Discoverability
Most therapists have no idea where they show up.
Not because they're careless — because it's genuinely hard to see. Your own searches are personalised, your directory placement changes by filter, and nobody sends you a report. Here's the route a real client takes, and what I check at every stop.
The Search Path
Follow a client from their first search to your inbox.
Fill in the blanks and I'll trace the route a prospective client actually takes to find someone like you — and show you what I check at each stop.
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Local search
A client opens Google and types a sentence about their life.
Almost nobody searches for a practice by name. They describe a problem and a place, and the first screen decides who exists.
therapist for anxiety near Portland, OR1 Directory2 Directory3 Map pack? Your practice — position unknownWhat I check here
- Google Business Profile: category, service area, hours, completeness
- Whether you appear in the local map pack at all
- Review count and recency against the practices ranking above you
- Name, address, and phone consistency across the web
What usually goes wrong
Most new private-pay practices have no Business Profile, or one that was auto-generated and never claimed.
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The directories
The top results are directories, not practices.
Psychology Today, Alma, Headway, Zocdoc. Clients browse inside them and filter hard. Your placement in that filtered list matters more than your website's ranking — and it is the part most web people cannot help you with.
anxiety Portland, OR Accepting new clients Self-pay123? You, somewhere in this listWhat I check here
- Where you land in a filtered directory search, not an unfiltered one
- Whether your filters match the words clients actually select
- Photo, intro paragraph, and specialty framing against neighbours
- Which directories are worth paying for in your city, and which are not
What usually goes wrong
A profile that reads well to a colleague often filters badly to a client. Those are different problems.
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Your website
They open your site in a second tab, and decide in about eight seconds.
By this point they are comparing you to two or three others. The site is not there to impress — it is there to answer the questions that stop someone booking.
yourpractice.comFees stated? UnknownMobile load time? UnknownWhat I check here
- Load speed on a phone, on cell data, which is how they will see it
- Whether fees are stated plainly, or hidden behind a conversation
- Whether what you treat is answerable in one glance
- Ethics posture: no testimonials, no claims that put your license at risk
What usually goes wrong
The most common failure is not ugliness. It is a site that never says what it costs.
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The first contact
They reach out — and this is where the quiet failures happen.
The inquiry has to arrive somewhere you actually watch, through a path that was built for a health practice rather than a newsletter signup.
Inquiry submittedArrives where, exactly?What I check here
- Where form submissions genuinely go, and who else can read them
- Whether your intake path is HIPAA-aware or merely feels private
- Google Workspace configuration, including the signed agreements
- How fast an inquiry gets a reply, and what happens when you are in session
What usually goes wrong
A contact form emailing a personal Gmail is the single most common compliance gap I find.
Every question mark above is answerable.
The free snapshot resolves the first two — where you actually stand in local search and inside the directories for anxiety in Portland, OR. No obligation, and you'll learn something either way.
Would rather talk it through? Book a 20-minute call instead.