What we found
Each finding is grouped by category with context on why it matters, what we recommend, and the evidence behind it.
Other
5 findings
Core service pages not ranking for primary commercial terms - 'anxiety therapy' (pos. 62), 'depression therapy' (pos. 61)
Your anxiety and depression therapy pages are buried on page 6 of Google, nationally. These are the terms people search when they are ready to find a therapist - 18,100 and 12,100 monthly searches respectively. The practice is not getting any of that traffic. Meanwhile you rank #3 for 'doom scrolling' which sends readers, not patients. Your commercial pages need the same content investment your blog posts have received.
Recommended action
Treat each core service page (anxiety, depression, trauma, ADHD) as a content project, not just a brochure. Each page needs: 1,500+ words covering the condition, your approach, what a first session looks like, and FAQs. Internally link from every relevant blog post to the appropriate service page. Build topical authority around each condition with supporting blog content.
Evidence
SEMrush + Manual review
83% of all traffic concentrated in 4 blog posts - high business continuity risk
Four articles - doom scrolling, bed rotting, visualization, and 'what does a psychologist do' - drive 83% of your website traffic. If any of these pages loses ranking (algorithm update, competitor, or Google using your content for AI answers instead of sending clicks), you lose most of your web presence overnight.
Recommended action
Diversify traffic across more pages: develop content clusters around your core specialties (ACT, anxiety, ADHD, trauma), optimize service pages for informational intent at the top of the funnel, and build internal linking from blog posts to service pages to distribute authority.
Evidence
SEMrush
Not listed in key therapy directories - Psychology Today, TherapyDen, GoodTherapy
Your practice is missing from the major online therapy directories that both potential clients and Google rely on. Psychology Today alone has a Domain Authority of 91 and sends high-quality niche backlinks to listed practices. Getting listed is quick and delivers both referral traffic and SEO authority - this is one of the fastest link-building wins available.
Why it matters
Practice is absent from all major mental health directories. Psychology Today (DA 91), TherapyDen, GoodTherapy, Open Path Collective, and NAMI provider pages are the primary niche authority sources for therapy practices. Absence means missing high-DA backlinks and direct referral client traffic.
Recommended action
Submit listings to Psychology Today, TherapyDen, GoodTherapy, Open Path Collective, and NAMI's provider directory. Ensure name, address, and phone number (NAP) are identical to your Google Business Profile on every listing.
Evidence
SEMrush Backlink Analysis
Authority Score of 29/100 is below the competitive threshold for ranking on commercial therapy terms in LA
Your website's Authority Score sits at 29/100 - the "Weak" tier. For a competitive market like mental health in Los Angeles, practices ranking on the first page for high-value commercial terms typically have Authority Scores above 40–50. This gap means Google is currently ranking competitors above you even when your content is more relevant and your practice is a better fit.
Why it matters
SEMrush reports Authority Score 29 (Weak tier: 21–40). For LA mental health market, first-page competitors on high-value terms like "therapist Los Angeles" and "CBT therapy LA" typically have AS 40–65. This structural gap means Google ranks competitors higher regardless of content quality.
Recommended action
Launch a sustained link building campaign targeting mental health publications, local LA news outlets, and professional associations. Prioritise: (1) HARO / journalist outreach for expert mental health commentary, (2) guest posts on wellness and psychology publications, (3) partnerships with complementary LA health practices for cross-links.
Evidence
SEMrush Domain Overview
High-traffic blog earns almost no backlinks - passive content approach losing authority ground to competitors
Your blog drives the majority of your site traffic with strong articles on ACT therapy, anxiety, and teletherapy - yet this content earns almost no inbound links from other websites. These are exactly the topics mental health publications, wellness blogs, and university psychology departments link to. Without active outreach, the links that should be coming in aren't, while competitors are building authority through PR and content partnerships.
Why it matters
Blog content drives 83% of total organic traffic and covers high-value mental health topics (ACT, anxiety, teletherapy) that are natural link targets. However, the referring domain profile does not reflect earned editorial links from publications, universities, or media. No active outreach programme is in place.
