SEO for therapists is a huge opportunity to get new clients.

How does Google work?

Essentially, Google is an index of content. Although they've added many products to their arsenal throughout the years, their primary service and source of revenue is the search engine itself.

Google wants to deliver the best search result possible for a user's query. It is the work of SEO to create and optimize the best search result for keywords that your ideal clients are searching for.

Bots

When you create a web page, you have two audiences: potential clients and search engines.

When a searcher enters a keyword on a search engine like Google, Bing, or Yahoo, Google deploys bots or spiders that crawl Google's massive index. These bots crawl the text and code of pages, assessing the pages on hundreds of factors, like:

1. The technical performance of your site
2. The number of backlinks to a page
3. The quality of the content
4. The mobile-friendliness of your page

And much, much more. Through Google's algorithm, the bots sort all of the relevant results in the order of best to worst.

Thinking like Google

SEO for psychologists can be complicated, but when in doubt, think like Google.

Google can't verify your therapy practice unless they were to contact you, schedule a session, sit down with you, and pay you for your service. So instead, they take into account hundreds of ranking factors to verify that your business is real and trustworthy. Professional search engine optimization specialists (and you!) optimize websites for those ranking factors.

SEO boils down to two main things: content and backlinks. But first, let's discuss the core of SEO: keywords.

Keywords for therapists

Keywords are the bread and butter of SEO for counselors and psychologists. After you identify keywords that your dream clients are searching for, you can ramp up your SEO efforts.

I recommend finding long-tail keywords, which are keywords that are typically longer in length and more specific. Why? Because the search is specific, we can assume that the person searching those long-tail keywords knows what they are looking for precisely and are ready to hire now.

For example, "therapist" is not a long-tail keyword. If you search "therapist" on Google, Bing, or Yahoo, you'll see a mix of results: articles on how to become a therapist, the average therapist's salary, a Psychology Today or Good Therapy result, and more. Because of these mixed results, we can tell that Google isn't confident in what the searcher wants to see.

However, if you search "therapist for anxiety in Tucson, Arizona," the results are all websites of anxiety therapists practicing in Tuscon, AZ. These searchers know what they're looking for exactly and want to hire someone as soon as possible. These searchers are also more likely to convert. Perhaps best of all, long-tail keywords are also easier to rank for.

‍

‍

‍

How to find keywords

There are many paid tools for keyword research, but I recommend the following free tools.

Google searches. Type your best guess for a long-tail keyword and see what Google suggests at the bottom of the page, in the titles of search results, and the drop-down while you type.

‍

‍

Surfer SEO Google Chrome plugin. I LOVE this plugin. You get all sorts of useful data, like how many times the keyword is searched per month and the estimated numbers of backlinks you need to rank on page one.

‍

‍

Scout Suggest. Scout SEO offers Scout Suggest: a free keyword research web application. Keyword research web applications are typically paid tools, so take advantage of this.

‍

‍

Content

After you've gathered your keyword list, write content for those specific keywords. Make sure that different keywords have dedicated pages (i.e., make two separate pages for depression and anxiety keywords).

You have serious competition. There are an estimated 4 million blog posts published per day. That's why your content has to be really, really good.

Here are a few tips for writing amazing content that I use to get page one rankings:

1. Sprinkle keywords throughout your content, especially in headings.
2. Write a lot. At least 1,000 words, preferably closer to 2,000.
3. Answer every question and cover every topic possible: the more things you touch on, the better your content will be. I recommend trying out AlsoAsked.com to identify common questions and topics.
4. Add lots of images, and make sure that the file names and alt text of these images are keywords.
5. Include natural variants of your keywords. We tend to drop a lot of syntaxes when we search on Google, so add prepositions and switch the order of words around to account for that.
6. Add keywords to your meta descriptions and title tags.

These six tips will go a long way.

Backlinks

Backlinks, or links back to your website from another website, are a significant authority signal. The more quality backlinks you have, the more Google will trust your site.

Google released an update back in 2012 that punished websites that used spammy link building techniques. When you are building links today, they should be high-quality, and ideally, be one or all of the following.

1. Topical. Try to build backlinks from websites relating to therapy. That's one reason to purchase listings on therapy directories like Psychology Today or TherapyDen--you get a backlink to your site.
2. Local. If you can get a link from a local directory or business association, that helps verify your business.
3. Authoritative. Ideally, you want backlinks from a site with a lot of authority. Authoritative sites are typically older or have domain extensions like a .org or .edu.

It's hard to find dynamite links that encompass all of these qualities, but slowly building links with any of the qualities above goes a long way. Note that the anchor text and surrounding words that you use when linking to your website help establish context. If you can, nest your URL in keywords like "therapist for anxiety" or whatever keywords you find for your specialty.

Technical performance

To rank well on Google, your website needs to be in good technical shape.

Your website should be free of error codes like 404s, indexable on Google, have the correct protocol (i.e., HTTP vs. HTTPS), have headings and meta descriptions, and more. To assess these things, I use Screaming Frog, a free tool. It isn't an intuitive tool, but I explain how to use it during my consulting sessions.

Remember that websites are more than an online business card. They are tools that require maintenance and optimization. Be careful when choosing a website designer or template--not all designers understand technical SEO.

Local SEO

Local SEO is like SEO, but instead of targeting the organic search results, you are targeting Google's local search results. The primary asset of local SEO is your Google My Business listing. These listings are free, so I highly recommend claiming yours if you haven't already.

Boost your Local SEO with a few methods.

First, optimize your Google My Business listing. Fill out your listing in its entirety: your hours, your business description, your services, your primary and secondary business categories, and more. Add pictures of your office and the building. Ideally, add a video walkthrough from the front door into your office. This video verifies that your business is real and that you aren't using a fake office.

Second, build citations. Citations are a type of a backlink. In particular, they are backlinks from business directories like Yellow Pages. On business directories, list your NAP, or your name, address, and phone number. Over time as Google crawls these results, your office becomes more legitimate in Google's eyes.

Finally, fight spam. Other therapists inadvertently spam their listing by stuffing keywords into their Google My Business listing or altering it in other inauthentic ways. You can report these listings to level the playing field on the local results.

Want to learn more about SEO? Watch my interview about local SEO with Marie Fang of Private Practice Skills!

Start getting clients from Google.

If you're ready to dive into your therapy SEO, I can help. With SEO agency experience, I can help you increase your reach on search engines. Learn more about my services or contact me today for a complimentary consultation.

Below are a few common questions that therapists ask about working with me.