A website redesign, Google Ads and SEO for a Virginia Beach counseling practice. The first leads arrived on the day the ads launched, and organic search grew from effectively zero to 591 Google clicks.
The previous homepage (archived July 2025 via the Wayback Machine; some images were not archived).
Coastal Virginia Mental Health is a counseling practice in Virginia Beach offering individual, couples, family and court-ordered therapy, in person and online. The practice came to us in early 2026 with two goals: restructure the website, and use ads and online visibility to bring in more new clients.
Organic search traffic was effectively zero. In the months before we started, Semrush estimated between 0 and 6 organic visits a month, and the number of keywords the site ranked for had fallen from 40 in November 2025 to 23 in February 2026, with only 2 on Google’s first page. The practice had never run Google Ads.
A new design and structure with clear messaging for people looking for help, dedicated service and condition pages, and "Book a free consult" throughout.
Launched April 1 with niche positioning, empathy-led ads, local targeting and every call, form and email tracked.
Every inquiry is tracked and routed automatically, so the team can respond quickly and see where new clients come from.
On-page SEO across the new site and an expanded set of optimized pages and articles to grow organic visibility.
The new site speaks directly to potential clients, with a clear promise, online and in-person options, and a “Book a free consult” button that follows visitors through every page.
Services and conditions each have their own pages, which gives Google more relevant pages to rank and gives visitors the answers they need before reaching out.
We launched Google Ads from scratch on April 1. In just under six months, the ads produced 206 leads (form submissions, calls and contact clicks) at an average of $16.96 each, or about one new inquiry a day.
Full months only (April–August 2026). Source: Google Ads.
| April (month 1) | July (month 4) | Change | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ad spend | $608 | $649 | +7% |
| Leads | 25 | 58 | +132% |
| Cost per lead | $24.32 | $11.19 | −54% |
| Click-to-lead rate | 15.7% | 24.7% | +57% |
| Click-through rate | 5.57% | 8.75% | +57% |
Ads built around what makes the practice different, instead of competing on expensive generic "therapist near me" terms. Court-ordered therapy got its own ads and a dedicated landing page.
Messages like "Find a Therapist Who Gets You" and "judgment-free", backed by trust signals: free consultation and online or in-person sessions.
Targeting around Hampton Roads. Virginia Beach and Norfolk alone produced 65% of all leads.
Negative keywords keep ads away from crisis-hotline searches, other practices' names and public agencies, so spend goes to people looking for ongoing therapy.
Form submissions, calls from ads, phone and email clicks are all tracked, giving Google's bidding a complete picture of what brings real inquiries.
We structured the launch to capture Google's promotional credits, including one that funded a Performance Max test almost in full. That test added 21 leads at $9.04 each.
Source: Semrush, US database, February–September 2026.
SEO takes time to build. Rankings held steady while Google processed the new site, then accelerated from June, when the new pages and content started to earn first-page positions.
We set up Google Search Console with the new website, so these numbers are Google’s own data from April onward. Before the redesign, Semrush estimated 0–6 organic visits a month.
Since then, Google has recorded 591 clicks and 54,600 impressions, with an average position of 9.3. Monthly clicks grew from 45 in April to 155 in July, and impressions from 1,153 to 14,400, still climbing in September.
| Month (2026) | Google clicks | Impressions |
|---|---|---|
| April (from Apr 7) | 45 | 1,153 |
| June | 81 | 5,590 |
| July | 155 | 14,400 |
| August | 135 | 12,900 |
| Total since April | 591 | 54,600 |
Source: Google Search Console, web search, April 7 – September 2026.
| Search term | Google position |
|---|---|
| individual therapy virginia | #5 |
| coastal virginia counseling | #7 |
| what is vasap | #9 |
| court ordered counseling | #10 |
| how to communicate better with your partner (18,100 searches/month) | #5 |
Source: Semrush, US database, September 2026. Most of the estimated organic traffic comes from the couples communication article ranking #5 for a high-volume search.
Before working with us, Coastal Virginia Mental Health relied entirely on word of mouth. There was no system for bringing in or tracking new inquiries, and the website was getting essentially no traffic from Google.
Six months in, the practice no longer has to wait and hope for referrals. It has a steady, measurable inflow of people looking for therapy, and room to grow it further by increasing the ad budget.
Book a free 30-minute strategy session. We’ll look at your website, your local market and where your next clients are most likely to come from.
