Let's focus on something specific this week: Domains.
What's a domain? It's the core part of the web address that takes you to your destination. (For example, this website's domain is therapistsearchreport.com.) When you visit a URL (or web address) in your browser, your browser looks up where to go for that domain, and then takes you there.
I've mentioned in the past that it's so important that therapists have their own websites. Even if you're totally content at your current employer, you should have your own website. You never know when you'll make a transition -- and sometimes transitions are not by choice! You should have a web presence established, helping both you and your current clients get back on track as quickly as possible.
In addition to your own website, you need to have your own domain. It can be as simple as yourname.com or yournametherapy.com. It doesn't need to be a registered LLC. You don't need to take any further steps than simply registering the domain. And then point that domain to your website hosting. (Your website host will have instructions on how to do this! Don't worry, it's not complicated -- and if you need help, please email me!)
How much does a domain cost? Nowadays, you can buy a domain for around $10 to $12 per year. Each year, you need to pay to renew it -- otherwise, you'll lose that domain.
By having your own domain, you further cement your professional web presence for the future. You can change your website hosting, for example, and your domain will stay the same. You will still be found at yournametherapy.com, for example -- regardless of where you choose to host your therapy website.
Why am I focusing on this today? This pleasework.dev website is so odd. It's definitely a test or staging website, not the real website, for TherapyDen, and yet here it is -- increasing in popularity and ranking week after week (for the most part). That's not great -- especially for the therapists who have profiles there, and especially for TherapyDen itself.
This made me think about how many therapists might be relying on the free domains provided by their webhosting providers. These are typically subdomains -- something like yourname.webhostingprovider.com. And you shouldn't rely on these subdomains. The main reason is that you are now stuck -- if you change hosting providers, that domain is not coming with you!
I did some quick analysis on some of these free hosting subdomains, and the good news is that most therapists are not relying on them. That's great! So let's keep it up!
Here are the ones I checked:
- WordPress.com
- Wix (Their subdomain is
yourname.wixsite.com.) - Webflow
- Google Sites
- SquareSpace
I'm not recommending any one of these for your therapy web hosting, but these are the ones I thought of to check and see if their domains are showing up in search results for therapists. Some of them are, some of them aren't, but none of them are super alarming. (Again, a good thing!)
One day, I'd like to build a guide to help therapists along the way with getting their own website (and domain!) up and running. If you think that's a good idea, or if you'd like to contribute a suggestion, I'd love to hear from you.
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 |
74.9
|
▼ 0.7 | ▼ 3.5 |
7.7
|
▲ 0.1 | ▼ 0.2 |
| psychologytoday.com |
73.0
|
▼ 0.2 | ▼ 1.1 |
2.8
|
▼ 0.1 | ▲ 0.2 |
| facebook.com |
51.4
|
▼ 0.4 | ▼ 1.7 |
18.3
|
▼ 0.1 | ▲ 0.7 |
| instagram.com |
36.8
|
▼ 0.5 | ▲ 0.3 |
16.2
|
▲ 0.4 | ▲ 0.2 |
| zocdoc.com |
30.5
|
▼ 0.5 | ▼ 1.6 |
8.1
|
▲ 0.1 | ▲ 0.1 |
| mapquest.com |
28.2
|
▼ 0.5 | ▼ 2.2 |
15.7
|
▲ 1.6 | ▲ 0.8 |
| healthgrades.com |
22.3
|
▲ 0.3 | ▼ 2.2 |
20.8
|
▼ 1.3 | ▲ 0.2 |
| npidb.org |
20.2
|
▼ 0.2 | ▼ 2.4 |
19.1
|
▼ 1.0 | ▲ 0.7 |
| headway.co |
19.6
|
▲ 0.3 | ▼ 0.6 |
7.1
|
▼ 1.3 | ▼ 0.7 |
| therapyfinder.com |
17.8
|
▼ 0.4 | ▼ 1.5 |
12.4
|
▼ 1.0 | ▲ 0.8 |
| yelp.com |
15.8
|
▲ 0.8 | ▼ 0.1 |
22.1
|
▼ 1.8 | ▼ 0.1 |
| youtube.com |
