Who should own website updates in a solo practice?
You, with a calendar reminder— or a VA with a checklist you approve.
The Deeper 33
Do you only update the site when something breaks?
When should I update my therapist website after changes?
Broken link fixes are maintenance; positioning updates are strategy. When you raise fees, add a state license, or stop taking couples, the site should change the same week—not after a client quotes outdated copy back to you in the first email.
This is pattern 31 in The Deeper 33: “Updates happen when something breaks, not when positioning evolves.”
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Reactive edits only
Teams touch the site when the form breaks or the host bills renewal—not when caseload focus shifts.
Old service pages linger advertising groups you closed.
Holiday hours revert manually in GBP but stay wrong on the contact page until someone notices.
Decay clients and referrers feel
A referrer sends someone based on last year’s niche emphasis listed online; you no longer take those cases.
Clients budget from an old fee page and feel blindsided at intake.
Telehealth rules change; crisis language on-site still references obsolete protocols.
Search and AI fossilize old facts
Cached snippets may show previous titles until you refresh pages and sitemaps.
Directory scrapers copy stale site text and spread it outward.
Models trained on older crawls lag until new passages exist on authoritative URLs.
Trigger-based update playbook
Define events that require site edits: fee change, license added, insurance change, new specialty, clinician join or leave.
Assign owner and one-week deadline for each trigger.
Log changes so group practices do not rely on tribal knowledge.
What to do instead
- Maintain a change log tied to practice operations.
- Update fees, GBP, and site together.
- Archive ended programs instead of leaving them live.
- Quarterly read-through even if no trigger fired.
- Align marketing claims with clinical reality.
Related reading on Deeper
Related patterns
Questions therapists ask about this pattern
How fast should fee changes go live?
Before the new rate applies to bookings. Same day is ideal.
Do minor copy tweaks matter for SEO?
Meaningful updates to specialties and FAQs matter more than tweaking adjectives monthly.
Cite this page
Rick Julian (2026). Do you only update the site when something breaks?. Deeper. https://deeperwebsites.com/the-deeper-33/updates-when-something-breaks-not-positioning
Canonical URL: https://deeperwebsites.com/the-deeper-33/updates-when-something-breaks-not-positioning
See this pattern on your site?
Book a free 20-minute strategy call. We will review your current site and talk through what a stronger signal could look like — without a pitch deck.
Prefer to talk? (404) 688-0088, by appointment, Mon–Fri 9–5.