How Important Is Social Media For SEO?

Sometimes, it feels like the world of social media is inescapable. On many platforms, you have the option to share to all of your accounts. Which, depending on the content, could have different outcomes. In SEO land, we’ve been getting a lot of questions about the role of social media in SEO. Is active participation in social media required? Is social media involvement required to boost SEO? Does posting on social media make your website more visible to your ideal clients? Stay tuned to find out!

Active Participation in Social Media

You might be wondering why I specified “active” participation. Social media works in your favor when you interact with fellow users through your account. This means liking and responding to comments, direct messages, and tags. Essentially, anytime your practice is acknowledged by another user. Why is this important? Because this is how most social media algorithms operate. This is true for Instagram, for example. The more your private practice’s account interacts with its users, the more your account will be visible. Potentially, giving you the opportunity to increase your following. And, *hopefully* increase client conversion.

So, all of this to say that the “post and pray” approach will not work in your favor. If you’re going to use this as a form of digital marketing to grow your business, it has to be done with intention. Otherwise, it will likely be a waste of your time and energy.

Social Media “Boosting” Your SEO

This is a little tricky. Active participation in social media *if done well* can get you in front of more users. This can, in theory, help your SEO. There are some assumptions that go along with this. 1. People able to access your website from the social media platform (for instance, through a link on your page). 2. After seeing your website on Social Media, people visit your website, stay on and explore your website. Google interprets this as the user being interested in the content on your website, and shows Google that your site has truly useful information. Google likes to send people to websites they find engaging, trustworthy and useful. So, when more people are going to your site from social media and exploring it, it may help your rankings. In this way, Social Media may be helpful.

Do just having a Facebook, Instagram or Tik Tok Improve my SEO?

Now, you may be wondering if just having a presence on various platforms in and of itself will boost your SEO. The truth is that we’ve read conflicting evidence about this in recent years. There does seem to be a correlation where businesses with a well ranking website often have an active social media presence. However most of us remember from school that correlation does not always equal causation. And, Google isn’t yet admitting that social media is an official ranking factor.

Our general recommendations for SEO + Social Media

Our general recommendation is that social mentions (your name or practice name) seem to be helpful and social shares (where someone shares a link to your page) particularly seem to be helpful. Is this only because it directs people to your site? Perhaps. But it does seem to make sense that Google crawls all webpages and therefore knows when your page is showing up frequently on a platform like Facebook.

So, our general recommendation is that you frequently share links to your website on your social media. You already know we highly recommend blogging for helping professionals building their SEO. We also recommend you take the extra step of sharing each blog post you publish on your facebook, twitter or other account. If it makes sense, consider asking friends and family to share your blog posts as well!

Website Visibility for Ideal Clients

Again, also tricky. This kind of depends on your ideal client. For example, let’s say working with college students is your jam. Posting relevant content on your social media that will speak to them and/or grab their attention could definitely be helpful. A good tip is to use geographic location to your benefit. We’ll stick with the college student example. You could post a picture and tag a local coffee shop that’s a popular study hub. If your practice happens to be near the coffee shop, mention that! Post relevant content about what’s happening on campus. Do your best to get creative with it. I can speak from my experience as a current graduate student. It’s obvious when a business tries to market to college students and is disconnected from the culture. If your ideal client doesn’t feel like you “get them”, they may not reach out.

And this extends beyond college students and to all populations. Marketing through social media should be done tactfully. And, it should be clear that there was consideration and intention in the process. If the world of social media is foreign to you, or you’re lacking inspiration, do some research. See what works and what doesn’t with other similar businesses. Truly, there is nothing you can’t find on Google.

To Wrap Up Our Social Media Adventure. . .

For my friends that prefer lists, or just scrolled to the bottom for a summary, here are the important takeaways:

1. Active participation in social media is essentially required IF that is the avenue you are taking to get in front of users on social media. Simply posting is not enough. There has to be a high level of interaction between your account and the other users.

2. Social media alone will not boost your SEO. However, providing ample opportunities for the user to visit your website through your account CAN help.

3. If you’re using social media to get in front of your ideal clients, do so tactfully. Make it clear that you are connected to them and are familiar with their needs. Consider your “brand” when developing content.

Want To Start SEO Services?

