Many of you have contacted me to inquire about the usefulness of online directory listings. After hearing Kat Mindenhall’s experience with Good Therapy, I decided to invite her to write a guest post to share with you today.
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A Guest Post by Kat Mindenhall, LCSW
(If you want to guest post on this blog, check out the guidelines here.)
After signing up for four online directories six weeks ago, I began comparing how my profile shows up on each of them. I began by searching in a zip code that borders my own, and what I found on Good Therapy really surprised me.
The Issues
Zip code searches by Good Therapy take the very middle of your zip code area and use that to calculate how far you are from the very middle of another zip code. I searched in a zip code area that was 7 miles away according to Google Maps. However, my profile did not show up on Good Therapy until the seventh page. There were listings ahead of mine that were 16.83, 14.79, and 9.75 miles away. Good 
Therapy says that listings appear in order of proximity to the center of the chosen zip code, but this didn’t seem to really be the case.
If you search for a therapist by “browse location,” Good Therapy will only show profiles within that exact town, despite the fact that it says it’s looking within a radius of 25 miles. A search of a town that borders mine returned only 4 profiles followed by a statement that said, “There are a limited number of therapists in your area, but other distance therapy professionals are available to help.” Included within this list of “distance” therapists was a profile from someone in London! Instead of showing nearby towns, Good Therapy apparently thought that I paid them $269 per year to show my potential clients the profiles of therapists from other countries. I find this unacceptable.
I also found that they show all instances of a certain zip code at once. What this means is that if you are 7 miles away, and another highly populated area is also 7 miles away, they may show every one of the other zip’s profiles before yours (instead of mixing them up). This is why I was on the seventh page for a zip code that borders mine.
How I Addressed These Issues
I wrote to Good Therapy about these issues and received a form letter that did not address my specific concerns. They didn’t explain why their website doesn’t quite work the way they claim. I responded and restated my concerns. They simply replied with another form letter on why I would miss Good Therapy if I left.
Mental health professionals have a reputation of being technophobes that don’t understand how simple it actually is to create an intelligent search algorithm. We certainly don’t have a reputation as a community that looks out for each other and uses technology to our advantage to spread the word about an expensive and inferior product. Is Good Therapy capitalizing on this? They don’t seem to care that they are going to lose me as a customer, and Good Therapy’s impersonal response made me feel talked down to.
Good Therapy costs $269 per year, or $24.95 per month, second only to Psychology Today in price ($360/year). On Psychology Today, Network Therapy ($149/year), and Theravive ($197/year) I had no trouble seeing my profile within the first 1-3 pages for the same nearby cities and zip codes. Part of the premium you pay for an online directory is for their “high ranking.” I’m not convinced that Good Therapy’s ranking really makes such a difference when other directories are also on Google’s first page of search results right alongside Good Therapy.
What Does this Mean for You?
So, the question is: Is it better to take your $269 and use it to get on two other “less popular listings,” or stay on a “mega directory” even if it isn’t showing your profile?
You have to research how your profile shows up in searches to make that decision. Search for yourself in many different ways. See if your listing comes up when . . .
- you search a nearby city by name,
- you search that same city by zip, and
- how your profile is displayed for all nearby zip codes.
Compare how many locations or zip codes you can list with each directory. Track your referrals so that you can know what your return on investment is for each directory.
If you live in a suburb next to a heavily populated area, it may be difficult to show up in Good Therapy’s listing because of their search algorithm. If there is a chance that potential clients will search the city next to you for a therapist and not search for your specific town, beware. You probably won’t come up in the search. I know I didn’t.
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Kat Mindenhall, LCSW, is a therapist in private practice with 
A Peaceful Life Counseling Services LLC in Lakewood, CO. She specializes in helping parents enjoy their relationships with each other and their children by overcoming depression, anxiety, and relational issues.
Kat, thanks so much for taking time to share your experience here. I’m hopeful that other readers will add their own experiences with Good Therapy and other online directories here so that we can all make informed choices.
