SEO for therapists is the work that gets a practice, solo or group, into the local pack and onto page one for "therapist + city" and "problem + city" searches, with a well-kept Google Business Profile, a website built around problems rather than therapeutic models, and a fees page that stays within the HCPC standards and the ASA's CAP Code. It's the race an independent practice can win: on "therapist london" the three local pack listings are all independent practices, while on "online therapy" Google opens with an AI Overview and then lists BetterHelp, Online-Therapy.com and other platforms, with BetterHelp alone drawing an estimated 86,000 organic visits a month in the UK (DataForSEO, Google UK, September 2026).
So there's no contest against BetterHelp?
On "online therapy", hardly any.
On "therapist london", it's wide open.
These are two different races, and a therapist with a practice can win only one of them.
The trouble is that many practices mix them up. And they end up:
- building the site around the therapeutic model (systemic, CBT, psychodynamic, integrative), which nobody searches for;
- writing pop psychology articles that bring visits from all over the country and no clients;
- hiding the fee, while the first question Google shows on "therapist london" is about cost.
This article is here to put things in order.
And why should you trust us?
Let's say it straight away: we have no therapist client whose numbers we can publish. The sector data below come from DataForSEO, read by us SERP by SERP.
What we do have is the method, tested elsewhere. On Sunscape, starting from zero, we went from 1 to 38 keywords on page one in six months. On Macropix, none of the 9 keywords that bring the most enquiries contains the company name: people search for the problem, not for who solves it.
The same goes for people looking for a therapist.
What you'll find here:
- who really holds the two SERPs and what people ask;
- why BetterHelp doesn't win "therapist + city" (with the numbers);
- the Google profile that ranks before everything else;
- how to build the website, page by page, and how to publish fees within the rules;
- what changes for nutritionists, physiotherapists and osteopaths;
- how to measure whether SEO brings clients.
The paid side is covered in the companion article on Google Ads for therapists.
Let's start with the SERPs.
How clients search for a therapist (two searches, two worlds)
"Online therapy" and "therapist london" produce two results pages that look nothing alike: the first is national, with an AI Overview on top and four platforms in the top 10; the second is local, with a three-listing local pack and four practices or named practitioners among the ten organic results (Google UK, desktop, 26 September 2026; "therapist london" run from London).
| Search | Who holds the organic top 10 | SERP features |
|---|---|---|
| online therapy | 4 platforms (Online-Therapy.com, BetterHelp, Choose Therapy, Online Therapy UK), 3 information sources (BACP, Mind, NHS), 2 services or clinics (Release Therapy for Women, London Psychiatry Clinic) | AI Overview at the top; no local pack; 0 ads detected |
| therapist london | 5 directories (BACP, UKCP, Counselling Directory, Klearminds, Psychology Today), 1 platform (Self Space), 4 practices or practitioners (The London Practice, London Bridge Therapy, Dr Jane Halsall, UK Psychologists) | Local pack with 3 listings; "People also ask"; no AI Overview; 0 ads detected |
The search with the city is the one where an independent practice exists: four organic results out of ten are practices or named practitioners, and the three local pack listings are all independent practices.
The "online" search is national, has the AI Overview on top of everything and lines up four platforms and three charities or public bodies.
And what do people want to know?
Two things: price, and the NHS as the free alternative.
The "People also ask" questions:
- "How much does a therapist cost in London?"
- "Does the NHS cover therapists?"
- "Can I see a therapist for free in the UK?"
- "Where can I find affordable online therapy in the UK?"
Related searches add "free", "price", "NHS", "in person" and "best therapists in London".
Recommended reading: how to read search intent from a SERP.
Platforms win "online therapy", not "therapist + city" (0 cities in BetterHelp's top 25)
BetterHelp and the other platforms have taken the national, informational space on Google, not the local one: none of BetterHelp's top 25 UK keywords contains a city. It's the opposite of what most of the therapists we talk to believe.
| Domain | Organic keywords | Estimated organic visits per month | Keywords in the top 10 | Estimated traffic value per month |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| betterhelp.com (platform) | 18,896 | 85,930 | 4,186 | £62,920 |
| harleytherapy.co.uk (Harley Street practice with a large blog) | 4,804 | 16,964 | 614 | £24,510 |
| thelondonpractice.com (independent practice, London) | 209 | 5,398 | 38 | £27,110 |
So what is all that traffic made of?