At Simplified SEO Consulting, our goal is for your practice to be on the first page of Google. And, we can help you reach that in many different ways. We offer Done For You Services and take care of the optimization. If you would like to learn how to do it yourself, we have training available through a 12-week program or individual courses. In addition, we offer al a carte services to fill in the gaps. If you aren’t sure which service will get the best return on investment for your business, one of our SEO specialists will help during your consultation. So what’s holding you back? You do your best work when you’re not worried about where the next call will come from. So, let’s start the process to get your site in front of more of the right clients so they can start calling! Take the next step and schedule a free consultation to learn more!

About The Author

Alyssa Kohne is in the process of obtaining her Masters in Social Work with a clinical concentration from the University of Missouri- Columbia. She has been doing SEO with Simplified for the last few months. She has a passion for helping people who want to learn to dot heir own SEO and has led SEO trainings as part of her work with Simplified SEO Consulting.

October 13, 2020/0 Comments/by Alyssa Kohne

Business Tips, SEO Basics

Non-Techy SEO Tips to Get your Site Ranking

Try these Non-Techy SEO Tips

Are you struggling to figure out where to start with SEO? Everything feels very overwhelming when you begin. There are so many terms and techniques that can help, but it all just doesn’t make sense. Where do we even begin?

If this sounds familiar don’t worry, we’ve all been there. The terms just mesh together at some point. But we need to remember, as we are learning we should give ourselves a break. You’re trying. If you’re looking for a place to begin, you’ve come to the right place. Simplified isn’t just the name of the business, but it’s the name of the game. Let’s dive into some non-techy SEO tips that can help you get started.

Get a google my business listing

Whether online or in-person services are offered, Google needs to know about your business. There are boxes that pop up on the right-hand side of your screen when you search for certain businesses. What happens when you don’t have information set up that tells us who you are? People will disregard the information, or may never find you. Likewise, Google won’t know what your business does. You don’t have to be SEO savvy to add this section. It is a simple non-techy SEO tip where you have all the information needed. If you’re looking for more information on how this can help, the site upcity has some great tips. This page talks about how Google my business can help your SEO as well as how to keep this ranking and up to date.

Claim your business; let us know you’re here
Make sure your info is correct; such as hours, your business category, and photos.
Keep your services up to date
Respond to reviews; google loves engagement. It makes your service more credible to Google.

Put your Address on your Footer

If you’ve ever gone to any site looking for a location, I’m sure you’ve looked at one of two places. The contact page or you scroll down to the bottom of a page. Usually, websites place the address here because once it is added, all pages reflect the change. So, this is a simple, one-time, non-techy SEO task anyone can do. Why does adding this non-techy SEO tip help SEO on Google? Well, it allows you to add internal links that allow for traffic across your site. The more links on your site, the more reputable google will find it. It’s a great way to increase rankings. Yet, it is important to note that adding external links to your footer is not recommended. Google devalues these links in the footer.

Include Specialty Pages

This is important for a few reasons. First, it helps you narrow down what you’re good at as a therapist. If you can say these are the core topics that I excel in treating, you’re more likely to drive in clients. They will feel that you can understand their issues best. Second, when people see pages such as individual, group, or couples therapy, it may not be specific enough to their issues. This is why we ask you to speak to a client’s pain points. If you can speak to the issue, you’re likely to convert a client. Whereas generalizing the service may make someone unsure whether you understand their dilemma. If you are unsure of what pages should I have on my website to rank well for google? Try adding trauma, anxiety, depression, and online services to start. Non-techy SEO has nothing on you!

Blog Regularly

Writing can be a hassle. It takes time to create a cohesive and thoughtful blog post. Then you have to consider the SEO aspect of creating your post. But, you’re doing a great service to your clients when you blog. Not only are you exhibiting your continued knowledge on various topics, but you are able to speak to a specific issue. You may not be able to say all that you need on a service page. This is why you should create specialty pages. Think about anxiety, you may be able to create a blog post about social anxiety in college settings. This may speak to this particular population, and make them feel that you understand their issue. Blogging is a powerful tool. Monthly blogging and optimizing can make Google recognize your service pages better. But how often should I post blogs to improve my SEO? If it is your goal to blog more, setting goals to blog once a month on reoccurring topics clients mention or adding a post on your passion for the field will build your credibility. This is an easy non-techy SEO tip that speaks to your expertise.