Now you’ve got me rethinking my own listing with Good Therapy!
Thanks for letting me share this with your readers! I’m also very interested in what others’ experiences are with this and other directories. It gives a new meaning to the phrase informed consent.
Haha! It really does, Kat, doesn’t it! All of a sudden . . . when we are on the receiving end of “informed consent,” it shed a whole new level of value on the process, doesn’t it?!
I have been on Good Therapy for a year now. Not one c;ient has called me. Hmmm.
Brenda, thanks so much for dropping in to say so! I’m thinking this just might turn out to be a trend! Anyone else out there had the same results?
Hi Brenda!
Thanks for commenting! One thing that I find difficult is that every directory stresses that “referrals can be made directly to your website via click throughs, so clients may reach you indirectly through the service.” I always ask clients how they found me, but they can rarely recall which directory they saw me on. I did have someone from Canada call me one time – I am listed as a “distance therapist” because I offer online therapy, but strictly to residents of Colorado that I have done an in-person assessment with. So who knows, you may get a call but it may not be an appropriate referral! Best of luck and thanks for sharing your experience!
Kat, I, too, am frustrated at not being better able to track how clients find me online. They rarely remember how they found their way to my websites. I have considered including a site-specific identifier on each listing to see if I can track that better but haven’t done that yet.
And, some directories will send me my monthly stats for referrals and views. I love that and really get frustrated for those that don’t make those stats easily accessible. (That’s one of my frustrations with Good Therapy. I cannot figure out how to acceess those stats.)
Yes, that is another frustration that the stats aren’t readily accessible. However, I wonder how useful those stats really are. For example, on PT it might say that my profile has been viewed 800 times, and # many have clicked onto my website, but I wonder how many of those were me checking out my profile or repeat views by hesitant clients… I haven’t seen info on whether they track IP’s or what. So in the end I don’t know what to actually do with those stats!
I know what you mean, Kat. I wonder how many of those “clicks” were other therapists and new subscribers to PT – just trying to see who else is in their area or looking for examples of other therapists’ profiles.
I cannot speak for Good Therapy because I have not tried their service, but I can say that virtually every contact of any sort I’ve had in the less than a year I’ve been in private practice (in a town other than the one I have previous experience in) has come to me online. We can’t ignore online advertising even if we’d like to, in my opinion.
I was offered a special initial first year rate for Psychology Today and invested in it. There were never lots of calls, but almost all the calls I received were from there even though I’d also signed up for Find-aTherapist.com (nice to work with, but I don’t think they get “seen” as well in searches) and several other smaller directories. Maybe 3 weeks or so ago, I was notified by Psychology Today that my listing will expire in April unless I renew. I also was offered a pro-rated premium listing until then that was really not a lot of money so I decided to take it. Since that time, I’ve had 4 calls that came from Psychology Today and three have already either started therapy or made appointments. I’m looking at the idea that a premium listing on Psychology Today may really be cost effective adverting.
Hi, Susan! I completely agree! You can’t ignore your online presence . . . and you can’t start and build a thriving practice in 2012 without a strong online presence. It’s got to be part of the recipe. I appreciate you willingness to drop in to share your experiences with Psychology Today and also with Find-a-Therapist. I suspect if enough folks will take the time to share their individual experiences with online directories, we’ll get a good feel for the overall usefulness of individual directories.
Thank you for joining the conversation today!
Susan – that’s great that you have had some success with PT! I agree with Tamara that having an ongoing conversation about the usefulness of each directory for each person is really key to getting a better picture because there is SO much to choose from. And it will vary for each person depending on their location, specialty, bio, etc. The question is, since an online presence is so necessary, are we able to make the right choices for our particular needs and budget? Best of luck to you!
I feel your best “web” investment is to purchase your own domain name and have a web expert help you with the unique design of your very own site. This investment has been profitable for me. Clients can easily find me.
