Developing a new SEO strategy during Covid-19

If you’re like many private practices, you’ve noticed a dip in new client inquiries during the Covid-19 pandemic.  You’re wanting to focus some on marketing but aren’t sure how.  First of all, I recommend checking out Part 1 of this Comprehensive SEO guide where we addressed SEO as a long-term marketing strategy during Covid-19 and gave you our first few tips.

The truth is, we need to make adjustments in various areas of our business.  SEO is one of those areas. Many of these tips are always good, but especially important to check on during this unique time.

Let’s go ahead and dive into some more strategies for working on SEO and using your website to market your services right now.

Update Google My Business

Google My Business and SEO go hand in hand.  In general, a complete Google My Business listing will help you rank better on Google, and excellent SEO will help your listing be shown more in those top three. So, now is a great time to update your Google My Business listing!  Add a note about how you’re offering online services, update your hours, etc.  Show Google that you’re staying up to date and make sure the information clients find is accurate.

Focus on Conversions

There are fewer people searching for our services now during covid-19. Therefore, it’s more important than ever that you convert the clients who do find you in search results!  The two areas to look at are improving your click-through rate (the number of people who “click” on your link when you show up in search results) and improving conversions to client inquiries when people are on your page.

To improve your click-through rate, I recommend taking a look at your meta descriptions.  Make sure they are compelling and accurately describe what the person will find when they follow the link to your page.

To improve the conversions when someone does land on your page, take a look at your website design.  Now is a great time to tweak your website design.  Make sure you have a clear “call to action” button in the top right-hand corner like, “Schedule an intake” or “Call now.”  If you’re considering a complete website redesign, you can take a look at our therapist resource page for a few designers we’ve worked with in the past.

Update Pages on Your Site People will Need Later

Consider updating pages right now you think might be relevant in the future with changes that have happened due to Covid-19.  In other words, plan ahead for the searches people will be looking at.  Another article I read this week agrees with this strategy of thinking of the future when determining our SEO strategy right now.  It’s easy to just get reactive and make changes to a website out of fear and reaction to he changing market.  However, it’s so important to be strategic and forward-looking when making changes!

How my private practice has anticipated future client needs

A therapist in my practice who does a lot of work around grief decided to use this time to get trained in an evidence-based trauma therapy she’s been eyeing.  Why? Because she knows that coming out of this, there will be a lot of complicated, traumatic grief.  There will be people who said goodbye to a loved one over the phone, family members who didn’t have the closure a funeral provides, and hospital staff who witnessed death.

Along those same lines, our practice decided it’s time to update/rewrite our grief page!  I met with one of my clinicians to discuss this. Now, she’s working on a rough draft of what that will look like.  Then, naturally, I’ll do the SEO work for it so we don’t lose our ranking when it’s rewritten. But it will be written with conversion in mind so that when people realize they need help processing the grief from the loss they’re experiencing now, they’ll see how we can help.

Nurture your audience

I think another thing to think about right now is the importance of building up trust with your community and audience.  Even if people aren’t ready to actually call and begin therapy right now, you can begin to at least build positive associations in your community with the name of your practice.

For example, tonight I participated in a virtual telethon for our community relief efforts.  I spoke about using grounding to cope with Covid related anxiety. Do I expect any calls off of that? Probably not right away.  However, I’m hoping that people will begin to associate my practice name with helping the community.  It’s planting seeds.

At some point in the future, people will look for counseling. When they do and see the name of my practice show up in search results they’ll think, “Oh, I’ve heard good things about Aspire.” They may not even remember what those specific “good things” were, but the positive association is there.

Other options for this include sending short, helpful information to your mailing list, giving mental health tips on social media and sharing the blog posts you’ve been writing.

Make sure your website is fast

Internet is being used in record numbers now during Covid-19.  In many cases, people are overwhelming their internet.  I spoke to another therapist who recently upgraded their internet speed at home and have it on my “to do” list to look into that for my own house this week.  What does this mean for potential clients looking for our services? Their internet is already slower, so if technical issues are slowing down your site not only will it hurt your SEO, but may be even more frustrating to your clients than usual!

I recommend everyone puts their website through Google PageSpeed Insights from time to time.  I’ll warn you right now that the results can be a little hard to understand. Therefore, you may just want to take a screen shot of your results and their suggestions, e-mail that to your website developer and ask what of these things they’d recommend targeting to improve your score.

