Therapist Website Mistakes: What We Found Scanning 181 Homepages (109 Scored)
By Dr. Nicholas Gehle, Psy.D. · Last updated:
We attempted to scan 181 private-practice therapist homepages with a rule-based scanner, and our reader could parse and score 109 of them. For 86 of 109 — 79% — the scanner's highest-priority recommendation was the same, and it has nothing to do with design, photos, or your booking software: clearly state who you help and what you treat near the top of the page.
The other 72 homepages were not scored (they returned no usable content to our no-JavaScript reader, were unreachable, or errored). They were excluded from the scored findings below, never coded as failures. Unless stated otherwise, every figure on this page is out of the 109 scored homepages.
- about 60 seconds
- no email required to see your score
- built by a licensed psychologist, not an agency
First, where do you think your site lands?
In our dataset, drawn from the Therapist Recognition Index (Q2 2026; 181 homepages attempted, 109 scored, across a multi-state sample of public listings), among the 109 scored homepages:
88% (96 of 109) made it obvious they're a therapy practice
78% (85 of 109) said where they are
27% (29 of 109) said who they help
Almost everyone clears the first two bars. The third is where the scanner found the largest clarity gap.
The findings below fall into three groups: what the scanner found in the content of the 109 scored pages, what happened when it tried to reach all 181, and the one flag it almost never raised.
The most common therapist website mistakes, by frequency
The top recommendation: name who you help
For 86 of 109 — 79% — the scanner's highest-priority recommendation was identical: state who you help and what you treat, near the top of the page. A prospective client scans your first screen for one thing: is this person for someone like me? "Welcome to my practice" plus a list of credentials doesn't answer it, and neither does a warm but generic paragraph about the therapeutic relationship. The recommendation the scanner made most often was one sentence, shaped like: "[What you treat] for [who you help] in [your city]."
Only 7 of the 109 scored homepages passed all five of the scanner's basic checks at once: naming the practice as therapy, stating where, stating who it helps, stating why, and stating the next step.
No clear next step (32 of 109 scored)
32 of 109 scored homepages left visitors without an obvious answer to "what do I do now?" — roughly a third of the scored sites. One visible action, above the fold: book a consult, call, or send a message. Pick one and make it unmissable.
The page speaks about the practice more than the reader (29 of 109 scored)
29 of 109 scored homepages were flagged by the scanner's pronoun-balance rule: copy built from "I" and "my" rather than "you" and "your." Your training matters and it belongs on the page; under this rule it just shouldn't be the opening move. The opening move is the reader.
Missing or buried location (23 of 109 scored)
23 of 109 scored homepages made a visitor work to figure out where the practice is, or whether it's telehealth. Location is one of the three details the scanner checks for (who, what, where). Stating it plainly costs nothing.
How many therapist websites couldn't even be reached?
Not every homepage could be read at all. Forty of 181 attempted scans returned no usable content to our no-JavaScript reader; another 32 were unreachable or returned errors after one retry. These are outcomes from this scanner, not proof every crawler encounters the same. Different search and AI crawlers may render these pages differently.
If you want to know how your own homepage renders to a plain-text reader — before you spend another dollar on directories or ads — the scan will tell you.
The website mistake almost no therapist makes
Two of 109 scored pages triggered the scanner's defined compliance-language flags. This is a narrow, rule-based check, not a comprehensive legal or ethics audit. The takeaway isn't about what therapist homepages say — it's about what they leave out: the sentence that names who the practice is for.
What does a therapist website scan show?
So you can picture it, here is the shape of a result built from the dataset's median numbers:
Illustrative composite using the dataset's median Recognition and AI-Readiness scores; not an individual practice result. Mean Recognition Scores were 49 (solo practices, n=57) and 46 (group practices, n=52); the difference was not statistically tested. AI-Readiness is Strua's internal, rule-based rubric — whether specialty, population, and location signals are clearly stated for our reader, not a test of whether any particular AI assistant would retrieve or recommend a site.
Why does one sentence decide whether a client books?
Every finding on this list is a version of the same gap. We call it a recognition gap: when a homepage never clearly states who it's for, a prospective client can have difficulty recognizing their fit. The full aggregate data, method, rubric, rule-set version, and variable definitions are published in the Therapist Recognition Index, the quarterly benchmark from Strua Practice, built by Dr. Nicholas Gehle, Psy.D., a licensed clinical psychologist.
The Recognition Score is the same instrument that produced those numbers, pointed at your homepage. It's free, it takes about a minute, and it's deterministic: no AI in the scan path, and every finding traces to a defined, rule-based check. If your homepage is already clear, you'll know that too.
Questions therapists ask
What is the most common therapist website mistake?
In a scan of 181 therapist homepages (109 scored; Therapist Recognition Index, Q2 2026), most of the scored homepages received the same top recommendation from the rule-based scanner: clearly state who the therapist helps near the top of the page. Only 27% (29 of 109 scored) named who they help.
How do I check my own therapist website for these issues?
Run the free Recognition Score at struapractice.com. It's a deterministic, rule-based scanner built by a licensed psychologist. It takes about 60 seconds, shows what your homepage makes clear about your practice, and gives the scanner's highest-priority recommendation — each finding traced to a defined rule.