Recommended action
Identify the 3–5 highest-traffic blog posts and run a 60-day email outreach campaign to mental health bloggers, wellness publications, and university psychology departments. Create one data-driven study or therapist survey per quarter as a permanent link asset. Repurpose existing blog content for guest post pitches.
Evidence
SEMrush Backlink Analysis / Content Audit
Content
7 findings
Teletherapy page not capitalising on national reach - 'online therapy' (27,100 monthly searches) not targeted
You offer teletherapy across multiple states, which is a genuine competitive advantage over single-location practices. But 'online therapy' gets 27,100 searches per month nationally and your teletherapy page is not competing for it. For a practice that can serve patients in seven states without requiring them to travel, ranking for telehealth terms is a major untapped opportunity - and one that's more achievable than competing with large local directories for in-person terms.
Recommended action
Overhaul the /teletherapy-services/ page to target 'online therapy' and 'teletherapy' nationally. List every state where you are licensed to practice. Add FAQ content around telehealth: how sessions work, what platform you use, whether insurance covers it. Target 'online therapist [state]' variations for each state you serve. This page should be the strongest-performing page on the site given your multi-state footprint.
Evidence
SEMrush + Manual review
High-traffic blog posts have no in-content CTAs - the only 'Book' button is in the sticky header, not connected to the article topic
Your doom scrolling article gets thousands of visitors a month. Someone reading about doom scrolling and anxiety is precisely the kind of person who might book a therapy appointment - but there is nothing in the article body connecting what they are reading to your services. The only 'Book a Free Consultation' button is in the top navigation bar, which readers tune out. A contextual CTA mid-article and at the end, tied to the topic ('Struggling with doom scrolling habits? Our therapists can help - book a free call'), would meaningfully improve conversion.
Recommended action
Add a warm, topic-connected CTA block to every high-traffic blog post. Place it once mid-article and once at the end. The language should connect to what the reader just read. For doom scrolling: 'If your phone habits are affecting your mental health, our licensed psychologists specialize in exactly this. Book a free 15-minute consultation.' Include a photo of a therapist, the phone number, and a button to /contact/#schedule-consult.
Evidence
Manual review
CBT page ranks 24th for a 12,100/month keyword - wrong content format for commercial search intent
Your CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy) page currently ranks 24th - page 3 - for a keyword searched 12,100 times a month. At that position you're getting essentially zero traffic from it. Two problems are compounding here: the page reads like a blog article ("How Does Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Work? A Guide...") rather than a service page, which doesn't match what Google wants to show for people searching for CBT therapy. And it's competing against established psychology organisations (APA, NAMI, Psychology Today) with far more authority on a generic term. The fix is to restructure this as a proper service page for "CBT therapy in Los Angeles" targeting the local commercial intent, not the generic national educational term.
Why it matters
SEMrush shows /how-does-cognitive-behavioral-therapy-work-a-guide-to-its-process-benefits/ ranking position 24 for "cognitive therapy" (12,100 searches/month). Position 24 receives effectively zero organic clicks (CTR <0.1%). The URL structure and title suggest blog-style explanatory content rather than a service page - mismatched to the commercial search intent of someone looking for a CBT therapist. The page has not been audited for word count or quality.
Recommended action
Restructure the page as a CBT service page targeting "cognitive behavioral therapy Los Angeles" and related local terms. Rename URL to /cognitive-behavioral-therapy-los-angeles/. Rewrite content to: (1) lead with what CBT treats and who it helps in your practice, (2) explain the approach in 500–800 words, (3) describe what CBT sessions at Rowan Center look like specifically, (4) include therapist credentials, (5) add CTA blocks throughout. Retain the educational content but frame it around the practice. Add local business schema.
Evidence
SEMrush Organic Keywords
7 near-identical location pages risk Google doorway page penalty and suppress domain-wide quality signals
You have 7 city-specific anxiety therapy pages (Burbank, North Hollywood, Encino, Beverly Hills, West Hollywood, Westlake Village, Thousand Oaks) that together only attract about 400 monthly searches. More importantly, these pages appear to use the same template with just the city name changed - which Google actively penalises as "doorway pages." This can suppress rankings across your entire site, not just those individual pages. Each location page needs genuinely unique content: local office details, therapist bios serving that area, neighbourhood context, and location-specific service information.
