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How Having a “Niche” Impacts Your SEO Strategy

You’ve heard the business coaches recommend you “niche down”

One of the earliest pieces of business advice I remember picking up as I went into private practice was that I was supposed to “niche down.”  Since then, I’ve heard business coach after business coach in the mental health arena talk about this exact issue.  They talk about how marketing to a specific “niche” will give you credibility, make you look like an expert and help you avoid burnout.

Does a therapist who has a specific niche rank better on Google?

In general, it’s easier for a therapist with a specific niche to get ranking well on Google quickly. A therapist with a clear picture of their ideal client can quickly identify long tail keywords based on the pain points their ideal clients are searching for. Then, you can create content on your website that speaks to those ideal clients and target the specific keywords they are searching for.

How does a therapy niche impact your SEO Strategy?

  1. A specific niche allows you to identify long tail words to quickly target through blog posts
  2. Keywords related to that niche can more naturally come up on a variety of pages of your site
  3. Blog posts can be written around the pain points of your ideal clients
  4. Photos can be chosen that represent your ideal client
  5. You can write content that will appeal to the kind of client you want to attract
  6. Other websites relevant to your population will be more likely to see you as an “expert” and backlink to your site

In general, I love when new clients have an ideal client identified or a specific niche!  It just makes it easier for us to quickly develop a really effective SEO strategy!  I also recommend completing a Storybrand brandscript when possible. We love when clients share those with us. They help us have a starting place for keyword research and often lend themselves to some great ideas for content to add to the site!

Is there such a thing as too narrow of a niche?

Based on SEO, I would say that the answer is that yes, sometimes it’s possible.  Generally, if you live in a more densely populated area such as New York, London, Toronto or LA there are more people so even if it’s only a small portion searching for your “niche” you’ll still get in front of more of your ideal clients.  Additionally, the competition for more broad keywords is higher making niching even more important.

On the other hand, if you live in rural Pennsylvania, too small of a niche can box yourself in. There are fewer people doing searches, so you may need to go more broad to pull in enough clients to fill your practice.

What if I change my “niche” or want to work with other types of counseling clients?

No problem!  It is some work to start targeting a new population or niche on your website through SEO. However, it’s easier to target a new niche than it was the first go around, because you’ve already earned Google’s trust for something related to your field. Now, you’re just saying, “You already trust me to provide great information about X, how about you also trust me to provide information about Y?”

To target a new niche, you’ll begin by identifying new keywords. Then, you’ll add new content related to that niche such as a new service page and new blog posts.  Lastly, you want to take a look at your home page and consider making tweaks there.

Tips for identifying your niche

  1. Think of the client you felt MOST successful working with? Consider who you are the most effective helping them reach their goals
  2. Consider any special trainings you’ve attended that give you more expertise in an area
  3. Who are the clients you most look forward to seeing when they’re on your schedule?
  4. What do the clients you dread working with have in common?

Tips for using your website to market to a niche

  1. Make sure your home page speaks directly to that client!
  2. Write specific service pages for the main pain points your ideal clients face (I recommend Laura Long’s copywriting course)
  3. Make sure your ideal clients are represented in the photos on your website
  4. Regularly write blog posts with common questions you answer from potential clients
  5. Optimize your website for keywords related to that niche.  Do some decent keyword research to figure out what those clients are truly searching.

Where can I get help identifying my niche as a therapist?

If you want to identify a clear niche, I recommend talking to a business consultant.  There are so many great ones out there for therapists!  Some of my favorites for helping therapists identify a clear niche include Joe Sanok, Laura Long and Katie Read, but truly there’s a long list of people who can help.

This can be a tricky issue as you want a narrow enough niche that you can have clear marketing but a wide enough niche to bring in a large number of clients.  My staff and I help private practice owners with this during our initial onboarding all of the time, and we can be particularly useful for doing the keyword research to see what people are looking up. However, I think it can be very helpful to start with talking to a business coach. They’re the experts at helping you identify that target audience and pain points.  Then, we can take that information to find the right keywords.

Ultimately, you don’t just want a full caseload.  You want a full caseload of the RIGHT clients.  The people you’re excited to work with.  The people you know you can be effective helping. That’s what this “niche” stuff really accomplishes.  Happy, satisfied, energized and effective therapy!

Begin SEO Work to Rank Well for Your Niche

If you’ve identified your ideal client and are ready to get in front of your ideal clients, the Simplified SEO staff is here to help.  We offer DIY online SEO courses, Done with You SEO training options or our most popular Done for You SEO Service. Our SEO Specialists would love to help you figure out what the best strategy is for getting your private practice website to the top of Search Engines.

To get started simply:

  1. Book a free pre-consulting call on Zoom with one of our staff
  2. Develop an SEO strategy to meet your needs
  3. Begin optimizing your website for your ideal client!

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The Three Books That Transformed My Business

There are so, so many great business books out there!  In fact, I seem to always have an ongoing list and constantly feel “behind” when I don’t have time to read them all.  But there are three books that have really been instrumental in helping me design and run both my psychotherapy practice AND Simplified SEO Consulting.  You may have heard about them before, but here’s my take:

Business Book 1: Profit First

Profit First is one of several excellent business books by Mike Michalowicz.  While I’ve benefited from reading several of his, Profit First was instrumental in how I do business!  Basically, it’s a money system for managing your finances that sounds kind of complicated at first, but makes managing money actually much easier!

At this point, I follow Profit First’s system pretty closely.  For instance, I absolutely use multiple bank accounts.  That’s so important for me. I can hop on my bank app at any point in time and tell if I can afford something.  For my private practice, I follow his twice a month distributions (therefore my team has twice monthly pay days) and for Simplified, our cash flow is different so I have a once a month distribution day.  I have tweaked the percentages to work for each of my businesses, but that’s what you’re supposed to do. 🙂

I heard Kasey Compton (owner of Mindsight Behavioral Health in Kentucky and therapist business coach) talk about this one on the Practice of the Practice podcast when I was about a year into my private practice journey.  The truth is, the system sounded so complicated.  Two years out, I’m SO thankful I dove right into the Profit First system and recommend it to other business owners all the time!

Business Book 2: Building a Storybrand

Building a Storybrand by Donald Miller is a game changer when it comes to marketing your business. I think I’ve read this book about 3 times.  And did a group study where I met once a week with friends to talk over the concept.  And (of course) filled out a brand script.  Why? Because Donald Miller has a great formula down for marketing!

