A Step-by-Step Diagnostic Framework for Finding Exactly Why Your Psychiatry Practice Isn't Ranking

The most common mistake psychiatry practices make with SEO is skipping straight to tactics — publishing blog posts, adding keywords to page titles, or claiming a Google Business Profile — without first understanding why they're invisible in the first place.

Different root causes require different fixes. A practice that's invisible because of a crawl error won't benefit from new content. A practice with strong technical health but thin service pages won't benefit from citation building. Applying the wrong fix wastes months.

This audit framework works as a decision tree. You start at the technical layer and move outward. If you find a clear break at any layer, that becomes your priority before moving to the next.

The four diagnostic layers, in order:

1. Technical: Can Google find, crawl, and index your site correctly?
2. Content: Does your site clearly communicate what you treat, where you practice, and who you serve?
3. Local: Does your Google Business Profile exist, is it verified, and is it optimized for your city and specialty?
4. Authority: Do other credible sites link to or cite your practice in ways Google can verify?

Work through each layer in sequence. If a layer is healthy, move to the next. If a layer is broken, document every issue before moving forward — you'll need the full picture to prioritize correctly.

Note: This framework is educational guidance, not individualized professional advice. SEO outcomes vary by market, competition level, and practice size.

Technical SEO is the foundation. If Google can't crawl and index your pages, nothing else matters. For psychiatry practices, this layer also includes HTTPS — a baseline trust signal that patients and Google both expect.

What to check:

• HTTPS: Your entire site should load over HTTPS. Any HTTP pages create both a security gap and a ranking disadvantage. Check your SSL certificate expiration date while you're there.
• Indexation: Search site:yourdomain.com in Google. The number of results should roughly match the number of pages you've intentionally published. Significantly fewer results means indexation problems.
• Crawl errors: Use Google Search Console (free) to check for 404 errors, redirect chains, and blocked pages. A psychiatric practice website commonly accumulates these after a redesign.
• Page speed: Use Google's PageSpeed Insights to test your homepage and your primary service page. Mobile scores below 50 are a meaningful disadvantage for healthcare queries, where patients are frequently searching on phones during moments of acute need.
• Mobile usability: Google Search Console flags mobile usability issues specifically. Look for tap targets too close together, content wider than screen, and text too small to read.
• Duplicate content: Check whether your site has multiple URLs serving the same content (with and without trailing slashes, HTTP vs. HTTPS versions, www vs. non-www). These dilute your ranking signals.

If you find problems in this layer — particularly crawl blocks or HTTPS failures — fix them before auditing anything else. A technically broken site will show false negatives in every other layer.

The content layer answers a simple question: does your website clearly tell Google — and prospective patients — what you do, where you do it, and why they should trust you?

Psychiatric practice websites commonly fail this layer in predictable ways.

Common content failures to diagnose:

• Generic service pages: A single page titled "Services" that lists depression, anxiety, ADHD, and medication management in three sentences. Each condition you treat warrants its own page with enough depth to demonstrate clinical seriousness.
• Missing location signals: Service pages that never mention the city, neighborhood, or region where you practice. Google cannot confidently rank you for "psychiatrist in [city]" if your content doesn't include that geography.
• No E-E-A-T signals: Google's quality guidelines weight Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness heavily for healthcare content. Your about page and service pages should include your board certifications, medical school, residency, and any specializations. A bare-bones bio is a missed authority signal.
• Testimonials handled incorrectly: HIPAA prohibits using patient testimonials that identify or could identify a patient's condition or treatment. Review your existing testimonials for compliance before assessing their SEO value. (Consult a healthcare attorney for guidance specific to your state and practice situation.)
• No clear patient-intent match: Patients searching for psychiatric help often use different language than clinicians. Audit whether your content uses the phrases patients actually type — "psychiatrist near me who takes insurance," "psychiatrist for anxiety medication" — or only clinical terminology.

The goal of this layer isn't keyword stuffing. It's ensuring your site accurately reflects the depth and specificity of your practice so Google can match you to the right searches.

For most psychiatric practices, local search — specifically the Google Map Pack — drives the majority of new patient inquiries. If you're not appearing in the three-pack for searches like "psychiatrist in [your city]," this layer is where the problem almost certainly lives.

