Are Paid Therapy Directories Worth It?

A paid directory listing is worth it when the new patients it brings are worth more than it costs, and only your intake records can say whether they are. Divide the monthly cost by the new patients the listing brings each month to get your cost per new patient, then compare that with what a new patient is worth to your practice. DrSensory costs $29.99 a month, so over a year it pays for itself if the new patients it brings are worth more than $359.88 to you, or $349.99 on the yearly plan. It is not worth it if your caseload is full, if the profile would sit unfinished, or if you cannot answer families quickly.

What can a directory listing do for a pediatric practice?

Put your practice where families compare options, with the facts they need to choose you, and a way to write to you. A good listing does four things.

• It is one more place to be found. A parent searching for a therapy in a city can land on a directory page before they land on your website.
• It answers the first questions. Ages, conditions, whether you are taking new patients, telehealth, hours, access. A parent who can see those does not have to call to ask.
• It gives families a way in. A contact button on a page that already answered their questions.
• It gathers reviews in one place, with your replies under them.

What can’t a directory listing do?

Create demand, fix your intake, or buy you a ranking.

• It cannot create families who are not looking. A listing is found by people already searching; it does not generate referrals.
• It cannot fix intake. If the phone goes to voicemail and messages wait a week, the listing only sends more families to the same gap.
• It cannot guarantee a ranking, on the directory’s site or on Google. Google says there is no way to request or pay for a better local ranking.¹
• It is not a backlink. Google asks that paid placements be marked sponsored,⁴ and on DrSensory the link from your profile to your website is. It sends you families, not search-engine credit.
• It cannot promise a number of inquiries. Be wary of a directory that does, and ask how any figure it shows you was measured.

How do you judge any therapy directory?

With five questions you can check yourself, before you pay. The last column says how DrSensory answers each one today.

Two more things to read in the small print: the terms (is there a monthly option, a contract, a cancellation fee?) and what paying changes (does it move you up the results, or buy mentions in articles?). On DrSensory there is a monthly plan with no contract; paying lists you above unclaimed listings on city pages, and buys no mention in any article.

How do you test whether a directory profile comes up for your practice name?

Search for yourself the way a parent who has heard your name would. It takes five minutes, and it tells you more than any claim on a sales page.

1. Open a private or incognito window, so your own search history does not shape the results.
2. Search your practice name and your city, exactly as a parent would type it.
3. Note what comes up: your website, your Google Business Profile, and which directory pages, in what order.
4. Search again on a phone, where fewer results fit on the first screen.
5. Open each directory page that appears. Is the phone number right? Is the practice still described as it is today?
6. Repeat in a month. A listing you have just claimed and published needs time to be picked up.

If a directory page with wrong details is coming up for your name, that alone can be a reason to claim it, whatever you decide about paying for extras.

What does DrSensory cost, and what does it include?

$29.99 a month, or $349.99 a year, for the first location; $9.99 a month or $99.99 a year for each additional one. No contract; cancel at any time and the listing goes back to a basic unclaimed entry.

It includes your own description, logo, up to five photos, opening hours, new-patient status and wait, telehealth and access notes, a website link, reviews with your replies, inquiries sent to your portal, and a place above unclaimed listings on DrSensory’s city pages. A basic listing stays free whether or not you pay. The full comparison of free and paid is in DrSensory for pediatric therapists, and every step of setting it up is in How to claim and optimize your profile.

How do you work out cost per new patient?

Cost per new patient is the listing’s monthly cost divided by the new patients it brings each month. Four numbers go in; only the first is the directory’s.

1. Monthly cost. The price, per month. For a yearly plan, divide by 12: $349.99 a year is $29.17 a month.
2. Inquiries a month. Messages and calls that came from the listing. Count them; do not estimate them from what anyone tells you about traffic.
3. New patients a month = inquiries a month × the share of inquiries that become a new patient. If one in four books, and you get two inquiries a month, that is half a new patient a month.
4. Cost per new patient = monthly cost ÷ new patients a month.

