The slide from last week's report kept going -- most of the top 30 lost ground again this week. But this time it changed who's on top.
LinkedIn has been the most visible website in therapist search results for nearly the entire history of this report. This week it gave up several more points -- down about 9 over the past month -- and Psychology Today took over the top spot. To be clear, Psychology Today didn't surge; it's been holding steady for weeks while LinkedIn came down to meet it. The only other time this has happened was a single week back in early February, and LinkedIn took the lead right back.
It may do the same here. LinkedIn dipped nearly this low in mid-June and bounced back within a week, so this could be another short-lived wobble rather than a real changing of the guard. We'll see.
The other pattern worth noting: while popularity scores fell almost everywhere, average positions improved almost everywhere. In other words, the big sites showed up in fewer therapist searches this week, but sat higher on the page when they did appear. Taken together with two straight weeks of broad declines, this still reads like Google reshuffling things rather than any one website doing something new.
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 | |
| psychologytoday.com |
67.4
|
▼ 0.5 | ▼ 0.1 |
2.3
|
▲ 0.3 | ▲ 0.5 |
| linkedin.com |
65.7
|
▼ 6.4 | ▼ 9.2 |
5.1
|
▲ 0.9 | ▲ 0.7 |
| instagram.com |
28.6
|
▼ 3.6 | ▼ 1.8 |
11.7
|
▲ 0.6 | ▲ 1.5 |
| facebook.com |
27.5
|
▼ 6.7 | ▼ 3.8 |
11.9
|
▲ 2.5 | ▲ 2.3 |
| zocdoc.com |
23.5
|
▼ 2.1 | ▼ 2.2 |
4.5
|
▲ 1.0 | ▲ 0.7 |
| headway.co |
19.2
|
▼ 2.3 | ▼ 1.4 |
5.0
|
▲ 1.8 | ▲ 1.1 |
| dr-leonardo.com |
14.2
|
▼ 2.3 | ▲ 0.3 |
9.7
|
▲ 0.4 | ▼ 1.1 |
| healthgrades.com |
11.9
|
▼ 2.8 | ▼ 3.2 |
12.8
|
▲ 1.8 | ▼ 0.1 |
| therapyfinder.com |
11.7
|
▼ 2.3 | ▼ 1.9 |
9.0
|
▲ 2.4 | ▲ 0.7 |
| mind-diagnostics.org |
11.7
|
▼ 0.7 | ▼ 0.8 |
2.7
|
▲ 0.6 | ▲ 0.9 |
| therapyden.com |
10.7
|
▼ 1.0 | ▼ 1.1 |
6.8
|
▲ 1.7 | ▲ 2.1 |
| usnews.com |
9.5
|
▼ 0.2 | ▼ 1.3 |
9.5
|
▲ 0.8 | ▲ 0.6 |
| growtherapy.com |
7.9
|
▼ 0.6 | ▼ 0.4 |
4.6
|
▲ 1.8 | ▲ 2.8 |
| youtube.com |
7.5
|
▼ 4.2 | ▼ 4.7 |
18.9
|
▲ 3.8 | ▲ 4.0 |
| therapist.com |
7.3
|
▼ 0.8 | ▼ 0.8 |
7.0
|
▼ 0.3 | ▼ 0.3 |
| helloalma.com |
7.2
|
▼ 0.4 | ▼ 0.1 |
5.5
|
▼ 0.1 | ▼ 0.7 |
| medicalnewstoday.com |
6.9
|
▼ 0.6 | ▼ 0.2 |
11.0
|
▲ 2.1 | ▲ 0.2 |
| npidb.org |
6.8
|
▼ 1.5 | ▼ 2.0 |
12.8
|
▲ 3.5 | ▲ 2.7 |
| yelp.com |
6.4
|
▼ 0.9 | ▼ 1.6 |
9.8
|
▲ 1.8 | ▲ 3.0 |
| openpathcollective.org |
6.4
|
▼ 0.9 | ▼ 0.7 |
5.2
|
▲ 0.3 | ▲ 1.0 |
| mapquest.com |
5.8
|
▼ 1.9 | ▼ 1.6 |
10.3
|
▲ 2.8 | ▲ 2.7 |
| 7cups.com |
5.7
|
▼ 1.2 | ▼ 0.4 |
8.1
|
▲ 1.4 | ▲ 0.4 |
| therapysolutionsforkids.com |
5.4
|
▼ 1.1 | ▼ 2.1 |
7.9
|
▲ 1.3 | ▲ 1.6 |
| psychhub.com |
4.9
|
▼ 0.8 | ▼ 0.9 |
6.2
|
▲ 0.8 | ▲ 3.1 |
| sharecare.com |
4.7
|
▼ 0.8 | ▼ 1.7 |
16.1
|
▲ 5.2 | ▲ 4.1 |
| webmd.com |
4.4
|
▼ 1.2 | ▼ 1.1 |
15.1
|
▲ 2.4 | ▲ 5.1 |
| findatherapist.com |
4.2
|
▲ 0.2 | ▲ 0.6 |
12.9
|
▲ 3.1 | ▲ 2.8 |