Get some backlinks

We have mentioned this before, but backlinks are some of the best Yet to improve SEO. Yet, they are not always easy to come by. You would need another source to add you to their site. What is most important about building backlinks is to make sure we are getting credible and safe backlinks. There is nothing worse than getting a scammy backlink and then having Google penalize you for it. Now we don’t expect any of you would do this, but it’s important to invest in quality backlinks that will boost our SEO. How can you get backlinks? Start with getting into local directories. Then contact a colleague who you have a good working relationship with. Agree to give them a backlink based on a post they did and have them return the favor. Either way, you will be able to build up quality backlinks. If you’re looking to build quality backlinks, refer to the new Simplified SEO course for backlinks which becomes a free gift on your fifth month with us. Do you feel ready to use these non-techy SEO tips?

Begin SEO Services at Simplified SEO Consulting

I hope this non-techy SEO blog post was helpful to you as you read through it. These are simple ways to get a head start on boosting your page. If you have any questions or your question was not answered, reach out. Our passionate team of SEO experts would be happy to answer your question and talk about what services might work well for your business. Follow these three steps to begin ranking better on Google.

Schedule an appointment for a free 15-minute consultation with a member of the Simplified SEO Consulting staff
Learn more about our SEO packages and training opportunities
Start optimizing your webpage and see it rank better on Google!

Other Services offered by Simplified SEO Consulting

Simplified SEO Consulting is passionate about providing SEO services for helping professionals and therapists. Our comprehensive SEO services are included in our Done for You SEO Service packages. Also, we offer alumni packages and al la carte SEO services. Our SEO staff provides several SEO training opportunities. including our “Top of Google” online course and 12 weeks of online video training. We also offer an SEO Strategy package to learn more about SEO and what you can do to rank better on search engines.

Contact Simplified SEO to learn more, or book a free SEO Consultation to decide which option is best for your business. We hope to hear from you soon!

About the Author:

Jasmine Jaquess is a Simplified SEO specialist based in Columbia, MO. She specializes in platforms such as Squarespace and Wix but has learned to love word press sites as well. She really enjoys hearing the client’s goals for their business and helping them achieve them.

October 6, 2020/0 Comments/by Jasmine Jaquess

Business Tips, SEO Tools

Time and Place for Google Ads

Often times, our therapists come to us because their ideal clients aren’t finding them on Google. They’ve put time and energy into creating their website. There’s inspirational quotes, pictures of nature, people smiling; the whole nine yards. In addition, they take suggestions from other people on how to increase traffic to their website. They’ve thoughtfully hired other therapists to be part of their group practice. Often, because of the unique skill set or treatment modality.

All of this, and still nothing.

You’ve put some time and effort into boosting your internet presence. Unfortunately, the calls to your practice aren’t indicative of that. You’ve heard of SEO, what I will lovingly refer to as the secret underworld of website rankings. However, you know there can be a financial commitment and you might not be ready for that. For these situations, there is an option you can consider: Google Ads.

Important consideration: Much of this information is relevant for Facebook ads. However, there are some differences since it is a social media platform. But for this purpose of this blog post, I won’t be referring to Facebook ads.

What Is A Google Ad?

Google Ads, or Google Adwords, is an online advertisement platform developed by Google. It works by advertisers bidding to display brief advertisements on Google. In your case, it would be brief descriptions of the services your practice offers. By participating in bidding, your “advertisement” will be put in front of more web users. These ads can be placed in search engines, like Google. In addition, they can be placed in non-search engine websites.

How Do Google Ads Work?

While you are paying for them, Google Ads can help your website rank higher than your competitors’. Of course, this is assuming that you’re spending more money than your competitors for these ads.

While it’s not guaranteed, Google Ads can get your website (or “advertisement”) in front of more people scrolling through the internet. This can happen relatively quickly. It’s important to consider how competitive and/or saturated your specific market is. In addition, Google Ads can help you get more people to visit your website. To make it clear: it is not guaranteed.

When Should I Invest In Google Ads?

What a great question, I’m glad you asked! Google Ads absolutely have a place when building your practice. As previously mentioned, Google Ads can help your website get in front of more people scrolling through the internet. So if no one is finding your website, this is an option. With what we know about Google Ads, below are a few times that have the best return on investment.

In The Early Days of Private Practice

A great time to invest in Google Ads is when you’re building your practice. This could be in the beginning stages of your practice when you first create a website. This is helpful for a few reasons.

It can help increase the traffic to your website.
Increasing the traffic to your website has the possibility of increasing client conversion.
The more people that visit your website + the longer people stay on your website = impact on Google rankings. Often, this means that Google will begin to ‘trust’ your website.