Look at this.
Of BetterHelp's 25 highest-traffic UK keywords, 23 are informational:
- "antecedent behavior consequence": 60,500 searches a month, position 1;
- "misogynist": 60,500, position 10;
- "splitting": 74,000, position 6;
- "monogamy meaning": 27,100, position 6;
- "lust meaning": 14,800, position 5.
The two commercial ones are "therapist near me", reached with an advice article, and a search for its own prices.
And the last column of the table?
That's where it gets interesting…
BetterHelp gets 16 times the visits of The London Practice, but its traffic is worth barely more than twice as much.
Because a visit to "lust meaning" is worth little to an advertiser, and a visit to "therapist london" is worth a lot.
The small practice has 209 keywords, and they're the ones that fill a diary.
What does that mean for a practice?
That across BetterHelp's 18,896 UK keywords, the ones that match a city name are a couple of dozen, several of them by accident ("nosebleeds" contains "Leeds").
The "therapist + city" field is left to practices, local groups and directories.
Recommended reading: how company size changes SEO strategy.
Why some therapy keywords have no search volume (and how to estimate them anyway)
Google Ads returns no volume or CPC in the UK for "online therapy", "psychologist london", "psychotherapist london", "couples counselling", "anxiety therapist", "cbt therapist near me" or "counselling london": part of the mental health vocabulary is hidden in Keyword Planner. The words "therapist" and "counsellor" mostly still have data; "psychologist", "psychotherapist" and condition-based searches mostly don't, and the same blackout covers "physiotherapist london", "osteopath london" and "physio near me".
| Keyword | UK searches per month | CPC |
|---|---|---|
| therapist | 49,500 | £8.44 |
| counselling | 40,500 | £6.05 |
| therapist near me | 33,100 | £5.31 |
| couples therapy | 18,100 | £6.40 |
| counsellor near me | 8,100 | £3.25 |
| therapist london | 5,400 | £9.98 |
| therapist manchester | 1,900 | £5.01 |
| therapy online uk | 1,900 | £17.56 |
| marriage counselling | 1,900 | £3.99 |
| sex therapist london | 880 | £4.23 |
| how much does therapy cost | 720 | £3.45 |
It's a real limit of this article, and we say so: we can't tell you how many people search for "psychologist" plus your city.
We can tell you who wins it and how contested it is. DataForSEO's estimated difficulty:
- "therapist manchester": 0 out of 100;
- "therapist london": 22;
- "psychologist london": 30;
- "therapy online uk": 31;
- "online therapy": 63.
Local searches are far less defended than national ones.
So how do you estimate demand?
Two routes.
One: the nearby keywords that do have data, as in the table above.
Two: the query report in Search Console, which after a few months shows the real searches, city included.
If you already have a website, that report is worth more than any tool.
Recommended reading: keyword research when the volumes aren't there.
The Google Business Profile is the first thing that ranks (even with 22 reviews)
On "therapist london" the local pack appears straight after the first three organic results and holds three practices: One Therapy London with 4.7 stars and 71 reviews, The London Practice with 4.9 and 22, Harley Therapy with 4.7 and 272. No platforms, no directories.
Do you need hundreds of reviews to get in?
No.
The case to look at is The London Practice: in the local pack with 22 reviews, and fifth in the organic results for the same search.
With 22 reviews it sits next to a practice with 272.
Reviews count, but so do the profile category, consistency between profile and website, distance from the searcher and the authority of the linked domain.
What to fix on the profile, in order of weight:
- Primary category "Psychotherapist", "Counsellor" or "Psychologist", not "Medical clinic": the category decides which searches the profile appears for.
- Verified address, even if you see clients in a shared practice room: profiles with only a "service area" drop out of the local pack on searches with the city.
- Reviews. Asking a client for a review is a delicate choice and professional bodies don't all see it the same way: the practical rule is never to ask during the therapy and never to offer anything in return (Google's own policy bans incentivised reviews).