Kristene! I’ve missed your voice here! Welcome back. You are absolutely right! As many times as therapists hear this . . . I feel like I’m harping but . . . it does you no good at all to have a directory listing and no website to redirect them to. Your credibility begins with your home page. Just talked to a social worker yesterday who doesn’t want to invest in a website and then wonders why her other online and social media efforts aren’t paying off.
Come on, folks! You don’t have to like it but it’s still reality! Referral sources and potential clients alike check us out online before they ever pick up the phone to call us. If you don’t believe me and don’t have a website yet, start asking the few clients that do find you anyway. I’m betting money the ALL look for you online first.
If you are still confused about how to get started building that online presence or need a referral to a great web designer, let me know and I’ll be happy to help or refer you elsewhere. Don’t get stuck in the 20th century mindset and wonder why your 21st century clients aren’t calling!
YIKES! Kristene! Looks like I just tripped over my soapbox! I can always tell when my own history starts getting in the way (Remember – I just about starved to death when I went into private practice the first time. Hate to see others make the same mistakes I did.) In any case, Kristene, don’t be a stranger. Perhaps I’ll see you at the Colorado Counseling Association’s annual conference in March?
Thanks for commenting Kristene! I agree wholeheartedly with you. I think that directories drive traffic to my site, because most of my referrals found my website through either my Theravive or Network Therapy profiles. Without a site, the directory listing would likely be wasted money.
My investment in my site was an investment of time, because I did my site myself in WordPress. So you don’t have to hire anyone if you want to make even a simple site yourself, especially with great resources like Tamara’s community to help. Simple is better than nothing, right?
Hey, Kat – just wanted to say you did such a BEAUTIFUL JOB on your site, too! I think you are exactly right – simple and CLEAN is often the best way to go on a website! Wish I had had your tech-brain!
I’m really happy with my graphic designer and my web designer, too. However, how fabulous to be able to come up with that image and functionality on your own!
Why thank you so much! I would encourage anyone out there to give it a try if they don’t have a site yet. There are plenty of great online aids to help get started with WordPress. But, one MUST have is a real person you can call when you break your site, because you will!
I noticed one of my comments did not show up on Kat’s article. I am wondering if I am doing something wrong or if I have technical probelms I need to investigate. You blog is awesome!
Oh, no!!! I’ve seen nothing else come through. Want to try that again?
We would like a chance to respond to the question of whether you can really trust Good Therapy. Our organization was founded with the goal of helping people find a good therapist, first and foremost. All the work we have done and continue to do is in support of our mission, and to that end, we are open to all suggestions regarding how to improve our website.
We asked someone who had never used our search function before to give it a spin. Here is what we found out. If a person punches in his or her zip code and searches the surrounding 25-mile area, then indeed, many therapists from surrounding zip codes may show up, depending on how densely populated those areas are. However, if the search is restricted to a smaller radius, such as 3 miles, the list is shortened considerably. In either case, results were ordered by the distance from zip code.
When we punched in the zip code of Ms. Mindenhall’s office in Lakewood, there was only one page of search results, and her name was at the top of the list. For her Golden office, the zip-code search showed her as second on the list.
When people search even more broadly, such as only by city (which may include many different zip codes), then yes, there are many results for a highly populated area, and those results are shown in a random order that changes anytime a user visits the page, in order to be fair to everyone.
The experience of our person new to searching Good Therapy did point to one attribute we hope to make available to our users in the future: a map that would show where everyone falls within a zip code, with little red stars pinpointing their locations, so that people could have a visual of where therapists are located within a search area. We will be looking at ways to improve our search function in the future.
We do offer all of our members a summary of their profile statistics through the member area of our website. This feature allows them to see at a glance how many people are searching for their zip code, clicking on their profile page, out-clicking to their website, sending them emails, clicking to see their phone number, and more.
We are always looking for ways to improve, and feedback from our subscribers is most welcome. We strive to be a trusted resource for all mental health professionals, as well as their clients.