Why it matters
SEMrush shows 7 city-specific anxiety therapist pages (Burbank, North Hollywood, Encino, Beverly Hills, West Hollywood, Westlake Village, Thousand Oaks) collectively generating only ~400 monthly searches. All follow the same template structure with city name swapped. Google's Helpful Content system and manual quality guidelines explicitly flag thin, templated location pages as low-quality doorway content. Even if not manually actioned, these pages drag down the overall quality assessment of the domain.
Recommended action
Audit each location page for content uniqueness. Add: (1) specific therapist bios serving that neighbourhood, (2) office address and local transit info, (3) 2-3 paragraphs of locally relevant context (e.g., commute from Burbank, specific concerns of that community). Minimum 800 words of genuinely differentiated content per page. Consolidate or noindex any pages you cannot differentiate.
Evidence
SEMrush Organic Keywords / Google Quality Guidelines
ACT service page is 1,400 words and ranks 13th for a 14,800/month keyword - needs major expansion to break top 10
Your Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) page currently ranks 13th on Google for a keyword searched 14,800 times a month - that's page 2, getting almost zero clicks. The page is also only 1,400 words, which is too thin to compete with the in-depth resources Google is currently ranking above you. This is your highest-traffic service term with any existing traction and the biggest content opportunity on the site. A proper expansion - covering ACT theory, what sessions look like, who it helps, clinical evidence, and FAQs - could move this page into the top 5 for one of the most-searched therapy terms in your category.
Why it matters
SEMrush shows the ACT page (/acceptance-commitment-therapy/) ranking position 13 for "acceptance and commitment therapy" (14,800 searches/month). Page audit records show 1,400 words, quality rated "average." For YMYL (health) content targeting a competitive 14,800/month keyword, pages ranking top 5 typically have 2,500–4,000 words with clinical credibility signals. At 1,400 words, the page cannot compete on depth, expertise, or comprehensiveness.
Recommended action
Expand the ACT page to 3,000–4,000 words covering: (1) what ACT is and the six core processes, (2) what sessions look like in practice, (3) conditions ACT treats effectively, (4) clinical evidence and outcomes, (5) ACT vs. CBT comparison section, (6) FAQ block targeting related questions (e.g., "how long does ACT therapy take"), (7) author bio with therapist credentials. Add FAQ schema markup. Target secondary keywords: "ACT therapy for anxiety," "acceptance and commitment therapy for depression," "ACT therapist Los Angeles."
Evidence
SEMrush Organic Keywords / Page Audit
367 keywords ranking positions 11-20 - 96,900 monthly searches just off page 1
You are tantalisingly close to page 1 for 367 keywords. Combined, these terms get 96,900 searches a month. The biggest individual opportunities are 'acceptance and commitment therapy' (14,800 searches, position 13), 'what is a psychologist' (6,600, position 18), and 'therapist vs psychologist' (6,600, position 16). A targeted push on these pages could realistically double your organic traffic.
Recommended action
Identify the page ranking for each keyword cluster. Strengthen each page with: updated content length, FAQ section targeting related questions, more specific H2 structure, internal links from authoritative pages, and 1-2 external links to credible sources. Prioritize ACT and therapist vs psychologist pages first.
Evidence
SEMrush
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) - 14,800 monthly searches, ranking position 13, no dedicated service page
ACT is one of your core therapeutic specialties and 14,800 people search for it every month. You are currently ranking 13th - which means most of those searchers don't see you. You don't appear to have a dedicated ACT service page; the ranking comes from a general blog post. A proper service page targeting this term could move you from page 2 to page 1.
Recommended action
Create a dedicated Acceptance and Commitment Therapy service page with: clear explanation of ACT, what it treats, what sessions look like, your therapists' ACT training, patient FAQs, and a booking CTA. Interlink from existing ACT-related blog content to pass authority to the new page.
Evidence
SEMrush
Technical SEO
3 findings
Navigation items 'Therapy Services', 'Team', and 'About' link to # - no crawlable parent pages exist
Your main navigation has dropdown menus but the top-level items (Therapy Services, Team, About) don't link to any real page - they just say '#'. This means Google can't find a Therapy Services hub page or an About page through normal crawling. You're losing a significant opportunity to build topical authority with dedicated hub pages that link down to all your services and team members.