Then compare it with the value of a new patient: what that family’s care brings into the practice after the cost of delivering it. A cautious figure counts the evaluation alone. A fuller one counts a typical first few months of visits. Use your own fee schedule and payer mix; no national figure fits every practice.

The listing pays for itself when new patients a month × value of a new patient is more than the monthly cost. Put the other way: break-even is the monthly cost divided by the value of one new patient.

What would a new patient cost you through a listing?

Put in your own numbers and the calculator does the four sums above. The cost box starts at DrSensory’s monthly price; change it to test any directory.

What do the numbers look like in practice?

Three examples, with made-up inputs to show how the result moves. They are not DrSensory figures or a forecast of what any listing will bring.

• A pays for itself several times over: three inquiries a month, one in four booking.
• B pays for itself on one inquiry a month, because half of inquiries book and the yearly plan is a little cheaper.
• C does not. To break even at $120 a new patient, it needs one new patient every four months; at one inquiry every two months and one in five booking, it gets one every ten.

Notice what moves the answer most: the share of inquiries that book and the value of a new patient, both of which are yours to measure, not the directory’s.

When is a paid listing not worth it?

When you could not take the families it would send, or would not look after the profile they would read. Plainly:

• Your caseload is full and the waitlist is long. More inquiries become more families told to wait. Keep the free listing, set it to not accepting new patients if you have claimed it, and come back when you have capacity.
• Nobody will answer inquiries quickly. A family who writes on a Monday and hears back the next week may well have booked somewhere else by then. If no one owns the inbox, fix that first.
• The profile would sit unfinished. A paid listing with no description, no photos and last year’s hours is the same page as a free one, at a price.
• The directory does not cover your area or your work. Look for your city’s page and your therapy before you pay. DrSensory lists outpatient occupational, physical and speech therapy clinics; inpatient rehabilitation and chiropractic are not listed.
• Your numbers do not reach break-even. If the calculator needs more new patients than you can honestly expect, the listing is a cost, not an investment. Say no, or try one month and measure.
• Your referrals already outrun your capacity. If pediatricians and schools fill your schedule, a directory adds little that you need.

What are the alternatives to a paid directory?

Your Google Business Profile, referral relationships with pediatricians, early intervention and schools, and your own website. Most of them cost nothing but time, and most practices should have them working before paying anyone.

Google Business Profile

It is free to create, and it is what appears on Google Maps and in local results.² Google says local results are based mainly on relevance, distance and how well known a business is; that last takes in things like how many websites link to you and how many reviews you have, and Google says replying to reviews shows you value the feedback.¹ Its review rules go further than the FTC rule, which bars incentives tied to a review’s sentiment:⁵ Google allows no incentive for any review, and no asking only the happy families.⁶

Pediatrician referrals

Well-child visits are where pediatricians look for developmental concerns. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends developmental surveillance at every health supervision visit and standardized screening at the 9-, 18- and 30-month visits, with referral to intervention and specialty care when a concern comes up, and it describes surveillance as including two-way communication with early childhood professionals.³ A practice that evaluates promptly and sends a short, readable report back to the referring office earns the next referral.

Early intervention

For children under three, physicians, hospitals, child care programs and other clinics are named primary referral sources for the state’s Part C program, and the state’s procedures must have them refer a child as soon as possible, and within seven days of identifying them.⁷ Those referrals go to the program, not to a practice, so the route in is working with your state’s early intervention system on its terms.

Schools

Occupational therapy, physical therapy and speech-language pathology are related services under IDEA for children who need them to benefit from special education.⁸ School teams work with these therapies as part of children’s programs. Being useful to them, with clear evaluation reports and respect for the IEP team’s role, is how a practice becomes a name they trust.

How do you know whether a listing is paying for itself?

Ask every new family how they found you, write the answer down, and check it against the calculator after three months.