Furthermore, I attended the Storybrand training once on my own in Summer 2020 to perfect my own brand script and loved it so much that Danica and I went through it again together in late 2020!

At this point, we’ve had several clients come to us having read Storybrand or having worked with someone to create a brand script. We LOVE working with clients who know the Storybrand framework. Why? Because you understand your brand pretty well already! If this applies to you, please share your brandscripts with us! It gives us some GREAT information to pull from as we optimize your page!

I will say there is one place that I disagree with the advice given in the book, so you may want to check out my blog post about Storybrand & SEO here.

Business Book 3: The Ideal Team Player

In the Ideal Team Player, Patrick Lencioni identifies common problems you may face on a team and exactly the type of people you want to hire so your team runs efficiently.  The words he uses to describe the ideal team player are hungry, humble and smart.  

I don’t see myself as a manager.  Leadership is one of those things I honestly feel pretty insecure about.  However, I want to be a great leader and therefore have read many books on this topic.  Of all the books I’ve read, this has been the most influential to me.  Why? Because for me, a HUGE part of becoming a better leader has been hiring the right people.

In each of my businesses, I need a slightly different skillset in the people I hire.  However, I need good team players for both.  Therefore, I use questions designed to assess if someone is “hungry, humble and smart” throughout the application process in both businesses.  Of course, I also ask questions about clinical skills for my psychotherapy practice.  And for Simplified I ask about a person’s ability to learn new skills, past experience with websites, etc.  But without a doubt the most important thing I look for is that their personality will fit so we can maintain a positive team atmosphere.

Constant Improvement Balanced With Focus

While I’m listing out my three favorite business books, I also wanted to take a moment to acknowledge the importance of balance.  When I read a list like this I feel this immense pressure to immediately read all the books and apply all the principles.  However, I’ve found that doesn’t work out so well.  I tend to do better if I instead choose one business book at a time and take time to read it, evaluate what might fit for my own practice and spend some time applying it before I jump on to the next book.

Looking for SEO Help?

And of course, if you’re looking for help with Search Engine Optimization for your website, we’d love to help.  Simplified SEO Consulting offers “Done for You” monthly SEO packages for those looking to outsource and “SEO Training” options ranging from several online SEO courses to our 12 Week SEO Coaching program.  We specialize in helping those in the helping professions such as therapist, psychiatrists, chiropractors, SLPs and those in related areas. If you are interested, you can set up a 30 minute pre-consulting Zoom call to discuss our options!

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Using the “Down Time” While Business is Slow During the Covid-19 Outbreak

Business is slower than usual. You took your counseling practice online, but your caseload took a serious hit.  Clients are canceling appointments. Or, if you’re like me, you have college students who returned to their homes out of state and now you can’t see them through Telehealth.

You may have some downtime in the upcoming weeks.

There’s no way around this.  Many of us may very well have gaps in our schedule in the upcoming weeks. Hopefully, if things last too long, we’ll start getting calls as people realize they need to prioritize their mental health. But in the meantime…you have downtime.

As business owners, we have a choice.

I know you feel anxious about the future of your business.  I am worried about both of mine as well. But I also know we have a choice. We can focus all of our energy on those anxious thoughts, or on trying to avoid those anxious thoughts. OR, we can accept our anxiety and choose to be productive despite it.

I’m investing in my business during this Covid-19 virus outbreak.

Picture of a cell saying "coronavirus" representing the downtime that private practices are having. Work on your SEO for private practice during the downtime with Simplified SEO consulting

Hear me out. I’m selectively, carefully investing in my business.  I’m thinking about how I can use this time to best set my business up for the future.  So, late last week I met with a business coach for a 1:1 session. We left with a whole list of things I’m going to work on during this time!

In truth, you’re seeing part of my list of how to invest my time. I’m writing more blog posts than I have for a while. Blog posts I hope are helpful to you!  Other things on my list include working on another e-course (this one on blogging for SEO so stay tuned!), redoing my ideal schedule to be more realistic, fine-tuning my leadership skills, etc.

SEO is one thing you can invest your time into right now to improve your business.

I can’t even tell you how often I work with motivated, intelligent business owners who just don’t have the time to invest in SEO!  Well…now you can use some of those canceled session times to invest your time in that thing (your website) that you’ve known for a while you needed to get to.

The most efficient way to improve your search engine rankings during the Covid-19 outbreak.

hispanic woman working on her SEO from her home during COVID-19 outbreak. Begin SEO services with Simplified SEO Consulting now!My staff and I are experts and we know what we’re doing when it comes to optimizing websites. So, the most efficient thing you could do would be to hire us to optimize some of your pages while you add more blog posts and/or service pages and start building backlinks!  We’re doing the in-depth on-page SEO that we’re really good at.  Meanwhile, you’re doing additional things that are 110% necessary for a good SEO strategy but we often see therapists struggle with.

So, most efficient strategy = Outsource on-page SEO to us + write content (blog posts & service pages) for your site + Build Backlinks

Outsourcing + Building Backlinks:

If this is the option you’d like to go with, we’d love to help.  We can take the on-page optimizing part for you….For April only, if you sign up for at least a 3 page “Done for You” package, we’ll do a quick optimization of a 4th page FREE as long as the 4th page is a blog post relevant to Telehealth or Covid-19. We want to support other mental health businesses during this time and hope this additional page will help you really get the highest ROI this month. Also know we’ll be providing you tons of information about those other two pieces of the puzzle (what and how to add content & building backlinks) through our Facebook lives.

And then, we can help you with the backlink building part as well…We have written blog posts on building backlinks that are available for anyone to read, but this is also a topic we’ll tackle on an individual basis during on boarding meetings and are always discussing on our closed Facebook page.

The DIY option: Invest your time in optimizing

Now, while I love optimizing pages for you, the simple truth is that I believe EVERY mental health professional has the capacity to learn how to optimize their own site!  You just may be lacking the time.  So….if you have the time to invest right now, I recommend trying your hand at optimizing yourself.  You may even be surprised how much you enjoy it… I used to be so intimidated by this stuff and now I get excited every time I go to optimize a new website or page, because it’s like a giant puzzle. So…if you’ve ever thought about learning to optimize your own site, now might be the time!

