Many therapists have been telling me that enquiries have slowed down. Some wonder whether it's the cost of living, while others are worried that AI has changed the way clients search for a therapist online.

In this episode, I'm joined once again by Daragh MacLoughlin from WebHealer to explore what's really happening.

Drawing on insights from thousands of therapy websites, Daragh shares what he's seeing as Google search changes. He explains why some websites are attracting more enquiries than ever, and why simply chasing SEO isn't the answer.

Instead, we talk about something much more important: creating a website that is genuinely helpful to the people you most want to work with.

If you've been wondering whether AI is making it harder for clients to find you, I hope this conversation will leave you feeling reassured and give you some practical ideas to strengthen your website.

Takeaways:

• Why therapists may be seeing fewer enquiries and why AI isn't necessarily the whole story.
• How Google search is changing and what that means for therapy websites.
• Why creating a genuinely useful website is becoming more important than ever.
• The connection between knowing your niche and writing a website that attracts the right clients.
• Why helping people get to know you is still one of the most powerful ways to build trust online.
• Practical ways to improve your website without becoming an SEO expert.

For information on my workshops to help you get clearer on who you most want to help, please visit my website, josephinehughes.com

If you're interested in building a website with WebHealer, receive a £50 discount when you use my affiliate link: GEC999. This same code will also give you a free install of Policy Diary, worth £9.99

Setting up in private practice? Download my free checklist HERE

Need ideas for how to get clients? Download my free handout 21 Ways for Counsellors to Attract New Clients HERE

You can also find me here:

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My website: josephinehughes.com

Keywords: therapy website, therapist website, counselling website, AI and therapy websites, Google search for therapists, therapy website SEO, therapist marketing, private practice marketing, therapy enquiries, how clients find therapists, therapist niche, counsellor website, therapy website visibility, AI search.

We are an affiliate of WebHealer and Policy Diary and may be paid commission if you buy through our link. As we are an affiliate and WebHealer and Policy Diary were created by a third party, we shall have no liability whatsoever in any circumstances to you in relation to the WebHealer and Policy Diary (including in relation to any consequential loss of any type whatsoever) other than in relation to matters for which we are not lawfully able to limit or exclude our liability

The information contained in Good Enough Counsellors is provided for information purposes only. The contents of this podcast are not intended to amount to advice and you should not rely on any of the contents of this podcast. Professional advice should be obtained before taking or refraining from taking any action as a result of the contents of this podcast.

Josephine Hughes disclaims all liability and responsibility arising from any reliance placed on any of the contents of this podcast.

Now for somebody who's dialed into this and we see the trends, I was surprised at how it had changed.

So what we found is that people who always relied on really good search positions are now maybe not getting those same search positions any longer and they've been able to relax with a great position over the years, but now there's somebody else coming up behind them and those people are taking more share of search. So people are having to work harder when it comes to their search.

Welcome to Good Enough Counsellors, the podcast for growing a private practice without the pressure to be perfect. I'm Josephine Hughes, counsellor and creator of Therapy Growth Group, helping you get the clients you want and create the practice of your dreams.

Last week on the podcast, I was talking to Dera McLachlan from Webhealer. We were discussing GDPR website policies and why they're so important for therapists.

As we were finishing the recording, I asked him one more question. Many therapists have been telling me that inquiries seem to have slowed down recently.

So I wanted to know what Dara was seeing across the thousands of therapists websites that WebHealer supports.

His answer turned into a really interesting conversation about AI, Google search, and perhaps most importantly, what actually makes a therapy website useful. So let's pick up where we left off.

You said at the start of the interview that you, you can see sort of like the volume of emails coming through, sort of inquiries. I know there's a lot of concern amongst therapists at the moment that things have slowed down.

Have you, have you noticed that in, in your sort of like in looking at stuff?

I think if you were to. And obviously I don't know how people's diaries are looking.

Yeah.

But I think the amount of sessions that are happening are broadly the same across the board.

Yeah.

But the biggest thing that has changed recently is search. So it's how people find therapists. Now, we talked about me being on the ocean for 40 days.

When I left at the tail end of last year to undertake this odyssey, or this folly, as my wife calls it, AI was around, of course, but if you did a Google search, it was the old school Google search.

Yeah.

So what we found is that people who always relied on really good search positions are now maybe not getting those same search positions any longer.

Yeah, and they've been able to relax with a great position over the years, but now it's, there's, there's somebody else coming up behind them and those people are taking more share of search. So people are having to work harder when it comes to their search. Google has recently released some guidance on this.

Fundamentally the same truths apply, which is provide content which is really useful to people.

I, I think if somebody is on their wobble board sitting at a desk or out for a walk right now, I want you to think about your website right now, just for a minute and say, is my website useful?

Now useful is a broad term, but am I providing value to people who are reading my website and is it useful to people who are searching for a counsellor? So if you say I do couples therapy, oh that's useful.

But if you say you do couples therapy and here's how that journey works and you talk about how you work with couples, that's more useful.