Link Building

Link building is always an important strategy for SEO.  I feel like I touch on this topic all the time.  But, that is because building backlinks is effective.  So, I’ve written several blog posts about this, talk about it 1:1 with SEO clients frequently and it’s often a topic of my weekly “Facebook Lives” in our closed FB group for clients.

What can you do to build backlinks right now? Getting on relevant directories is always a good strategy.  And I’m often talking to therapists about guest blogging.  But I think one of the biggest opportunities right now is being featured in the media.  So, reach out to your local papers and TV stations and offer to be a source.  Respond to some HARO inquiries.  Offer to be on a local radio show.  Participate in a podcast interview.  People know mental health is important right now. And, when you serve as a source in these situations they will typically link back to your website in the online article or show notes.

SEO Training During Covid-19

For many of you, now is a great time to learn to optimize your own website.  Investing that time to learn to manage your own SEO now can pay off for years ahead.  I highly recommend our online SEO courses if you’re looking for a really affordable option.  If you want more personalized support, you might consider our one-on-one 12-week SEO intensive.  Or you can e-mail me at jessica@simplifiedSEOConsulting.com and let me know if you want to be included in a brief 4-week SEO mastermind we are considering.  Lastly, if you’re just looking for a quick SEO strategy session or are an alumni looking for a quick update, we do offer those as well.

If you’re ready to dive in and learn search engine optimization, we’re here to help.

I’m an advocate. It’s core to my heart to help others in a very specific way. Using my role and voice, power and privilege, education and experiences. In all ways/levels, I truly believe we can make a difference when we engage with folks in a meaningful and respectful way. This can happen through individual advocacy, groups, and systems advocacy.

Everyone in the Process Has a Job To Do

One of the great things about advocacy is that every person in the room or system has a role. When everyone works within their role, allowing each other to do their jobs as efficiently and effectively as possible, the client is served well.

For example, as an advocate for survivors of rape and sexual assault, we would work with all sorts of systems and people. Doctors, law enforcement, parents, attorneys, judges, etc. If they are each able to focus on their work, and I can focus on the survivor, we are all more able to seek justice and a fair process.

As a birth doula, the same thing applies. If I get in the way or start pushing an agenda, the flow of the client’s birth will be disrupted.

Of course, there are a million other examples. But, what does this have to do with SEO?

For SEO, every piece of the website and the technical components of the process have a different job to do in order to get your therapy website in front of the potential therapy clients who are already looking for you.

Who Are the Key Players for Therapy Website SEO?

So, let’s break this down a bit. Today, we’ll talk about three key players in the “website lead generation to new client for your therapy practice” process:

1. The Potential Client
2. Search Engines
3. Your therapy website

In the future, we might break this into even more pieces, but let’s keep it relatively simple for now, shall we? Great. Here we go.

Potential Therapy Client:

This key player is the most “key.” Your client is the “hero” here and the one who is driving the car. Steering the ship. Conducting the train. Whatever you want to call it…they are the person who is going to make everything else necessary. The job of the potential client is to accurately articulate the needs they have at the time they have them. This is WAY easier sounding than how it actually happens though.

So, what might an exhausted, anxious new mom who has just experienced a traumatic birth followed by an unexpected NICU stay dealing with postpartum depression search for at 3 am?

…

…

…go ahead, jot some ideas down!

That was harder to come up with than you may have originally thought, right? Same here. Here’s what I wrote down:

• “Counseling for new moms”
• “Therapy for postpartum”
• “New baby stress”
• “New mom stress”
• “Birth and postpartum counseling”
• “Help for mom of newborn”

Now, I’m immersed in the birth world right now. That might not make me the best person to determine what people might be searching for, which is where keyword research comes in! I can take this list of possible ideas, plug them into a keyword finder tool and get some additional data to support the search terms I think people might be looking for.

The potential client in this example will probably plug those into a search engine as a question, or add something like, “near me” to the end of those phrases above. That’s their job. (I didn’t even get into the fact that it might have taken days, weeks or even months for that person to both identify that they need help and then finally type those tough words in on their screen…what a big job they’ve already done to get here.)

