SEO for Therapists and Counsellors
Many People Search for Mental Health Help Online
When someone needs the help of a therapist and counsellor, and they don’t have one in their contact list, they are more likely to turn the search engine like Google for help.
Today, most people turn to search engines when looking for a counsellor and therapist near them because it is quick, efficient and it avoids them having to ask friends or family.
With increased competition, attracting new clients is a big challenge that most counsellors and therapists face. One of the best ways to attract clients to your practice is by improving your website visibility. The more visible your website is, the more clients it will attract. The only way to get your website on the first page on the search engine is by optimising it.
So what is search engine optimisation (SEO), what are its benefits, and what should counsellors and therapists do to get the best results from their SEO campaign?
Continue reading to find out more.
What is Therapist SEO?
SEO is the process of increasing a website ranking on organic search results. SEO helps to bring your website on top Google search results without dishing out any money.
Search engines have complex algorithms that rank websites based on how useful they are to users. For example, when someone types “best counsellors near me” on Google search, Google will rank sites that have targeted that particular keyword based on their relevance and authority.
Google has outshined other search engines because it always provides the best and most relevant search results to users. Google robots continuously crawl the internet and collect data from websites which they use to rank websites. SEO works on all aspects of your websites, including improving content quality, site loading speed, internal linking, and much more to ensure that it ranks high on Google search results.
4 benefits of SEO for therapist and counsellors
1. It offers long-lasting results
Unlike other forms of marketing that deliver short term results, SEO provides long term results. Although it will take time before your site rank on top of Google search results, you will notice a significant impact on your website traffic when it finally does. According to SEO experts, a new website takes about a year to rank on the first page of Google search for specific keywords if SEO is done correctly. On the other hand, sites that have been around for a while take about three months to rank on the first page. This may seem long, but once your website gets on top of Google search results, it will stay there for a long time You will attract steady traffic on your site for years to come without spending a single cent on advertisements.
2. It delivers impressive ROI
Only a few marketing options give an exceptional return on investment, and SEO is one of them. Unlike other forms of advertisement that target every person, including those that are not interested in the services offered by the therapist or counsellors, SEO focuses on targeted traffic. This means that only those interested in the services provided by the therapist or counsellor will visit the website. According to SpyFu, SEO can bring up to 15 times more clicks than Pay per clicks. It is a long term strategy that delivers excellent ROI.
3. Organic search is often the primary source of traffic
A huge chunk of website traffic comes for organic search. Research by BrightEdge showed that 51% of all website traffic comes from organic search. Paid search and social media account for 10% and 5% of traffic, respectively. This clearly shows that organic traffic is by far superior to other channels that bring traffic. Constant website optimisation can help keep your website on top of search engine results, which helps drive more traffic to the site.
4. SEO is quantifiable
Another benefit of SEO is that it is measurable. This means that it provides crucial data that can be analysed. This is important because it enables you to make an informed decision. There are many tools that you can use to track your site performance. Important metrics that SEO provides include traffic on the site, sources of your traffic, viewed content and behavioral action on the site, authority pages, on-site error, content marketing gaps, linking situation, and much more. Having all these crucial data at hand can help you adjust to areas that your site is not performing well and maximise on areas that the site is thriving on.
4 SEO tips for therapist and counsellors
Always deliver quality content.
SEO believes that content is king. The quality of content that publish o our website will determine if your SEO campaign will be successful on not. The mistake that most people make is focusing too much on impressing Google crawlers and ignoring the content reader. Once you drive traffic to your site, you need to convince the visitor to book your services, and that will only happen if your site has well researched informative and relevant content.
Gather citations and links
Citations and links both play a crucial role in determining your website ranking. Citation is a list of your business name, phone number, and address in an online directory. On the other hand, links help to connect you with other authoritative sites that offer complementary services. Citations and quality inbound links can help boost your website ranking on local search.
Use keywords that are relevant to your niche.
Your website will rank on the keywords that you have chosen. Therefore, you need to be very careful when deciding on the keywords you want your website to rank on. Your keyword section should be in sync with the services that you offer and the type of leads you want to attract. Use keywords that will drive quality traffic to your website.
Track your results
Monitoring your SEO campaign is crucial because it helps you know what is working and what needs a fine-tuning or complete change. Tracking your SEO campaign is the only way to know whether your SEO campaign is a success. Important metrics to focus on when tracking your results include ranking, traffic, and conversions.