The Shift Monthly Report

The 5 numbers that matter most

At a glance: where you stand today, and how far along you are toward your 90-day goals. Same 5 numbers appear in every report so you can track progress over time.

About the goals. These are 90-day stretch targets set from your May 2026 baseline. Two of the original goals had already been cleared by May (calls had hit 8, the target was 8), so we raised them. A goal you have already passed is not a real goal. Every target here is designed to be ambitious but achievable with the current plan in place.

Where we were, where we are, where we're going

Your progress at a glance, and the plan behind it.

Where we started🌫️

Early 2026

Ranking mostly outside the top 10 on the local map. Hard for new clients to find you unless they already knew your name. Website largely invisible to search.

Where we are now📈

June 2026

Right now you have 51% local map coverage across tracked areas and a search presence that is generating over 4,300 impressions each month. Visits and calls were softer in June, but your #4 AI recommendation rank out of 912 practices and a perfect 5-star rating give you a genuinely strong foundation to build from.

What's about to change🚀

Your new website

Your new website is built and in review with your team now, designed to turn more visitors into booked clients and earn the engagement signals that lift authority and rankings.

How we get there🛠️

The plan

Website launch, a keyword pivot from "play therapy" to the terms parents actually search, and dedicated Humble-area content pages for the 91 keywords not yet ranking.

Your Google listing (Google Business Profile)

What happened when people found you on Google Maps or in local search results. June 2026 compared with May 2026.

📞 Calls from your Google listing

▼ Down 50% (was 8)

The most direct signal of real client interest: calls placed straight from your Google listing.

🖱️ Clicks to your website from the listing

▼ Down 7% (was 58)

Taps from your Google listing directly to your website. Distinct from search visits (Section 5), which measure people who arrived via Google search results, not the listing button.

🧭 Direction requests

▼ Down 11% (was 27)

People who asked Google Maps for directions to your office. This metric fluctuates naturally. We explain the likely cause below.

👀 Profile views

859

▼ Down 9% (was 945)

Times your business listing appeared on Google Maps or in local results. Some decline in impressions is expected given the context below.

Why some numbers declined, and what we're doing about it. June was a softer month across the profile numbers, and it is worth being straight about that. Calls, listing clicks, directions, and profile views all eased off from May, a pattern consistent with the usual early-summer slowdown in counseling searches. The structural lever has not changed: the current website does not send the engagement signals (time on page, scrolling, actions taken) that tell Google a listing deserves higher map placement. The rebuilt site, now in your hands for review, is designed to fix exactly that, and getting it live is the single biggest thing we can do together to turn these numbers.

Your local map presence

When someone nearby searches for a therapist, where do you appear on Google Maps? Measured at 84 points across a 5-mile area around your office. Lower position number = better (position 1 = the top result).

~10%

of nearby searches, you appear in the top 3 results

Across all 10 tracked terms, 84 of 840 measurement points land in the top 3. Your strongest term here, "best therapist near me," reaches 32%.

~51%

of nearby searches, you appear in the top 7 results

Across all 10 tracked terms, 428 of 840 measurement points land in the top 7. That ranges from 75% on "relationship counseling" down to terms still building toward the top 7.

Where you rank on the map, search by search

For each term we track, the bar shows your average map position today (lower number is better), and under each term you will see how many people in the Houston area search it each month (local demand, not national), so rank and opportunity read together in one place. Right below it, the two maps are your first scan in February (left) and your latest (right). Each point is your Google Maps rank at that spot: green means near the top, red means not. Watch the red give way to green.

Strong (avg position 1-7) Competitive (avg position 8-10) Building (position 10+ or not ranking)

Holding strong over time. Your strongest term, "relationship counseling," is holding an average map position of about 7, right where it has sat for several months. Consistency near the top of a competitive local market is the hard part, and it is holding.

