Why isn't my practice showing up when people ask ChatGPT for a therapist?

Most private practices are invisible to AI tools because they're missing one of three things: structured data (schema) that makes the practice machine-readable, consistent entity signals (name, location, specialties) across the web, or citations and Q&A-style content an LLM can lift into an answer. The audit checks all three.

What is GEO and how is it different from SEO?

Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) — sometimes called Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) — is how you get cited by AI tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude, and Google AI Overviews. SEO gets you ranked in the blue links. GEO gets you mentioned inside the AI answer. Strong SEO is the foundation; GEO adds structured data, entity consistency, and authoritative citations on top.

Do therapists need to optimize for ChatGPT and AI search?

Yes. Prospective clients are increasingly typing 'find me a trauma therapist in [city] who takes Aetna' into ChatGPT instead of Google. If your private practice isn't surfacing in those AI answers, you are losing high-intent clients to whichever practice the AI does cite — often the one with weaker credentials but stronger digital signals.

How do I get my therapy practice recommended by AI?

Three levers move the needle: complete, consistent structured data (schema.org) describing your practice; entity consistency — same name, location, specialties — across Google Business Profile, directories, and your site; and clear, self-contained Q&A content AI engines can quote directly. The audit identifies which of these is the highest-impact fix for you.

Why isn't my therapy practice showing up on Google?

Usually it's a combination of three things: an incomplete Google Business Profile, a website that's missing the SEO basics (meta titles, headings, local signals), and weak local citations. The audit identifies exactly which of these is hurting your private practice the most.

Is the web presence audit really free?

Yes. We do not charge for the audit, and we do not ask for a credit card. We offer it free because it is the first conversation we have with most clinics we end up working with. You keep the report regardless of whether you become a client.

How much does a website audit cost for therapists?

Paid SEO audits for therapy practices typically run $500 to $2,500+ depending on depth. Our web presence audit covers the same ground — SEO, local SEO, Google Business Profile, site speed, mobile, content, conversion — at no cost to private practitioners and clinic owners.

How do I know if my therapy website needs an audit?

If you can't name where you currently rank for 'therapist near me' in your city, if your website looks great but rarely brings in inquiries, or if you rely heavily on Psychology Today or other directories for new clients, your private practice will benefit from an audit.

What does a web presence audit include?

Your free audit covers Google search rankings, local SEO and Google Business Profile, on-page SEO, technical SEO and site speed, mobile and responsive design, online credibility and reviews, and your conversion path from website visit to first session.

How long does an SEO audit take?

From the time you submit your website, our team typically returns the audit within a few business days. The report itself takes about ten minutes to read and gives you a prioritised list of fixes — quick wins first, longer-term work last.

Do therapists really need SEO?

Yes. The majority of new therapy clients start their search on Google before they ever click a directory or call a number. If your private practice isn't visible in local search, you are paying directories every month to do work your own website could do better.

How do I get more clients for my private practice?

The fastest lever is local visibility — Google Business Profile optimisation, local SEO, and a website that answers the questions a prospective client has in the first ten seconds. The audit pinpoints which of those three is the highest-impact fix for your practice.

What is local SEO for therapists?

Local SEO is the set of practices that helps your therapy practice show up for location-based searches like 'therapist near me' or 'counseling [your city].' It includes Google Business Profile optimisation, NAP (name, address, phone) consistency across directories, local citations, and reviews.

Do I need a Google Business Profile for my therapy practice?

Absolutely. A well-optimised Google Business Profile is the single highest-leverage local SEO asset for a private practice or mental health clinic. It is how you show up in the Google Map Pack and on Google Maps — and it is free.

Is Psychology Today enough, or do I need my own website?

Psychology Today and directories are useful, but they put you in a list with hundreds of other therapists and you compete on someone else's terms. A strong web presence — your own website, ranking on Google — gives you direct, lower-cost client acquisition for the long term.

How do I show up in 'therapist near me' searches?

The two biggest factors are a fully completed Google Business Profile with recent reviews, and a website with clear local SEO signals — your city in titles and content, NAP consistency, and pages that target the specific specialties and conditions you treat. The audit checks all of these.

How do I improve my clinic's online visibility?