| healthline.com |
3.9
|
▼ 1.8 | ▼ 1.8 |
9.5
|
▲ 1.0 | ▼ 0.1 |
| clientsecure.me |
3.8
|
▼ 0.8 | ▼ 0.8 |
8.2
|
▲ 0.6 | ▼ 0.6 |
| thrivingcampus.com |
3.7
|
▼ 0.7 | ▼ 0.4 |
7.6
|
▲ 1.3 | ▲ 2.2 |
Psychology Today and LinkedIn have swapped places at the top, though both remain far ahead of everyone else when clients search for a therapist. Further down, Dr. Leonardo gave back some ground -- its first real decline after weeks of steady climbing. YouTube also dropped to its lowest level in months.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| facebook.com | 27.50 | ▼ 6.67 |
| linkedin.com | 65.70 | ▼ 6.40 |
| youtube.com | 7.50 | ▼ 4.17 |
| instagram.com | 28.58 | ▼ 3.59 |
| healthgrades.com | 11.92 | ▼ 2.83 |
| therapyfinder.com | 11.67 | ▼ 2.33 |
| dr-leonardo.com | 14.25 | ▼ 2.33 |
| headway.co | 19.20 | ▼ 2.30 |
| zocdoc.com | 23.50 | ▼ 2.08 |
| mapquest.com | 5.83 | ▼ 1.92 |
Compared to 4 weeks ago:
| Website | Score | Change |
|---|---|---|
| linkedin.com | 65.70 | ▼ 9.20 |
| youtube.com | 7.50 | ▼ 4.67 |
| facebook.com | 27.50 | ▼ 3.75 |
| healthgrades.com | 11.92 | ▼ 3.25 |
| zocdoc.com | 23.50 | ▼ 2.17 |
| therapysolutionsforkids.com | 5.42 | ▼ 2.08 |
| npidb.org | 6.75 | ▼ 2.00 |
| therapyfinder.com | 11.67 | ▼ 1.91 |
| instagram.com | 28.58 | ▼ 1.84 |
| mapquest.com | 5.83 | ▼ 1.59 |
Every one of the week's ten biggest movers is a decline, with the social platforms hit hardest -- Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Instagram lead the list. No unfamiliar name appeared anywhere; the only site in the top 30 that gained at all was Find a Therapist, and barely.
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 | 36.9% | 17.3% | 5.7% | 4.8% | 5.3% | 5.7% | 4.6% | 5.2% | 4.9% | 4.3% |
| mind-diagnostics.org | 6.1% | 2.4% | 2.0% | 1.3% | 0.6% | 0.2% | 0.4% | 0.3% | 0.1% | 0.2% |
| linkedin.com | 3.7% | 9.8% | 14.5% | 10.9% | 6.9% | 6.8% | 4.6% | 3.3% | 3.7% | 2.8% |
| growtherapy.com | 3.2% | 1.6% | 1.0% | 0.6% | 0.6% | 0.4% | 0.2% | 0.3% | 0.5% | 0.3% |
| zocdoc.com | 2.9% | 5.4% | 5.1% | 4.2% | 3.2% | 3.0% | 1.2% | 1.4% | 1.5% | 1.3% |
| headway.co | 2.2% | 3.4% | 3.9% | 2.7% | 1.9% | 1.4% | 0.8% | 0.7% | 0.5% | 0.8% |
| facebook.com | 0.5% | 1.0% | 2.2% | 2.4% | 3.1% | 3.1% | 2.5% | 2.0% | 2.5% | 2.4% |
| instagram.com | 0.4% | 1.5% | 2.1% | 2.7% | 3.2% | 2.5% | 3.0% | 1.2% | 2.6% | 1.5% |
| dr-leonardo.com | 0.3% | 0.6% | 1.4% | 0.8% | 1.9% | 1.9% | 2.4% | 2.1% | 1.3% | 0.9% |
| All Others | 43.8% | 57.0% | 62.1% | 69.6% | 73.3% | 75.0% | 80.3% | 83.5% | 82.4% | 85.5% |
Psychology Today still owns the #1 spot in therapist search results, with its share holding in the high 30s -- and its average position on the page is now its best in months.
That's all for this week -- the headline being Psychology Today edging past LinkedIn as the most visible website in therapist searches. If you'd like to keep an eye on what clients see when they search your name, sign up for your own free personalized search report.
