A counseling website is six pages, maybe seven. Each one has a single job. Most sites I’m sent have the right pages and the wrong jobs: the homepage explains the therapist’s philosophy, the about page lists services, the contact page apologizes. Here’s what goes where, and why.
Homepage: sort the visitor
The homepage has one job, which is to let a stranger decide in a few seconds whether they’re in the right place, and then send them to the next page. That’s it. It is not where your story goes.
In order: a sentence that names who you help and where. A button to book or write. Two or three short blocks, one per main specialty, each linking to its own page. A paragraph about you with a real photo, linking to the about page. Your fees, or a sentence that says you publish them and a link. The button again.
The most common mistake is a long, warm paragraph at the top about healing and growth. It’s lovely and it says nothing a visitor can use to decide. Move it down or cut it.
About: let them choose you
This is the second most visited page on almost every therapy site, and it’s where people decide. Write it in first person. Say how you work in plain words, what a first session is like, and something true about why you do this. Your credentials go at the bottom, where the people who care about them will look.
Use a photo that looks like the person who’ll open the door. If the headshot is twelve years old, clients notice at the first session, and it’s a strange way to start.
Services, one page each
One page per thing you treat or offer: anxiety, EMDR, couples, teens, whatever your practice actually is. Each page gets its own title, a few hundred words in your voice about who this is for and what working on it with you looks like, and the button. These are the pages Google sends people to, because nobody searches for “therapist,” they search for the problem.
A single “Services” page with a bulleted list is the mistake here. It ranks for nothing and it tells the visitor nothing.
Fees: say the number
Publish your rate. The therapists who don’t are usually worried it will scare people off, and it does scare off exactly the people who were going to cancel after the free consult when they heard it. The ones who can pay appreciate not having to ask. If you take insurance, list the plans. If you offer a sliding scale, say how many spots and how to ask.
Put the Good Faith Estimate notice here too; it’s required, and this is where people expect it.
FAQ: answer the awkward ones
Not “What is therapy?” The questions people actually type into Google at 11 p.m.: Do you take my insurance. How long does this take. What if I don’t like you. Can I do this online. Is what I say private. Write them the way a person would ask, and answer in two or three sentences each. Done well, this page also catches searches none of your other pages would.
Contact: make it easy, make it safe
One form, short: name, a way to reach you, a sentence about what’s going on. Nothing that requires a diagnosis. Say what happens next and when: “I reply within one business day.” Put your phone number as text they can tap. If you book consults online, embed the calendar here instead of making people email first.
Then find out where the form sends what people type. If it goes through a third-party service, that service is handling messages like “I’ve been having thoughts of hurting myself.” Pick a form provider that will sign a BAA, or keep the form to the minimum and say so.
Every page gets one job and one button. If a page has two jobs, split it. If it has no button, it’s a dead end.
The pages you probably don’t need
A blog, unless you’ll write it. A resources page of links to other websites. A testimonials page, which in most states you can’t ethically have. A “philosophy” page, which belongs inside the about page in two paragraphs. A separate page for every modality you’ve ever trained in; combine the ones nobody searches for.
What ties it together
Two things that don’t live on any single page. A privacy policy and terms, which clients rarely read and which you need anyway. And the invisible layer: each page’s title and description written by hand for the search it should win, structured data that tells Google you’re a counselor in your city, and a Google Business Profile pointing at the right page. That layer is why two identical-looking sites get wildly different numbers of calls.
This is the structure every site I build starts from, written for the practice it belongs to rather than filled in from a template. If you want to see how your current site measures up against it, send me the link and I’ll go page by page. Free, within a business day. And if you’d rather talk it through, the call is free too.