Start by auditing where you are. Fix the Google Business Profile first, then on-page SEO, then site speed and mobile, then conversion paths. The free audit gives you that exact prioritised list for your clinic, so you stop guessing and start fixing.

Free for therapists & clinic owners

Your free web presence audit for therapists.

See exactly why your ideal clients aren't finding you online — and exactly how to fix it.

Most private practice websites lose clients before the first conversation ever happens. The practice is invisible on Google, and increasingly invisible to ChatGPT. The free audit shows you, in plain English, what's keeping you off the first page and out of AI answers, and what to fix first.

Get my free audit

Why your web presence matters

The invisible therapist problem

What is a web presence audit

What the audit includes

Are clients finding you on ChatGPT?

Who this is for

How it works

Why it's free

Get your free audit

FAQ

Your online presence is your most valuable client-referral source.

Every prospective client searches for a therapist on Google before they ever call. If your private practice isn't visible there, you don't exist.

The vast majority of new therapy clients find their therapist through a "therapist near me" search, the local Google Map Pack, or by clicking through to a counseling website that answers their question in the first ten seconds. A strong web presence is not a marketing nice-to-have for a private practice or mental health clinic — it is the difference between a full caseload and an empty one. Relying solely on Psychology Today, TherapyDen, or GoodTherapy means you compete with hundreds of other therapists on someone else's platform — and pay every month for the privilege. Optimising your own online presence puts you in front of the clients who are already searching for the help you provide.

Google organic search

64%

Google Business / Map Pack

22%

Psychology Today & directories

Direct referrals

Great therapists with empty caseloads.

The painful pattern in private practice: skilled clinicians spend years building a beautiful website that does almost nothing to bring in new clients.

The therapy practice down the street — sometimes with less experience and a worse website — is the one that shows up first on Google, ranks in the local Map Pack, and books out three weeks in advance. The difference is almost never the quality of care. It's almost always one of a handful of fixable issues: an incomplete Google Business Profile, a slow or non-mobile-friendly website, missing meta titles and descriptions, no clear "therapist near me" signals, weak local citations, or a homepage that buries the one question every prospective client wants answered. The free web presence audit finds those gaps so you can stop being invisible.

Your name doesn't show up in 'therapist near me'

No Google Business Profile, or one that's incomplete

Website looks good but brings in no inquiries

Competitors with worse credentials outrank you

Clients only find you through directories

You have no idea where you rank for anything

A complete checkup of how your practice shows up online.

A web presence audit — sometimes called an SEO audit or website audit — is a structured review of every place a prospective client could discover your practice online, and every reason they currently aren't.

For a private practice or mental health clinic, that means checking your Google rankings, local SEO signals, Google Business Profile, website on-page SEO, technical health, mobile performance, content clarity, and conversion paths. The audit is delivered as a plain-English report — not a 60-page spreadsheet of jargon. Each finding is paired with what to fix, why it matters, and how big the impact will be on attracting more therapy clients. You finish reading it knowing exactly what to do next.

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Six checks that decide whether your private practice gets found.

SEO for therapists

Where you currently rank for 'therapist near me,' your specialties, and your target city — plus the on-page SEO fixes (titles, meta descriptions, headings, keywords) most likely to move you up the search results.

Local SEO & Google Business Profile

A full review of your Google Business Profile, Map Pack visibility, NAP consistency across local citations, and the directory and review signals Google uses to rank private practices locally.

Site speed & technical SEO

How fast your therapy website loads, Core Web Vitals scores, broken links, indexing issues, and the technical SEO problems that quietly hurt your Google ranking — and your prospective clients' patience.

Mobile & responsive design

More than two-thirds of prospective therapy clients search from a phone. We check whether your counseling website actually works on mobile — readable text, tappable buttons, fast load — and where it falls short.

Online credibility & reviews

How trustworthy your practice looks at first glance: reviews, credentials, photos, About page clarity, and the E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trust) signals Google rewards for mental health content.

Conversion & call-to-action

Whether visitors who do land on your website actually contact you. We review your homepage, contact paths, intake flow, and CTAs to find the friction costing you bookings — and the one or two changes that recover them.

