SEO for therapists in 2024
Updated on 1/23/2024
With SEO, you can increase your reach online and constantly bring in new leads. Below, I explain the basics of SEO for therapists and what you need to know to knock your SEO for counselors out of the park. We lay it aaaaalllll out there, so you're going to want to bookmark this one 💪
P.S. Are you a coach as well as a therapist? We do SEO for coaches too.
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The basics
SEO, or search engine optimization, is the ongoing work of optimizing your website to rank better on search engines like Google. If you want your website to bring in new clients, therapist SEO is a must. Here, I'll explain a few things.
How Google works,
Keywords for therapists, content (including on page SEO),
Backlinks,
Your website's technical performance,
Local SEO, and more.
If you're interested in working with us for expert SEO for therapists help, get a copy of our Investment Guide to learn more about our SEO services for therapists.
How does Google work?
Essentially, Google is a giant 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 search engines like Google, Bing, or Yahoo, the search engines deploy bots or spiders that crawl their massive indexes. These bots crawl the text and code of pages, assessing the pages on hundreds of factors, like:
The technical performance of your site
The number of backlinks to a page
The quality of the content
The mobile-friendliness of your page
And much, much more. In fact, there are estimated to be over 200 rankings factors, and therapist SEO experts like us don't even know all of them! Through Google's algorithm, the bots sort (aka, rank) 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 the hundreds of ranking factors to verify that your business is real and trustworthy. This process of building trust with Google is even more important in industries that fall under the YMYL category, which stands for "your money your life." Industries in this category involve personal and high-stakes decisions, like choosing a doctor, lawyer, or therapist (as opposed to something less intense like a cafe or furniture store).
SEO boils down to two main things: content and backlinks. But first, let's discuss the core of SEO: keywords and keyword research.
Keywords are the bread and butter of SEO for counselors, psychologists, and psychiatrists. After you identify keywords that your dream clients are searching for, you can ramp up your SEO efforts.
We 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.
Not targeting long-tail keywords is only one mistake you can making doing keyword research. Check out our post on four mistakes you're making with keywords to learn more pitfalls we see therapists make during the keyword research process.
How to find keywords
There are many paid tools for keyword research, but I recommend the following free tools for therapists, counselors, and psychologists just starting out with SEO.
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.
After you've assembled your keywords 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 we use to get page one rankings:
Sprinkle keywords throughout your content, especially in headings.
Write a lot. At least 1,000 words, preferably closer to 2,000.
Answer every question and cover every topic possible: the more things you touch on, the better your content will be. I recommend trying out Answer the Public to identify common questions and topics.
Link out to different resources to improve the quality and helpfulness of your content. Since Google released an update in 2022 called the helpful content update, creating content that's worthy of bookmarking and sharing is more important than ever!
Add lots of images, and make sure that the file names and alt text of these images are keywords.
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.
Add keywords to your meta descriptions and title tags.
But wait... what's a title tag and meta description? We're glad you asked 😁
Title tags and meta descriptions
Title tags and meta descriptions are the text snippets that appear on the Google search results.
Adding keywords to title tags and meta descriptions is important, but make sure they're click worthy, too! It's one thing to rank on page one, and it's another to get clicks to your website. This ratio of views to clicks is called click through rate.
Resources for title tags and meta descriptions
→ Read our post on how to get more clicks on Google
→ Preview your title tags and meta descriptions for free with metatags.io
Content
If you really want to rank, your content should be the best for a given keyword. We provide some tips for this a few sections back.
We recommend posting high quality content to your website at least once per month. You can do that by blogging.
Resources for content writing
→ Watch our webinar on how to write content for SEO
→ Preview your title tags and meta descriptions for free with metatags.io
Images
Use plenty of images in your content. Like we've mentioned, they're great for adding keywords, and they also help break up the content visually for readability.
Readability is crucial when writing website content. In fact, it's actually recommended to write at a 6th grade reading level on the internet. That means no jargon or advanced vocabulary, and use simple, easy-to-read sentence structures.
Want to start mastering SEO for therapists?
Get access to our SEO Starter Pack for therapists.
Backlinks, or links back to your website from another website, are a significant authority signal for all industries, and the SEO for therapists industry is no different. The more quality backlinks you have, the more a search engine will trust your site.
Why?
Backlinks are Google's form of social proof. When you're researching where to eat on a Friday night, you look at reviews or ask for recommendations from your friends, right?
Google does that too, but with backlinks.
