South Dakota at a glance
| Rule | South Dakota | Checked |
|---|---|---|
| PSYPACT (psychologists) | Yes | 8 October 2026 |
| Counseling Compact (counselors) | Yes, not live yet | 8 October 2026 |
| Social Work Licensure Compact | Enacted, not issuing licenses yet | 8 October 2026 |
| Health-data or health geofencing law | None | 30 September 2026 |
| Privacy law treating health data as sensitive | None | 30 September 2026 |
South Dakota licensing boards’ advertising rules
Ads, websites and directory profiles all count as advertising to a licensing board. These are the South Dakota rules we check copy against, with links to the official text. Boards update their rules, so read the current version before you rely on a summary.
Every South Dakota healing arts practitioner
- Anyone practicing a healing art who uses the title "doctor" or a contraction of it in business materials or advertising must add after their name the abbreviation or name of the healing-art branch in which they are licensed. (SDCL 36-4-23)
South Dakota Board of Medical and Osteopathic Examiners
- Unprofessional or dishonorable conduct for physicians includes any advertising of a medical business that makes untruthful or improbable statements or is calculated to mislead or deceive the public. (SDCL 36-4-30(5))
South Dakota Board of Examiners for Counselors and Marriage and Family Therapists
- Advertising about the practice of counseling may not be fraudulent or misleading, and a violation is a Class 1 misdemeanor. (SDCL 36-32-60)
Telehealth across South Dakota's borders
South Dakota is a PSYPACT state. A psychologist whose home license is in South Dakota can apply for PSYPACT's telepsychology authorization and then see clients by telehealth in the other PSYPACT states, so ads can reach clients there too.
South Dakota has enacted the Counseling Compact, but it wasn't live here yet when we checked. Once it is, a licensed professional counselor based here can apply for privileges to practice in other member states instead of a separate license in each.
It has also enacted the Social Work Licensure Compact, which isn't issuing multistate licenses yet; the compact's commission expects its licensing system in 2027.
For physicians, psychiatrists included, South Dakota is in the Interstate Medical Licensure Compact, which speeds up getting a license in other member states but doesn't replace it.
Telehealth ads should only reach places where the clinician can legally treat: see PSYPACT and Counseling Compact states.
Practices near a state line often see clients from next door. North Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, Wyoming and Montana each have their own page.
Health data, tracking and South Dakota law
South Dakota has no comprehensive consumer privacy law or consumer health data law in effect as of 30 September 2026. Federal rules and a practice's own HIPAA duties still apply.
This is not legal advice.
How the states compare: state health-data laws.
What patients search for in South Dakota
Searches a month that name a South Dakota city, with the average cost per click, from Ahrefs (checked between 30 September and 5 October 2026). A dash means too few to measure; “near me” searches aren't counted. The Statewide row is searches that name the state.
| City | Therapist | Psychiatrist | Ketamine | IOP | Weight loss | GI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sioux Falls | 200 $3.00 | 40 $2.50 | 50 $2.50 | 20 | 200 | 20 $1.10 |
| Rapid City | 30 $1.60 | 40 $5.00 | 90 $4.00 | – | 60 | 30 $0.80 |
| Statewide | – | 40 | 30 | – | – | – |
Of the cities measured, Sioux Falls gets the most of these searches. Its biggest single search, “therapist sioux falls”, gets about 200 a month. To turn a cost per click into a cost per booked patient, put your own numbers into the patient acquisition cost calculator.
Across the searches measured here, South Dakota patients look most for medical weight loss (about 260 a month), then therapists (230). Sioux Falls alone accounts for 62% of them. A click on a therapist search here costs about $2.82 on average, below the $4.00 median across the 306 therapist searches measured on our state pages.
Fill The Lobby is a remote US healthcare marketing agency; the ads and pages we write for practices are checked against rules like these. See how we handle compliance.
Sources
- PSYPACT, compact map, checked 8 October 2026
- Counseling Compact, member map, checked 8 October 2026
- Counseling Compact, 10 states now offering privileges, checked 8 October 2026
- Counseling Compact, Pennsylvania becomes the 40th member, checked 8 October 2026
- Social Work Licensure Compact, enacted in 35 states, checked 8 October 2026
- Interstate Medical Licensure Compact, participating states, checked 14 October 2026
- IAPP, US State Privacy Legislation Tracker, checked 30 September 2026
- Ahrefs Keywords Explorer, US search volumes and cost per click, checked 30 September 2026
- Every South Dakota healing arts practitioner, checked 5 October 2026
- South Dakota Board of Medical and Osteopathic Examiners, checked 5 October 2026
- South Dakota Board of Examiners for Counselors and Marriage and Family Therapists, checked 5 October 2026