What Should a Psychologist Website Look Like? A 2025 Guide
In short: A psychologist's website should rest on a calm, trustworthy design, expert-written informative content, a contact flow suited to health data, and a fast, accessible foundation. In Turkey, the Regulation on Promotion and Information Activities in Health Services, in force since 12 November 2025, also covers clinical psychologists: advertising through client testimonials, publishing fees or campaigns, and paid prominence in search engines are restricted.
I wrote this article from the experience of designing and building a website from scratch for a clinical psychologist in Denizli. The goal is to gather in one place what a psychologist or mental health professional should know before commissioning a website: design, content, regulation and technical foundations.
What is a psychologist's website really for?
Someone searching for a psychologist is often going through a difficult time. What they look for is not a glossy pitch but trust, clarity and easy access. The site has to answer simple questions:
- Who is this professional, what training do they have, which areas do they work in?
- Do they see clients in person, and are online sessions possible?
- How does the process work, and what happens in the first session?
- How can I get in touch?
A site that cannot answer these within three clicks misses its purpose, however polished it looks.
What should the design look like?
In mental health, the visual language must convey calm within the first second. On this project we achieved that with a few decisions:
- A soft, natural palette: nature-inspired greens and cream backgrounds, avoiding high-contrast colours that feel like a sales page.
- Readable typography: a refined serif for headings, a comfortable sans-serif for body text, and generous line spacing in long paragraphs.
- Single-purpose pages: each page answers one question. A service page explains the service; the contact page makes contact easy.
- Mobile first: a large share of visits come from phones. Menus, contact buttons and forms should be designed for mobile from the start.
That is also why we did not use a ready-made theme: themes tend to arrive with a cluttered, one-size-fits-all structure that slows the page down.
How does Turkey's 2025 promotion regulation affect psychologist websites?
The Regulation on Promotion and Information Activities in Health Services (Official Gazette, 12.11.2025, no. 33075) covers health professionals. It defines them by reference to additional article 13 of Law No. 1219, under which the clinical psychologist is a health professional. The provisions that matter most for a psychologist's website:
| Topic | What the regulation says | On the website |
|---|---|---|
| Client satisfaction | Advertising-style posts based on patients' or relatives' thanks or satisfaction are not allowed (art. 5/1-e). | Testimonial showcases ("What our clients say") and claims like "500+ happy clients" are risky. |
| Fees and campaigns | Promotions may not include fee, discount, campaign or promotion information (art. 5/1-m). | No session price list or "discounted first session" offers. |
| Search engines | Registration is allowed provided it is not paid, sponsored or aimed at prominence; keywords must not breach the regulation's principles (art. 5/1-i). | Organic, informative content instead of paid search ads and keyword stuffing. |
| Freshness | Websites must show the last update date of information and contact details for the editor (art. 5/1-ı). | Author and last-updated date on every informative article. |
| Unsolicited promotion | No promotion by phone, email or social media without consent (art. 5/1-k). | Newsletters and message lists must rest on explicit consent. |
| Liability | Those who publish and those who share non-compliant content are equally responsible (art. 5/2). | Agencies and developers also need to be careful with content decisions. |
This table is a summary, not legal advice. I recommend reading the current text from the official source and asking your professional body or a lawyer about anything unclear.
How does a site stay visible under these rules?
As room for advertising narrows, the real source of visibility becomes genuinely useful information. The regulation does not forbid informing the public; it asks that this be done by an authorised professional, in language that does not steer patients. That makes the blog the cornerstone of a good psychologist website:
- Question-led articles: expert answers to what people actually search for, such as "Why does night-time anxiety happen?" or "What are the symptoms of a panic attack?"
- Author and date: every article carries the professional's name, title and last-updated date — expected by both the regulation and search engines.
- Categories and internal links: content grouped under topics such as anxiety, relationships, children and adolescents, and linked together.
- Structured data: Schema.org markup, canonical URLs and Open Graph tags on every page.
What about client privacy and Turkey's data protection law (KVKK)?
Health data is a special category of personal data under KVKK and requires the strictest protection. We applied these principles to the contact form:
- Ask for little: the form requests what is needed to get in touch — name, phone, optional email and a short message. It does not ask about diagnoses, medication or symptoms.
- Privacy notice: a link next to the form to a KVKK notice explaining why and how the data is processed.
- Secure transfer and storage: enforced HTTPS, CSRF protection and messages visible only in the access-controlled panel.
- Validation: automatic phone number formatting and validation in both browser and server; a mistyped number is a client you cannot call back.
Technical foundations: speed, security and management
- Speed: images in WebP, minified CSS and JavaScript, server-side compression and browser caching. A slow site loses clients, especially on mobile.
- Easy management: with a panel built on Laravel and Filament, the psychologist updates service pages, blog posts and FAQs without a developer.
- Security: security headers, an access-controlled admin panel and regular updates.
Quick checklist
- Are the professional's name, title, training and areas of work clearly stated?
- Are in-person and online session options easy to understand?
- Is there a testimonial showcase, price list or campaign announcement? (If so, review it against the regulation.)
- Do informative articles show the author and last-updated date?
- Does the contact form ask only for necessary data and link to a privacy notice?
- Does the site load in under three seconds on mobile?
Frequently asked questions
Can psychologists in Turkey publish client testimonials on their website?
The promotion regulation of 12 November 2025 prohibits advertising-style posts based on patients' or relatives' thanks and satisfaction. Displaying client reviews for promotional purposes is therefore risky; I recommend checking the current text and your professional body's view before publishing any.
Can a psychologist's website list session fees?
Under article 5 of the regulation, promotions may not include fee, discount, campaign or promotion information. Sharing fees during the contact process rather than publishing them on the site is the safer approach.
How can a psychologist's website rank higher on Google?
Since paid and prominence-seeking search registrations are restricted, the most solid path is expert-written content that answers real questions, a fast mobile-friendly foundation and correct structured data.
Which pages should a psychologist's website have?
Home, about, services (one page per service), blog, frequently asked questions, contact, and privacy and data protection pages form the core structure.
How should online therapy be presented on the site?
On a dedicated service page explaining how online sessions work, which platform is used and how privacy is protected, in an informative rather than persuasive tone.
This article is general information and not legal advice. Regulations change; check the current texts in Turkey's Official Gazette.