Addiction treatment centers must balance Google's healthcare content policies with the urgency of reaching people who need help. Here's the compliant local SEO strategy that gets your facility found.
Before you touch anything else on your Google Business Profile for an addiction treatment center, there's one thing you need to check: whether your listing is correctly categorized and whether your website content meets Google's healthcare content policies. In this category more than almost any other, getting these two things wrong doesn't just hurt your rankings, it can get your listing removed entirely.
Addiction treatment is a high-stakes, high-scrutiny search category. Google applies additional review to healthcare-adjacent content, the FTC has specific rules about treatment marketing, and SAMHSA has guidelines about what constitutes appropriate patient-facing content. Local SEO for treatment centers works differently from local SEO for most other businesses because of this, the strategy that works here is built around compliance first, visibility second.
A related read on reputation is HIPAA-compliant review management.
Addiction treatment marketing is governed by overlapping regulations:
Google's healthcare content policies: Google restricts ads for addiction treatment (requiring LegitScript certification for paid search), and applies enhanced review to organic content in this category. Misleading claims about treatment outcomes, insurance coverage, or admission guarantees can result in content removal.
FTC guidelines: The FTC has taken enforcement action against addiction treatment facilities that used deceptive marketing practices including false outcome claims, misleading insurance information, and fake testimonials. All patient testimonials must be genuine and accurately represent typical outcomes.
SAMHSA guidance: The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration provides content guidance for addiction treatment communications. Avoid language that stigmatizes addiction (e.g., "addict," "junkie"), and use person-first language ("person with a substance use disorder") where appropriate in public-facing content.
State licensing requirements: Each state has its own addiction treatment facility licensing board with specific requirements for facility representation in marketing materials.
⚠️ Common Mistake: Claiming specific recovery rates (e.g., "90% of our patients achieve long-term sobriety") without statistical documentation. This constitutes an outcome claim that the FTC has targeted in enforcement actions. Use outcome language that accurately represents what treatment can offer without implying guarantees.
Primary GBP category: "Addiction treatment center" or "Rehabilitation center", check which is available in your area and matches your primary service.
Secondary categories based on your services:
Your GBP description should focus on the services and approach you offer without making outcome claims: "Phoenix's accredited addiction treatment center offering medically supervised detox, residential and outpatient programs, and integrated mental health services. CARF accredited. Accepts most insurance."
That description covers service types, credentials, and insurance availability, the three things people searching for treatment typically check first.
Photos for treatment facilities should build trust and show the environment:
🔥 Quick Win: Add your CARF or Joint Commission accreditation status to your GBP description. Accreditation is a primary trust signal for people choosing a treatment facility, and it differentiates you from unaccredited competitors.
Addiction treatment website content must satisfy two audiences simultaneously: the person in crisis looking for immediate help, and Google's content quality evaluation systems.
What to include on service pages:
What to avoid:
Location pages for multi-facility organizations: Each treatment location should have its own dedicated page with location-specific NAP, staff profiles for that facility's team, and state licensing information for that location.
💡 Pro Tip: Create a dedicated "Admissions" page that walks through the exact steps of calling your facility, what happens in the first call, what information you'll need, how quickly admission can happen. This page reduces the friction of first contact for people who are in crisis and uncertain about what to expect.
Addiction treatment review management requires the same HIPAA compliance approach covered in the healthcare review management guide, with additional sensitivity considerations.
Review requests for treatment centers: You can ask alumni (former patients) to share their experience, but the timing and approach require care. For residential treatment, the safest approach is reaching out to alumni through your alumni program at 6, 12, and 24-month milestones, when they're in stable recovery and can genuinely speak to long-term outcomes.
Never request reviews from patients who are still in active treatment, and never reference specific treatment details or status in the request.
Responding to reviews: Follow the HIPAA-compliant response framework: never confirm someone was a patient, never reference their treatment, and never respond to details about their care. A generic "We're grateful for people who share their experiences, we're here to support everyone on their recovery journey" does not confirm patient status.
Negative reviews claiming harm or substandard care: These require careful handling. Respond with empathy and a private contact invitation. Never dispute clinical details publicly. If the review contains factually false claims about your facility, consult legal counsel before responding.
⚠️ Common Mistake: Responding to a review in a way that confirms the reviewer received treatment. "We're sorry your stay with us didn't meet your expectations" confirms patient status, this is a HIPAA violation regardless of whether you meant to disclose it.
Addiction treatment local citations fall into two distinct groups, general business directories and behavioral-health-specific platforms, and treatment centers need both to build a complete authority signal.
| Citation Type | Platform | Why It Matters |
|---|---|---|
| General | Google Business Profile | Primary local ranking signal, required foundation |
| General | Yelp | Many people specifically search Yelp for treatment options |
| General | Facebook Business Page | Trust signal, family members often check here first |
| General | BBB | Accreditation-adjacent trust signal |
| Behavioral health | SAMHSA findtreatment.gov | Federally maintained, appears first for many crisis searches |
| Behavioral health | Psychology Today treatment finder | High-authority healthcare directory |
| Behavioral health | Healthgrades | Widely checked for provider verification |
| Behavioral health | NAATP member directory | Signals industry accreditation and peer standing |
| Behavioral health | State behavioral health authority directory | Required for licensing visibility in your state |
| Behavioral health | LegitScript certification listing | Required for paid search, doubles as an organic trust signal |
The SAMHSA Treatment Locator carries the most weight of any single citation here, it's the first result Google surfaces for many "find addiction treatment near me" searches, and being listed there provides both a citation signal and direct referral traffic.