When someone asks ChatGPT for a therapist, does your name come back?

More prospective clients now ask ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, and Google's AI Overview for a therapist than scroll the blue links. Most private practices are completely invisible in those answers.

Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) — sometimes called Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) — is what makes your practice visible to AI tools the way SEO makes you visible to Google. Strong traditional SEO is the foundation, but generative engines lean harder on external authority signals, structured data, entity consistency, and clear question-and-answer content an LLM can quote directly. The free audit covers traditional search and AI discoverability together — so you stop being invisible whether your next client searches Google or asks ChatGPT.

Who's a good trauma therapist near me?

Recommend a therapist in [city] who takes Aetna

What's a good anxiety counselor near me?

Find me an EMDR therapist in [city]

AI engine visibility

Whether ChatGPT, Google Gemini, Perplexity, Claude, and Microsoft Copilot currently surface or cite your practice when a prospective client asks for a therapist in your city or specialty.

Google AI Overviews & AI Mode

Whether your practice appears in Google's AI Overviews and Search Generative Experience answers for your key 'therapist near me' and specialty queries — the SERP placement that's quietly replacing the blue links.

Structured data for AI

Whether your therapy website exposes the structured data (schema.org markup) AI engines rely on to understand who you are, what you treat, where you practice, and whom you serve — and whether that schema is consistent.

Entity consistency

Whether your practice name, location, credentials, and specialties are consistent across the web — Google Business Profile, directories, social, press. AI engines reward entities they can verify and ignore the ones they can't.

Citations & authority

Whether your practice has the kind of citations, mentions, and inbound links that large language models treat as evidence of authority — and whether your existing content is the kind AI can lift directly into an answer.

Question-and-answer content

Whether your website answers the exact questions clients are now typing into AI tools — in self-contained Q&A blocks an LLM can quote — instead of long marketing paragraphs no engine will summarise.

Built for mental health practitioners who want more of the right clients online.

Solo therapists & private practitioners

Psychotherapists, licensed counselors (LPC, LCSW, LMFT), and psychologists running a solo private practice who want to rely less on Psychology Today and more on clients finding them through Google search.

Group practice owners

Group practice and clinic owners who need every clinician on the team to show up in local search, who want to rank for multiple specialties, and who care about online credibility across the whole practice.

Behavioral health clinic owners

Behavioral health clinics, telehealth practices, and private-pay therapy practices ready to invest in a real digital presence — local SEO, Google Business Profile optimisation, and a website that actually converts.

Three simple steps to a fully booked practice.

Tell us about your practice

Share your website, practice location, and the kind of clients you want to attract. Two minutes, one short form — no calls required to get started.

We run the audit

Our team analyses your Google ranking, local SEO, Google Business Profile, on-page SEO, site speed, mobile performance, and conversion paths against what's working for other private practices in your space.

You get a clear action plan

We send a plain-English report with the specific findings and a prioritised list of fixes — what to do first, second, and third — to improve your therapy practice's online visibility and start booking more clients.

Start my free audit

No catch. No credit card. No sales pressure.

Vybz Health builds clinical infrastructure for behavioral health practices — AI front desk, intake, and engagement agents that help private practices and clinics fill their caseload. The web presence audit is the first step we take with most clinics we work with, so we offer it for free to any private practice or clinic owner who asks. You keep the report whether or not you go on to work with us. If the findings show that Vybz can help, we'll tell you. If they show your practice mostly needs a few small fixes you can make yourself, we'll tell you that too.

See exactly why your therapy practice isn't getting found — and what to fix first.

Tell us your website and your city. We'll send back a plain-English web presence audit with a prioritised list of fixes for your private practice — no charge, no commitment.

Get my free audit Read: get more clients for your practice

Web presence audit FAQ.