This is especially effective for people who have a lot of time to sprint during this stressful period.  If you really have time to devote to learning to optimize your own website, I recommend considering our online courses.  In fact, you can use the code “Covid” to get 15% off ANY of our online SEO training courses right now!  Anyone with a paid package for the month of April (even our alumni package or our smallest Done for You package) will get a different code for 25% off any of the courses!

But where should you start?

If you feel overwhelmed easily, just start with our “SEO First Steps” course.  It’s priced at only $97 (before the discount) so you just get a feel for how much of this work you want to do yourself. I’ll walk you through the basics of keyword research, what content to add to your website and how to make sure Google knows all of your pages exist.  Then, you can move on to the next three steps in our “Moving the SEO Needle” course.  But if you’re ready to just jump in with two feet and confident you’re going to put the time in to optimize your site, you may just jumps straight to our “Top of Search Engines” course.

Lastly, if you are looking for more support and want to really learn this stuff in depth, schedule a 30 minute Zoom consult and we’ll talk about our 1:1 training options as well. 🙂

Get Started Optimizing Your Therapy Website:

woman at laptop drinking a cup of coffee working on her private practice's website. Begin SEO services with Simplified SEO consultingIf you are ready to begin optimizing your website yourself or have the Simplified staff help you, please don’t hesitate to reach out. This is a great time to work on your website & ensure it reaches more people. To being SEO services for your private practice, please follow these steps:

  1. Book a free 15-minute consultation with a member of the Simplified SEO Consulting staff,
  2. Speak to an SEO specialist. During your free consultation call, we will help you determine what service or package is the best fit for your private practice,
  3. Work on your SEO and see your practice’s website rank better on Google!

Other SEO Services offered by Simplified SEO Consulting

Simplified SEO Consulting is proud to offer a variety of SEO services designed for private practice owners. We know you’re busy, so you may not want to optimize your website. So, we offer a popular Done for You SEO Services. With this package, our team of SEO specialists will optimize your pages for you. Additionally, we offer alumni packages and al la carte SEO services. If you are the do-it-yourself type, we can help your site rank better as well. We have SEO training packages that will teach you the skills you need to get your website ranking well including our “Top of Google” online course and 12 weeks of online video training. Or, if you are just beginning your website journey (or considering a redesign), we offer an SEO Strategy package as well.

Contact us to ask any questions, or book a free SEO Consultation to decide which service is best for your private practice.

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Helping Our Clients & Our Practice During the Covid 19 Outbreak

As I mentioned in my last blog post, our counseling clients need us more than ever during this unusual Covid 19 era.  As therapists, psychologists, counselors, psychiatrists and other mental health professionals: We need to be part of the solution for how our community makes it through this crisis.  We can be leaders. Maybe not the type of leader that stands behind the president or governor or mayor during a press briefing.  But a different kind of leader. The one who silently helps calm the storm.

Here are some of the ways I’ve seen therapists helping provide this leadership:

Lead an online support group for those impacted by Covid 19

I’ve seen this done in several different ways.  Some therapists are offering pop up support groups over Zoom. Others are leading virtual yoga sessions. A friend of mine started a Facebook support group where she’s posting regularly throughout the day. One thing she’s doing that’s great from an SEO standpoint is sharing the relevant blogs she writes. This gets her “social shares” and just sends traffic to her site which Google sees.

Update your Google My Business (GMB) listing

The way I did this was to write a “post” announcing that we’re moving to online counseling sessions. It’s a way we show that we’re being leaders by following public health officials guidelines. This also provides helpful information to anyone who’s looking for you online and sees your listing.

Updating your GMB profile is always a good idea, and GMB has made this easier during this unusual time by creating a special category for Covid 19 related updates.

Write Blog Posts About the Mental Health Impact of the Coronavirus

I am so grateful I’m seeing so many therapists doing this! And we’re certainly doing it at my practice as well. As a social worker, I believe it’s our duty to share our skills during this time. And blogging is a great way to do that. We’re able to get some of our information out there!  Additionally, it can help just with brand awareness.  People will come to associate our practice with positive things (helpful information).  Lastly, but of course most relevant to my daily work, is that it helps with your search engine optimization.  You can target important keywords such as “anxiety treatment” or “help for anxiety” in your Covid 19 blog posts. But it also just helps to send people to your site which can happen when the new blog posts are shared on social media like we mentioned above.

Consider Facebook Lives

Some (or many) of us find this sort of thing intimidating. But truly, it’s a way you can be a resource to your community. Consider going live on your business page to discuss the topic you write a blog post about a few hours after it’s live.   Again, this gives you a chance to serve your community and to be associated with being helpful.

Offer Online Therapy Services

I saved this one for last because most of you are already doing this or in the process of transitioning to online therapy services. There are a few exceptions I know such as play therapists. But most of us are moving in this direction. And while we may be thinking of it as how we’re going to keep our business afloat, it’s also an act of service for our community.

Through helping our communities, we’ll help our businesses through the Coronavirus Outbreak

I’m a big believer that it’s possible to build a business while staying true to your values.  For me, helping my community is an integral part of my values.  I’m worried about the impact all of this will have on mental health.  But we can help. In fact, I feel like it is our ethical obligation to do something to help right now.  If you’re feeling too overwhelmed and looking at my suggestions thinking, “I don’t think I am up for ANY of those right now,” then help by being an example.  Even taking care of your own mental health is being a leader right now.

This is one of those times that if we apply our values of wanting to help our communities maintain decent mental health through this stressful time, it will also help us keep our businesses afloat.  There will be some people who see you and reach out now.  Others will reach out later.  And others will just begin to associate your name with positive emotions and may think to refer someone to you in the future.

My point?  Helping others right now is our moral obligation right now AND as an added bonus will help us.

Search Engine Optimization for Businesses During Covid 19

We believe as a therapist, counselor, psychiatrist or other health professional, you have a gift to give your community. It can be a bit scary to wonder where that steady stream of new clients is going to come from.  SEO has been a very effective marketing strategy for my private practice, and right now we want to use it to help you reach a wider audience right now.  We believe with better SEO you’ll better serve your greater community by sharing hope and helpful information.  Furthermore, we know showing up better in search results will help you continue to bring in new clients.

Getting started with our Search Engine Optimization services are easy: 1) schedule a 30 minute pre-consulting Zoom call with one of our staff members 2) Develop a plan for improving your Search Engine Rankings and 3) Provide helpful resource for your community by getting in front of more potential clients!