- Link to the right page of the website, meaning the homepage optimised for the city, not the contact page.
The same pattern applies outside London: "therapist manchester" has 1,900 searches a month and an estimated difficulty of 0, and the national platforms don't have a local presence there either.
Recommended reading: how to optimise your Google Business Profile and the local SEO guide.
How to build a therapy practice website (by problem, not by model)
A practice website ranks when it's built around problems and the city, not around the practitioner and their therapeutic model. The typical site has five pages (home, about me, approach, services, contact), but nobody searches for "integrative approach": people search for the problem and the city.
Sounds obvious, right?
Yet it's the mistake we see most. And it's the same one we see in companies: on Macropix 79 of 135 tracked keywords are on page one, and "ledwall", a word that describes the product and not the brand, earned 67,560 impressions in 12 months.
The pages that rank, in the order we build them:
- The homepage as a "Therapist in [city]" page. It's the page with the most authority on the site and it must carry the city in the title, the H1 and the body copy, with the practice address and your registration (HCPC number if you are a practitioner psychologist, BACP or UKCP membership if you are a counsellor or psychotherapist). That's what the practices on page one for "therapist london" do.
- One page for each problem you treat: anxiety, panic attacks, depression, couples therapy, young people, bereavement.
- A separate "Online therapy" page, if you also work remotely. It won't rank for the national keyword, but it catches "online therapy + city" and the people who have already found you and want to know if you work remotely.
- A fees page, covered below.
- About me with training, registration number, years in practice and a real photo. It answers "is this a good therapist?" and is a signal of experience and trustworthiness in a sector where Google judges content more strictly.
How do you know a problem page is worth building?
Look at what advertisers pay.
"Couples therapy" has 18,100 searches a month in the UK and a CPC of £6.40, "marriage counselling" 1,900 searches and £3.99.
When someone pays £4 to £6 for a click, that page is worth building.
A group practice adds one page per therapist, with their specialist problems, and ties everything together with internal links from problem pages to people. London Bridge Therapy, sixth for "therapist london", presents itself as a team of psychologists and specialists in this way.
The fees page and the advertising rules
The first question Google shows on "therapist london" is about cost, and two more are about getting therapy for free. In the SERPs, Self Space advertises "free 20-min introductory sessions" in its snippet and Choose Therapy an "initial assessment for just £20".
If you don't publish your fees, you let others answer the most searched question. And you leave the NHS comparison unanswered too.
But are you allowed to publish prices?
Yes.
For practitioner psychologists, the HCPC standards of conduct, performance and ethics require you to "take reasonable steps to make sure that any promotional activities you are involved in are accurate and are not likely to mislead" (standard 9.3) and to "be honest about your experience, qualifications and skills" (9.2).
Titles such as "practitioner psychologist" and "clinical psychologist" are protected; "therapist" and "counsellor" are not, which is why a BACP or UKCP membership line matters to clients.
For everyone, the ASA's CAP Code section 12 applies: "objective claims must be backed by evidence" (rule 12.1), and you must not discourage essential treatment for conditions that need medical supervision (rule 12.2).
(If you belong to BACP or UKCP, check their ethical framework as well.)
In practice:
- yes to the session fee, the length, the difference between the first consultation and later sessions, concessions and cancellation terms;
- no to "the best therapist in London", success rates, comparisons with colleagues and time-limited discounts. They are claims you would have to prove.
Unsure about a sentence? Ask your professional body before publishing it.
Recommended reading: how to design an SEO-friendly website.
Does your website talk about models or problems?
On "therapist london" four organic results out of ten are practices or named practitioners, and "therapist manchester" has an estimated difficulty of 0: the spot is there if the homepage names the city and every problem has its own page. Let's look at your city's SERP and your website together.
Book a strategy consultationThe blog brings traffic, not clients (28 informational keywords out of 30)
A therapy blog can bring thousands of visits a month, but almost all from people who will never book a session at your practice. Harley Therapy ranks for 4,804 keywords in the UK with an estimated 16,964 visits a month, and of its 30 highest-traffic keywords 28 are informational.