Why isn't my practice showing up when people ask ChatGPT for a therapist?: Most private practices are invisible to AI tools because they're missing one of three things: structured data (schema) that makes the practice machine-readable, consistent entity signals (name, location, specialties) across the web, or citations and Q&A-style content an LLM can lift into an answer. The audit checks all three.
What is GEO and how is it different from SEO?: Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) — sometimes called Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) — is how you get cited by AI tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude, and Google AI Overviews. SEO gets you ranked in the blue links. GEO gets you mentioned inside the AI answer. Strong SEO is the foundation; GEO adds structured data, entity consistency, and authoritative citations on top.
Do therapists need to optimize for ChatGPT and AI search?: Yes. Prospective clients are increasingly typing 'find me a trauma therapist in [city] who takes Aetna' into ChatGPT instead of Google. If your private practice isn't surfacing in those AI answers, you are losing high-intent clients to whichever practice the AI does cite — often the one with weaker credentials but stronger digital signals.
How do I get my therapy practice recommended by AI?: Three levers move the needle: complete, consistent structured data (schema.org) describing your practice; entity consistency — same name, location, specialties — across Google Business Profile, directories, and your site; and clear, self-contained Q&A content AI engines can quote directly. The audit identifies which of these is the highest-impact fix for you.
Why isn't my therapy practice showing up on Google?: Usually it's a combination of three things: an incomplete Google Business Profile, a website that's missing the SEO basics (meta titles, headings, local signals), and weak local citations. The audit identifies exactly which of these is hurting your private practice the most.
What is a web presence audit?: A web presence audit is a structured review of every place a prospective client could find your therapy practice online — Google search, the Map Pack, your Google Business Profile, your website, and review sites — plus a clear breakdown of where you're losing visibility and what to fix.
Is the web presence audit really free?: Yes. We do not charge for the audit, and we do not ask for a credit card. We offer it free because it is the first conversation we have with most clinics we end up working with. You keep the report regardless of whether you become a client.
How much does a website audit cost for therapists?: Paid SEO audits for therapy practices typically run $500 to $2,500+ depending on depth. Our web presence audit covers the same ground — SEO, local SEO, Google Business Profile, site speed, mobile, content, conversion — at no cost to private practitioners and clinic owners.
How do I know if my therapy website needs an audit?: If you can't name where you currently rank for 'therapist near me' in your city, if your website looks great but rarely brings in inquiries, or if you rely heavily on Psychology Today or other directories for new clients, your private practice will benefit from an audit.
What does a web presence audit include?: Your free audit covers Google search rankings, local SEO and Google Business Profile, on-page SEO, technical SEO and site speed, mobile and responsive design, online credibility and reviews, and your conversion path from website visit to first session.
How long does an SEO audit take?: From the time you submit your website, our team typically returns the audit within a few business days. The report itself takes about ten minutes to read and gives you a prioritised list of fixes — quick wins first, longer-term work last.
Do therapists really need SEO?: Yes. The majority of new therapy clients start their search on Google before they ever click a directory or call a number. If your private practice isn't visible in local search, you are paying directories every month to do work your own website could do better.
How do I get more clients for my private practice?: The fastest lever is local visibility — Google Business Profile optimisation, local SEO, and a website that answers the questions a prospective client has in the first ten seconds. The audit pinpoints which of those three is the highest-impact fix for your practice.
What is local SEO for therapists?: Local SEO is the set of practices that helps your therapy practice show up for location-based searches like 'therapist near me' or 'counseling [your city].' It includes Google Business Profile optimisation, NAP (name, address, phone) consistency across directories, local citations, and reviews.
Do I need a Google Business Profile for my therapy practice?: Absolutely. A well-optimised Google Business Profile is the single highest-leverage local SEO asset for a private practice or mental health clinic. It is how you show up in the Google Map Pack and on Google Maps — and it is free.
Is Psychology Today enough, or do I need my own website?: Psychology Today and directories are useful, but they put you in a list with hundreds of other therapists and you compete on someone else's terms. A strong web presence — your own website, ranking on Google — gives you direct, lower-cost client acquisition for the long term.
How do I show up in 'therapist near me' searches?: The two biggest factors are a fully completed Google Business Profile with recent reviews, and a website with clear local SEO signals — your city in titles and content, NAP consistency, and pages that target the specific specialties and conditions you treat. The audit checks all of these.
How do I improve my clinic's online visibility?: Start by auditing where you are. Fix the Google Business Profile first, then on-page SEO, then site speed and mobile, then conversion paths. The free audit gives you that exact prioritised list for your clinic, so you stop guessing and start fixing.

Get my free audit