Search Engine:

The job of the search engine is relatively simple. Ultimately, they have to take the information we type into the search field and try to determine what we are really looking for. Well, that’s what we’d like them to do, right? (Read my mind, please!!!)

Of course, there’s a complicated algorithm and the influence of ads that will come into play here. But, ultimately, the search engine’s bots are charged with scanning websites for keywords and phrases that perfectly match the terms that stressed-out potential clients and loved ones are searching for at all hours of the day and night. Aren’t you glad you’re not one of these bots? It’s overwhelming when you think about it!

Search engines have a lot to do with the way therapy websites are found by potential clients. That’s why we spend so much time dissecting every little thing they are looking for and trying to make their job easier.

Your Therapy Website:

Did you expect me to start here? I certainly could have! You know this is the key player who we spend the most time helping. It’s also the ONLY part of this process that you have direct control over. That’s important to know and truly acknowledge. Tough, right? Especially for those of us who are a bit on the “control freak” end of the spectrum. I get it. Look forward to a post about how we do “therapy for websites” soon!

In the meantime, let’s focus on your website’s job:

To clearly present who you can help, with what issue(s) and how you will help them.

Then, you need to give them a clear way to get that help from you. This is why we focus on the service pages, the approaches and the call to action pieces of your website! All of these, when done well, will help ensure that the other players in this process can do their jobs and connect to you.

So, Are YOU the Advocate? Or, Do You Want Some Help?

So, who is the “advocate” in this scenario? Well, that’s sort of up to you to determine! With time, training and practice, you can be the advocate here. There are a number of things you can do to help your website rank. We’ve written a number of blog posts about them, and have extensive training available online and in-person intensives to help you short-cut the learning process.

If that sounds like too much, then we’re advocates for hire too. Yep. That’s one of the roles I feel connected to here at Simplified SEO Consulting. With our Done For You comprehensive SEO services for therapists and other mental health professionals, we can help your potential clients find your therapy website via the most popular search engines. To get started, simply schedule a free pre-consultation call via Zoom so we can determine the best place to focus your resources. We truly look forward to talking with you soon!

About the Author

Danica Wolf is an MSW who has years of experience in the mental health field herself first providing advocacy and then directing our local relationship and sexual violence prevention center.  She spent years managing the website for that center as well as for own business as a Doula.  Since joining the Simplified SEO Consulting team, Danica has quickly become a favorite among our clients!  She loves interacting with small business owners around the world and watching their business grow as they start ranking well on websites!  Seriously, she loves hearing client success stories! Danica takes a very client-centered approach to optimizing, making sure that websites not only rank well on Google but truly serve the needs of clients who visit the site.  She is our Lead SEO Specialist and helps review website pages others have optimized to ensure every website is gaining as much traction as possible!

One of the most common questions I get is, “How do I figure out what keywords to target on my website?”  I think there are two important topics to cover here: Where to look for keywords and how to choose which ones to target.  Today, I’ll touch on the where to look and then we’ll touch on how to choose which keyword to go with in another blog post.

First Lesson: Potential clients may not search for the terms you think they’re searching for.

I remember the first time someone asked me what search terms my clients would be looking for.  I distinctly remember saying, “Prolonged Exposure.”  I had a whole list, and I can’t remember what else was on it.  But my point is this: my list was full of technical terms my clients simply were not using!

On a less obvious note….a lot of couples therapists will tell me the most important keyword they want to rank for is “couples counseling.”  The interesting thing about this is that in most areas of the country, more people are searching for “marriage counseling.”  And by “more,” I mean usually more than double!  Now, it varies depending on region whether “couples counseling” or “couples therapy” comes in second.  But it’s a great example of why I always recommend beginning any good SEO plan with a little keyword research!

Free Places to Begin Keyword Research

The truth is that I didn’t actually pay for a keyword research tool until I was about six months into my business as an SEO
consultant.  There are some great FREE keyword research tools out there you can use.  So, let’s start with those free tools!

Ask your friends

The important thing here is to ask people in your life who are NOT mental health experts. Instead, I recommend finding someone in your life who is similar to your ideal client and asking what they would enter into a search engine if they were looking for a therapist!  So, if you really like working with depressed teenagers, ask a friend who has a teenager who has struggled with depression.  If you offer divorce discernment counseling, as a friend who recently went through a divorce.

Your intake paperwork: What words have your ideal clients already used?