Here are a few:
- "narcissist": 135,000 searches, position 12;
- "splitting": 74,000, position 15;
- "celibate": 18,100, position 5;
- "carl jung": 18,100, position 11;
- "sarcasm meaning": 12,100, position 6.
The other two are its own brand name. None contains a city.
So the blog is useless?
It's useful, but for something else.
Someone searching "sarcasm meaning" from Glasgow won't book a session in Harley Street.
That traffic gives the domain authority, and authority helps the practice hold its place in the local pack for "therapist london".
And in the organic results?
Harley Therapy isn't in the organic top 10 for that search. The London Practice, with 209 keywords, is fifth.
The blog is the push, not the catch.
It's the same principle we saw in the local campaigns for Contesini Consulenze: a €7 lead from outside the area is worth nothing. A visit from the other end of the country is worth even less to a practice.
One limit of the data: DataForSEO estimates visits from keywords with a known volume, and several local therapy terms have none. Local traffic for these sites is underestimated, possibly by a lot. The conclusion doesn't change: the blog produces almost only non-local visits.
So what should you write?
For a practice starting out:
- problem pages with the city first;
- then one article a month on a question clients ask in the first session ("how long does therapy last", "difference between a counsellor and a psychotherapist").
Leave the definition articles and pop psychology to the platforms, which write them by the dozen with dedicated teams.
And if you write with the help of AI, review it as a clinician would: in a health sector a mistake costs more than a missing article.
Recommended reading: how to write content for SEO.
Psychology Today, Counselling Directory and the BACP register: to list or not (yes, on two or three)
A directory listing pays off because on "therapist london" five of the ten organic results are directories, but it's worth keeping to your professional register plus one or two others. The BACP "find a therapist" page is first, the UKCP directory third, Counselling Directory fourth, Klearminds seventh and Psychology Today tenth. On "online therapy" BACP is first again, with an information page.
The upside: a profile on Psychology Today or Counselling Directory puts you inside a page that Google already ranks.
And the flip side?
Three things:
- the page is theirs;
- the client compares you with dozens of others in the same list;
- the profile competes with your website on searches for your own name.
How we use them: the professional body register you're entitled to (BACP or UKCP) plus one or two directories, with name, address and phone number identical to the Google profile and the website.
They bring consistency and a few extra clients. The ranking is built on the website and the profile.
Nutritionists, physiotherapists and osteopaths: what changes (for nutritionists, the volumes are there)
The method is the same (profile, homepage with the city, pages by problem, fees), but for nutritionists Keyword Planner works and local demand can be measured, while for physiotherapists and osteopaths it stays in the dark as it does for therapists.
The nutritionist numbers (DataForSEO, Google Ads UK, September 2026; CPC converted from USD at £1 = $1.3242):
| Keyword | Searches/month | CPC |
|---|---|---|
| nutritionist | 6,600 | £3.51 |
| nutritionist near me | 2,900 | £2.17 |
| nutritionist london | 1,000 | £3.74 |
| online nutritionist | 260 | £3.08 |
Notice the last row?
"Online nutritionist" is small and no more contested than the London keyword.
Unlike therapy, where "therapy online uk" has the highest CPC in our list at £17.56. And "nutritionist london" has an estimated difficulty of 5 out of 100.
For physiotherapists and osteopaths the blackout is back: "physiotherapist london", "osteopath london" and "physio near me" have no volume and no CPC.
But the estimated difficulty is 20 for "osteopath london", 25 for "physiotherapist london" and 6 for "osteopath near me", and the intent is commercial: keywords you can win with a good homepage and a profile with reviews.
Pages by condition (lower back pain, neck pain, shoulder) and by treatment (sports massage, post-operative rehabilitation) matter here too: they are the searches that come before the search for a practitioner.
All three are bound by health advertising rules, with different regulators: physiotherapists and dietitians are registered with the HCPC, osteopaths with the General Osteopathic Council, while "nutritionist" is not a protected title. The ASA's CAP Code applies to all of them. Before copying the fees paragraph, check your own rules.
Recommended reading: SEO for the healthcare sector and SEO for independent practitioners.