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Our Therapy Clients Need us More Than Ever

Like so many of you, I find myself worried as I’m writing this. I’m worried about my children who had to say goodbye to their friends for who knows how long. Even more so, I’m worried about loved ones who might be more vulnerable to the Coronavirus going around. I’m also worried about my clients’ folks. Because the truth is our clients need us more than ever now.

Photo of woman in her room looking stressed to show how Covid-19 social distancing can increase anxiety and depression and show how therapists can help.First of all, our clients have the same mental health concerns they’ve always had.

The COVID-19 outbreak didn’t magically cure our clients of their anxiety, depression, family conflict, PTSD, substance use issues, or a host of other things we were working with them. In fact, it likely made those things worse.  As a therapist, you know the impact stress can have. What’s a recovery addict going to think of?  And that teen who already doesn’t get along with their parents. Are they magically getting along better than ever now that they’re home all day together?  Your depression patient is now sleeping all day.

Yep, the same concerns they’ve always needed our help with are still there. Or worse than ever.

Secondly, there’s added stress.

There’s additional stress now.  I don’t typically think of myself as anxious. Maybe a little high performing anxiety that pushes me to be super productive.  The last few days? I’ve noticed waves of anxiety. I’m doing all the things – calling friends, turning off the television when needed, upping my meditation game, drinking some calming hot tea, etc. In other words, I have been using some coping skills that (at least so far) are really effective for me.  However, for many, many, many people this is going to overwhelm them. Their typical coping skills aren’t going to cut it anymore.

That’s where we step in, right? We literally have books and books of coping skills. When a client says their normal ones aren’t cutting it, we have more to offer. Or a different way to use the old skills.

A photo of a teenage girl in therapy after the coronavirus pandemic is over. Her mom found her new therapist on Google thanks to great SEO.We may see a dip in revenue, but people will come back to therapy.

The honest to goodness truth is that most of us will see a dip in revenue, especially at first. People are worried about finances and cutting back.  It’s not unlike the month of December. Therapy is suddenly less of a priority, right? For very different reasons, but we see this dramatic reduction in client visits. However, their stress is still there, so by the time January comes around, they’re clamoring at our door.

Even if the closures and social distancing go on for a while, I do believe we’ll have people start to seek us out. They’ll notice the impact being cooped up is having on their mental health. And we are the people to turn to when that time comes.

I hate to admit it, but insurance-based counseling practices may have an advantage here…

As a proud owner of a 7 clinician private pay group practice, I’m thankful I don’t have to worry about insurance most of the time.  And, I have lots of good reasons I don’t work directly with insurance companies.  But even I can admit that right now, those of you who accept insurance may have an edge. People who typically can pay for out of network care and would usually consider it might now be more insistent about using their insurance. Especially if their insurance is making an exception for telemental health services right now.

My point: Most of our therapy businesses will survive the COVID-19 outbreak.

I truly believe this.  If you’ve been following me for long, you know I’m the type to call it like I see it.  I just so firmly believe that our clients need us more than ever. Therefore, I can’t imagine that too many of our businesses will fail.

Now, that’s not to say you shouldn’t play it smart.  You absolutely should.  Be strategic in how you spend your money. I just turned down the temperature in my office so we’re not heating an empty office and I also figure I’ll save on snacks and drinks.

There are areas of my therapy business I’m investing in right now.

But oddly enough, there are also areas I’m investing in.  My private practice is paying Simplified to optimize a ton of blogs this month and I’m paying a very small amount to “boost” those on Facebook. Furthermore, Cory wrote our new Online Therapy in Missouri page and optimized our new blog posts.  But that was an IMPORTANT investment because we immediately went from not ranking at all to page 1 for several keywords such as “online therapist in Missouri.”  Now, SEO won’t be that immediate for many of you as I already have a really good basis for my SEO. Google and I have spent the past 3 years developing trust in one another. So, Google was happy to let me rank for yet another service type.  But truly I do believe now’s an important time to invest in SEO.  Several of our current clients changed their pages for this month to be online therapy pages. They understand this investment will help them survive this difficult time. I’m also leading my first ever online SEO workshop for people wanting to invest their own time working on their own website optimization.

Optimizing Your WebsiteAfrican American woman working on SEO at her computer | SEO consulting | SEO for private practice owners | SEO for therapists | Counseling keywords | Simplified SEO Services

Like I said, my first instinct in all this mess was to harness the power of SEO to get my own website ranking well for online counseling keywords.  And it worked.  If you think NOW is the time for to invest either your own time or money in optimizing your website, we’d love to help.  This month only, you can use the code COVID (I thought I’d make it something easy to remember right now….) to get 15% off any of our online SEO training courses. Or maybe you’d just like to know the optimizing is done right and efficiently.  Trust me, my team knows how to do SEO for therapy practices. That’s why I trusted them to optimize pages for my own site during such a critical time.  If you’re interested in our Done for You SEO Services, the best place to start is by scheduling a free 30 minute pre-consulting call where we meet over Zoom and discuss your practice needs.

 

 

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SEO Marketing Goals for 2020

Let’s start with: HAPPY NEW YEAR!  

When I look back over 2019, I think not only about the growth of my own business but also about the growth all of our clients have seen!  I’ve been looking at data for people we served early in 2019 and listening to new clients telling us that their friends told them working with us was, “the best business investment they ever made.”  Wow, that’s high praise! But it’s also so true that the business owners we’ve worked with this year have left full time agency jobs, transitioned to group practices, moved to bigger locations and opened additional locations. When I talk to people months after we’ve finished the bulk of our work on their site, I hear that they continue to have a steady stream of referrals!

I really want to see that growth for all of you in 2020 as well!  For some of you, that will include working intently on your SEO and my team would love to help you with that.  I also recognize that there are a million options out there for focusing your marketing efforts.  Now is the time to really decide where you will focus your efforts for 2020.

Setting Marketing Goals for 2020

My friend Kasey Compton brought up the idea of re-evaluating your marketing plan at the beginning of the year in her Facebook group last week and I think it’s a great suggestion!  One thing another colleague said in the comments is that it’s good to start with a look back and reflect on what did or didn’t work in 2019.

