Keyword Tracking: How Do I Know If My SEO Efforts Are Working?

Have you been working on your own Search Engine Optimization for a couple of months and just aren’t sure if it’s worth the effort?

Or have you been paying someone else to do “SEO” for your private practice website but have just been told to be patient and wait a few months to see results?

Maybe as you’ve looked through this page you’ve found yourself wondering how you’d even know if the money you are spending is giving you a good return on investment?

You Want Results

Imagine that whoever answers phone calls for your practice is keeping busy with double the calls you have coming in right now. At the end of each call with someone new, you ask the question, “Where did you learn about our services?” Time after time you either hear, “I just did a Google search” or “My doctor told me about you so I looked up your website.”

Your services are easy to find, because you show up on the first page when potential clients use a search engine. You (or someone you designate) are keeping an eye on how your website ranks for search terms your ideal clients are actually using. You feel confident that when algorithms change and your site starts to crawl you’ll catch it quickly and make changes to keep your site showing up. Why? Because you want to serve more clients. You know that by making it really easy for clients to find you when they are looking for services you provide online, you are expanding your reach and making a bigger impact on your community.

There are Several Ways to Measure the Results of SEO Work

Several times over the last few months I’ve heard a similar story. A private practice owner has a website they like but it’s not showing up very well on Google. Few people are finding their website. So they see an add for SEO services. The company makes their services sound top notch and the practice owner, knowing very little about SEO themselves, agrees to their fees. They’re now spending hundreds of dollars a month for vaguely defined “SEO services.” They don’t notice much a of a difference in calls coming in and when they search for “Counseling in _____” they’re still on the 10th page. But they’re told to be patient. SEO takes time to work. Trust us. But they don’t trust their SEO provider anymore. In fact, they have no idea what they’ve spent money on and aren’t even sure they’re much better off than they were when they started.

It doesn’t have to look like this! Whether you are learning to do your own website optimization, keyword tracking, or paying a Search Engine Optimization specialist, there are several ways you can measure the return on your investment.

Keyword Tracking and Your Rankings

Do some keyword research, and come up with a list of keywords that you’d like to rank for. Now decide on some method for tracking these keywords. I started with just using a good old Excel sheet. Across the top I listed about 20 keywords I wanted to rank well for. Over time I added more and more to that list (I now track over 60), but if 20 is a pretty good number of keywords to start with. Then about once a month I would add a date to the lefthand side and manually track each of those keywords writing down what page they showed up on and if they were at the top, middle or bottom of the page. This was pretty time consuming, but effective.

There are also paid keyword tracking tools you can use. My favorite is the Brighter Insight tool from Brighter Vision. My main reason for loving this tool is that it’s really affordable ($15/month if they are managing your website or $20/month if you aren’t already a BV customer). Some parts of the tools work better than others, but the keyword tracker works really well. It gives you a quick picture in graph form of if overall your rankings are increasing or decreasing. Then it lists out all of your keywords and the exact position you rank for. You can see exactly when they ran the search (it happens automatically every day) and a snapshot of what the results looked like.

Lastly, you can just look on Google Console occasionally. This way, you see exactly what searches people are actually running and what your average position is.

Ask New Clients who Call

In my Mid Missouri private practice, we ask every single new client where they heard about our services. A very large portion tell us they found us through a Google Search which re-affirms the worth of having a well ranking website as part of our marketing plan. However, I’ve also found that they often look at our website when they were referred by someone else. It’s common to hear, “My friend recommended you guys, so I searched for you online and looked at your site.” Or, “My doctor told me about a couple of places and I looked at your website first.”

If you want to track your progress by asking new clients, here are a couple questions you may choose to either ask in an intake call or include on your intake paperwork:

May I ask where you heard about our services?
Have you had a chance to visit our website yet?
Do you mind me asking what you typed into Google when you were looking for a therapist?

Just Look at your Number of Intakes

One of my former SEO Consulting clients recently told me that in the months since I first started teaching her to optimize her private practice site their monthly intake calls have tripled! She attributes this largely to the effort she’s put into optimizing her site. And that makes sense to me, because she went from being on the 10th page in a competitive, large metropolitan area to the first page of Google for several keywords. However, I will caution you here that there are other factors that impact the sheer number of intake calls you get each month. For instance, are you also reaching out and building relationships with new referral sources? It is a slower (or faster) time of year?

