If you run a healthcare practice, a training program, a certification body, or any organization where people need to find a qualified provider, you've probably hit the same wall with Squarespace: there's no built-in way for visitors to search by specialty, location, or credentials.
A provider directory gives visitors a way to find the right person on their own. Search by name or condition, filter by specialty or insurance, and connect directly. This works whether you're listing 10 therapists at a group practice, 80 certified practitioners across a national program, or 200+ physicians in a healthcare network.
Here's how to set one up on Squarespace with EmbedDirectory. About 15 minutes.
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Choosing the Right Fields
The fields you choose determine what visitors can see and filter by. We've set up hundreds of provider directories across mental health practices, medical networks, and wellness associations. Here's what actually gets used.
Core fields for any provider directory:
- Name (included by default)
- Photo for a professional headshot or profile image. Visitors want to see who they're considering before reaching out
- Specialty as a tags field. Use specific terms your visitors will search for: "Anxiety," "Couples Therapy," "Postpartum Care," "Pediatrics," "ADHD." Broad categories like "Therapy" or "General Practice" don't give visitors enough to filter on
- Location, whether that's city and state, county, or a full office address
- Contact or booking link as a button field pointing to a scheduling page, intake form, or contact page
Additional fields depending on your organization:
- Insurance accepted as a tags field. This is one of the most-used filters in healthcare directories. Visitors want to know before they click through
- Telehealth / In-Person availability. A quick indicator so visitors can filter by format
- Bio as a textarea field. Two to three sentences in the listing card, with the full profile available on the detail page
- Credentials: license type, certifications, years of experience
- Languages spoken. For multi-location practices or national directories, this comes up more than you'd expect
- Age groups served if your providers specialize by age (children, adolescents, adults, geriatric)
Configure these in Listing Fields. Fields can be added or reordered later, so start with what you know visitors need and build from there.
A counseling practice described their goal as letting clients "filter their search by insurance, location, presenting problems, and type of therapy sought" and then "easily be able to book an appointment." That search, filter, connect flow is exactly what you're building here.
Adding Provider Listings
Where does your provider data live right now? That determines the fastest path.
Most organizations already have everything in a spreadsheet or exported from a practice management system. If that's you, go to Import, upload the CSV, and map columns to your fields. Done. One healthcare organization imported over 80 practitioners in a single step.
For smaller teams starting fresh, add providers one at a time in Manage Listings. Each profile takes a couple of minutes with the fields already set up.
There's a third path worth knowing about: you can let practitioners submit their own profiles. Connect a form builder (JotForm, Typeform, or Tally) and submissions go to your approval queue. Nothing publishes until you review it.
More detail in the spreadsheet import guide and the form builder overview.
Configuring Search and Filters
In Widget Settings, add the filters that match your fields:
- Search bar covering Name, Description, and Location. People will type provider names, conditions, or cities
- Dropdown on Specialty. Hook it to your specialty tags field. Across every provider directory we've worked with, this is the filter that gets used most
- Dropdown on Insurance if you set that up as a tags field. Heavy use in healthcare directories
- Telehealth toggle. On/off switch. Simple
Three to four filters is usually the right number. Don't overdo it. A 15-person practice needs a search bar and maybe one dropdown. A 200+ provider network benefits from insurance and telehealth filters on top of that.
Grid layout works best here. Visitors scan headshots, names, and specialties at a glance, then click for the full profile. List view is fine if photos aren't a priority for your directory.
Match your brand colors in the widget settings. You want this to feel like part of your Squarespace site, not something external.
Embedding on Squarespace
- Copy your embed code from Embed
- In Squarespace, navigate to the page where the directory will live. Or create a new page titled something like "Find a Provider" or "Our Practitioners"
- Add a new block by clicking the + icon
- Select Code from the block menu
- Paste the embed code and click Apply
- Save the page
Give the directory its own dedicated page. The search bar, filters, and results need space to work properly, especially on mobile.
Code Blocks require at least a Squarespace Business plan. Personal plans don't support custom code embeds. Check your plan under Settings, then Site & Language, then Site plan.
Adding a Map View
For directories where providers are spread across multiple locations, a map view helps visitors find someone nearby. One perinatal health network planning their directory noted that "a map showing where each person in the directory is located would be ideal."
To enable it:
- Make sure each provider listing includes an address
- Enable the map in Map Settings
- Create a free Mapbox account and add your access token
- Choose a map position. "Left" works well on wider layouts, "top" for narrower pages
If your providers are all at one location or primarily offer telehealth, you can skip the map entirely.
After Publishing
Add a link in your Squarespace navigation. "Find a Provider," "Our Therapists," or "Provider Directory" all work. Don't make people hunt for it.
Check the analytics after a couple weeks. You'll see which filters get used and which providers get the most views. Common pattern: everyone filters by insurance, nobody touches a toggle you thought was important. Let the data guide what stays.
One thing that's easy to forget: keep profiles current. A provider leaves, their listing should come down that week. Stale directories erode trust quickly. If you set up self-registration through a form builder, providers handle their own updates and this is less of a concern.
Questions about matching the directory to your Squarespace theme? Email hello@embeddirectory.com with a link to your page and we can help with styling.