Sincerely,
Jenn Feldmann
Director of Web Development
GoodTherapy.org
Hi, Jenn! Thank you so much for taking time to address Kat’s concerns about Good Therapy here where she voiced them. I hope that when you decide to implement the map you reference here that you will drop back in to let us know it is up and running. I’m sure that my readers will want to know.
I also appreciate you taking time to explain how member can access their statistics concerning searches. And, I hope, at some point, that you will actually consider sending monthly emails with that same information to those of us that subscribe to Good Therapy.
Hello Jenn,
I want to second Tamara in thanking you for coming to join us here. I think that a pinpoint function would be a great idea, especially for those of us in more rural zip codes. I would add that the ability to list one or two “nearby zip codes” would be another great feature.
My Lakewood office is a new addition because I actually chose to move to a more centralized location so that the money I have invested in directories has a better chance of paying off. I’m glad that the searches for the exact zip codes returned favorable results, I just wish that searches for nearby zip codes would function more like they do on other directories.
My concern was about searching the nearby zip codes to my office, because the likelihood of someone searching your exact zip code when you border a populated area is small. The search of a zip code that borders my own was the search I referenced when saying that I appeared on the seventh page, and it is the same search that I compared to other directories where I came up in the 2nd and 3rd pages using the same criteria with other listings. It is this search that I wrote about and received the form letter reiterating what I already knew – that the zip codes were a static measurement. However, no one addressed the fact that my listing was after other listings that were farther than mine.
The cherry on the cake was what I perceived to be a lack of personalized attention to my inquiries because those dry, form letter responses did not make me feel like my concerns were being understood or addressed. I would expect to be on the first or second page for searches in my own zip code. But, for searches in a neighboring zip, why would I be on the 7th page on Good Therapy, and the 2nd or 3rd for Psychology Today, Network Therapy, or Theravive?
I would also love your comments on the rationale behind showing therapists in London when searching via the Browse Location with a radius of 25 miles for a therapist in Lakewood, Colorado. I am now in the listing for Lakewood because I literally just moved to Lakewood, but I’m sure that other Denverites who are not exactly in Lakewood expect to appear in Lakewood search results when someone browses because they may be two miles away. The response I had gotten was that results are randomized to be fair to all, but I still find this strange to include therapists from overseas.
Thank you for joining the conversation, Jenn. I’m looking forward to chatting more about this so that we can all truly understand some of the rationale behind the unique difficulties many of us are encountering with Good Therapy.
Kat
Thanks, Kat, for hanging in there on this conversation so we are all clear and can learn from you and Good Therapy!
Well, since this blog I have had two things with Good Therapy happen. First the good news – I may have a referral from them at long last. I really thing that having a zip code that is more centralized really helps. We’ll see if it pans out!
One other thing that happened was that I was charged the full yearly fee when I wanted the monthly fee. I logged in before my trial expired and it said monthly status, active 1/1/12. I wrote when I was charged by the year and sent a screenshot showing that my account SAID I was on the monthly payment plan. They replied with, “The screen shot you sent to me is for our updated payment page which automatically selects the monthly billing option and lets you fill out the information below, it is not an indication of what you signed up for. ” So they show you an OPTION with a date in red that looks like it was active. But that’s NOT what you are signed up for. To get to your actual payment plan, you must have to go through the wardrobe to Narnia. They did give me an option to call if I want to change to monthly payments. If this client pans out, I’ll give them the benefit of my business for one year.
If I have this much trouble with the usability of the site, I wonder what many of those tech-phobic professionals must feel!
Ohhhh, Kat! This sounds like you have uncovered a huge customer service problem! I would have thought that they would have flagged your account by now and be treating you like royalty! Isn’t that what we would do with a client who had felt slighted or mishandled in some way?
I am impressed though that you have decided not to “bite your nose off to spite your face” and are looking forward to your new client. I hope that pans out for you. And, given the situation, I would do exactly as you have done – keep the client and the Good Therapy account active for another year. I hope you’ll let us know how the relationship with Good Therapy works for you later this year!