Google Business Profile (GBP) checklist:

• Claimed and verified: Search your practice name on Google Maps. If you haven't claimed the listing, that's your first action. An unclaimed profile can be edited by anyone and often contains incorrect information.
• Primary category: Should be "Psychiatrist" — not "Mental Health Service" or "Doctor." The primary category is the most influential GBP ranking signal.
• NAP consistency: Your Name, Address, and Phone number must match exactly across your GBP, your website, and every online directory (Healthgrades, Psychology Today, Zocdoc, insurance directories). Even minor variations — "Suite 400" vs. "Ste. 400" — create inconsistency signals.
• Services listed: GBP allows you to list specific services. Use this to add the conditions you treat and the modalities you offer (e.g., medication management, psychotherapy if applicable, telehealth).
• Review volume and recency: In our experience working with healthcare practices, review recency matters as much as total count. A profile with 40 reviews, all from three years ago, underperforms one with 20 reviews and steady monthly activity.
• HIPAA-safe review responses: Never confirm in a review response that someone is or was your patient. Respond to all reviews — positive and negative — in general terms. This is a compliance requirement, not just a best practice. (Verify current HIPAA guidelines with a qualified healthcare attorney for your specific situation.)

For a complete local optimization framework, see our Local SEO for Psychiatrists resource hub.

Authority, in Google's model, is largely a measure of how other credible sources on the internet reference your practice. For psychiatrists, this includes both traditional backlinks and healthcare-specific citations.

What to audit in this layer:

• Citation consistency: Use a tool like Moz Local or BrightLocal to scan your citation profile. Look for duplicates, inconsistent NAP data, and missing listings on high-value directories (Healthgrades, WebMD Find a Doctor, Psychology Today, the APA's therapist finder, your state psychiatric society).
• Backlink profile: In Google Search Console, the "Links" report shows which external sites link to yours. For a psychiatric practice, valuable links typically come from hospital affiliations, medical school faculty pages, quoted expert commentary in local news, and professional association listings. A completely empty backlink profile is a red flag for competitive markets.
• Schema markup: Check whether your site has structured data markup using Google's Rich Results Test. At minimum, a psychiatric practice should implement Physician or MedicalBusiness schema with your specialty, address, and accepted insurance. This helps Google understand your practice without relying solely on page text.
• Wikipedia and Knowledge Panel: For high-profile practitioners or group practices, a Knowledge Panel signals significant authority. This is a long-term outcome, not a near-term audit action item — but its absence tells you where your authority floor currently sits.

Authority signals are the slowest layer to build. In our experience working with healthcare practices, meaningful authority gains typically follow 6-12 months of consistent citation work and content publication — this varies significantly by market competition and starting baseline. Set realistic expectations before prioritizing this layer over faster wins in layers one through three.

An audit that produces a list of 30 problems isn't useful until those problems are ranked. The decision rule is straightforward: fix blocking issues first, then high-impact quick wins, then long-term authority work.

Priority sequencing framework:

1. Blocking issues (fix within 1-2 weeks): Crawl errors, HTTPS failures, deindexed pages, unclaimed GBP. These prevent everything else from working.
2. High-impact quick wins (fix within 30-60 days): NAP inconsistencies, GBP category correction, missing E-E-A-T signals on your about page, adding location context to service pages, page speed improvements.
3. Structural content work (60-120 days): Building out individual condition and service pages, adding schema markup, improving internal linking between related pages.
4. Authority building (ongoing): Citation acquisition, pursuing legitimate backlinks through hospital affiliations and professional associations, maintaining review recency through compliant request practices.

For each item in your audit, assign it to one of these four tiers. Work the tiers in order. Don't start authority building while blocking issues are unresolved.

When to bring in outside help: If your audit reveals problems across all four layers simultaneously — or if you find technical issues you can't diagnose with the tools available to you — that's a signal the work has moved beyond a DIY scope. A focused engagement with an SEO specialist who understands healthcare HIPAA constraints will be faster than iterating blind.

If you want a second set of eyes on your audit findings, our psychiatrist SEO diagnostic service walks through your specific site and produces a prioritized fix sequence — not a generic report.