What to write on your therapy website

What is the one job of therapy website copy?

A prospective client arrives anxious, skimming, and asking a single silent question: "Will this person understand what I'm going through?" Good copy answers yes, quickly, and lowers the fear of making contact. Bad copy answers a question nobody asked — "how impressive is this clinician?" Write every line as if the reader is the nervous person on the other side of the screen, because they are.

What goes on the home page?

The home page is for recognition, not your résumé. In order:

• A specialty-first headline. "Therapy for anxiety and life transitions in Austin" beats "Welcome to my practice." The reader should recognize themselves in the first line.
• Who you help, in one or two plain sentences. Name the person and the problem: new parents, grieving adults, teens with OCD, couples in conflict.
• One sentence on how you work — warm and concrete, not a wall of modalities.
• A single clear next step. One "Book a free consult" button, not a menu of competing links.

Resist the urge to front-load degrees and license letters. They reassure — on the About and Services pages, after the reader already feels seen.

How do I write the About page?

The counterintuitive rule: your About page is mostly about the client. Use the "about you, through me" frame — describe what the reader is likely feeling and what working with you is like, then thread in enough of your background to establish warmth and authority. Include your training, your approach, and an honest sentence on why you do this work. Leave out the memoir. The reader is deciding whether they feel safe sitting with you for an hour, and oversharing your own story shifts the focus off them.

How should I structure services pages?

One substantive page per specialty— and "substantive" is the key word. Each should cover the symptoms that bring people in, how you approach that issue, what sessions actually look like, and the fee. This is good for the reader (they land on a page that's entirely about their problem) and good for how you get found: search and AI engines reward genuinely distinct, in-depth pages and filter thin ones that differ only by a swapped keyword. Don't clone one services page five times with the specialty name changed — write five real ones, or fewer, deeper. The mechanics of why this works are in SEO for therapists.

What about fees and FAQ?

State your rates. Clients read hidden fees as friction, and transparency pre-qualifies the people who reach out — which means better-fit inquiries and fewer awkward first calls. Cover the practical questions every prospect silently carries: Do you take insurance, or provide superbills for out-of-network reimbursement? How long are sessions? How do I start? A fees-and-FAQ page that answers these plainly removes the last hesitations before someone books. It's also where a Good Faith Estimate notice belongs for self-pay clients.

What do board rules mean for my copy?

Advertising ethics matter and vary by state and license. Three areas to handle carefully:

• Testimonials. Many boards restrict or prohibit soliciting them from current clients. Check your rules before using any, and lean on other trust signals when they're off-limits.
• Outcome claims. Avoid promising results ("cure your anxiety," "guaranteed relief"). Describe your approach, not guarantees.
• "Specialist" and "expert" language. Some boards limit these terms unless you hold a specific credential. "I focus on" or "I work extensively with" is safer and just as clear.

When in doubt, your board's advertising guidelines are the source of truth — not a competitor's site.

How do I write so both anxious clients and AI engines respond?

The same habit serves both: answer first. Lead each section with the plain answer to the question a reader (or an AI engine) is asking, then add detail. An anxious skimmer gets what they need without hunting; AI answer engines, which now shape a growing share of how people find therapists, tend to cite answer-first, clearly structured pages. Writing for the nervous human and writing to be surfaced by AI turn out to be the same discipline.

What's a quick pre-launch copy checklist?

1. Does the home headline name a specific client and problem?
2. Is there one obvious next step above the fold?
3. Is there a real photo of you?
4. Are fees stated somewhere clear?
5. Does each services page have genuinely distinct content?
6. Have you removed outcome guarantees and checked testimonial and "specialist" language against your board?
7. Does the FAQ answer insurance, session length, and how to start?

Get those right and the copy is doing its job. The next step is making sure people find and reach out — see how to get more therapy clients from your site.

Common questions