Google Business Profile for Therapists
I build & optimize your Google Business Profile so your practice comes up when someone in your city searches for a therapist.
Most therapists never get past claiming the profile, because nothing about it tells you what to do next.
I build the whole thing out and hand it back to you finished.
You Setup your Google Business Profile and then never looked at it again…
The setup asked you for a name, a category and two sentences, and then it stopped, so you filled in what it asked for and got back to your caseload. Almost every therapist who comes to me is sitting in that same spot.
The fields you moved past quickly are the ones local search runs on. Your category is what makes you eligible to show up at all, and an empty services section gives Google nothing to match when she searches EMDR or postpartum anxiety. I fill all of it in for you, built on what people in your city are actually typing, and it is work you only have to do once.
The things no one warns you about.
Your office door may not pass video verification
Google verifies by video now, and you have to show permanent signage on your suite door with the exact name that is on your profile. A lobby directory or a paper sign will not pass. If you rent a room inside a shared suite, get a plaque approved in writing before you set anything up, and send me the answer.
A stranger can answer questions on your profile
Anyone can post a question on your profile and anyone can answer it, and the answer with the most votes shows first rather than yours. Question alerts are switched off on most older profiles, so this happens without you ever seeing it. I turn your notifications on and seed the section with real questions.
Each specialty needs its own service description
Listing therapy or counseling as one service tells Google almost nothing. EMDR, postpartum anxiety and couples work each need their own entry, because every one of them is a separate search you become eligible for. I break yours out specialty by specialty and match your category to what people actually type.
Your appointment link may not be HIPAA compliant
Google lets you add any booking URL to your profile and it shows up as Appointments, so her very first click can land somewhere that was never built to hold her information. I check where yours goes before we connect it, and I will tell you what to use instead if it is not the right one.
MEET AMANDA
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MEET AMANDA ***
THERAPIST, MARKETER, COACH, MOM
FOUNDER OF THE PASSIVE PRACTICE & THERAPIST’S TEMPLATE CLUB
I run The Passive Practice, a marketing agency that works exclusively with therapists and clinicians. I did marketing professionally before grad school, and I'm a pre-licensed MFT, which means I sit in a weird and useful middle spot: I understand search engines and I understand what it's like to sit across from a client.
The system in this kit is the same one I use with my agency clients. I've packaged the therapist-specific version, with the keyword research and topic lists already built, so you can run it yourself without hiring anyone.
One thing I want to be upfront about, because this industry has burned a lot of you: I can't promise you rankings or clients, and you should side-eye anyone who does. What I can promise is that you'll never again sit down to blog without knowing exactly what to write, what keyword to use, and how to publish it correctly.
The full scope, done for you.
- Your profile claimed and verified, or set up from scratch if you do not have one yet
- Primary and secondary categories chosen against real keyword research rather than guessed
- A business description written in your ideal client's search language
- Services and service areas built out with every specialty listed as its own service
- Hours, attributes, appointment links, and your booking URL all connected
- Photo optimization with proper file names and geotagging guidance
- Name and address corrections across Psychology Today, Healthgrades, Zocdoc, and every other directory you are listed on
- A review request system with templates and a response protocol
- 30 reusable branded post templates with the Canva files so you can edit them yourself
- A 90-day content calendar with every topic mapped to a keyword
- A Loom walkthrough of your finished profile and exactly how to post going forward
Everything built, optimized, and handed back to you finished
This is for you if
- Your profile has been half finished since the day you claimed it and you have never gone back to it
- You searched for a therapist in your city and your own practice was nowhere on the map
- You see clients at home or only online and nobody has given you a straight answer about your address
- You moved offices and you are not sure which directories still have the old one on them
- You would rather spend the next two weeks with clients than learning how any of this works
Skip it if
- You want someone posting to your profile every week. This is a one time build, and after the hand off it is yours to run.
- You want me to ask your clients for reviews. Your ethics code does not allow it and I will not build you a system that does.
- You want guaranteed rankings or a guaranteed number of clients. Nobody can promise that ethically.
- You need your website fixed too. Your profile and your site work together, and that is a separate conversation once this is finished.
Questions you're
probably asking.
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Yes, the profile itself is free and always has been. What costs money is the research behind it and the hours of setup, cleanup and writing that make it actually show up. You are paying me for the build, not for access to the tool.
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No. Sole proprietors can have a profile, and plenty of the therapists I work with are set up that way. What Google wants is a real business with real client contact, not a specific legal structure.
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Yes, and this is the first thing we sort out together. You verify with your address and then hide it from public view, which is how most home based and online practices handle it. Hiding it does cost you some visibility in the map results, so I will explain the tradeoff and let you choose rather than deciding it for you.
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That depends on your license and on what people in your city are typing, which is why it is worth researching rather than guessing. Psychotherapist, Counselor, Psychologist and Marriage or Family Therapist are all separate categories that make you eligible for different searches. Choosing the wrong primary category is one of the most common reasons a profile never appears.
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The usual causes are a P.O. box or a virtual mailbox used as the address, extra words like your specialty or your city added into the business name field, or duplicate listings at the same address. Verification is now done by video, and if there is no permanent signage on your suite door with the exact name on your profile, it will not pass. I check all of this before anything gets submitted.
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About two weeks from the day your onboarding form comes back, sometimes faster. Verification is the one step I cannot control since Google sets its own timeline, and I will tell you where things stand if it runs longer than expected.
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Then I create one from scratch and walk you through verification. That is included, and starting clean is often easier than fixing one that was set up wrong years ago.
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Manager access to your profile and fifteen minutes on a form about your specialties, the clients you want more of, the cities you serve and where you actually see people. That is the whole ask.
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No. Your ethics code prohibits soliciting testimonials from current clients, and you cannot reply to a review in a way that confirms someone was your client. The review system I build points at colleagues, supervisors and referral partners instead, and it comes with response language you can use on any review without confirming who wrote it.
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No. One payment and the profile is yours, including the Canva files and the calendar. If you want ongoing support later we can talk about it, and nothing in this package depends on that.