Something smells fishy: A new therapist directory website just added 17,000 therapist profiles in 5 days -- and they appear to be written in the first person.
I just published the second edition of TherapistSearchReport.com, where we dig into this. But here's the quick recap:
- A therapist brought PsychFAQ to my attention last week, after finding an unauthorized profile for herself while reviewing our Personal Therapist Search Report. She highlighted how it strangely was written in first person.
- At the time (5 days ago), PsychFAQ had an estimated 57,000 profiles listed.
- As I went to publish this week's report, I checked again, and they now have... 74,000 profiles listed. Yikes!
We don't know the motivations behind this website. But based on the data I have (and we've been collecting this for over two months), this PsychFAQ website was nowhere to be seen in therapist search results over 2 weeks ago... And then they suddenly appeared in 5+% of searches. And who knows how many profiles they'll ultimately add?
It is no surprise that these sorts of websites try to use therapist profiles to improve their SEO -- That's probably the motivation behind many other unauthorized profiles you see out there. But I am surprised at how quickly our new reporting apparently caught one AS IT'S LAUNCHING.
Thanks to the therapist who brought this to my attention, and please, as I mention in our report, let me know when you notice anything odd. I'd love to dig deeper.
Jon
