On the first page for "therapist london", the three businesses in the local pack are 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 online platform makes it into the pack, and the first organic result is the directory profile of a single therapist on the BACP register. Above them sits only a strip of links to directories such as Top Doctors and Bark (DataForSEO, Google UK, London, September 2026).
For psychologists, therapists, nutritionists, physiotherapists and osteopaths, marketing is almost entirely the local reputation of the individual practitioner. The Google Business Profile with its reviews carries more weight than the website, and the website carries more weight than any platform.
Below is what the data says about the platforms in this sector, why many search volumes are invisible, and how to work anyway.
Google hides many of this sector's volumes
Of fourteen practitioner keywords we queried for the UK, eight return no volume data at all, including "psychologist london", "psychotherapist london", "online therapy", "physiotherapist near me", "osteopath london" and "how much does therapy cost uk". The six that do: "therapist near me" 33,100 searches a month with a cost per click of £5.31, "couples therapy" 18,100 at £6.40, "counsellor near me" 8,100 at £3.25, "therapist london" 5,400 at £9.98, "nutritionist london" 1,000 at £3.74 and "online nutritionist" 260 at £3.08 (CPC converted from USD at £1 = $1.3242).
Google Ads hides the volume of a large share of mental health searches. Anyone showing you a table of exact volumes for "psychologist + city" is using estimates, not data.
That makes planning around volumes pointless and forces you to plan around questions. Those, Google does show: under "therapist london" the four most frequent are "How much does a therapist cost in London?", "Is a therapist covered by NHS?", "What are the 7 types of counseling?" and "How to get free therapy in London?". Three out of four are about cost, and they are the ones almost no practitioner's site answers.
Counselling Directory and BetterHelp: half the pages, more traffic
Two of the platforms UK clients meet when looking for a therapist make an instructive comparison. BetterHelp ranks for 18,896 UK keywords against Counselling Directory's 9,820: almost twice as many. Yet the estimated organic traffic goes the other way, 109,539 visits a month for Counselling Directory against 85,930 for BetterHelp.
The difference is in first positions: 352 for Counselling Directory, 179 for BetterHelp. Counselling Directory wins more often on fewer things. For an individual practitioner the lesson is direct: you don't need an article for every condition, you need to be the best answer on the few areas you actually work in.
It is also worth noting that on the first page for "therapist london" BetterHelp doesn't appear at all, and Counselling Directory is fifth among the organic results, below two independent practices with their own websites. Platforms win on national searches and on conditions; on local search they have no structural advantage.
Reviews, within the limits of confidentiality
The local pack for "therapist london" shows practices with between 22 and 272 reviews. The entry threshold is low compared with other sectors, where you need thousands of reviews: here a few dozen is enough.
The constraint is a different one. Asking a client in therapy for a review brings an unequal relationship into play, and the review itself exposes the person who writes it. The approach that holds up is to ask at the end of the work, once, without pushing and without suggesting what to write, and to make clear they can use a pseudonym. Selecting in advance only the people you know will write something positive is off limits: it goes against Google's review policies, as well as being unfair.
Recommended reading: SEO for psychologists and health practitioners.
Price is the missing content
Most of the questions Google shows on this search are about how much a session costs and whether it can be free. Few practitioners' sites answer, for an understandable reason: the fear of being ruled out on price.
The practical effect is the opposite. People who can't find the price ask on the phone or send an email, and that conversation takes up time with people who would have ruled themselves out. A page that states the fee per session, the length, how many sessions a given type of work usually takes and whether reduced rates exist filters earlier and converts better. It is telling that one of the independent practices on the first page for "therapist london" shows its fees (£70 for individuals, £130 for couples) directly in the Google snippet.
The same goes for NHS Talking Therapies and private health insurance: whether you accept insured clients, and how private work differs from what the NHS offers free, is information people search for and that almost everyone leaves to official sites.
Online or in person: two different markets
Local and national search follow opposite rules. Locally you compete with practitioners in your area and win with your Google Business Profile. Nationally, where "online nutritionist" sits with its 260 searches and £3.08 a click, you compete with platforms that have thousands of pages.
A practitioner who also works remotely does well to keep the two separate on the site, with different pages: one built for people searching close to home, with address and opening hours, and one for people looking for an online consultation, with the specific angle you are known for. Mixed into a single page, they rank well for neither.
Frequently asked questions
Do professional rules limit advertising for psychologists and therapists?
Informing people about your practice is allowed, and it must be accurate. For HCPC-registered practitioner psychologists, standard 9.3 of the HCPC Standards of conduct, performance and ethics requires promotional activity to be accurate and not likely to mislead; any advertising also falls under the CAP Code enforced by the ASA, which requires claims about health outcomes to be backed by evidence. Promises of recovery and testimonials used as proof of effectiveness are the usual problems. Read your own professional body's guidance (HCPC, BACP, UKCP or equivalent) before publishing.
Is it worth joining an online therapy platform?
It brings clients quickly, and the platform takes its cut, as a share of fees or as a membership charge. The problem is dependency: the clients stay the platform's. It makes sense as a starting channel or to fill gaps, much less as your only channel after your third year in practice.
Do I need a blog?
Only if you write about what you actually treat, with a depth the platforms don't have. A generic article on anxiety competes with BetterHelp and its 18,896 ranking keywords; a page on how a course of work for panic attacks actually runs in your practice, with timings and costs, competes only with colleagues in your town.
How long does it take to see results?
The Google Business Profile can move within a few weeks, because it depends on reviews and completeness. The website works over months. We set out the typical timescales in how long SEO takes to show results.
Is Google Ads worth it?
With a cost per click of £5.31 on "therapist near me" and almost £10 on "therapist london", the numbers only add up if the value of a course of sessions is high and conversion is good. Locally it almost always pays to get the Google Business Profile right first, since on those searches the local pack sits close to the top of the page.
Where to start
Search for your profession plus your town and look at the three listings at the top. If you have fewer reviews than all three, that is the first job, and it costs nothing. Then open your website and search for the "£" sign: if it doesn't appear anywhere, you are leaving unanswered most of the questions people ask Google before they call you. If you want an opinion on how to set up your pages, get in touch.