How to measure whether SEO brings clients (four numbers, all free)
Visits are not the number to watch, as the blog case shows: the ones that count are four, all free, and they link Google to the first session.
- Impressions and clicks on queries with the city in Search Console: the only place where you see the real volume of "therapist + your city".
- Calls, direction requests and website clicks from the profile, in the Google Business Profile dashboard.
- Enquiries from the website: calls from the clickable number, WhatsApp, forms, calendar bookings, each tracked in GA4 as a separate event.
- The question "how did you find me?" at the first session, noted in your diary. With twenty new clients a year it's a small number, but it's the only one that links Google to the session.
And how long does it take?
On Sunscape, a project in a completely different sector but starting from the same zero:
- keywords on page one from 1 to 38 in six months;
- organic impressions from 329 to 5,809 a month;
- monthly organic clicks from 46 to 195.
For a therapy practice in a mid-sized city:
- the profile moves within a few weeks;
- the homepage on searches with the city in three to six months;
- the problem pages later.
Recommended reading: how long SEO takes to show results and which SEO KPIs to track.
Do you know how many people search for a therapist in your city?
Keyword Planner won't tell you: Search Console will, after a few months. On Sunscape, starting from zero, organic impressions went from 329 to 5,809 a month in six months. We'll help you set up the profile, the homepage and the measurement from day one.
Book a strategy consultationSEO or Google Ads for a therapist? (profile first, then £15 to £30 a day)
For a practice the answer is both: profile and homepage straight away, because they're free and move first, and a local Search campaign of £15 to £30 a day while organic grows. With CPCs between £5 and £10 and a 5% conversion rate, a first-consultation enquiry costs £100 to £200, and a few sessions pay it back.
But don't the platforms buy everything?
Neither of the two SERPs we pulled had ads at the top, and BetterHelp shows only 9 paid keywords in DataForSEO's UK database.
But the clicks are expensive where they exist:
- "therapist london": £9.98;
- "therapy online uk": £17.56;
- "therapist near me": £5.31.
Advertisers pay most for the national "online" searches that platforms fight over, and less for the local ones.
Once your homepage is in the local pack, the campaign narrows to problem searches.
The full numbers, Google's policies on mental health and the account structure are in Google Ads for therapists; the general reasoning in SEO and Google Ads together.
Frequently asked questions
It depends: for a solo practice the initial work (profile, homepage, four to six problem pages, fees, tracking) takes a few weeks, then little is needed: one article a month and a check on Search Console. It sits at the low end of the rates described in our guide to SEO costs.
It depends on the search: on "online therapy", no, or hardly; on "therapist + city", yes. None of BetterHelp's top 25 UK keywords contains a city, and the London local pack is made up only of independent practices.
Yes. Nothing in the HCPC standards or the CAP Code stops you publishing fees, as long as the information is accurate and not misleading. Fee, length and format, yes; "best therapist", discounts and success rates, no.
No. It isn't essential, but on "therapist london" five of the ten organic results are directories, with BACP first. A profile consistent with your Google profile and website brings a few extra clients; it doesn't replace the profile or the homepage.
It depends: with the right category, a verified address and the first reviews, the first local pack appearances for searches close to the practice come within a few weeks. To be one of the three in central London, where competitors have between 22 and 272 reviews, takes months and a website that supports the profile.
On costs, see our guide to how much SEO costs.
Recommended reading: the channel mix for therapists and health practitioners.
Where to start (with your city's SERP open)
Not "online therapy", but "therapist + city": difficulty 22 instead of 63.
Not the therapeutic model, but the problems: "couples therapy" has 18,100 searches a month.
Not the blog with 16,964 visits, but the practice with 209 keywords that sits fifth on "therapist london".
Not 272 reviews, but the right profile: you can get into the local pack with 22.
Now, two concrete things.
One: search "therapist + your city" in an incognito window and look at who is in the local pack and the top five results. If they're independent practices, as in London, the spot can be won: profile, homepage with the city, problem pages, fees.
Two: open your website. If it has a blog with thousands of visits and no enquiries, you now know which page is missing.
If you'd like an opinion on your case, with your city's SERP in hand, book a strategy consultation.
See you next time!
