | ▼ 0.2 |
8.2
|
▲ 0.1 | ▲ 1.4 |
| nih.gov |
8.6
|
▲ 0.8 | ▼ 2.2 |
43.5
|
▲ 1.2 | ▲ 7.3 |
| growtherapy.com |
8.5
|
▼ 0.5 | ▼ 0.6 |
13.2
|
▲ 3.1 | ▲ 4.2 |
| providerwire.com |
8.4
|
▲ 0.4 | ▲ 0.8 |
27.1
|
▼ 1.7 | ▲ 3.6 |
| findatopdoc.com |
8.2
|
▲ 0.8 | ▲ 0.2 |
25.5
|
▲ 0.2 | ▲ 8.3 |
The top of the list looks familiar -- LinkedIn, Psychology Today, and Facebook continue to dominate, with Instagram holding steady despite its usual volatility. But just below them, the NPI-based sites are quietly expanding their footprint. NPIDB, NPIProfile, and ProviderWire all rose several points, showing up more frequently in search results for therapists' names.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| marriage.com | 5.25 | ▼ 3.42 |
| npidb.org | 24.67 | ▲ 3.00 |
| linkedin.com | 80.30 | ▲ 2.90 |
| npiprofile.com | 16.50 | ▲ 2.33 |
| sharecare.com | 21.25 | ▲ 1.67 |
| facebook.com | 53.75 | ▲ 1.58 |
| quickcounseling.com | 6.33 | ▼ 1.34 |
| youtube.com | 16.00 | ▲ 1.33 |
| idcrawl.com | 11.75 | ▲ 1.17 |
| amazon.com | 5.08 | ▲ 1.00 |
Compared to 4 weeks ago:
| Website | Score | Change |
|---|---|---|
| healthgrades.com | 18.75 | ▼ 24.25 |
| youtube.com | 16.00 | ▲ 11.75 |
| quickcounseling.com | 6.33 | ▼ 4.92 |
| npiprofile.com | 16.50 | ▲ 4.08 |
| npidb.org | 24.67 | ▲ 3.92 |
| mapquest.com | 33.83 | ▼ 3.92 |
| marriage.com | 5.25 | ▼ 3.67 |
| idcrawl.com | 11.75 | ▼ 2.67 |
| yelp.com | 15.75 | ▼ 2.50 |
| linkedin.com | 80.30 | ▲ 2.30 |
The biggest gains came from the NPI-related websites. NPIDB jumped three points, while NPIProfile climbed over two. LinkedIn also saw a healthy bump, suggesting that verified, professional profiles are still viewed as highly authoritative by Google.
On the losing side, Marriage.com dropped more than three points, and MapQuest slipped again after months of slow decline. Healthgrades, meanwhile, gained back a bit of ground but remains far below where it stood before its massive fall two weeks ago.
Overall, this week's changes feel like the calm after a storm -- smaller moves, but with new patterns forming underneath.
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 | 46.8% | 24.0% | 6.4% | 6.4% | 3.6% | 5.9% | 4.7% | 4.8% | 4.8% | 3.9% |
| mind-diagnostics.org | 5.8% | 2.6% | 2.7% | 1.9% | 0.7% | 0.5% | 0.3% | 0.3% | 0.2% | 0.3% |
| linkedin.com | 1.4% | 5.8% | 12.3% | 11.3% | 12.3% | 10.8% | 7.0% | 6.8% | 7.6% | 5.8% |
| humantold.com | 1.0% | 3.0% | 0.2% | 0.1% | 0.1% | 0.1% | 0.3% | 0.1% | 0.3% | 0.1% |
| headway.co | 0.7% | 3.4% | 3.9% | 3.1% | 2.2% | 1.2% | 0.6% | 1.1% | 0.9% | 1.2% |
| therapist.com | 0.7% | 1.9% | 1.9% | 1.9% | 2.6% | 1.8% | 2.7% | 1.6% | 1.4% | 1.6% |
| zocdoc.com | 0.6% | 2.2% | 8.1% | 5.8% | 4.9% | 3.6% | 3.8% | 3.1% | 2.5% | 2.9% |
| growtherapy.com | 0.4% | 2.7% | 1.5% | 1.3% | 0.4% | 0.5% | 0.3% | 0.4% | 0.3% | 0.4% |
| mapquest.com | 0.3% | 0.5% | 1.2% | 1.9% | 3.0% | 2.5% | 2.4% | 2.9% | 1.9% | 3.0% |
| instagram.com | 0.2% | 0.9% | 1.5% | 3.2% | 3.1% | 3.0% | 2.7% | 2.3% | 3.8% | 2.1% |
| facebook.com | 0.1% | 1.7% | 2.2% | 3.3% | 2.9% | 2.9% | 5.6% | 4.9% | 4.7% | 4.5% |
| medicalnewstoday.com | 0.1% | 0.4% | 0.8% | 2.2% | 1.7% | 1.5% | 1.3% | 1.2% | 1.2% | 1.3% |
| All Others | 41.9% | 50.9% | 57.3% | 57.6% | 62.5% | 65.7% | 68.3% | 70.5% | 70.4% | 72.9% |
At the very top, Psychology Today continues to dominate the #1 slot, showing up first for nearly half of all therapist name searches. LinkedIn still holds strong in the middle of page one, while Mind Diagnostics and Headway continue to make consistent showings.
Between the steady leaders and the data-driven newcomers, it's clear that therapist search results are getting crowded. Not because of new shady directories this time (at least not ones that we're aware of!), but because of mass-generated NPI pages filling in every gap they can find.
The good news? Google's algorithm still tries to reward helpful, human-created content over time. If you have your own website, a verified LinkedIn profile, and a few accurate listings you manage directly, you'll almost always outlast the noise.
So don't stress about the static. Create your own pages, keep them active, and make sure your information is correct wherever it appears. When you do that, you're playing a different game altogether -- one where you actually control what people see when they search for you. You've got this!
See you next week!
Jon
