Search engine optimization (SEO) is about much more than keywords. You may be already using targeted keywords to improve search results for your therapy website, but is your SEO perfect?
SEO for therapists is no different than SEO for most other websites. It’s based on some fundamental rules that outlast search engine algorithm changes. The thing about SEO is that you just can’t do it once and then forget about it. Rather, it’s an ongoing process that requires cyclical checkups, just as your car does.
When you neglect your SEO, it shows in your search engine ranking. You fall below more SEO-active competitors and can even drop from the first page of the results (if you’re there already). This can be a big blow for any therapy practice today, when so many people use web searches to find local services.
Improve your therapy website SEO by making sure you’re not repeating the critical SEO mistakes below.
If you create all your website content yourself, it may be hard to consider it objectively. Try to separate yourself a moment from it and ask yourself the following questions:
If the answer to one or more of these questions is no, you need better content. This can mean hiring a freelance editor to improve your content, or a freelancer writer to create it for you.
As a therapist, you may not have enough time to write enough content. When that happens, outsourcing it makes for better SEO for therapists than neglecting it, or creating something rushed just for the sake of having content.
Weak or inaccurate keywords can hurt your SEO ranking. The best SEO for therapists is based on rigorous keyword research. Without researching keywords, you may be surprised to discover that your clients use totally different search terms than you have imagined.
Keyword research will also help you determine the optimal length for your keyword phrases and the precise location you should be targeting based on the website traffic you’re getting. Investing in professional keyword research before launching your therapy website SEO campaign can prove to be an excellent investment.
Bad links are bad not only for therapist SEO, but especially for your website and blog readers. Imagine that one of your blog posts or service pages features a call to action that invites clients to contact you for an appointment. If the link is broken, some of the readers, if not most, won’t take the trouble to click on your contact page.
Other broken links that can be especially harmful are those to services pages, social media pages, and to external websites such as organizations that verify your accreditation or an accolade you have received.
You don’t have to hunt for broken links. You can use a free link checker to quickly identify broken links.
Search engines cannot make sense of images without an Alt tag. This tag is essentially a brief description of what an image is about. For best therapy website SEO practices, include your keywords in the Alt tag. But remember again that you want to avoid duplicate tags – try as much as possible to write unique Alt tags for every image on your website and blog. This includes images on your homepage, services pages, testimonials section, or contact page. WordPress makes Alt-tagging easy whenever you upload a new image to your website.
The URL is the web address of every page on your website, and looks something like www.website.com/soho-therapy-services/anger-management. Notice how clean and simple this structure is. Google can make sense of it. But how different things would be if instead it looked like www.website.com/services-services-cheap/4583447?
Apart from being clean, a good URL structure includes your keyword phrase (soho therapy services in the example above) and is relevant to the page it stands for. One thing to keep in mind is that your URL structure may keep branching as your therapy website grows. Best therapy website SEO practices entail that you check the URL structure frequently and name pages accordingly.
How fast your therapy website loads and how well it runs on mobile devices is a key SEO ranking factor. We won’t go into the details of how Google figures this out, but it does. What this means is that even if your website is full of great content and you avoid all the other five critical SEO mistakes above, it may still not rank well if it’s not mobile-friendly.
The simplest way to make your therapy website mobile-friendly is to use a responsive theme that can scale down images. Test your website on both smartphones and tablets to make sure. Also important is to use a good web hosting provider. It’s worth paying a little extra money to get a high-performance hosting server that can retrieve your files fast.
SEO for therapists does require work, but it’s straightforward enough. You begin by making sure that your content is as good as you can make it, and that your title tags, meta tags, and URL structure are all clean and relevant. You avoid using ineffective keywords that can dilute or harm your SEO. You don’t neglect broken links or Alt tags, either, but make sure they do their work. Lastly, you optimize your website for mobile devices with a responsive theme, to make it accessible to all web users.
All this may seem like plenty of work, but remember that you can break down these jobs into smaller tasks, working on one thing at a time. A good quality theme will help you control many of these issues. And if you just don’t have time to do any therapy website SEO, you can always outsource it. It’s an investment that pays
When you create a therapist blog, there’s one thing you must remember – most other good therapists already have a blog. Their blogs have been around for longer than yours, which means they enjoy a better SEO ranking and a more solid online reputation. In other words, for your blog to get noticed, you have to make it stand out.
