The Clinic Marketing Podcast - Local SEO & Healthcare Online Marketing Tips for Clinic Owners & Wellness Providers

Therapy Practice SEO: Ranking While Protecting Privacy and Boundaries

• Darcy Sullivan

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Therapy practices need SEO, but the usual marketing advice can cross privacy and ethics lines fast. This episode breaks down a privacy-first SEO plan that helps you rank locally and in AI-driven search without relying on reviews, testimonials, or client stories. You’ll learn what pages to create, how to structure content for clarity, and how to set boundaries that protect clients, your license, and your peace.

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Hey there, it's Darcy Sullivan from Propel Marketing and Design, and you're listening to the Clinic Marketing Podcast. Today we're talking about therapy practice SEO, how to rank online while protecting privacy and boundaries. Because therapy practices are not like every other local business. You can't market the way a restaurant does. You can't chase reviews the way a plumber does. You can't casually respond to comments without thinking about confidentiality, ethics, and the power dynamic. So if you've ever felt stuck between I want to be visible and I want to protect my clients, my license, and my piece, this is for you. I'm going to walk you through a practical SEO plan that helps you get found without oversharing, without blurring professional boundaries, and without turning your practice into a content machine. Quick note before we start I'm not a lawyer or a compliance consultant. This is general marketing education. Always check your specific ethics code, your state board guidance, and any legal or compliance requirements that apply to your practice. Alright, let's jump in. Most SEO advice online assumes you can do three things. Ask customers for reviews, share testimonials everywhere, and tell stories or case studies to build trust. For therapy practices, those can be high-risk moves. Many ethics codes caution against soliciting testimonials from current clients, and confidentiality risks can show up fast with reviews and public responses. So if a marketing strategy requires you to do things that do not align with your professional obligations, you do not need more discipline. You need a different strategy. The good news is that SEO does not require oversharing. SEO requires clarity, structure, credibility, and consistency. You can rank by doing a few unsexy things very well. Here's the mindset shift. Your goal is not to prove that clients love you online. Your goal is to help the right people quickly understand what you help with, who you work best with, what therapy with you is like, how to take the next step, and what boundaries you keep in place to protect them. That last one is a trust signal in this space. For many potential clients, seeing clear boundaries actually increases comfort. I like to think of this as a privacy first SEO framework with three layers. Layer one is be findable. This is your technical and local foundation. Layer two is be clear. This is your service pages and content written in a way humans and search engines can understand. Layer three is be safe. This is where privacy and boundaries are built into your marketing system. Let's walk through each. First, be findable. One, build service pages that match what people actually search. A lot of therapy practices have one services page with a long list, but that's not how people search. People search for specific needs and modalities, and they use conversational phrases. For example, anxiety therapy, trauma therapy, EMDR therapy, couples counseling, therapy for burnout, therapist for teens. A strong website usually has dedicated pages for your primary services. Each page has a clear focus and a clear next step. Two, make sure your local SEO setup is consistent everywhere. Even if you offer teletherapy, many people still search locally. Google also relies heavily on consistent business info across the web. Make sure your name, address, phone number, and website are consistent on your website, your Google Business profile, therapist directories, and any local listings you choose to use. Three, nail the website basics that affect ranking. This is not glamorous, but it matters. Fast loading, mobile-friendly, secure HTTPS, clear navigation, and internal links between relevant pages. Now, layer two, be clear. This is where therapy practice SEO becomes easier than most people think. You do not need client testimonials to build trust. You need helpful, specific human content. One of the best ways to do that is to create trust pages that answer anxious questions. Therapy clients often have high hesitation. They are not just price shopping, they are safety shopping. Here are pages that tend to convert well. What to expect in the first session, how scheduling works, and what availability typically looks like. Fees, insurance, super bills, sliding scale, and how to decide, but only what you actually offer. Online therapy FAQ, including privacy basics and how sessions work. Your approach and specialties, written simply, not like a grad school paper. This kind of content also performs well in search because it matches real questions people ask. Another clarity tool is using FAQ sections intentionally. FAQs are great for two reasons. They reduce friction for potential clients, and they help search engines and AI tools parse your content. A simple FAQ block on each service page can do a lot of heavy lifting. For example, who is this best for? How long are sessions? How long does this usually take? Do you offer in-person, teletherapy, or both? What should I do if I'm not sure which service fits? Now, layer three, be safe. This is the part that makes therapy practice marketing different. First, reviews. Have a plan and keep it boring. A lot of clinicians ask, should I respond to reviews? Even a simple response can be interpreted as confirming a therapeutic relationship, which creates confidentiality risk. Many guidelines also caution against soliciting reviews from clients because of power dynamics and undue influence. So here's a safer approach. Do not solicit client reviews. Follow your ethics code and board guidance. If reviews appear anyway, consider not responding publicly at all and instead focus on strengthening other trust signals on your website and on your profile. You can also consider a short public review policy statement that you customize. Here is an example. To protect client privacy and confidentiality, we do not solicit or respond to online reviews. If you have feedback, we welcome you to contact our office directly. Second, testimonials and success stories. Tread carefully. Marketing advice loves testimonials. Therapy ethics often do not. If you ever choose to share feedback or outcomes, you want to do it in a way that avoids identifying details and respects the rules that apply to you. For many practices, it is simply easier to build trust through education and clarity instead of testimonials. Third, boundaries on communication. CO brings visibility and visibility brings messages. Set boundaries now so you are not on all the time. A few ideas that help are clear business hours for returning calls, a contact form that collects only what you truly need, an autoresponder that sets expectations and redirects emergencies appropriately, and a policy on DMs and social messages. For example, you do not provide therapy via social media. Setting platform and time boundaries is also a burnout prevention move. Now let's talk about your Google Business profile. Your profile can be a strong driver of inquiries, but it also needs to respect your boundaries. Here is a simple checklist. Pick the most accurate primary category and relevant secondary categories. List services clearly and avoid vague labels. Keep hours accurate. Use an appointment link that goes to the correct scheduling or contact page. Upload office photos that build safety and familiarity, like a waiting area, office entrance, or therapy room, and not personal photos. If you work from home or you want a higher level of privacy, be extra careful about what address information is shown. Follow Google's guidelines and what is appropriate for your setup. Next, ranking an AI results without oversharing. AI-driven search is increasingly pulling answers directly from websites. To show up more often, you want your site to be easy for AI tools to understand. And that means structure. Here is a simple AI-friendly page setup. Clear headings, short definitions near the top of the page, an FAQ section with plain language questions, a clear who this is for section, a credentials and specialties section like licensure, modalities, and populations. Location details and teletherapy coverage if relevant. This is not about gaming anything. It is about clarity. And clarity helps humans too. Now let's do a quick 30-minute privacy first SEO action plan. Pick two services to focus on first. Create or improve two dedicated service pages. Add an FAQ block to each page. Five questions is enough. Update your Google Business Profile appointment link. Make it frictionless. Create One Trust page. What to expect in the first session is a great place to start. Write down your marketing boundaries. Pick your platforms, set your time limits, and decide your policy on reviews and DMs. That is a real foundation and it protects your energy. Let's wrap up. Therapy Practice SEO works best when it is built on visibility through solid local SEO fundamentals, trust through helpful human content, and clear boundaries that protect clients and protect you. You can rank without oversharing. You can grow without blurring lines. You can build a marketing system that feels aligned with the work you do. And if you want help building a privacy first SEO plan for your practice, book a discovery call and we'll talk through what to fix first, what to prioritize, and what to ignore. See show notes for the link. Thanks for listening, and I'll catch you in the next episode.

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Darcy Sullivan

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