🛠️ Action Step: Go to findtreatment.gov and search for your facility. If it's not listed or has outdated information, claim and update it today. This is a federally maintained directory that carries significant authority for treatment-related searches.
Patient-facing search isn't the only channel that matters. A meaningful share of admissions come through clinician and case manager referrals, therapists, primary care doctors, hospital discharge planners, and EAP counselors searching for a facility to refer a client to.
This audience searches differently than someone in personal crisis. They look for verifiable credentials (CARF or Joint Commission accreditation, licensed staff credentials, specific levels of care offered), insurance and admissions logistics they can relay to a client accurately, and a professional referral contact, not just a general admissions line.
What helps here: a dedicated "For Referring Providers" page listing accepted insurance, levels of care, typical admission timeline, and a direct referral line separate from general admissions. Being listed on NAATP's provider directory and your state's behavioral health authority directory (both already part of your citation stack in Step 4) also feeds this audience directly, since referring clinicians frequently check these directories before making a recommendation.
💡 Pro Tip: If your facility doesn't have a referral-specific contact and page yet, this is often a faster win than patient-facing SEO, referring clinicians convert at a much higher rate than cold organic search traffic, and the content required is straightforward: credentials, levels of care, and a direct line.
People searching for addiction treatment are often in crisis, searching late at night, from a family member's phone, after a traumatic event. Your local SEO and website must be optimized for this reality.
"Open now" and 24/7 availability: If your admissions line is available 24/7 (it should be for residential treatment), your GBP hours should reflect this. "24 hours" in your hours settings captures "open now" filters that people in crisis specifically use.
Crisis-specific content: A dedicated "What to do in a crisis" or "Immediate help" page that provides clear, actionable steps, your 24/7 admissions number prominently displayed, and the national Substance Abuse Helpline number (1-800-662-4357). This page should be optimized for "addiction help near me" and "drug treatment now" type searches.
Mobile optimization priority: Crisis searches are almost entirely mobile, often on someone else's phone. Your contact information must be tap-to-call, your admissions form must be simple (name and phone is enough, don't require 10 fields), and your page must load in under 3 seconds.
Structured data for healthcare: Use MedicalOrganization schema (a subtype of LocalBusiness) for treatment centers. Include your medical director, accepted insurance, and specific conditions treated where schema supports it.
Flento's Business Listing Management Software includes healthcare directories in its citation audit, including Healthgrades and Psychology Today. For treatment centers that have been operating under different ownership or have changed names, citation inconsistency is especially common and especially damaging, the audit identifies and prioritizes corrections.
The review management system for healthcare includes HIPAA-compliant response templates specifically reviewed for addiction treatment center use cases.
✅ Done? Manage your treatment center's review and citation presence with Flento → [Try Flento free]
Can addiction treatment centers run Google Ads? Yes, but Google requires LegitScript certification for addiction treatment advertising. The application process includes verifying licensing, accreditation, and compliance with Google's healthcare advertising policies.
How do we get more Google reviews from alumni without violating HIPAA? Request reviews through your alumni program at defined milestone intervals (6 months, 1 year) using generic language that doesn't reference their treatment status. Alumni who proactively choose to share their story in a public review have effectively waived the privacy expectation for that information.
Should we respond to reviews that discuss specific treatment details? Do not acknowledge, confirm, or add to any treatment details in your response. A brief, empathetic response that invites direct follow-up without referencing the review's content is the compliant approach.
How important is the SAMHSA treatment locator for local SEO? Very important. It's a high-authority citation that ranks well for treatment search queries and drives direct referral traffic. Every licensed treatment facility should have an accurate listing.
What schema type should treatment centers use? Use "MedicalOrganization" as the @type in your JSON-LD schema, it's more specific than "LocalBusiness" and signals to Google that you're a healthcare entity subject to enhanced content standards.
What makes local SEO for treatment centers different from local SEO for other healthcare providers? The compliance layer is heavier. Beyond standard local SEO (GBP, citations, reviews), treatment centers must navigate Google's healthcare advertising restrictions, FTC rules against outcome claims, SAMHSA's person-first language guidance, and HIPAA in every review interaction. Skipping the compliance foundation before working on visibility is the most common and most costly mistake in this category.
How do we generate more clinician referrals for our treatment center through SEO? Build a dedicated page for referring providers that lists accreditation, levels of care, accepted insurance, and a direct referral contact separate from general admissions. Make sure your NAATP and state behavioral health authority directory listings are current, referring clinicians check these before recommending a facility. This channel often converts faster than patient-facing organic search because the referrer has already done the vetting work.
