Therapist website design: a site that helps the right clients reach out.

A therapist’s website guide

What each page should say, how to handle privacy and access, and how to choose between a template, a custom build or a repair.

The pages a therapy practice site needs

Most solo and small group practices need a home page, an about page for each clinician, a page for each specialty, a fees and insurance page, a contact page and a short FAQ. A group practice adds a page for each location. Any page beyond that should answer a question clients actually ask.

The home page is a signpost, not a brochure. Open with who you help and where, for example “Therapy for anxiety and trauma in Franklin and online across Tennessee”. Then list your specialties as links, say whether you are taking new clients, summarize fees or insurance, show one real photo and offer one clear way to get in touch.

About and specialty pages, outlined

An about page answers “Will I feel comfortable with this person?” Include your name and license as your board lists them, who you work with best, how you work in session in plain words, a line on your training and a recent photo. Write to the reader: “You might come to me when…” keeps the focus on them.

Each specialty page can follow one outline: what the concern feels like in everyday words, who you see for it, how you approach it, what the first session involves, in person or online, fees or insurance, and how to ask about openings. Describe the care, not a result. “We offer EMDR for trauma” can be checked; a promise of relief cannot.

Fees, insurance and contact pages

Name the plans you are in network with, and say which you are not. Give your self-pay fee, any sliding-scale spots and whether you provide superbills. If you see uninsured or self-pay clients, the No Surprises Act rules generally require you to offer a good faith estimate of expected charges and to display that information on your website. Check the CMS guidance with whoever handles your billing.

The contact page should say how quickly you usually reply and what happens next. Add a line, here and in the footer of every page, that your practice is not an emergency service. Anyone in crisis can call or text 988 to reach the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, which is free, confidential and open at all hours. Anyone in immediate danger should call 911.

Copy and photos written for clients

Write the way clients describe their lives, not the way a treatment plan does. “I can’t stop worrying at night” reaches more readers than “generalized anxiety presentations”. Use short sentences and headings that read like a client’s questions. Before a page goes live, have someone who is not a clinician read it aloud and mark anything unclear.

Real photos earn trust that stock images cannot. Use a recent, well-lit photo of each clinician and, for an office-based practice, the waiting area. Never use photos of clients. Name files plainly, such as “anxiety-therapist-franklin.jpg”, and give each photo a short text description. Google uses that description and the nearby text to understand the image.

Fast and easy to read on a phone

Someone looking for a therapist may well be on a phone, reading privately in a spare moment. Google uses the mobile version of a site for indexing and ranking, so what the phone shows is what counts. Its Core Web Vitals set targets: main content loaded within 2.5 seconds, a response to a tap in under 200 milliseconds, and a layout shift score under 0.1.

Large photos, sliders, video backgrounds and chat pop-ups are common reasons a practice site feels slow. Compress images, remove anything that moves on its own and keep text comfortably large. Make the phone number tappable. Test every page on an older phone, and keep the same content on mobile and desktop.

Accessibility, with dates for some practices

If your practice receives federal financial assistance from HHS, the Section 504 rule sets WCAG 2.1 Level AA as the standard for your website and mobile apps. A May 2026 interim final rule from the HHS Office for Civil Rights moved the compliance dates to May 11, 2027 for recipients with 15 or more employees and May 10, 2028 for those with fewer. Whether you are a recipient is a question for counsel.

The work helps every visitor either way. Describe each image in text, caption video, keep strong contrast, label every form field and make sure the site works with a keyboard alone. Use real headings in order, and links that say where they go, such as “See fees and insurance” instead of “Click here”.

Contact forms, intake and client privacy

An ordinary contact form often sends an email and keeps a copy with the form vendor. Ask only for what you need to reply: a name, a phone number or email, and a good time to reach them. Do not ask why they are seeking therapy, about symptoms or diagnoses, or about medication. Say on the form that it is not for urgent or clinical messages.

Collect clinical details only through an intake or client portal tool built for health information. HIPAA lets a vendor create, receive, keep or send protected health information for your practice only with written assurances, usually a business associate agreement, that it will safeguard the information. Ask each form, scheduling and chat vendor whether it will sign one, and review the setup, including any tracking scripts, with counsel or your privacy lead.

Psychology Today, a template or a custom build

A directory profile such as Psychology Today puts you where people browse for therapists, but the layout, the neighboring profiles and the rules belong to someone else. Your own site holds the full explanation of each service, your fees and your contact step, and it is what search engines and AI assistants read about you. Keep both, with the same name, credentials, phone number and fees in each place.

A template subscription from a website builder is quick to start and can suit a solo practice that will keep it current. You pay every month, design choices are limited, and leaving later can mean rebuilding. A custom build costs more up front and is shaped around your services and locations. Either way, ask who controls the domain and the site files.

Redesign or fix, then launch

Fix the current site when it loads reasonably, you can edit it, and the problems are content: a missing specialty page, old fees, a thin about page or no crisis line. Redesign when you cannot edit it, it fails on a phone, its software is no longer updated, or the pages you need will not fit. Before hiring a designer, ask who writes and approves the content, which tools need a business associate agreement, how speed and accessibility are checked, who controls the domain and analytics, and what upkeep covers.

At launch, check that every page has its own title and description, old addresses forward to the closest new page, forms reach the right inbox and ask nothing clinical, the crisis line shows in the footer, fees match what your front desk says, the site passes a phone and keyboard test, analytics records visits, and Google Search Console has the new sitemap.

How LunahUP helps with your website

LunahUP builds a Starter site, $1,200 one time for up to 8 pages, or a Practice site, $2,000 one time for up to 20 pages, with a page for each service and each city or state you serve. A multi-location site is $2,000 plus $500 per 10 extra pages. Every site includes structured data and an agreed analytics setup that is checked after publication.

We draft the pages from facts your practice confirms, and your team approves the content before launch. Afterward, Care at $79 a month or Care Plus at $149 a month keeps text, hours, forms and backups in order. Maintenance is free while a search plan is active on a site LunahUP built, or take $300 off a website with a 6-month Growth plan. Every client’s LunahUP Provider Directory profile is set up as part of the service.