The more backlinks from high quality and trustworthy sources you have, the more Google will trust your website. This trust helps you rank higher for keywords.
Link building can be so powerful that some SEO agencies offer link building as their primary SEO strategy.
Google released an update back in 2012 that punished websites that used spammy link building techniques (spammy link building is the exact opposite of trust!). When you are building links today, they should be high-quality, and ideally, be one or all of the following.
Topical. Try to build backlinks from websites relating to therapy. That's one reason to purchase listings on therapy directories like TherapyDen or Zencare—you get a backlink to your site.
Local. If you can get a link from a local directory or business association, that helps verify the location of your business.
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.
How to get backlinks
Hypothetically, we should "earn" backlinks over time just by being an involved professional with a great reputation.
But the internet doesn't always reflect the real word, so to make gains more quickly, you can proactively build links yourself (or hire someone like us for our SEO services).
Here are a few types of links that we get for our clients (or coach our therapist clients to in our online SEO program Optimize Your Practice).
Podcasts
Or any kind of speaking events, really. Being a guest on a podcast won't always get you a backlink, but you could get plenty of referrals and your name will be mentioned, resulting in a brand mention or "implied link."
Directories
And not therapist directories, unfortunately. Although therapist directories certainly help with implied links, we rarely see these accounted for in our SEO tools. It's a bummer, but even if Google loved therapist directory links, they wouldn't be that meaningful because everyone has them. Google weighs links unique to you that are harder to get heavier than links any therapist could get.
Here's why.
A glowing review for your chicken piccata from a grumpy and hard-to-please Gordon Ramsey means something. A glowing review from your hungry dog underneath the dinner table means less—anyone's chicken piccata would please your pup!
Try other niche directories, like the directory for private pay therapists Best Therapists, or local directories, like Yellow Pages.
Help a reporter out
We love Help a Report Out, or HARO.
All you have to do is submit a quote to journalists looking to quote experts like you! You can get mentioned in publications like Cosmo and Huffpost.
Pst... our clients get access to our proven HARO template, expert submission tips, a database that tracks all journalists’ queries that are relevant to the mental health industries, and optional pitch writing 👀
Guest posting
Posting content on someone else's website and linking back to your website is another great way to get backlinks.
→ Read our post on guest posting tips for therapists
There are many more link building SEO strategies, but these four are great starts for therapists.
To rank well on Google, your website needs to be in good technical shape. This area of search engine optimization is called technical SEO.
Your website should be free of error codes like 404s, indexable on Google, have the correct protocol (i.e., HTTP vs. HTTPS), and more.
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.
So what all goes into technical SEO?
Site speed
If your site loads too slowly, potential clients will leave your website!
A slow website could lose you clients, but it's also bad for Google's ranking factors.
Some of the newer and very important ranking signals are related to user experience. If someone spends more time on your page, for example, Google interprets that your page fulfills the website visitor's search intent.
Another behavior metric is bounce rate, or the percentage of people who click on your website and leave right away back to the main SERP (SERP is SEO lingo for search engine results page).
Another of these behavior metrics is bounce rate. Bounce rate is the percentage of people who land on a website and immediately leave (or "bounce") back to the main search engine results page.
If Google ascertains that your website (or one page on your website) has a high bounce rate, Google interprets that to mean your website isn't helping searchers. Unfortunately, that means your rankings could tank.
You can test your site speed using GT Metrix, one of our favorite SEO tools, or install the Google Lighthouse Chrome extension for a comprehensive speed and performance report.
Broken links
We've all seen one of these: "404" in huge letters across our screens.
That's a broken link, and it's a bad experience.
Lucky for you, they're an easy fix!
To fix a 404, set up a 301 redirect.
That's a code snippet that tells search engines to move on to another page (that you define) if a user lands on the broken page.
You can check for 404s using Ahrefs' free broken link checker tool, another one of our favorite SEO tools!
Domains
For therapist SEO, your domain should match your branding primarily, but optimizing your domain name for SEO is helpful too.
Ideally, a keyword is already in your business name, like therapy or counseling. For example, Better Wellness Therapy. Then, you can have a keyword in your domain name along with your brand name!
Next, you need a top-level domain (TDL). This is the extension at the end of your domain name like ".com" or ".net." Your TDL should be accurate and trusted. To get inspired, you can browse through a list of top levels domains.
Finally, make sure that your domain protocol is secure. That means your domain should use "https," not "http." Many domain hosts automatically offer this, but always check to be sure.