Recommended action
Create standalone pages for /therapy-services/, /team/, and /about/ that serve as hub pages. Each dropdown item should link to its own page, and that page should link out to all relevant sub-pages. This also fixes a usability issue - mobile users often can't open dropdowns that link to #.
Evidence
Manual review
Dozens of navigation links render as the letter 'E' - broken icon font creating meaningless anchor text sitewide
Every service link in your navigation has a duplicate anchor tag with just the letter 'E' as its text (e.g., there are two links to /anxiety-treatment/ - one that says 'Anxiety Therapy' and one that says 'E'). This is a broken icon rendering issue. Screen readers read 'E' as a link label, and Google sees dozens of low-quality, keyword-free internal links pointing to your service pages.
Recommended action
Find the nav icon implementation and either remove the duplicate anchor tags or replace the 'E' character with an aria-hidden icon element that is not wrapped in its own anchor tag. Each service link should have exactly one anchor tag with descriptive text.
Evidence
Manual review
Service pages have no structured data - blog posts have schema but the pages Google should rank for services do not
Your blog posts correctly implement Article and Person schema. But your service pages - anxiety therapy, depression therapy, ADHD therapy, and all others - have no schema at all. For a healthcare practice, schema markup (MedicalClinic, MedicalCondition, MedicalTherapy) helps Google understand what conditions you treat and where. This is a missed signal that competitors who implement it correctly will outrank you on.
Recommended action
Add MedicalClinic (or MedicalBusiness) schema to the homepage and location pages with full address, phone, hours, and geo-coordinates. Add MedicalCondition schema to condition-specific pages (anxiety, depression, ADHD). Add MedicalTherapy schema to modality pages (CBT, ACT, sensorimotor). Use the existing WordPress/Yoast setup to implement or add JSON-LD blocks manually.
Evidence
Manual review
User Experience
1 finding
Viral content drives traffic but no pathway to booking - content is not converting readers to patients
Your doom scrolling and bed rotting articles rank in the top 5 for millions of potential readers. But once someone lands on that page, there is no clear next step to book an appointment with your practice. You are essentially doing free public education without capturing any of the business value. Every unoptimized article is a missed patient referral.
Recommended action
Add a clear, warm CTA to every blog post: a banner or inline section that says something like 'If what you're reading resonates, our therapists specialize in exactly this. Book a free 15-min consultation.' Include your services, a photo, and a link to the booking page. Add exit-intent or inline email capture for people not ready to book today.
Evidence
SEMrush
Local SEO
1 finding
No state-level location landing pages for California - every other state served has one, the primary market does not
You serve clients in California, Colorado, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. You have location pages for Colorado (/locations/colorado/), Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Virginia - but nothing for California, where your practice is headquartered and where the majority of your team is based. Someone in California searching 'therapist in California accepting new patients' or 'psychologist Woodland Hills' has no dedicated page to land on. Local searches in your biggest market are being missed entirely.
Recommended action
Create /locations/california/ as a hub page listing your California-based therapists, in-person locations (Woodland Hills, Encino, etc.), and the conditions you treat in that state. Then create city-level sub-pages for each physical office location (/locations/woodland-hills/, /locations/encino/) with address, Google Map embed, LocalBusiness schema, and a list of therapists at that office. Mirror the structure that exists for other states.
Evidence
SEMrush + Manual review
Metadata
1 finding
Anxiety service page targets 'anxiety treatment' - the target keyword 'anxiety therapy' gets 3x more searches
Your anxiety page is optimized for the phrase 'anxiety treatment' (6,600 monthly searches) but the term people actually search is 'anxiety therapy' - which gets 18,100 searches per month. The title, H1, and meta description all use 'treatment.' Google ranks you for what the page says, not what you intend. This single change could triple your visibility for that page.
Recommended action
Update the title tag to 'Anxiety Therapy in Los Angeles | Rowan Center', update H1 to 'Expert Anxiety Therapy', update meta description to include 'anxiety therapy' and 'Los Angeles'. Add 'anxiety therapy' naturally throughout the body copy where 'anxiety treatment' currently appears.
Evidence
Manual review