From there, I suggest thinking about a long term marking goal for 2020.  There are so many options for marketing!  In addition to search engine optimization, there’s social media marketing, e-mail lists, 1:1 coffee visits with other therapists, connecting with doctor’s offices & so many other options! In general, I think it’s helpful to set goals around TWO specific types of marketing in a single year.  This gives you a little diversity, but is a small enough number that you can do both well.

It’s easy to get discouraged by long term marketing goals…

When setting a long term marketing goal it’s critical to have measurable benchmarks set along the way to help you stay motivated.  Having the ability to feel successful along the way will help you maintain motivation. Furthermore, if you get off track you’ll notice that you aren’t making your bench marks and be able to make adjustments so you still reach the end goal in the time frame you’d hoped.

Many of the marketing techniques we use in this digital age (search engine optimization, social media or even e-mail marketing) don’t yield immediate results and you can get discouraged easily.  However, there are usually steps that need to happen along the way.

Setting marketing goals around SEO.

Some of you will decide that SEO is the primary marketing strategies you’d like to focus on this year.  First of all, I think it’s a GREAT choice! Not only has SEO helped me now grow two successful businesses, but I have seen my clients’ businesses grow and flourish once they were ranking well on search engines as well!

So, how do you set a goal and benchmark related to SEO?  We often work with our clients on exactly this.

The most common long term goal my client set is to get to Page 1 of Google.  I actually would rather see you set a goal about what that means for your business.  For instance, you’d like to receive at least X number of new client calls/inquiries per month. You’d like to have X number of clients per week so you can leave your agency job.  Your practice will increase the number of referrals per month to X so you can open a second location or expand your current location.

Benchmarks for SEO goals

Months 1 & 2 SEO Benchmarks

The first benchmark we’ll want to set is that you’ll move up by X number of spots on Google in the first two months.  Usually this is a pretty large number, but it depends on a LOT of factors including how old your website url is, how well you’re already ranking, if you’re trying to rank at a national level (in which case everything’s much slower), etc.  This improvement in rankings shows us that we’re on the right track.  If we’re not getting significant movement by month two we may be switching up our strategy.

Months 3 & 4 SEO BenchmarksEarn Quality Backlinks from their counseling websites | SEO Services for therapists

The second benchmark I usually set is that I want to see a few things:

  • An increase in both “impressions” and “clicks” on Google
  • That people are staying on your website when they arrive
  • At least a small increase in new client phone calls/inquiries

Month 6 SEO Benchmarks

By the end of 6 months, I want to see that your website is ranking really well.  Now, if you’re doing less work (for instance if you have a 1-2 page package instead of a 3-4 page package) or are in a really competitive area (New York, London, South Florida, etc), you may not be on the first page for a ton yet as your journey is going to be a little longer.  But I do want you on the first page for at least a few keywords.  For less competitive areas, we’re usually on the first page for a LOT of keywords by this point!

Most importantly, there should be a significant increase in client phone calls and inquiries at this point.  Your business should be growing and you should be feeling a little less stressed.

Month 9 Benchmarks

Often we end the intense phase of our SEO work around 6 months and continue with less intense services such as just posting and optimizing a couple of blog posts per month.  Around month 9 it’s time to re-evaluate.  Are you still ranking well?  Are there new services you’ve added that you’d like to target?  I feel like the actual benchmarks here are a little individualized.  It might be number of phone calls you’re getting from potential clients.  But I’ve also seen people who were getting plenty of phone calls at 6 months but we set a goal that by 9 months just a few more keywords would have gotten to the first page…

Month 12 SEO Benchmarks

In most cases, you should now be in maintenance mode for your SEO.  Hopefully you’ve met that really big goal you set for yourself at the beginning of the year!  Perhaps you’re ready to set an even bigger SEO goal for next year or are ready to dip your foot into a different form of digital marketing. 🙂

Begin SEO Services offered by Simplified SEO Consulting

Simplified SEO Consulting is pleased to offer you a variety of SEO services designed to meet your needs as a small business owner. If you’re too busy and don’t have time to optimize your website, we offer the popular Done for You SEO Services. With this package, our team of SEO specialists will optimize your page for you. If you are the do-it-yourself type, we can help you too. We have SEO training packages designed to teach you the skills you need to get your website ranking well including our “Top of Google” online course and our in person SEO training workshops.

Contact us with specific questions, or book a free SEO Consultation to decide which service is best for your practice.

photo of Jessica Tappana SEO specialist and founder of Simplified SEO Consulting

About the author:

Jessica Tappana is a therapist, group practice owner & an SEO expert.  Jessica is passionate about helping therapists and their ideal clients find one another. She believes quality mental health care can change the world.  Her group practice has grown primarily through great SEO. It now has seven clinicians and one virtual assistant and she still sees around 10 individual therapy clients a week herself. However, most of her focus has shifted to helping other therapists around the world rank better on Google.

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3 Tips for Maximizing Your “Slow Time” in Private Practice

A graph with a magnifying glass representing how I take a close look at predictable trends in private practice data where we expect a winter and summer slow down.If you’ve been in private practice for long, you’ve probably realized that there are some predictable slow times.  It’s scary!  The first couple of years you’re in private practice you may even wonder if you’ll survive the slow down.  What if it doesn’t pick back up?  And aren’t people stressed during the holiday season having to travel and visit family?  Why aren’t they calling?

I just looked at data for my own private practice. We have two very distinct slow times per year. Those slow times are late May through the month of July and then late November through early January.  The specific metrics I was looking at in my own practice include website impressions (times we showed up in a search), clicks (when someone “clicked” on our site from a list of search results), calls and revenue.  In addition to my own experience, I’ve spoken to countless other private practice owners. Through these conversations, I’ve learned that, at least in the United States, these slow periods are very common.

The worst part? Those times where fewer people are calling are the same times of year when clients are more likely to cancel appointments or “take a break” from counseling!

So, what do you do during slow periods in private practice?

A yellow clock to represent the winter slow down in private practice. Fewer people book counseling appointments during the holiday season so it's a great time for therapists to learn SEO!I think our natural instinct is to cut expenses.  The first year I certainly reacted this way. I kind of panicked to be honest.  But then, I did some research and learned.   I realized that these slow downs were natural, to be expected.  I personally started using Profit First to better management my finances.

And now? When a slow period hits, I don’t panic. I can predict when things will pick back up.  Instead, I use the slow time to focus on what needs to be done to prepare for the next busy season.  It’s the perfect time for updates (SEO or design) to my website.  It’s a great time to overhaul the systems in my practice and tweak things so they run more smoothly.  I ask myself, what needs to happen so when the next busy season hits my business is ready to grow?