Resources for technical SEO
→ Learn how to use Google Search Console to track your progress for free
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 Business listing. These listings are free, so I highly recommend claiming yours if you haven't already.
Note that virtual therapists will have a more difficult time verifying a Google Business listing since according to Google guidelines, your Google Business location needs to be a place where you see clients. We have a few workarounds for our clients 😉 but it’s still not a guarantee.
Boost your Local SEO
There are a few methods that you can use to improve your presence on Google Business.
First, optimize your Google 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 Business listing or altering it in other inauthentic ways. You can report these listings to level the playing field on the local results. Check out our post on fighting spam on Google Business!
Resources to learn more about local SEO
→ Watch my interview about local SEO with Marie Fang of Private Practice Skills
→ Read my comprehensive guide to Google Business for therapists
Since we started doing SEO for therapists and coaches in 2019, a lot has changed. Spoiler alert: things will continue to change :)
Although the SEO tips and strategies we’ve provided will certainly serve your SEO efforts today, there are two things that are altering the SEO landscape: AI and the Helpful Content Update.
AI and SEO
It seems like every digital tool under the sun has some sort of AI component. While we can clearly see the potential of AI and ChatGPT (we use ChatGPT for quite a few things), what’s less clear is how AI will change Google and how it ranks websites.
We’re noticing more and more structured data on the search results page, and it’s my suspicion that Google will deliver search results more like ChatGPT. Google (and other search engines) will likely ask for more feedback about the search results and try to pull out information from websites, so searchers don’t have to comb through the results.
At this point, we’re not sure how this will affect our SEO strategies, but one thing is becoming apparent: honing in on search intent is more important than ever.
Search intent
When we input a search term on Google (keywords, remember?), we want specific results. This expectation is known as search intent. For example, when I type in the keyword "chocolate chip cookie" on Google, I'm seeking a recipe—not the historical background of chocolate chip cookies—so my search intent is to find a recipe. Google's ultimate objective is to deliver the best possible web page for that keyword’s search intent. That’s really SEO in a nutshell!
Although search intent has always been Google’s priority, with AI, Google will likely emphasize the importance of search intent even more. Whoever can most succinctly and accurately match search intent with their content will come out on top; the less users have to dig for the information they’re looking for, the better.
Lucky for us, this comes down to strategic content above all else, which levels the playing field quite a bit when we’re competing against websites like Psychology Today. But this will also likely result in users spending less time on our websites and more time on Google itself.
I predict that users will be able to provide more feedback to Google when they search, which enables Google to improve its algorithm and search results.
Resources to learn more about AI and SEO
→ Read my blog post on how to use AI in your marketing
SEO and the Helpful Content Update
Google regularly updates its algorithm. In fact, Google makes minor tweak every day! But every once in a while, Google will really shake things up with a core algorithm update.
Google’s most recent core algorithm update is called the Helpful Content Update. The Helpful Content Update is essentially this: ranking on Google boils down to search intent above all else.
While Google used to favor lengthier content, Google now favors whatever form of content is most helpful to its users. In some cases, that might be a list. In other cases, it might be an HTML table or YouTube video. I still believe that lengthy and informative content matches some keywords best, but content creators will likely have to expand their arsenal of content strategies to best match search intent.
Our team constantly monitors these algorithm updates and experiments with AI and SEO. We’ll try to keep you as updated as possible on our blog.
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If you're ready to dive into your SEO, we can help with SEO services tailed to therapists. Let’s start to increase your reach on search engines!
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We offer courses, coaching, and full-service SEO services. Our online courses and coaching are more affordable ways to gain extensive knowledge about SEO for psychotherapists, but some therapists prefer to hire someone to do SEO for them. We're also constantly adding SEO resources to our online shop.
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Along with going on seven years in the digital marketing industry, our founder Kristie Plantinga has an agency-background in SEO and content marketing, a Masters degree in Written Communication, and a degree in Psychology. She also has experience in different clinical backgrounds, from psychological testing for autism and ADHD to group therapy. On top of that, we work with subject matter experts to ensure clinical correctness and sensitivity in our content.
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What if we told you that you could be on the first page of Psychology Today for forever? And that you never have to market yourself again? Ranking on page one of Google means exactly that—you'll always show up where potential clients are looking far after you've made an investment. It also works. Learn how Lindsay Bryan Podvin took time off from Instagram with our SEO work tgoether.
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If you're ready to dip your toes into the SEO world, we have a few options for you. First, you can sign up for our email list. We send our subscribers industry updates, free resources, and first access and discounts to new services.