14.8
|
▼ 0.7 | ▼ 1.2 |
23.3
|
▲ 0.1 | ▲ 6.0 |
| rocketreach.co |
14.2
|
▼ 0.2 | ▼ 2.6 |
17.2
|
▲ 0.2 | ▲ 3.0 |
| mind-diagnostics.org |
14.2
|
▲ 0.1 | ▲ 0.6 |
4.6
|
▼ 0.2 | ▲ 0.4 |
| npiprofile.com |
13.7
|
▼ 0.4 | ▼ 3.7 |
27.7
|
▼ 0.7 | ▲ 5.1 |
| sharecare.com |
13.4
|
▲ 0.5 | ▼ 2.6 |
20.3
|
▼ 1.6 | ▲ 0.6 |
| researchgate.net |
13.1
|
▲ 0.3 | ▼ 0.7 |
35.5
|
▼ 1.8 | ▲ 4.4 |
| zoominfo.com |
13.1
|
▼ 0.2 | ▼ 1.2 |
18.1
|
▲ 0.4 | ▲ 5.0 |
| therapyden.com |
12.9
|
0.0 | ▼ 0.7 |
11.5
|
▲ 0.1 | ▲ 1.5 |
| growtherapy.com |
11.8
|
▼ 0.8 | ▼ 0.3 |
25.3
|
▼ 0.1 | ▼ 0.3 |
| 7cups.com |
10.6
|
▼ 0.7 | ▼ 1.9 |
10.1
|
▲ 1.8 | ▲ 3.0 |
| therapist.com |
10.5
|
▼ 0.3 | ▼ 0.7 |
9.4
|
▲ 0.9 | ▲ 2.9 |
| medicalnewstoday.com |
9.1
|
▼ 0.8 | ▼ 3.2 |
10.8
|
▼ 0.1 | ▲ 1.9 |
| webmd.com |
8.8
|
▲ 0.2 | ▼ 1.5 |
27.0
|
▼ 1.5 | ▲ 1.5 |
| helloalma.com |
8.2
|
▼ 0.2 | ▼ 0.3 |
8.1
|
▼ 0.7 | ▲ 1.1 |
| tiktok.com |
8.2
|
▲ 0.5 | ▼ 0.2 |
46.0
|
▲ 0.3 | ▲ 4.2 |
| pleasework.dev |
7.7
|
▲ 7.4 | ▼ 3.0 |
22.7
|
▲ 38.3 | ▲ 4.7 |
| nih.gov |
7.3
|
▲ 0.2 | ▲ 1.1 |
38.9
|
▲ 1.0 | ▲ 4.2 |
| healthline.com |
7.2
|
▲ 0.2 | ▼ 2.0 |
12.0
|
▲ 0.6 | ▲ 1.1 |
| openpathcollective.org |
6.8
|
▼ 0.6 | ▲ 0.1 |
9.1
|
▼ 0.8 | ▲ 1.8 |
This is pretty standard... Although pleasework.dev has entered the top 30, which is why I did this deep dive into domains.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| pleasework.dev | 7.67 | ▲ 7.42 |
| findatopdoc.com | 6.00 | ▼ 1.08 |
| usnews.com | 5.83 | ▲ 1.00 |
| growtherapy.com | 11.75 | ▼ 0.75 |
| idcrawl.com | 5.42 | ▲ 0.75 |
| yelp.com | 15.75 | ▲ 0.75 |
| medicalnewstoday.com | 9.08 | ▼ 0.75 |
| linkedin.com | 74.90 | ▼ 0.70 |
| 7cups.com | 10.60 | ▼ 0.70 |
| clientsecure.me | 5.00 | ▼ 0.67 |
Compared to 4 weeks ago:
| Website | Score | Change |
|---|---|---|
| npiprofile.com | 13.67 | ▼ 3.66 |
| linkedin.com | 74.90 | ▼ 3.50 |
| medicalnewstoday.com | 9.08 | ▼ 3.25 |
| pleasework.dev | 7.67 | ▼ 3.00 |
| sharecare.com | 13.42 | ▼ 2.58 |
| rocketreach.co | 14.25 | ▼ 2.58 |
| npidb.org | 20.25 | ▼ 2.42 |
| mapquest.com | 28.17 | ▼ 2.25 |
| healthgrades.com | 22.33 | ▼ 2.25 |
| usnews.com | 5.83 | ▼ 2.17 |
Nothing too shocking here.
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 | 45.1% | 19.6% | 5.7% | 5.0% | 4.6% | 4.7% | 5.8% | 7.3% | 6.2% | 6.8% |
| mind-diagnostics.org | 5.2% | 2.8% | 3.0% | 1.2% | 1.7% | 0.4% | 0.2% | 0.6% | 0.4% | 0.1% |
| linkedin.com | 1.6% | 4.7% | 9.8% | 9.8% | 9.8% | 8.9% | 6.4% | 5.0% | 5.6% | 4.0% |
| humantold.com | 1.3% | 2.7% | 0.2% | 0.1% | 0.1% | 0.0% | 0.2% | 0.2% | 0.0% | 0.2% |
| headway.co | 0.6% | 4.2% | 3.3% | 2.2% | 2.2% | 0.9% | 1.4% | 0.5% | 0.8% | 0.7% |
| growtherapy.com | 0.6% | 2.9% | 1.6% | 1.2% | 0.4% | 0.4% | 0.3% | 0.3% | 0.5% | 0.6% |
| zocdoc.com | 0.5% | 3.3% | 9.1% | 6.2% | 3.9% | 3.6% | 2.9% | 1.4% | 1.8% | 2.0% |
| sondermind.com | 0.4% | 2.2% | 1.4% | 0.4% | 0.4% | 0.0% | 0.3% | 0.1% | 0.4% | 0.3% |
| mapquest.com | 0.4% | 0.4% | 1.3% | 1.3% | 2.4% | 1.8% | 2.6% | 2.2% | 2.1% | 2.6% |
| therapyden.com | 0.3% | 1.9% | 2.1% | 1.2% | 1.0% | 1.0% | 1.1% | 0.4% | 0.3% | 0.6% |
| facebook.com | 0.2% | 1.2% | 2.9% | 3.7% | 3.4% | 3.7% | 3.4% | 3.6% | 4.5% | 3.6% |
| instagram.com | 0.1% | 0.8% | 2.1% | 3.0% | 3.2% | 3.8% | 3.7% | 2.1% | 2.6% | 2.8% |
| therapyfinder.com | 0.0% | 0.4% | 1.2% | 1.1% | 2.0% | 2.5% | 1.9% | 1.8% | 1.1% | 1.0% |
| All Others | 43.7% | 52.9% | 56.3% | 63.6% | 64.9% | 68.3% | 69.8% | 74.5% | 73.7% | 74.7% |
These top 10 positions are always stable -- it makes me think that I should expand it to the top 20, or display this information slightly differently. (I'm open to ideas!)
This week I led with most of the information I wanted to share, so scroll up!
But as a reminder:
- Set up your own website as a therapist, regardless of your current situation.
- Register your own domain. Yes, it's $12ish dollars a year. But the investment for your professional reputation is worth it.
Thanks for reading!
Jon