Think of a few clients you have really enjoyed working with.  Now, go look at your intake paperwork.  Preferably look at any section that has an open ended question such as, “Why are you coming to counseling right now?” Look for common themes.  One of the participants in our first “Top of Search Engines” SEO workshop found this to be the most helpful suggestion of all.  She pulled up her EHR and realized as she went through that there were a few phrases that kept coming up over and over again in that intake paperwork so we began to really target those phrases on her page.

A Basic Google Search

Because Google truly does care about the client experience, when you type a search into Google at the bottom of the page they offer a list of related search topics that you might be interested in searching for.  Luckily for us, they choose the keywords they recommend at the bottom based on search terms people actually use.  So, this can be a helpful place to begin your keyword research.

In the example here, I might use this information to then suggest this therapist write a blog post titled “Types of Christian Counseling” (Christian informed versus more biblically based perhaps?) and “Why is it Important to see a Christian Counselor.”

Google Adwords Planning Tool

I personally don’t use Google Adwords, but if you do, you know their keyword planning tool is free.  It’s really meant to help you plan keywords for Google Adwords campaigns. Therefore, it will have some extra information such as the average cost per click that you really don’t need if working on organic SEO.  However, the searches per month in your area can be very useful!

Ubersuggests for Keyword Research

Ubersuggests is a free tool (at the time of this writing) from Neil Patel. Let’s be honest, I like all of the SEO tools Neil Patel provides.  This is a great free tool!  You type in one keyword you are considering and receive a list of related keywords.  From here, you want to look at the volume and SEO difficulty level.

Google Trends

I generally use Google Trends more when something unusual is going on that I think might impact how people are searching.  For example, when the #MeToo movement started or when the Coronavirus hit.  Because traditional keyword tools are based off an average of data for about a year, they might not help you catch sudden changes.  In these instances, Google Trends can help you more quickly identify the impact of what is happening in the world.

Paid SEO Keyword Research Tools

At this point, I honestly rely very heavily on my favorite paid keyword research tool.  I’ve tried out a couple and generally recommend either KWFinder or SEMrush if you go with a paid tool.  The best thing about these paid tools is that you can search what keywords people are looking for in your specific area.  This is important, because I’ve found that sometimes the best keywords to target varies greatly by area.

I recommend most people go with KWFinder if they’re going to pay for one tool.  In fact, that’s what my staff generally use.  I find it to be reasonably priced and easy to use.

There are also “fancier” tools as well that do more than just keyword research.  I really like SEMrush. It allows you to pull keywords from multiple different places, do really in depth research on the keywords your competitors are targeting, track your keywords, etc. all in one place.  Then, it also lets you do all sorts of other things like keeping track of your backlinks.

There are a lot of other great tools out there.  I’ve tried a few and they all have advantages/disadvantages. However, these are the two that I personally pay for and feel like I get a really good value with.

What are the best keyword research tools?

There are a lot of great tools out there!  In addition to casual research such as asking friends or looking at your intake paperwork, here is a summary list of the tools I typically recommend for keyword research:

1. Google Search Console
2. Google Adwords Planner
3. Ubersuggests
4. Google Trends
5. KWFinder
6. Semrush

What do I do with my keywords?

Once you’ve come up with a list of keywords that you believe your ideal clients are using, it’s time to use those to start optimizing your website!  There are a lot of different places you can place these keywords on your website including page titles, subheadings, in the text, meta descriptions and more.  Here’s an article with 6 places on your website you can use your keywords to improve your SEO!

It’s also good to know that your keyword list is probably going to be pretty fluid for awhile. What I mean is that the more you work on your SEO, the more likely you are to revise your list. So, you don’t have to worry about getting the “perfect” list together right now.  It’s ok to add a new area you want to target (i.e. instead of just your suburb, targeting your entire area), add a few variations of your initial keywords, etc.

Ready to get your website to the top of Google?

SEO doesn’t have to be complicated.  Simplified SEO Consulting seeks to make SEO less stressful.  We offer a variety of SEO services designed to meet your needs as a small business owner and walk you through the steps it takes to get your website ranking well on search engines. 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 also have DIY Online SEO courses for people who are really motivated to learn their own SEO or a 12 Week SEO Intensive business owners wanting to learn to optimize their own sites, but also looking for support every step of the way.

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

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