Slow times are perfect for focusing on SEO in private practice!

These slow times are my favorite time of the year to focus on SEO!  Why? Because I know that if we can use this time get a private practice website ranking better, that practice has the potential to grow really, really quickly in late January or February (or in late August or September after the Summer slow time).

So, even if your initial response is a bit of a panic, I encourage you to think about how to invest your extra time or even a little money in SEO during slow times.  Here are three great  places to focus your efforts:

Write and schedule ahead a bunch of blog posts

The word blog written in white on a table next to a cup of coffee and a keyboard. Blogging can help therapists and psychologists in search engine optimization for their private practice websites.Private practice owners always tell me they don’t have time to write blog posts.  I get it, we’re busy.  However, you’re bound to have cancellations in your practice this month.  So, use this rare gift of time your clients will give you.  Write ahead as many blog posts as you can!  They don’t have to be perfect.  Just choose topics relevant to your ideal clients, write at least 500 words and go with it!  But instead of publishing them all right away, schedule them to publish every other week at the same time.

This way, Google will consistently see you publishing this new content for awhile.  Come that busy month of February, it will look like you’re churning out all of this great content that new clients can read while they wait for their initial consult. However, in reality you’ll be busy returning phone calls, attending intake appointments and consulting with the other therapists in your practice!

Earn backlinks for your counseling website

I’ve said it before, but it’s worth repeating that getting backlinks is one of the best things you can do for your counseling website.  But this is another time consuming thing.  So, use this slower time to focus on getting backlinks.  During the holiday season, journalists and others are suddenly very interested in talking about stress.  So….use that to your advantage.  Write some guest blog posts. Look for new directories or resource lists you can be added to. Act as a source for a couple journalists.  Maybe even offer to write a piece for your local paper.  If you put a little effort into earning some backlinks during this slow period, it will have a HUGE payoff in terms of SEO. Therefore, it can play an important role in helping you get to the top of Google before everyone suddenly decides to look for a new counselor in just a couple months!

Optimize as many pages of your website as possible!

A snowy scene with a cup of cocoa and mittens to represent the slow holiday season many therapists and small business owners see. Focusing on learning search engine optimization can be a great way to use the slow time this winter!I typically recommend that you optimize around 3-4 pages per month for Search Engine Optimization. In fact, when people want to optimize more I often remind them that slow and steady wins the race and by optimizing just 3-4 we can tweak our strategy after just a few pages.  However…slow times are an exception.  Right now, you want to do as much work as possible as quickly as possible so you are ranking well come January.

So, I recommend putting a very strong focus on optimizing right now.  In fact, that’s why we scheduled our first ever “Learn SEO in a Weekend” workshop for July 2-5!  We wanted to help people optimize a whole bunch of pages (our goal is for participants to optimize 5 in a single weekend!) right before the time when everyone would be looking.  Alternatively, you could purchase our “Top of Google” online SEO course right now and put aside time to walk through the course (it’s self paced so you access the modules as you have time) and immediately practice what you learn by optimizing your own page!  It takes time, trial and error to practice these concepts.  So, slower times of the year are honestly the best time of the year to learn SEO!

Of course, if you really are not interested in optimizing your own website (which I understand – many, many private practice owners fall into this category!), then you can use our Done for You search engine optimization services.  In this case, our SEO specialists will do the optimizing for you so you can still take advantage of the slow time.  In this case, I highly recommend you still focus on earning backlinks yourself while we’re optimizing your pages!

Fear not: Things will pick up

The truth is that people will always need counseling.  So, while things might be slow right now, they won’t stay slow forever.  Eventually, your ideal clients will start looking again. And when they do, the first place they turn will probably be Google.  So, use this time to stay calm and focus on optimizing your website.  Get ready for the busy time that is to come.  And take comfort in the knowledge that you are providing an incredibly valuable service that will always be needed.

Interested in working with us to get your counseling website ranking faster?

Our services are meant to help you get your counseling website ranking well on search engines even faster.  As a private practice owner myself, I know how valuable our time is.  And I also know how short these “slow times” end up being! So if you want to maximize your time, let’s chat about which of our SEO services would be a fit for you.  We offer a wide range of services, but they generally fall into two categories: SEO training for DIY practice owners who want a marketing skill they can use for years and “Done for You” optimizing for business owners who know it’s worth the return on investment to outsource on page optimization.  Regardless which service you are interested in, you get started with three easy steps:

  1. Schedule a free SEO Consultation
  2. Meet with one of our SEO specialists for a Zoom call
  3. Choose the search engine optimization package that’s the best fit for your business!
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Website Mistakes: 3 Common Ones Private Practice Owners Make

When I am optimizing pages for private practice owners, I have found that there are three common mistakes therapists make with their websites. I see these mistakes come up again and again and again. Let’s take a look at these mistakes, and learn how we can edit our websites to better optimize them for SEO purposes. 

 SEO Mistake Number 1: Not investing in the website you love

The first mistake I see therapists make is not investing in a website they really love. Often, when I talk to therapists about their websites, for SEO purposes, they tell me that they don’t love their website to begin with. Maybe you’ve done a DIY website, and now you realize that you want a fancier website. Or maybe you’ve changed the population that you’re working with and your website needs to reflect your current clients. You website really should put your best foot forward. I think that it is much easier for you to change website before you work on SEO. But, it is possible to change your website platform or design after you’ve worked on SEO. 

The bottom line is that a good website is worth investing in. You want to have a website that you like. Your website should be clearly branded and should speak to your ideal client. For example, If your ideal client is someone who is artsy, then you want to have a more artistic website. On the other hand, if your ideal client is an anxious mom, maybe you want to have a really peaceful website. It is worth it to invest in a website that represents your brand well and speaks to the type of clients that you see in your practice.

SEO Mistake number 2: Not having enough content

The next mistake I often see is not having enough content on the website for your private practice. It is important that you have enough service pages, and enough content on those pages. This really communicates that you are a mental health expert, and will help you rank well on Google. Having more content, whether that’s more service pages or more words, will help give Google more information about your website.