So right now think about that, write down a couple of things of how you could make your website more useful and instantly you are going to, you're, you're improving things. So yeah, there's no doubt about it. A lot of therapists feel under threat by AI, no doubt.

But I think that the biggest search, the biggest issue right now that we're seeing is, is precipitated by how Google is messing around with search.

We have some clients who say they're absolutely out the door with inquiries that are getting three to four inquiries through the website every week and there may be only three to four months live with the website. Then we have counsellors who are 10 years online and they've seen a dramatic double digit percentage shift in how their inquiries are happening.

So yeah, there are changes for sure, hopefully it will settle down. But at the moment, even I, as someone who's into tech, I am amazed by how fast things are moving.

And it's not, you know, year to year, it's literally week to week. Things are changing very, very fast.

But I suppose look at, we're in a very fortunate position working with so many thousands of therapists in the UK that we see trends emerging.

And it's actually an area we're doing a lot of research on at the moment, which is we're understanding what, you know, under the new terms of reference, if you want what Google considers to be a useful website, we, we offload that to our team here, our design team, we've got a team of 17 designers in WebHealer.

We offload that to the team and that means then that when they're building the website and we're asking our clients for questions for information for the website, we ask them with those framings in mind so that ultimately they're getting a more useful website. That's not to say it won't change again in the future, but all we can do is our best. And I think that's a takeaway.

Yeah, brilliant.

Is your website as useful as it could be to your ideal audience? You know, the people who you enjoy working with and who you are best placed to assist? I would think about that question.

I think that's such an important takeaway. The therapists whose websites work well aren't necessarily the ones trying to write for search engines.

They're the ones who are really clear about who they're trying to help.

And that's something I spend a lot of time helping therapists with, because once you know who you're speaking to, your website becomes so much easier to write. If that's something you're struggling with.

I'll pop some links into the show notes to my resources on finding your niche and writing your therapy profile.

Because I think people sort of really worry about all this sort of stuff, but actually, really, when it comes down to it, it's about, you know, will it speak to the humans who are searching?

Yes, you know, absolutely.

Yeah.

It's. It's even, even the same.

If you come across an Instagram profile, and I know, you know, a lot of your listeners will use Instagram, if you come across an Instagram profile which has no pictures of yourself and it's. Let's just say, for example, it's your professional Instagram profile, it's not your own personal.

And obviously there's disclosure issues and whatnot there. But if your Instagram feed is just a load of polished quotes, for example, people can't. That doesn't resonate with people.

It doesn't get to know you. Yeah.

Connect.

Yeah.

And so getting to know somebody is key. And Justin, you'll know you've. We've met at some events in the past.

We will always bring our photographer with us to do free headshots for anybody who's at an event because we, we really big believer in building rapport with your audience. It's so easy for people to move from one website to the next.

So having a photo on your website captures people instantly and it allows them to say, oh, but that person seems like they could be nice. It's so much more multidimensional than just text.

So, yeah, just putting yourself out there in a way you feel comfortable with, to build rapport, to, I suppose, connect with people is so, so important. And the therapists who do that, well, they never have any issues with AI or otherwise.

Yeah, brilliant, thank you. That's that. I just so agree with you.

And I, as I say, I think a lot of people are getting very worried about, you know, is AI impacting the way search is happening? How can I still appear? And like you say, it's make it useful to people. I think that's the most helpful thing. Yeah.

Fundamentally that'll never change, you know, that'll never change.

And you know, I say that also from our point of view, whereby I would say, oh, well, you know, can AI now suddenly start building websites for people? And, you know, how is that going to impact us?

I mean, yes, it can build websites for people, but it's still people building websites that are now web designers, you know. And so I think that people who will go to AI for therapy probably were never your clients anyways in the first place.

And I would kind of reassure you that that doesn't necessarily mean that that's the right thing for them to do. But, you know, from the point of view of your practice and your business, you know, don't be too disheartened about that 100% it's happening.

But, you know, the people who need your services will still come to you. You just make sure you're there to meet them. So be in the right place.

Have your website, have your documents all up to scratch, leave no stone unturned. So there's no excuses for somebody not to want to work with you when they come across you.

That's probably the biggest piece of advice I would give, especially in this kind of. AI is very throwaway, it's very fast paced, slow people down, make that connection and you've got them.

Yeah. So important. Dara, thank you so much. It's been absolutely brilliant to listen to.

You've got so, I mean, so much knowledge around this whole thing about clients finding their therapists and how therapists can make that easier for them. So thank you so much.

Most welcome. And thank you to the listeners for their attention and yeah, I look forward to helping out as best we can along into the future beyond AI.

Thank you.

Whatever comes next. All right, thanks, Josephine.

Thank you. Thanks for listening. Do come and join my Facebook community. Good enough. Counsellors.

And for more information about how I can help you develop your private practice, please Visit my website JosephineHughes.com if you found this episode helpful, I'd love it if you could share it with a fellow therapist or leave a review on your podcast app. And in closing, I'd love to remind you that every single step you make gets you closer to your dream. I really believe you can do it. Sam.