Therapist Website Studio

Reviews and ethics

Therapist Google reviews and professional ethics

Google reviews are public comments on Google’s platform. Therapy work is confidential, and UK professional bodies expect careful public communication. This guide summarises BACP, UKCP and HCPC sources alongside Google’s user-content rules and UK fake-review law—aligned with our testimonials guide—then how a studio site builds trust from credentials, fees and process instead of star markup.

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Example bespoke sites

Morrow Lane is a designed example in Manchester. It shows no review widgets, star schema, or client quotes—only verifiable practice facts.

morrowlane.exampleDesigned example
Morrow LaneGet in touch
Two women in conversation during an in-person counselling session

Manchester · Online across the UK

Space to work through what matters

Individual counselling in Manchester, and online across the UK. Anxiety, grief, and what is hard to put into words.

Explore counsellingGet in touch
A counsellor and a client talking, one holding a mug

Anxiety

£70

50 minutes

For worry that is taking up the week. We stay with it, rather than rushing you towards a fix.

A man and a counsellor sitting quietly together

Grief

£70

50 minutes

For a death, or another loss. There is no date by which you should feel better.

A woman speaking to a laptop by a window

Online sessions

£70

50 minutes

The same counsellor, from your own home, anywhere in the UK.

The first session

A chance to see if this is the right counselling.

We talk about what you want from the work and how often we would meet. You do not need to send a history beforehand. Please give 48 hours if you need to cancel. What you say in the session stays there, except where the law requires otherwise.

One fee, in the room or online

£70

50 minutes · Manchester, or online across the UK

A short note is enough

Your name, your email, and the Manchester room or online. Please do not include a clinical history.

Get in touch

Morrow Lane Counselling

Manchester · Individual counselling, anxiety and grief

Open this concept

Designed example

SEO, AI AEO and language models

Credentials not AggregateRating.

Star markup invites AI summaries to invent scores. We publish fees and register links in HTML and JSON-LD so Google, ChatGPT, Claude and Perplexity quote verifiable facts instead of client voices.

  • Google

    Search · AI Overviews · Gemini

    Google’s UGC policy targets fake and incentivised review content.

    • Googlebot
    • Google-Extended

  • OpenAI

    ChatGPT

    ChatGPT search can cite the BACP-linked membership sentence.

    • OAI-SearchBot
    • GPTBot
    • ChatGPT-User

  • Anthropic

    Claude

    Claude reads designed examples without testimonial paragraphs.

    • Claude-SearchBot
    • ClaudeBot
    • Claude-User

  • Perplexity

    Perplexity

    Perplexity can follow enquiry links without a review block.

    • PerplexityBot
    • Perplexity-User

Under the surface

Fee and status in data.

This block is on the page because reviews chase stars. The sample Service names the offer and fee without AggregateRating.

JSON-LD · schema.orgWhat the crawler is given
{
  "@type": "Service",
  "name": "Individual counselling",
  "offers": { "@type": "Offer", "priceCurrency": "GBP", "description": "Fee in HTML; no review markup" }
}

The website we deliver

Public stars and private work

A Google review invites someone to describe their experience in a public card. Counselling and psychotherapy depend on confidentiality; a client’s words can carry detail that belongs in the room, not on a marketing surface.

Our guide to client testimonials on websites explains why marketing pages we compose lead with register lines, fees and enquiry instead of client stories. Google reviews are the same tension on Google’s interface rather than your homepage HTML.

Professional body expectations

BACP’s ethical framework expects accurate public descriptions of qualifications, services and costs. UKCP and HCPC publish their own standards for honest communication; read the body you belong to before asking clients to comment in public.

The ASA guidance on health therapies treats advertising claims seriously. A review that promises outcomes can read like a therapeutic claim regulators scrutinise.

Google’s review rules

Google’s Maps user generated content policy prohibits fake content, conflicts of interest, and off-topic material. Business Profile representation guidelines still require the business to be described accurately—even when stars appear on Google’s card without your website quoting them.

Stars on a profile are Google’s display of user contributions. The studio site keeps Review and AggregateRating out of JSON-LD so crawlers see fees and credentials, not a score copied from a profile widget.

UK fake-review law and incentives

The CMA’s fake reviews guidance describes banned practices under UK consumer law, including fake reviews and incentivised reviews where the incentive is concealed. Businesses that publish reviews are expected to take reasonable steps to prevent misleading content.

That legal frame sits beside professional ethics: a post-session email pushing five-star wording, a discount for a review, or a QR code in the therapy room is a marketing tactic worth checking against your body, your insurer, and the published rules—not a pattern the studio builds into thank-you pages.

Trust the studio site is built to show

Marketing pages we deliver emphasise trust on the page: membership or registration with a check link, fees in text, services in plain language, and a clear enquiry path. See presenting therapy credentials clearly and structured data for therapist websites for the technical layer.

If a review appears on Google anyway, replying with clinical detail is risky; your professional body and insurer are the place to decide any public response. Therapy Search UK is a separate free directory—keep factual lines consistent there without treating stars as the main trust signal.

Published prices for the practice website

Standard Managed is £149 setup and £49 a month for 12 months, then Website Care at £39. Growth Managed is £249 and £69 a month, then £49, when each real service needs its own page. Prices include VAT. Outright is £650 or £995. The domain stays in your name. The monthly fee on Managed is management, not paying the site off.

Review-generation funnels, star widgets and testimonial blocks are outside the studio website offer on the pricing page.

A free website review, or a free consultation

A free website review if you already have a public site, or a free 20-minute consultation if you do not.

Get my free website reviewBook a free 20-minute consultation

Trust pages at studio prices.

Trust-first sites use published build prices: Standard Managed £149 and £49/month for 12 months, then £39; Growth £249/£69, then £49; outright £650 or £995. Prices include VAT. Review widgets are outside the offer.

Growth Managed

£249

setup

+ £69/month

Then Growth Website Care at £49/month after 12 months.

Choose Growth

Or buy outright

£650

or £995

Pay in full, or across 3 payments. Those payments are not the managed plan.

See outright prices

Prices include VAT. Your domain stays in your name. The monthly fee is management, and the site is not paid off when the fee drops.

See what is included

Questions

What if a client offers to leave a Google review?
Thank them in private. The studio site still leads with verifiable credentials and fees, as in the testimonials guide—not a script that turns the relationship into marketing.
Can the website show a Google star rating widget?
Marketing pages we build skip Review schema and star embeds; trust sits in register lines, fees and process copy instead.
Does BACP allow Google reviews?
Read BACP’s ethical framework and your insurer’s view. This guide points to those sources rather than turning them into a yes-or-no slogan.

Ready for a clear next step?

Request a free website design review if you already have a site, or book a free 20-minute consultation if you are starting from scratch.

Get my free website reviewBook a free 20-minute consultation

Or email hello@therapistwebsitestudio.co.uk.

Sources

Checked 4 October 2026. These pages explain the public rules. They are not a ranking promise.