Therapist Website Mistakes: What We Found Scanning 181 Homepages (109 Scored)
By Dr. Nicholas Gehle, Psy.D. · Last updated:
In the first edition of our Therapist Recognition Index (published July 2026), 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 94 of 109 — 86% — 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.
Our second edition (September 2026) checked 133 practice pages from the same cohort with a new method, so its numbers can't be compared with the ones below. Its headline: of the 109 pages that published structured data, 104 didn't name a clinician with a role or credential in it. More on the second edition further down.
- 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 first edition of the Therapist Recognition Index (published July 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 second edition's findings follow after those.
The most common therapist website mistakes, by frequency
The top recommendation: name who you help
For 94 of 109 — 86% — 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 the second edition found (September 2026)
The second edition of the Index drew on the same 181-website cohort but used rule-based checks that report what each page contains instead of a 0 to 100 score. It checked 133 practice pages; 13 were refused by our reader and 35 couldn't be captured, and those were reported as such, not counted as failures. The basics were almost universal: all 133 had a page title and a contact route, and 130 ended on a secure https address. The gaps sat elsewhere:
100 of 133 showed a credential such as LPC, LCSW or PhD in the page text, title or search description.
67 of 118 pages we could assess had exactly one main heading.
Of the 109 pages that published structured data, 104 didn't name a clinician with a role or credential in it, and only 19 of 132 declared a health or professional practice type there.
On 8 sites, a contact detail didn't match its link: 9 cases where the email address or phone number written in a link differed from where the link actually goes.
These checks measure what a page's source contains, not rankings, referrals or bookings.
What does a therapist website scan show?
So you can picture it, here is the shape of a report, as an illustrative example:
An illustrative example, not a real practice's result. The report counts the checks it found; it isn't a grade. Its checks of what search tools and AI can read look at the structured data a page publishes. They don't test 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 aggregate data, method, rule-set version, and variable definitions are published in the first edition of the Therapist Recognition Index, the quarterly benchmark from Strua Practice, built by Dr. Nicholas Gehle, Psy.D., a licensed clinical psychologist.
The Recognition Score now uses the newer checks behind the second edition, 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, first edition, published July 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, reports how many of its 11 or 12 checks it found on your homepage, quotes your page's own words on who it serves, and lists what to fix first, with each finding traced to a defined rule.