Noticing Dips In Your Rankings

Another time to consider investing in Google Ads is when your rankings dip. This applies to practices that are established and have pretty consistent rankings. Usually, they’re on the first page for their specialty. And, are reaching their goals in terms of client calls and conversions. Sometimes, these practices can have dips in their rankings or calls. Because like other businesses, there peaks and valleys. When that happens, investing some money in Google Ads can help boost their rankings. Investing in Google Ads in this situation is typically a quick and temporary fix.

When You Shouldn’t Rely On Google Ads

Yes, Google Ads have a time and place. They can help your practice in the early stages and can give a little boost if you start to dip.

However. . .

There is not a causal relationship between Google Ads and consistently high Google rankings. What does this mean? Investing in Google Ads does not mean you will consistently rank well. Basically, your website can disappear from the first page when you don’t pay for these ads. Why is this the case? Because Google Ads only work in your favor while you’re paying for them. After you stop paying for them, the Google Ads disappear.

Another Option: Investing In SEO

Yay, investing in SEO! So, what’s the difference in Google Ads and investing in SEO? The difference is the longevity of your website ranking well. Investing in your SEO using the techniques we use as SEO specialists will give your website staying power in Google. This includes adding links, keyword research, writing quality meta descriptions, and much more. This is important because the results gained from our optimization will stay with your site.

Basically: when we are optimizing your site, we’ll put out all the stops to get on the first page of Google. We’ll make sure your website converts clients and can “stand the test of time.” When you stop paying us for optimization services, we leave with the work we’ve done (an optimized website). Now, your website will continue to show up in Google without you having to spend hundreds of dollars on advertisements.

So Why Am I Telling You This?

Is there a possibility that some people read half of this blog and decided to invest solely in Google Ads? Maybe. Are there some people who read this and are confused why an SEO company would talk about the benefits of another service? More than likely. So why did I do this?

Our goal at Simplified SEO Consulting is for our clients to be informed consumers. We want our clients to make the best decisions for their practices. And sometimes, this means pulling back the curtain and talking about what else can help. Could we ‘talk smack’ on other advertisements that use different techniques than we do? You betcha. Will we? No. Because in the wise words of Destiny’s Child, “(our) mama(s) taught (us) better than that.”

Moving Forward With SEO Services

So, hopefully, you read this blog and decided you want to learn more. Or, you read this blog and thought it was a bunch of gobbledygook. Either way, we would love to help you reach your SEO goals. To get started with any of our services, follow these steps:

1. Sign up for our free 7-day SEO course.

2. Schedule a free consultation with a member of our team.

3. Get on the first page of Google. . . and stay there.

About the Author

Alyssa Kohne is in the process of obtaining her Masters in Social Work with a clinical concentration from the University of Missouri- Columbia. She has been doing SEO with Simplified for the last few months. Recently, she participated in the two-part backlink webinar through Simplified. Additionally, she wrote a comprehensive guide on all things backlinks. She recommends both!

September 7, 2020/0 Comments/by Alyssa Kohne

Business Tips, SEO Basics

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?

A specific niche allows you to identify long tail words to quickly target through blog posts
Keywords related to that niche can more naturally come up on a variety of pages of your site
Blog posts can be written around the pain points of your ideal clients
Photos can be chosen that represent your ideal client
You can write content that will appeal to the kind of client you want to attract
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

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

Tips for using your website to market to a niche

Make sure your home page speaks directly to that client!
Write specific service pages for the main pain points your ideal clients face (I recommend Laura Long’s copywriting course)
Make sure your ideal clients are represented in the photos on your website
Regularly write blog posts with common questions you answer from potential clients
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:

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

June 23, 2020/0 Comments/by Jessica

Business Tips

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!

April 19, 2020/1 Comment/by Jessica

Business Tips

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.

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.

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:

If 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:

Book a free 15-minute consultation with a member of the Simplified SEO Consulting staff,
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,
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.

March 21, 2020/0 Comments/by Jessica

Business Tips

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!

March 19, 2020/0 Comments/by Jessica

Business Tips

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.

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.

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 Website

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.

March 17, 2020/0 Comments/by Jessica

Business Tips

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 Benchmarks

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.

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.

January 7, 2020/0 Comments/by Jessica

Business Tips, SEO Tips

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

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?

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

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!

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:

Schedule a free SEO Consultation
Meet with one of our SEO specialists for a Zoom call
Choose the search engine optimization package that’s the best fit for your business!

December 2, 2019/0 Comments/by Jessica