Ultimately, this is what we want to see happen as a result of marketing efforts, right? The goal is to fill your practice with your ideal clients. Just last week I sent out a series of e-mails to current Simplified SEO Consulting clients saying, “Hey I can tell from my side of things that your site is getting a lot more visitors. But the big question…are those visits resulting in more calls?” If any of those practice owners come back and say that no, despite a huge increase in traffic it’s not resulting in more calls and ultimately more clients we’ll need to re-evaluate. Are our efforts getting their website in front of the wrong people and we in fact need to target different keywords? Or does their website need a change to be more appealing once visitors are on the site?

The number of intake calls is a key performance indicator all practice owners should be keeping an eye on and it ultimately does reflect the impact of all marketing efforts combined.

SEO Consulting with Measurable Results

If you’re ready to get serious about your private practice website’s search engine rankings, let’s set up a free consultation today. Together we’ll come up with a way to track and measure the results of our work before we ever get started. I believe it’s critical that we know if you’re getting a good return on your investment so we can change tactics if you aren’t seeing results. I also promise that you’ll know exactly what service I’m providing. If you participate in 1:1 SEO training sessions, you’ll be able to describe very specific steps you’ve learned you can take to improve your website’s rankings. Or if you choose one of our Done for You SEO packages, you’ll have a list of the specific steps I’m taking to improve your SEO for each page I’m optimizing.

You can get measurable SEO results and feel more confident in your company’s online presence. But you have to take the first step to invest in your company’s future by developing your own SEO plan, and there’s no better time than the present.

I look forward to helping your website move up through the ranks of Google search results like I’ve helped so many other private practice owners before you. Schedule your free pre-consulting call today!

February 4, 2019/0 Comments/by Jessica

Backlinks, SEO Basics

Backlinks: Get Popular on Google

Backlinks

Today we’re talking about backlinks – a really powerful tool for improving your SEO.

A backlink is a link from another site TO your site. Basically, someone else is saying that your site has valuable information their reader might be interested in on a particular topic. For instance, if a local fitness instructor is talking about healthy eating and links to a local paleo meal prep business (we have one in my hometown so this comes to mind for me!), the fitness instructor is giving the paleo chef a backlink.

Why are backlinks important?

Backlinks are important because they give your site authority in the eyes of a search engine. In some ways, Search Engines are a lot like an election.

Imagine for a minute that you are running for state representative. You win by being the person that gets the most votes. It’s basically a big popularity contest.

Similarly, getting the highest ranking on Google is a bit of a popularity contest. Backlinks are “votes” for your website. The basic idea is that if someone is linking their viewers to your website it is because they believe your website has something valuable to offer people. Therefore, these “votes” matter.

When running for office, to get the most votes and win the election, you have to put together a campaign. Some of the techniques you might use in your campaign might include directly asking for votes, getting an endorsement from an organization that aligns with you on key political issues and explaining to people how it’s in their best interest to vote for you.

In order to get backlinks and get the best ranking on search engines, you use similar techniques. Many backlinks will be ones you’ll directly ask for such as e-mailing a local directory and asking to be added. Other backlinks work similar to endorsements. For instance, the LGBTQ group at your local university may “endorse” you as an LGBTQ friendly counseling clinic by linking back to your website. Lastly, many backlinks will happen after you’ve provided value for someone. For instance, you may get a backlink to your site by writing a guest blog post (such as this one).

How many backlinks do I need for my site?

I heard on a podcast last year that a great goal for mental health therapists is to try to get 100 backlinks to your website, because if you have 100 backlinks you’ll have more than almost any other therapist in your area. My experience now that I’ve seen a few therapist’s data is that very few therapists intentionally build backlinks. Often if they do it’s in the form of getting on a bunch of directories. The bottom line is that 100 backlink goal is a pretty good one. However, aiming for 100 may sound overwhelming at first (it did for me). Maybe set a smaller goal….like that you’ll reach out to 3 sites a week for six weeks (directory sites, Help a Reporter Out sites, places you’d like to guest blog, etc) to get a jump start.