1. Add “How did you hear about us?” to your intake form or first call, with the directory as one of the choices.
2. Count the inquiries that arrive through the listing each month. On DrSensory, each one is in your portal.
3. Record which of those families booked an evaluation.
4. After three months, put the real figures into the calculator above.
5. On a monthly plan you can stop at any point; move to the yearly plan only once the numbers say the listing pays.

A family may find you in one place and call after seeing you in another, so treat the answer as a guide rather than an audit. The question is still the best evidence you will have.

Sources

1. Google. Tips to improve your local ranking on Google (Google Business Profile Help). “There’s no way to request or pay for a better local ranking on Google”; “Local results are mainly based on relevance, distance, and popularity”; “Prominence means how well-known a business is”, and is “based on info like how many websites link to your business and how many reviews you have”; “When you reply to customer reviews, it shows that you value their feedback.” Checked October 6, 2026.
2. Google. Google Business Profile. “Creating a Business Profile and listing your business on Google is free.” Checked October 6, 2026.
3. Lipkin PH, Macias MM; Council on Children With Disabilities, Section on Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics. Promoting optimal development: identifying infants and young children with developmental disorders through developmental surveillance and screening. Pediatrics. 2020;145(1):e20193449. doi:10.1542/peds.2019-3449 (PMID 31843861). Surveillance at every health supervision visit and “standardized screening tests at the 9-, 18-, and 30-month visits”; concerns “should be followed by standardized developmental screening testing or direct referral to intervention and specialty medical care”; surveillance includes “bidirectional communication with early childhood professionals.”
4. Google Search Central. Qualify your outbound links to Google. rel=“sponsored”: “Mark links that are advertisements or paid placements (commonly called paid links) with the sponsored value.” Checked October 6, 2026.
5. Federal Trade Commission. Rule on the Use of Consumer Reviews and Testimonials, 16 CFR Part 465 (89 FR 68077, August 22, 2024). §465.4: it is unfair or deceptive for a business “to provide compensation or other incentives in exchange for, or conditioned expressly or by implication on, the writing or creation of consumer reviews expressing a particular sentiment, whether positive or negative”; §465.2(d): the purchased- and insider-review provisions do not apply to “generalized solicitations to purchasers to post reviews or testimonials about their experiences”; §465.5: an officer or manager who writes a review of their own business must clearly disclose the relationship; §465.7: no one may use “an unfounded or groundless legal threat, a physical threat, intimidation, or a public false accusation” to stop a review or have it removed. Text as published in the eCFR. Checked October 6, 2026.
6. Google. Prohibited and restricted content (Maps User Generated Content Policy), Fake engagement. Merchants may not “Offer incentives – such as payment, discounts, free goods and/or services - in exchange for posting any review”, nor “Discourage or prohibit negative reviews, or selectively solicit positive reviews from customers”; they may “Solicit or encourage the posting of content that does represent a genuine experience, without offering incentives to do so or attempting to influence the rating or the contents of the review.” Checked October 6, 2026.
7. Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, Part C, 34 CFR §303.303. Primary referral sources “include” hospitals, “Physicians”, parents, child care programs, schools, and “Other clinics and health care providers”; a child is to be referred to the Part C program “as soon as possible, but in no case more than seven days, after the child has been identified.” Read at Cornell LII; the eCFR returned 503 that day. Checked October 6, 2026.
8. Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, Part B, 34 CFR §300.34(a). Related services are the “developmental, corrective, and other supportive services as are required to assist a child with a disability to benefit from special education,” and include “speech-language pathology and audiology services” and “physical and occupational therapy.” Text as published in the eCFR. Checked October 6, 2026.

Medical disclaimer. This page is for general educational purposes and does not constitute medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. The worked examples use hypothetical figures, not DrSensory data. The page describes DrSensory’s listing as it works on October 6, 2026, and is not financial, legal or compliance advice.