What to expect next. Your average position across all 10 tracked terms is about 11 this month. The biggest opportunity is unchanged: adding Humble-area content pages for the terms where you are not yet ranking. More on that in the Plan section.

Action item: the "play therapy" pivot. "Play therapy near me" gets almost no searches because it is the clinical term, not what parents type. Parents search "child therapist near me" (42,900/mo US), "teen therapist near me" (19,800/mo US), and "child counseling near me" (13,450/mo US). Your instinct was exactly right. Our recommendation: retire "play therapy" as a primary target keyword and shift all child and family content to these three higher-demand terms. The search demand is real, large, and, for two of the three, the competition is medium, not overwhelming. This is the kind of pivot that moves rankings within 90 days.

Visits from Google search

How your website performs in regular Google results, beyond the map. June 2026 compared with May 2026.

🔎 Visits from Google search

▼ Down 28% (was 95)

People who searched Google and clicked through to your site. This is distinct from listing clicks (Section 3), which come from your Google business card, not search results.

👁️ Times your pages were shown

4,382

▲ Up 1% (was 4,331)

How many times your pages appeared in Google search results this month, across all devices.

🎯 How often people clicked

1.6%

▼ Down 29% (was 2.2%)

The share of people who saw you in search results and clicked through to your site.

📍 Average search position

18.9

▼ Was 14.1

Your average ranking across every search where your site appeared. Lower is better: position 1 is the top of Google. New pages enter low and pull this average down before they climb. More context below.

📄 Pages listed by Google

▲ Growing

Google has indexed 68 of your pages with zero errors or warnings. As we add local content, this number grows, and so do your chances of ranking for more searches.

One number to read in context: average search position. The average position moved from 14.1 to 18.9 this month. Two honest drivers: newly indexed pages enter the rankings low and pull the average down before they climb, and your pages appeared in slightly more searches while earning fewer clicks, which usually means showing up for terms where you are not yet near the top. The fix is the same one powering the map plan: dedicated Humble-area pages that can rank in the top 10 for terms people actually search.

Keyword rankings: what's on page 1 right now

Of 100 tracked keywords, 5 are on page 1 (top 10). Each page-1 term below shows your position and how many people search it each month. The 95 not yet ranking are largely the "Humble TX" set, which is the biggest near-term opportunity.

Where the untapped search demand is

The flip side of the list above: the tracked local terms with the most monthly searches where you are not yet on page 1. A high ranking on a term nobody types is worth less than page 1 on a term people search every day. This is the gap the dedicated local pages are built to close.

Why 95 of 100 keywords are not yet ranking. These are mostly Humble-area geo terms (couples counseling humble tx, grief counseling humble tx, marriage counseling humble tx, etc.) that need dedicated local pages. Creating targeted Humble location pages is one of the plan items in the Plan section below.

Is Atascocita a better geo reference? You asked whether Atascocita is a better geo reference. We pulled the numbers. As a typed Google search, Atascocita is nearly invisible: terms like "therapist atascocita tx" and "atascocita counseling" measure at fewer than 10 searches a month. Kingwood terms carry about 210 a month each and Humble terms run 50 to 90. So for search pages, Humble and Kingwood are the geo names worth targeting. Where Atascocita does earn its keep is in AI answers: when people describe your area to an AI assistant ("counselor near Atascocita"), you already rank in the top 3, and the AI section below shows it.

When people ask AI for a therapist

A fast-growing number of people now skip the search bar and ask an AI assistant directly for help. This section shows whether those assistants recommend you, and how often.

of 912 practices tracked, you are among the most-recommended in your area

Only one genuine local practice outranks you. The other entries above you are national directories, not local competitors.

Who you are being compared against (and what they actually are)

The rank below separates national directories and brands from genuine local practices in your area. That distinction matters because competing with a national directory is a very different challenge than competing with a local clinic.