Earning backlinks for your private practice website: Simplified SEO Consulting.

Earn Google’s trust by demonstrating that other reputable sources trust you as you build backlinks.
Photo by rawpixel.com from Pexels

How can I earn backlinks for my website?

By now maybe you’re asking yourself, how do I get these backlinks you speak of? Here are FOUR places you can look for backlinks that I will talk about more in depth this week.

Look for local directories
Act as a source for reporters
Offer to do guest blog posts for other websites
Check your competitors backlinks

Directory Sites

The fist and often easiest place to look for backlinks is in directory listings. Sometimes there are online therapist directories that will give you a backlink, but I encourage you to think beyond these. For instance, consider asking to be added to lists of therapists recommended by your local school district, university lists, HULA frog, local health and wellness places, etc. Think of your ideal client and what organizations they might go to for recommendations, then look and see if those organizations have a “resources” section on their website. I say these are “easy” backlinks because if you are offering a relevant service typically all you have to do is fill out a form or send an e-mail asking to be added to that list.

Act as a Source for Reporters

Another GREAT way to get backlinks quickly is to act as a source for reporters. You can get to know local reporters. Or, a quick way to get featured by reporters is to go through Help a Reporter Out (HARO). They link experts in various niches with reporters. After you sign up, HARO sends you e-mails three times a day a bunch of stories reporters are looking for sources to provide quotes on. You respond with a few quotes they can use and then they decide if they’ll include you in their story. I’ll do a whole other blog post on this sometime soon…

Write a blog post for another website

Guest Blogging is another great way to get a backlink! All backlinks are not created equal so it’s especially helpful if you can guest blog for a well established, reputable blog that has a high “trust score.” It’s for this reason that I love swapping guest blogging with people where we each write a guest blog post for the other person and in the “About the guest blogger” at the bottom we like back to our own sites!

Side note…in an effort to help my SEO Consulting clients get backlinks, I offer a small discount if you write a guest blog post for my own private practice website. I fully optimize the post so it gets seen as often as possible and then request indexing on the post so Google recognizes your new backlink!

Check out competitors’ backlinks

The fourth option for increasing your backlinks is to check out your competitors’ backlinks! If someone is linking to your competitors, there is a chance your website would be relevant for their site to link to as well. This is a great way to find new directories, new places that might be interested in a guest blog posts, etc. You can use free backlink checker websites to find some of the sites that link to your biggest competitors’ websites. Just do a search for “free backlink checker” and then type in your competitor’s website domain address. Only a handful of the websites linking to your competitors will show up on most free versions, but this can be a great place to start.

Are all backlinks created equal?

It’s important to note that all backlinks are not created equal. A backlink from a website that Google views as being more trustworthy or more of an authority on a topic will help improve your SEO more than a backlink from a brand new website your mom put up yesterday. Websites for universities, government websites and non-profit organizations often have higher “trust scores” or site rank authority and therefore provide a much bigger boost for your SEO. One tool you may want to use is this site rank authority tool.

Ready to get serious about SEO for your Private Practice Site?

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 website for you. If you are the do-it-yourself type, we can help you too. We have online SEO courses or a 12 week SEO intensive program where you’ll have everything you need to learn to optimize your own website.

January 29, 2019/0 Comments/by Jessica

Business Tips, SEO Tips

A Private Practice Owner Learns SEO for the Same Reason Zebras Have Stripes: Adaptation

What do Zebra Stripes have to do with Private Practice Marketing?

I’m kind of fascinated by zebra stripes. They’re beautiful. The stark contrast between the black and the white. The way they work together to decorate this elegant animal. But did you realize that zebra stripes are actually an adaptation? It’s meant to protect these creatures from prey in the wild. Zebra stripes blend together when they’re standing in a herd so predators have difficulty making out the separate outline of a specific zebra.

Stripes help zebras survive in the wild. SEO helps private practices survive in the business world.