Photo of man in grey shirt typing on a laptop smiling | SEO Monthly Packages & SEO training workshop | Simplified SEO Consulting

Aside from ranking well on Google, put yourself in your client’s shoes. Think about what they would want to see when looking for therapists in their area. For example, if you were ready to start therapy because you’ve had severe anxiety and have been having debilitating panic attacks, who would you rather see? Someone who has ten specialties listed on one page titled ‘Individual Therapy? Or someone who has an entire page on panic attacks and the treatment of panic disorder? I’m guessing you’d rather see the specialist. If you treat anxiety, consider having service pages on Generalized Anxiety, Social Anxiety, OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder), Panic Disorder, etc. When clients see you have all of these different service pages, they assume you really know your stuff. They will be more likely to come and see you, and possibly be willing to pay more because you are such an anxiety specialist.

If you are in the early stage of your practice and don’t have a clear niche yet, that is okay. There are probably two or three things that you’re really good at and could have a specific service page about.

SEO Mistake number 3: Not using enough simple language 

The third common mistake I’ve found on therapist websites is talking over the clients’ heads. As therapists, it’s really easy for us to do this. In the previous example I provided on the therapist specializing in anxiety, they might refer to the term ‘panic attacks’ on their website. However, in some areas, ‘anxiety attacks’ are searched just as often because that’s the kind of wording that people use. Often, the words that we’re using are not the words that our clients are using to describe what they’re experiencing. Here’s another example, therapists specializing in women’s issues sometimes mention ‘perinatal mood disorders’ on their websites. Yet, it is almost never a commonly searched for key word in any area. I’m guessing that the handful of people who are searching for perinatal mood disorders or depression, are probably your colleagues or physicians who are looking for referrals. It’s fine to rank well for perinatal depression. But, if you’re wanting to get in front of more potential clients, you should use more common terms like ‘postpartum depression’ instead.

For more information on key words please read my blog post: Counseling Keywords: Search Terms to Target for Your Private Practice Website.

Female business owner editing the wording on her website on her laptop computer | SEO services & training | Simplified SEO Consulting

 I usually encourage people to aim for about a third to fifth grade reading level when working on your websites. We try to reduce the number of syllables used in a word. We also replace commonly used academic wording to ones commonly used in speech. One thing I tell people is, when you’re writing a blog post or service page, imagine you’re telling a ten-year-old about the work you do. That way, you can keep on reminding yourself to keep your language simple.

One of the reasons I love working with WordPress sites is that they have that Yoast plug-in. In the Yoast plug-in, you will see a ‘reading score.’ This score reflects how easy it is for your page to be read by individuals with different levels of education. This is helpful to take note of when writing content for your pages, but focus on simplifying your wording. Even well-educated professionals who may be looking at your website don’t need to struggle to understand what you are trying to say.

Begin optimizing your private practice

Green search button with white hand curser hovering over it | SEO Services for mental health websites | Simplified SEO Consulting

Are you ready to optimize your website for SEO purposes so you will rank higher on Google? Learn more about how to begin by following these easy steps:

  1. Book a free consultation,
  2. Speak to one of our SEO specialists to find what service is the best fit for your private practice,
  3. Start ranking better on Google and get more clients!

Other Services offered by Simplified SEO Consulting

Simplified SEO Consulting is proud to offer you a variety of SEO services designed to meet your needs. We offer the popular done for you SEO services where our team of SEO specialists will optimize your page for you. We also offer SEO training packages, and an opportunity for you to learn SEO in a weekend at one of our intensive training sessions for private practice owners who want to learn SEO themselves. Additionally, we also offer Simplified SEO alumni packages and maintenance packages to keep you ranking well, and à la carte SEO services for those of you who just need a little guidance.  Contact us with specific questions or book a free SEO Consultation to figure out which service is best for your business!

photo of Jessica Tappana SEO specialist and founder of Simplified SEO Consulting

About the author:

Jessica Tappana is a therapist, group practice owner & an SEO expert.  Jessica is passionate about helping therapists and their ideal clients find one another. She believes quality mental health care can change the world.  Her group practice has grown primarily through great SEO and now has seven clinicians and one virtual assistant and she still sees around 10 individual therapy clients a week herself. However, most of her focus has shifted to helping other therapists around the world get in front of their ideal clients on Google.

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Best Use of Your Time: Joe Sanok’s Advice for Practice Owners

Consider the best use of your time as a private practice owner

Photo man looking at watch | SEO for busy small business owners | Simplified SEO ConsultingDependent on your phase of practice you need to focus on what the best use of your time is.

Most clinicians will not focus on their use of time, they will answer their own calls, clean their own office, get the drinks for the fridge, do their own SEO and create their own website.

Consider what you’re giving up to DIY

All that time that you could be spending on the practice, seeing clients, networking and levelling up – you’re wasting on things that aren’t giving you any ROI. So, pay somebody to clean your office, fill your drink fridge and to do some of your SEO.

Outsource to take your private practice to the next level

If you’re going to get to that next level, you can’t be getting the money just for the time in the chair. You have to be out there trying to level up your business by adding clinicians and finding new revenue streams beyond just what you’re doing. And so, finding those things that are the best use of your time, I’d say spend your time there.

About the Guest Author

Joseph R. Sanok, MA, LLP, LPC, NCC

Simplified SEO Consulting Services are recommended by Joe Sanok from Practice of the PracticeJoe Sanok is an ambitious results expert. He is a private practice business consultant and counselor that helps small businesses and counselors in private practice to increase revenue and have more fun! He helps owners with website design, vision, growth, and using their time to create income through being a private practice consultant. Joe was frustrated with his lack of business and marketing skills when he left graduate school. He loved helping people through counseling but felt that often people couldn’t find him. Over the past few years, he has grown his skills, income, and ability to lead others, while still maintaining an active private practice in Traverse City, MI.

 

Outsource Your SEO Today to Save Time

If you’re considering Joe’s advice and decide that working on your own SEO isn’t the best use of your time, we can help.  Simplified SEO Consulting is provides SEO services for private practices.  Our specialty is working with mental health professionals and related fields.  Our SEO specialists have what it takes to help you get your practice in front of more potential clients.  As part of our monthly SEO packages, we go in depth editing and tweaking your website so it speaks to both google and your ideal counseling clients.  In fact, as you get busier we even offer copywriting services. This includes a monthly blogging package, so you can stay at the top of Google. But, with a minimal time investment on your part. Getting started is simple:

  1. Schedule a 30 minute free consultation to discuss your SEO goals
  2. Sign up for the package that’s the best fit for your private practice
  3. Start ranking better on Google!