Rank	Name	Type	AI Visibility
1	Psychology Today	National directory	19.9
2	cbt.com	National info site	13.7
3	Atascocita Counseling	Local practice	11.0
4	The Shift (you)	You	6.7
5	LifeStance	National brand	5.5
6	Thriveworks	National brand	5.5
7	therapists.com	National brand	5.2
8	phyllingstherapy.com	National brand	4.7

Only one genuine local practice (Atascocita Counseling) outranks you. Every other entry above or near you is a national directory or brand. In terms of local counselors, you are effectively #2.

💬 How often AI mentions you

6.4%

▲ Up from 6.2%

Of all the relevant local therapy answers sampled across the AI platforms this period, you appeared in 6.4%. The number of questions sampled varies month to month, so this percentage, not a raw count, is the reliable measure.

😊 How positively AI describes you

73.9/100

▼ Down from 81.6

A score of how favorable the wording is when AI talks about you. Anything above 70 is solidly positive territory.

🤖 AI assistants tracked

Monitored

ChatGPT, Copilot, Google AI Mode, Gemini, and Perplexity. Claude is not yet covered by this monitoring tool. See note below.

A note on Claude. You asked whether Claude (Anthropic) is included. The monitoring tool covers the assistants listed above. Claude is not one of the assistants this tool currently tracks. That does not mean you do not appear in Claude responses, it means we cannot measure it yet. We will flag when that changes.

How you appear on each AI platform

Visibility by platform

How often you appear when that assistant gets a relevant local therapy question. Higher bar = more often recommended.

Real questions where AI recommends you

These are actual questions people ask AI assistants, where The Shift appears in the top results. Rank shows where you sit in the answer's recommendations.

SoV = share of voice When an AI assistant answers one of these questions, it usually recommends a few practices, not just one. Share of voice is how much of that answer belongs to you. A SoV of 50 means about half the recommendation is yours. One thing AI tools do not report is how many people ask each question, so there is no search-volume number for AI like there is for Google. Rank and share of voice here, plus the visibility percentage above, give the clearest picture of your AI presence.

🔗 Where the AI gets its information

When an AI assistant decides who to recommend, it does not rely on your website alone. It pulls from across the web: other authoritative sites that mention you, online directories and citations, your reviews, press and articles, and your social and Google posts, all weighed against the much larger body of information these models are trained on.

Your own website is one piece of that, and on its own it is the weakest signal, because AI leans on outside, independent sources to confirm that what your site says is trustworthy. That is why the work off your website matters so much: citations, links and mentions from respected sites, press, guest articles, and steady social and Google activity. The more the wider web vouches for you, the more confidently AI recommends you, and that is a core part of what we are building.

Your reputation

What people say about you on Google.

5.0

★★★★★

A perfect rating across all 12 reviews.

Every review has been responded to. That responsiveness builds trust with potential clients and is a positive signal for local rankings. The best next step is a steady flow of new reviews from happy clients, even a few per month compounds quickly over time.

What we are doing to get there

The work behind the numbers: what is underway and what is coming next.

In progress

🌐

Website rebuild

Rebuilding your site to guide visitors toward booking, strengthen engagement signals, and earn the authority that lifts local and AI rankings. Website launch is the next major milestone.

Starting next

🔄

Keyword pivot: child and teen therapist

"Play therapy near me" has zero search demand. We are shifting all child and family content to "child therapist near me" (42,900/mo), "teen therapist near me" (19,800/mo), and "child counseling near me" (13,450/mo), where parents actually search.

Starting next

📍

Humble-area content pages

95 of 100 tracked keywords are not yet ranking. Almost all of them are Humble geo terms (couples counseling Humble TX, grief counseling Humble TX, etc.). Dedicated local pages for these terms are the clearest path to more page-1 rankings quickly.

Ongoing

⭐

Google listing and reviews

Keeping your profile up to date, posting regular updates, and encouraging reviews from satisfied clients. The goal is 25+ reviews by the end of the 90-day cycle.