You type your practice’s name into Google and nothing comes up. Or it comes up, but when you search “therapist near me” from your own office, three other practices appear and you don’t.
It’s one of the most common things therapists tell us, and it’s rarely a mystery. Almost always it’s one of the nine reasons below. Each one has a simple test you can do yourself in a few minutes, and a fix.
First, search the way a new client would
Before you test anything, open a private browsing window on your phone. Google tailors results to the person searching, so your own phone, which has visited your website a hundred times, isn’t a fair test.
Then try three searches:
- Your practice’s exact name.
- What you do and where: “anxiety therapist in [your town]”.
- “Therapist near me”, standing outside your office.
Note which ones find you. That tells you which of the reasons below to start with.
1. Google hasn’t found your website yet
The test: Type site:yourpractice.com into Google, using your own web address. If you see a list of your pages, Google has found your website. If you see nothing, it hasn’t, or something is telling it to stay away.
Why it happens: New websites take time. Google says some changes show up within hours and others take several months. Google mostly finds new websites by following links from other websites, so a website nobody links to can wait a long time. Sometimes a setting left on from when the website was being built tells Google to stay away.
The fix: Make sure your website is linked from your directory profiles and your Google Business Profile. If it’s been months and the test still shows nothing, ask your web person to check that nothing is hiding the website from Google.
2. Your Google Business Profile is missing or half-finished
The test: Search your practice’s name. Is there a box on the right (or at the top, on a phone) with your address, hours and a map? If not, you don’t have a Business Profile, or it isn’t verified yet.
Why it matters: This profile is what shows up on Google Maps and in the map results for “therapist near me”. It’s separate from your website.
The fix: Claim it, verify it and fill in every section. We’ve written a full step-by-step guide to Google Business Profile for therapists.
3. Your details don’t match across the web
The test: Search your practice’s name and look at the first page of results: your website, Psychology Today, your Business Profile, insurance directories, Healthgrades. Is the name, address and phone number exactly the same everywhere? “Suite 200” in one place and “#200” in another counts. So does an old phone number from three years ago.
Why it matters: Google and AI assistants like ChatGPT piece together who you are from many sources. When they disagree, the assistants are less sure, and less likely to show you.
The fix: Pick one exact version of your name, address and phone, and update every listing to match. Start with the ones that come up first when you search.
4. You’re searching for something your website doesn’t say
The test: Read your homepage as a stranger would. Does it say, in plain words, what you help with and where you are? Not “holistic healing for the whole self”, but “therapy for anxiety and depression in Portland, Oregon, and online across Oregon”.
Why it matters: Google describes local results as a mix of three things. One is relevance: how well a listing matches what someone searched. If your website never says “anxiety” or the name of your town, Google has nothing to match.
The fix: Say what you do, who you help and where, near the top of your homepage, in the words clients actually use.
5. Everything is on one page
The test: Count your pages. Is there a single “Services” page with ten things listed on it, or one page for each main thing you help with?
Why it matters: Someone searching “couples therapist in Austin” is best matched by a page about couples therapy in Austin. One long list rarely ranks for any of the things on it.
The fix: Give each main specialty its own page: what it is, who it’s for, what the first session is like, fees and insurance, and how to book. There’s more on this in our guide to showing up in ChatGPT and Google’s AI answers.
6. Your website is part of a rented service or a one-page builder
The test: Look at how your website is set up. Is it the single page that came with your booking system, or a template from a monthly service you can barely change?
Why it matters: These are often limited in exactly the ways above: one page, little room for your specialties, and few places to say where you are. The free page that comes with SimplePractice, for example, is a single page with three themes.
The fix: Keep your booking system. Your website just needs room to say what you do, with a page for each thing you help with.
7. Your website is slow on phones
The test: Turn off Wi-Fi and open your website on mobile data. Can you read the page and tap Book now within about three seconds?
Why it matters: Most people search for a therapist on their phone, and most leave a slow page before it opens. A slow website loses visitors even when Google does show it.
The fix: We’ve written a whole article on why practice websites are slow on phones and what to do about each cause.
8. Very few other websites mention you
The test: Search your practice’s name in quotation marks, like “Lakeside Counseling”, and skip past your own website. How many other places mention you? Directories, your professional association, a local paper, a podcast, a page that lists local therapists?
Why it matters: Google says the third thing it weighs in local results is prominence: how well-known a business is, based on what it finds across the web, including reviews. AI assistants lean on the same signals. A practice nobody else talks about looks less established, even if it’s excellent.
The fix: Complete your directory profiles, join your local professional association’s directory, and say yes when someone asks to mention or interview you. If your ethics code limits asking clients for reviews, don’t ask. Mentions from other professionals and organizations count too.
9. Distance: the one you can’t change
The test: Search “therapist near me” from your office, then from across town. Do the results change?
Why it matters: The last of Google’s three factors is distance: how far each practice is from the person searching. If someone is two miles away and another therapist is two blocks away, the closer one often wins the map results. That isn’t a problem you can fix, and Google says there’s no way to pay for a better map position.
The fix: Win on what you can control. Specialty pages help you show up for “trauma therapist in [town]” rather than only “near me”. Saying clearly that you see clients online across your state helps people who aren’t close by. A complete Business Profile does the rest.
What to fix first
If you only have an hour, do this:
- Run the
site:test (reason 1). If nothing comes up, nothing else matters yet. - Check your Business Profile exists and is complete (reason 2).
- Make your name, address and phone match on your website and your top three listings (reason 3).
- Make sure your homepage says what you help with and where (reason 4).
Then work through specialty pages, phone speed and mentions over the following weeks. Google says to give changes a few weeks before you judge them.
Want us to look?
Our free website check tests your website’s speed on phones, how easy it is for Google to understand, and what it’s built on, and sends you a simple report. If you’d like to see what a website built to be found looks like, here’s what we build for therapists in private practice.