Other Services Offered by Simplified SEO Consulting

In addition to SEO training packages, Simplified SEO Consulting also offers many other SEO services including done for you services, alumni & maintenance packages, and À la carte SEO services. If you aren’t sure whether SEO is for you, feel free to check-out some of our other resources or blogs. We also offer a 7-day email series where you can start to learn SEO for free!

Private Practice Consulting | SEO Consultant for therapists and small business owners

Joe from Practice of the Practice, Jessica from Simplified SEO Consulting and 4 other awesome group practice owners at Slow Down School 2019. A big focus of the week was how to best use our time as business owners.

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Is SEO Important for Mental Health Professionals?

A picture of red path on mountain | SEO for Mental Health Professionals | Simplified SEO

Perhaps you’ve started a private practice counseling clinic and your new website doesn’t seem to get be getting much traffic. Maybe when searching keywords that you think you should rank for on Google, your webpages are nowhere to be seen. You might even wonder how the sites of other therapists in your area rank so high without paying for Google Ads. Maybe you’ve had some success with getting traffic to your website, but you would like to reach more potential clients. Or perhaps you’ve had steady traffic and rank well on search engines, but you would love to maximize your investment.

As a specialist in Search Engine Optimization training and “done for you” services for therapists, I understand the frustration. Developing and maintaining a private practice website is a large investment in time and money, and we want clients to easily find and visit it. Unfortunately, even the most beautiful website may seem invisible to search engines like Google when Search Engine Optimization isn’t performed. Fortunately, however, with simplified but effective Training in SEO for counselors, you can start gaining an edge over your competition!

What Is Search Engine Optimization for Mental Health

Perhaps you have experience with SEO for mental health professionals and want to keep up on the latest techniques. Or maybe you have a general idea of what it means to optimize a website, but you aren’t familiar with the technical aspects. For the latter, SEO is the cumulative measures taken to help a website rank better on search engines such as Google. SEO practices consists of the following: keyword usage, adding hyperlinks and alt-text, improving readability, writing blogs posts and optimizing meta-descriptions. It seems like a lot, but don’t this discourage you! Many therapists have seen great long-term results, learning how to optimize their own websites with our SEO training course for counselors. However, sometimes they see their time better spent seeing the new clients who are coming in, and pass on the SEO. Your therapy website can be the powerful, well-oiled marketing tool it was meant to be!

The Importance of SEO for Mental Health Professionals

Photo of two businessmen at a computer | SEO for Counselors | Simplified SEO Counseling

Search Engine Optimization may be the most important tool for website marketing for counselors. The results I have seen in my experience working in SEO for therapists from all around speaks to this belief. Here are just three of the reasons why SEO is so important, if not crucial, for your website’s marketing effectiveness:

1. Search Engine Optimization is Maintenance for Your Website

Suppose you arrive home in a car you’ve just purchased, and the initial excitement is beginning to wear off. Even if it’s a brand new car, it’s likely you would want to learn how to maintain it. At the bare minimum, you need to keep gas in the tank. That is, if you want it to go places and serve its intended purpose. However, if you want it last very long, you would have to do more than just put gasoline in it. Your website is very similar to this car.

Your private practice therapy website is similar in that it can go places if you maintain it. Overlooking SEO and only investing in search engine ads is like just keeping the gas tank filled. There are times when such ads can be a practical marketing solution but not alone. However, a website that you optimize through training or maintain with skilled SEO consulting services will continue to get long-term results. Your website will become the powerful marketing tool that it’s meant to be, drawing attention and bringing traffic. More potential clients will find your website when your organic rankings increase. SEO for therapists is like changing the manual for changing the oil for your marketing machine.

2. SEO for Therapists Accomplishes Four Major Tasks

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the set of techniques, tools and practices that carry out four specific purposes. The four things your counseling website must do include:

  1. Rank Well with Visibility On Search Engines: Make your website more appealing to search engines so that your website will show up to more potential clients. Websites that show up higher on Google search results are often associated with being trustworthy or credible.
  2. Direct Action to Promote Traffic on Your Site: Great SEO can help you engage readers. It speaks to them and entices them to come to your service pages or blogs to learn more or to contact you for services or referrals.
  3. Be User-friendly, Interesting and Easy to Navigate: Having interesting content that links to other content, quality backlinks and pictures with alt text description allows readers navigate your site more easily, making it more accessible. This helps them feel more comfortable and confident in browsing your website and entices interest.
  4. Encourage Readers to Spend Time on Your Website and Take Action: The longer someone spends on your website the more likely they are going to contact you or services or referrals. This also gives you more time to pitch your experience as a mental health expert and continue to build trust.

A photo of Bar graphs on a tablet | SEO for Therapists| Simplified SEO Consulting

3. SEO for Counselors Allows You to Measure Progress

Information is crucial in any investment of time or money, and with SEO marketing there is no exception. Analysis software and plugins allow you to see the results of your efforts and the progress you’ve made with your website. You can see the effect changes to your website have in search result rankings, click through rates and more. Equally important, these tools can help guide your decisions, so that you can maximize your time and set measurable goals.

Training in SEO for Therapists and “Done for You” Services Can Help You Increase Website Rankings and Traffic

If you are interested in ranking better on search engines or bringing in more traffic and referrals for your private practice therapy, you can learn how to do SEO yourself with training in SEO for counselors. Many therapists have seen amazing results when using the skills and techniques taught in our SEO course. If time is a factor or you see your time better spent focussing on seeing new clients, we offer “Done for You” packages for mental health SEO. If you think that you might be interested in training, but aren’t sure, you can sign up for our free 7-day SEO for Mental Heath Professionals Email Series or reach out to use with questions.

GETTING STARTED WITH SEO FOR MENTAL HEALTH PROFESSIONALS IS EASY:

  1. Get in touch with Simplified SEO Consulting by scheduling a free 30-minute SEO consultation.
  2. Get connected with a skilled SEO Specialist for Therapists that you can trust.
  3. Start learning SEO in the meantime with our free 7-Day SEO for Counselors Email Series.

Services Offered at Simplified SEO Counseling

As a Consulting Service for Mental Health SEO we can help you optimize your website with three different types of packages, including “Done for You” SEO Services, SEO training, À la carte “Done for You” SEO services and our Alumni & Maintenance Package.

 

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