How to Improve Your Psychology Today Profile (2023)

Updated on March 24th, 2023

You might be wondering “how can I improve my Psychology Today profile?” In this post, we share quick ways you can optimize your profile to attract more ideal clients in 2023.

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At Therapy Flow, we’ve studied thousands of Psychology Today profiles.

When it comes to improving your Psychology Today profile, there are 3 core factors that are either overlooked, misunderstood, or poorly executed on.

In this post, we share tips to create a top 1% profile that:

Makes you stand out from the competition
Generates more ideal client inquiries (at your price)
Positions yourself for running your practice the way you want

Last year we helped manage $500,000 in ad dollars for our mental health clients across the United States. Our team has been devoted to the mental health space since 2018, working with both solo practitioners and private practices.

Through this process, we’ve recognized that the best Psychology Today profiles take their readers through a brief and effective journey that resonates with their ideal client.

This starts with acknowledging the pain your ideal client is seeking help to resolve. Then, providing them with information to make an educated decision towards reaching out. It’s important to do this in a digestible fashion that doesn’t require them to self-diagnose.

How to Improve Your Psychology Today Profile

Here’s some proven ways to improve your Psychology Today profile for more inquiries:

Connect With Your Ideal Client

Focus your profile description on connecting with your ideal client. The best profiles take its readers through a brief and effective journey that connects with them. First, show them how you understand their pain, how you help, why you help, and invite them to reach out.

Avoid “license blurting” in your main description – most people do not know or care to understand details on your licenses, modality, education, etc. However, it’s a good idea to mention your licenses, modalities, and experience in the side sections of your profile.

Sharing a bit about your methods can help bridge the gap and improve early connection. Help potential clients make a mental transition by pre-framing exercises or activities you typically go through. This can help them visualize themselves working with you.

Also, be sure to add a link to the website button on your profile. This gives a potential client more information and potential “visitor touchpoints” that can lead to more inquiries.

Enhance Your Profile Description

Sprinkle in some personality throughout your profile description. This is what makes you and your profile different, relatable, and valuable to your ideal client.

Review your profile description for readability. Are the words easy to understand and spoken in the language of your ideal client? You can use line breaks improve readability.

Based on U.S. literacy rate statistics, the average American reads at the 7th to 8th-grade level. Keep this in mind as your work on your profile and other content online!

Consider testing a section about what success looks like for your clients or their positive experience after a session. Example – “clients leave me feeling [insert how they feel]”.

Examine the first and last lines of your profile. You want to grab your ideal client’s attention with the help of the first line and encourage reaching out around the last.

Test A Few Profile Pictures

Your Psychology Today profile picture is the first element of your profile a prospect sees. Make sure your profile picture is large enough in resolution so the resulting image is clear.

Think about how your image reflects who you are a sense of your personality and brand, such as professional, quirky, or casual. Try out a couple of different headshots.

A close-up, smiling headshot with a well-lit neutral or nature background can be quite effective. Avoid making it look like you’re holding a camera for a selfie.

Add A Video to Your PT Profile

Personalize and improve the reach of your Psychology Today listing by adding a video.

Many therapists avoid this step or forget about it. However, its a huge differentiator that can help make someone feel more comfortable to reach out if they resonate with you.

While the Psychology Today directory itself can change, adding a video can potentially improve the placement of your therapist profile in the directory’s results pages.

There’s also a chance that the video is seen before someone clicks on your profile. So adding a video to PT profiles is the way to go to maximize your “real estate” on the site.

Maximize Profile Location Targeting

Whether you have one or several practice locations in which you see clients, or provide remote telehealth services, it’s important to maximize your profile’s local search visibility based on the areas you serve.

You can increase your profile’s reach by adding up to 4 target locations to your profile. This is done under the “target your listing” feature to add additional listing areas.

Consider the population of neighboring cities/towns or zip codes and which locations result in prospective clients for your practice based on your experience and historical data.

If you run a group practice, each therapist or counselor should have their own profile. This can help to expand your local reach further and more links back to your practice site.

Use A Call Tracking Number

When it comes to marketing online, data like views, clicks, messages, and calls can provide valuable insights to help inform your marketing activities and reach your goals quickly.

We recommend using a call tracking number to display on your profile (and your site) that routes to your original (destination) number. This can help you see which of your profile updates and the resulting page views lead to more phone calls.

With call tracking, you can test potential changes in your profile pic, descriptions, and location targeting to see which changes lead to more call or message conversions.

At Therapy Flow, we use Twilio to set up call tracking for many of our clients in the U.S.

Consider using a single receiving email that receives all new inquiries across all of your platforms and therapists. This can help improve tracking and ensure responses are made in a timely and scalable manner.

Psychology Today Alternatives

While Psychology Today is the most popular directory site for mental health providers, here’s a list of Psychology Today alternatives where you can create a profile to increase your online presence, boost brand awareness, and improve your SEO:

GoodTherapy
BetterHelp
Zencare
Zocdoc
TherapyDen
Headway
Alma
Choosing Therapy
TherapyTribe

For more information about popular online directories for mental health providers, check out this related post: 10+ Best Therapist Directories to List Your Practice (2023).

Frequently Asked Questions

Is a Psychology Today profile worth it?

While there’s a lot of competition on Psychology Today’s online directory, a profile is worth it to increase your potential to attract new clients and build your brand online.

Does a Psychology Today profile help SEO?

A Psychology Profile allows you to add a link to your website, which can be referred to as a backlink to your site. Backlinks are a ranking factor used by search engines like Google.

Also, your profile description, business name, address, and phone number citations may be used by Google to help determine local search rankings.

To show up for more online searches and improve your local SEO, it’s important to keep this info accurate across the web and expand across relevant directories and sites.

How much does a Psychology Today profile cost?

A membership to Psychology Today costs $29.95 per month. For a treatment center, program, or clinic, the membership costs around $49 per month. At the time of this writing, there are no contracts, so you can cancel your membership at any time.

Can you list support groups on Psychology Today?

You can create additional profile pages for support groups as a solo practitioner or private practice. You can also enroll in a membership as a treatment center, program, or clinic.

How do you add a zip code to your Psychology Today profile?

Psychology Today let’s you add up to 4 target locations to maximize your profile’s reach. This can be towns/cities near your office or specific postal/zip codes you’d like to target.

How do you get the “Verified by Psychology Today” logo on your website?

Once logged into your profile, go to “Account” settings and click on “Share Profile”. Next, copy the code snippet shown in the displayed box and paste it into your site’s editor.

How do you write a good Psychology Today profile?

To sum up, aim to keep the focus of your profile on your ideal client, their struggles, and how you can help, and invite them to reach out!

Transform Your Private Practice

At Therapy Flow, we provide done-with-you marketing, coaching, and practice consulting for growth-minded private practice owners (solo and group) across the U.S.

We help private practice owners go from zero to full caseload or scale to 6-7+ figures.

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To learn more about Therapy Flow Programs, book a free consultation here!

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