Therapists aren’t always Tech Wizards by Nature

Are you intimidated by technology? Does the idea of learning to work on your own site sound technical and scary? Most mental health professionals were not drawn to this field because we’re tech wizards. Most counselors are more touchy, feeling people types. Even if we’re introverts, let’s face it, what keeps us waking up and coming to work each day is the satisfaction of helping others. Full private practice caseloads of clients who face their fears, find healing, and “get better” is what excites us. Not talking marketing strategies or staring at a computer screen.

So…why should practice owners use Search Engine Optimization to market their small business?

So, why should you care about Search Engine Optimization (better known as just SEO)? Because SEO allows you to adapt to the business world which then brings more of your ideal clients through the doors of your private practice. It is through learning some important marketing techniques and business strategies that private practice owners are able to reach and help more people. I first learned about the power of SEO through my own experience (see below), but have since watched it help my SEO Consulting clients also fill up their practices. In this day and age, people look for all sorts of services online. If you can get your website to the first page of Google, more potential clients will find your practice and therefore you’ll receive more calls.

Jessica’s Private Practice SEO Story

When my solo practice began to transition to a group practice I had a few panic moments. I realized that now, in order to succeed, I was going to have to do more than just offer awesome counseling services. Now I had to learn to do the business side of things.

My first step was to have a Springfield, MO-based graphic designer help me clarify my brand and create an awesome private practice logo. But the next step was developing a private practice website that I loved. I figured outsourcing was my best bet. Design isn’t really my thing and outsourcing the logo went well after all. That’s where Brighter Vision first came into the picture. I worked with their designer to edit my site until I had a beautiful website I was proud of and felt was “on brand.” But it didn’t rank at all on Google yet.

I was told it would take a few months for Google to find and index my site. So…I waited…and waited…and waited. After making a few tweaks along the way, I got really impatient at about 6 months. As much as I hated technology, I realized I needed to adapt and learn about Search Engine Optimization.

And learn I did! I stayed up all hours of the night researching SEO.

I listened to podcasts on my way to the office, working out, and just about everywhere else. There were articles to read, Youtube videos to watch, and e-courses to work through. I found a few things targeting therapists, but much of what I found wasn’t specific to our field.

Naturally, when I learned something new about SEO the most important part was implementing it. So I practiced all of the SEO techniques I was learning. The day I learned about how to write an effective meta description, I stayed up all night writing new meta descriptions for every page of my site. Looking back, I’m glad I didn’t have many blog posts yet! Then the day I learned to optimize photos on WordPress to improve SEO. Luckily that one didn’t take as long as the meta descriptions. Learning to use the Fetch as Google portion of the Google Search Console changed my world and suddenly I was able to see what impact my website changes had overnight.

At first, the changes in how I ranked on search engines for various counseling keywords happened quickly. There was the time on that I jumped from not being on the first 10 pages to page 3 for one of my long-tail keywords literally overnight. Then, changes happened a little more slowly and I had to fine-tune my techniques.

I’m THRILLED to say now my website is consistently showing up below the Psychology Today rankings for counseling in my area. I’m not any better at most technology than I was before. My son was frustrated recently when I was struggling to figure out how to project Netflix onto our TV screen. In a super-frustrated voice he said, “But Mommy, you’re good at websites. You CAN do technology.” He’s right of course. I can learn to use technology. Just like you can. It’s just an adaptation.

Therapists can learn SEO to Fill a Private Practice

Website tweaks and Search Engine Optimization might not come naturally to you. That’s ok. Admit it, embrace it. And then adapt.

The adaptation part is where I come in. I’d love to help you learn all of the SEO techniques that I did. You don’t have to spend months staying up until 2 am scouring the internet and learning one or two techniques at a time as I did. I can provide you 1:1 SEO Training. We’ll meet on a Google Hangouts call and use the Share Screen feature so I can walk you step by step through applying all of the SEO skills (keyword research, internal links, meta descriptions, etc) to your specific site.

Get Your Private Practice Ranking on Google

Are you ready to start learning to do your own Search Engine Optimization work? If so, my 12 Week SEO training services or the 2 Month SEO Jumpstart packages might be a good fit! On the other hand, if your a busy practice owner who feels overwhelmed by the idea of adding one more thing to your plate, my monthly SEO packages are a great option. Book a 30 minute free SEO consultation and let’s get started!

January 29, 2019/1 Comment/by Jessica