Building Your Addiction Treatment Outpatient Program? Behave Community Helps Where Psychology Today Can’t
If you’re an addiction treatment provider or executive of any kind, it’s likely you’ve heard of Psychology Today. This mental health directory behemoth has dominated the behavioral health marketing landscape for years, and for good reason: the site has an excellent page rank with Google and it gets a ton of views from people who are seeking behavioral health services. This time tested platform has few serious rivals.
For decades, Psychology Today has played a pivotal role in directing qualified leads to intake appointments with ambitious clinicians like you. But is it right for ALL addiction treatment clinicians? Yes, Psychology Today profiles can help fill appointment books when used strategically, but what about behavioral health professionals who have an eye on larger scale business development beyond the appointment book? What about clinicians who want to transition to more ambitious projects, like outpatient facility development and more expansive behavioral health business partnerships?
Today, we will cover what Psychology Today profiles can and can’t do and why Behave Community fills the gap for behavioral health professionals who want more out of their networking, referral partnerships, and marketing efforts.
What is Psychology Today?
Psychology Today is both a website (psychologytoday.com), a print magazine, and a paid, searchable business directory for mental health providers of all kinds. The organization was founded in 1967 and is probably the largest online directory in the world for providers like psychologists, therapists, psychiatrists, social workers, addiction medicine providers, and other clinicians involved in the mental and behavioral health field. Psychology Today was owned and operated for a time in the 1980’s by the American Psychological Association (aka the APA), a nonprofit corporation, but now its operated by a for-profit organization called Sussex Publishers. Over 20 countries are represented on Psychology Today’s massive directory system but the United States leads the pack.
A mind-boggling number of would-be patients visit Psychology Today every month and many of them are staying on the site for a considerable amount of time. According to Semirush, Psychology Today received 33.4 million visits in May 2023, with the average visit time clocking in at over 12 minutes long. It’s important to note that time spent on the site matters nearly as much as raw traffic numbers. This is because visitors usually need to spend some time on the website comparing providers and reading several profiles before they are ready to click on provider links and move closer to reaching out and scheduling that first appointment. Psychology Today has both key elements to SEO success: lots of people visiting and lots of people spending lots of time at the site. This is why Psychology Today can charge clinicians for the privilege of appearing in their directory.
What Business Development Opportunities do Addiction Treatment Providers Gain From a Psychology Today Profile?
Psychology Today profiles are considered the gold standard for marketing mental health and behavioral health practices online. It’s certainly true that paying for a Psychology Today profile is a smart move for clinicians who need to boost their general discoverability and drive traffic to their individual website. A Psychology Today profile makes it easier for patients - and friends and family of patients - to find you. This is especially true for clinicians with marketing savvy who “niche down” and target specific subsets of would-be clients, like those in need of support for co-occurring disorders, gender identity issues, a particular mental health concern, or any other “specialty” population.
That said, in order to get a meaningful boost in your traffic stats, you’ll ideally want your profile to appear within the top three listings for whatever search term(s) you’re targeting on Psychology Today. Unfortunately, we know that less than 2% of providers are able to rank in these coveted spots.
Moreover, Psychology Today profiles are really only designed to attract clients. Psychology Today offers an “endorsement” feature where you can solicit endorsements from fellow providers, but that is the extent of the professional networking opportunities offered by Psychology Today profiles. Theirs is a client-facing, not clinician-facing, service.
What Can Behave Community Do for Entrepreneurial Addiction Treatment Providers That Psychology Today Can’t?
If you simply want more clients, a Psychology Today profile is a good place to start.
However, if you’re looking to take your practice to the next level and expand it beyond its current bounds, Behave Community, the leading social directory network for entrepreneurial behavioral health providers, is a much smarter choice.
Why? Simply put, a Behave Community presence can do a lot of things that a Psychology Today profile can’t. For example, Behave Community profiles help:
Connect you with like minded behavioral health entrepreneurs in your state
Accelerate your practice growth
Support HIPAA compliant brainstorming sessions regarding local business opportunities within the behavioral health space
Facilitate meaningful conversations between client-facing professionals and behavioral health professionals with an executive-level perspective
Connect clinician entrepreneurs with behavioral health investors and vice versa
Assist in building relationships with new referral partners
Complete automatic bed checks for more seamless referrals
Verify insurance coverage with a single button - aka “one-button eVOBs”
Dream Big: Growing Your Group Practice or Outpatient Program is Possible and Behave Community Can Help
We built Behave Community because we want to help behavioral health providers be better entrepreneurs. So many behavioral health clinicians like you are ready to take their practice to the next level. For those that want more from their career trajectory, Behave Community helps connect you with like minded professionals, executives and investors.
Are you a behavioral health professional who is ready to take control of your career destiny?
Request an invite to Behave Community today and see what you’ve been missing.
More Helpful Hints on How to Turn Your Group Practice Into an Addiction Treatment Outpatient Facility
How to Turn Your Group Practice Into an Outpatient Facility Offering IOP or PHP in Texas
How to Turn Your Group Practice Into an Outpatient Facility Offering IOP or PHP in New York
Want to Learn More About the Behave Health Universe? We’re Here to Help.
Behave Health is committed to making it easier - and more profitable - to operate evidence-based, results-focused addiction treatment centers.
Our all-in-one app puts clinical, administration, staff, admissions, alumni, residents, treatment plans, billing, insurance authorizations and more - all at your fingertips.
Get your free trial started today and see why more addiction treatment centers prefer Behave Health.
PS. Just getting started with behavioral health? Need help with certification, too? Behave Health can also help direct you to the right resources for help with Licensing or Accreditation by either The Joint Commission or CARF. Mention to your product specialist that you’re interested in this service after you start your free trial!