This requires first of all a good understanding of what makes your practice different from all the other practices in your area. Is it your specialization? The care you offer your clients? The good pricing? Make sure you integrate that into your blog. Build your content and your calls to action on your unique benefits.
Here are some ways in which you can increase therapist blog engagement. Let them inspire you to create a more compelling blog.
A blog is a powerful marketing tool for therapists when it successfully connects them to their clients. Clients come to your blog to learn more about your practice and find solutions to their problems. They are not that interested in mental health news that doesn’t concern them, therapist conferences, or any specialized subjects not easily understood.
Remember that first and foremost, your blog is most effective when it’s used as a social, not professional platform. Keep the language simple and the topics accessible.
Today, many people read blogs on the go on their smartphones and tablets, while they travel or commute. If your therapist blog doesn’t run flawlessly on mobile devices, you are losing traffic and possibly clients. The simplest way to ensure anyone can access your website on mobile is to run it on a platform like WordPress and choose a responsive theme (note: Therapist Marketing designs are built on WordPress and checked regularly to maximize device responsiveness). Test the theme on your own mobile device to see how it performs. Make sure the images load properly and that the font is easy to read and can be easily magnified.
Visitors will more easily interact with you if they can see your photo and read a friendly description of yourself. If you only offer them an enumeration of qualifications and hide behind your practice logo, like some therapists do, it will be harder to connect with them. The voice behind your posts is also crucial. Leave out any psychobabble and speak openly.
Don’t be afraid to share details from your life. It will invite your readers to open up. Take the time to create an About page that presents you not only as a professional, but also as a person. If you feel comfortable in front of a camera, consider recording a video of yourself greeting visitors. It not only makes a more powerful impression, but is good for search engine optimization, too.
Even if you share your practice with one or two other professionals, it’s still important for each of you to have your own identity. Feature photos and bios accordingly.
Visitors to your therapist blog will run a mental check on a title before deciding whether to continue reading a post or not. A clumsy, long, or dull title will reduce the time visitors spend on your website, which can mean fewer leads. Here are some tips for writing titles that increase therapist blog engagement, with examples:
Your therapist blog will become more exciting if it becomes an exchange of experiences, rather than a monologue. If you are the only voice that is talking on your blog, and all others listen, the level of engagement for users won’t be as high. Invite users to share their thoughts and experiences at the end of every post. Respond to comments that add to the discussion to encourage further comments. Successful blogs are two-way conversations: in return for the expertise they are receiving, your readers can share their own experiences.
There are so many therapy resources on the web that it may seem that every topic has been covered. It is reasonable to assume that many people who come to your website know about common cures for depression, anxiety, and other popular topics. Serving them the same information they know already isn’t a very encouraging way to attract clients. Look instead for new information available for the same old problems, such as fresh research and studies.
Too many calls to action on your blog can confuse readers and actually decrease engagement. If you include a call to action at the end of your posts, one in your sidebar, and another in the footer, the power of each will be diluted by the others. Decide what action you want visitors to take and build your calls to action to support that. If you want people to call or schedule an appointment, use a visual sidebar or footer call to action. If you want people to check your social media profiles or discover your other content, add links at the end of your posts.
Guests posts can add freshness to your blog. They are also a natural way to generate content for your blog. As a therapist, you may know other therapists and professionals in the industry who would be willing to share their expertise with you. You may not even have to pay any of them to write a post or two for your blog. Posting on your blog will increase their visibility online and leave a valuable backlink to their own blog or website.
Many will also feel flattered to share their expertise with you. Don’t expect all you ask to say yes, but ask nevertheless. Going a step further, you may also want to feature guest posts from clients (under fictitious names, of course).
To encourage comments on your blog, you want to make it as easy as possible for people to comment. If they have to log into WordPress or manually enter their email address and name before they can comment, that can discourage them. With a simple plugin you can enable all people who visit your blog to comment using their Facebook account. Since so many people use Facebook, that makes it much easier for anyone to comment on your blog.
Increasing therapist blog engagement is an ongoing effort. There’s no single strategy that can make your blog engaging to everyone instantly. Approach blogging with as much care and consideration as you approach your clients and make it a part of your life. If you do that, you’ll find that it transcends the bounds of marketing and becomes a powerful platform through which you can communicate and connect with people.