Analytics Archives - Simplified SEO Consulting

How Data Fluctuation Helps Google Establish Trust With Your Website

Are you working on your SEO and started to notice changes in the data on your website? Have you noticed data fluctuation in your data between high and low and you’re not sure why? We’ve all been there. Your data had started to climb and you were excited that your page had begun to rank higher in Google’s search results. But a week later your back down where you started and not ranking as high for some key terms.

You’re probably wondering, why is this happening to my site. In this blog post, you’ll learn how and why your website’s rankings are changing and what you can do to fix them.

What Is Data Fluctuation and How Are They Affecting my SEO?

Data fluctuation happens to every website on Google. It is a normal process that helps Google understand your website and what your content represents. Since Google is a top search engine it continually comes out with new algorithms to update and improve itself. These algorithm updates cause your SEO to fluctuate as it builds trust with your website and understands what content you are representing. For more information, here is a blog post on Google Analytics to help you better understand them. Photo of a phone screen showing google analytics. Struggling with the data fluctuations on your website? Learn about Google Analytics to know why your data is fluctuating.

In this case, don’t sweat the small data fluctuations, it usually changes daily. Data fluctuations affect your SEO daily when they fall or continually rise. As Google builds trust with your website, you will start to see your data increase because Google understands what content you are trying to convey. Data fluctuations may be helpful to your page or can make them fall, it just depends on how much Google knows and trusts your site.

Is Pogo-Sticking Affecting My Data?

Pogo-sticking is very common with search users. When a user enters a site from the Search Engine Results Page (SERP) and then quickly leaves to go back to the SERP they are pogo-sticking. From an SEO perspective, pogo-sticking can seem a little worrisome but for SEO reasons, Google isn’t worried about it. Some ways you can keep someone from pogo-sticking from your site would be to have engaging content, make sure your page is clear and concise, ensure that it is visually appealing, use relevant internal links, and keep your content up to date.

Pinging and What It Means in SEO

Pinging refers to the submission of a page to alert search engines that your pages have changed on your site. This helps inform the search engine crawlers that you may have new content or changed one of your pages and what information actually appears on your website. Pinging is important or else search engines wouldn’t be aware of new changes in your site when you are trying to improve your SEO. Any new updates or changes should help benefit your site. Photo of a cartoon graphic with an arrow pointing up. This photo shows how data can fluctuate on Google over time as it builds trust with your website.

Don’t Give Up on Your SEO Because of Data Fluctuation

Data fluctuation is normal and shouldn’t always be worrisome. If your data starts to decrease, take what you’ve learned and apply it to your site to start seeing changes in your data. This should continually improve your data as well as gain trust over time with the search engine.

Learn How To Improve Your Website With Simplified SEO Consulting

Our team at Simplified SEO Consulting wants to guide you in the right direction when it comes to improving your data and getting the right clients to view your page. Having guidance in your SEO journey is important for your website’s journey and we understand. To start your SEO journey follow these three simple steps:

Apply to work with us on your SEO
Meet With One of Our Skilled SEO Specialists
Begin SEO Services for Therapists

Other Services Offered With Simplified SEO Consulting

Looking for a different way we might be able to support you? Simplified wants to support you no matter what your SEO journey is. We offer support in both our Done For You SEO Services and DIY Online SEO Courses. Simplified SEO Consulting also offers a 12-week Done With You Intensive Program. Check out our blog for more helpful tips and guides to SEO!

About the Author:

Brianna is a Mental health SEO Specialist at Simplified SEO Consulting. At Simplified, Brianna enjoys optimizing websites and interacting with Photo of Brianna Joplin, a mental health SEO specialist who offers SEO for therapists at Simplified SEO Consulting. her clients. Her goal while working with our clients is to ensure they enjoy their SEO journey and to understand how the SEO process works.

Looking for extra support? Schedule a consult with the consulting team to see who can help you and how.

December 8, 2022/0 Comments/by Brianna Joplin

Analytics, SEO Tips, SEO Tools

Integrating Analytics: Google Tag Manager vs Gtag

Tracking metrics is a vital part of any technical SEO strategy.

A graphic of people on computers looking at analytical data. Learn SEO online by contacting Simplified SEO Consulting. We can offer support for your private practice website by improving counselor SEO. Contact an SEO specialist for therapists today. Only by tracking data can one understand how their site is performing. Data can provide so many useful insights into how clients engage with your site, and what might need to be changed as well. This is why it is so important to integrate Google Analytics into your site. Your Google Analytics account can also be integrated with your Google Ads profile as well. But, depending on your familiarity with the technical aspects of your site, this may be much easier said than done.

There are a few different ways you can go about connecting Google Analytics to your site, depending on the platform you are on. So, today we are going to discuss these options, and how to integrate them on some of the most common platforms we see therapists use.

Connecting Google Analytics: What is A Gtag?

A Gtag is short for Global Site Tag. This is the snippet of code that allows Google Analytics to track events, conversions, and other important data that takes place on your site. In the past, Google made use of multiple tags to track different information on websites. But, this has since been simplified through the implementation of the Global Site Tag, which replaces all other Google tags under a single source. Installing a Gtag is the most basic way of connecting Google Analytics, and will provide all the same tracking benefits as using Google Tag Manager.

Installing your Gtag on your site

This is available within your Google Analytics account and can be accessed through your Admin section. Once here, select Tracking Info, and then Tracking Code. Once you see the Global Tag, you will have the option to copy the exact code needed for your site. By doing so, you can then paste the code on the backend of your site. But, this must be done carefully. If you paste the code in the wrong section of your site, Google Analytics will be unable to correctly track data on your site.

In order for Google Analytics to successfully track data, you must place this code after the <header> section of your site’s code on each page of your site. But, this will differ depending on the content management system your site is present on (WordPress, Squarespace, Wix, etc.). If you use a site like WordPress, you should have the ability to add the code to an overarching section of your site that will automatically add the code to each page for you. Once added to your site, you should now be able to see data populated on your Google Analytics account. Once you confirm this, you’ve successfully integrated Google Analytics tracking to your site!

What is Google Tag Manager

A person holds their phone with the Google Tag Manager logo on screen. Contact an SEO specialist for therapists to learn more about how to improve private practice SEO today. Google Tag Manager is a more user-friendly management tool for installing tags on your site. It uses the same back-end code as Gtag but allows you to manage and update multiple tags from a single user interface. You will need to create an account in order to use this tool. But, once you have, you can more easily edit the different tags on your site from within the Google Tag Manager.

Implementing Google Tag Manager

Installing Google Tag Manager comes with its own set of steps once you’ve created your account. This will involve providing your site’s URL, the type of data stream you wish to gather data from, and installing the Tag Manager container to the backend of your site. This will once again require you to install snippets of code to the backend of your site as instructed by the Tag Manager. Once connected, you will be able to then create and manage tags from within the manage instead of adding code to your site each time you wish to integrate a new tag.

Which is the best for you?

When it comes to deciding if Google Tag Manager or a Gtag is best for you, it is best to ask yourself how many tag integrations you expect to make on your site. Both will require some level of technical know-how in order to add the code snippets in the correct location. But, you will only have to do this once if you install a Global Site Tag to your site. This will likely take less time on your part, and provide all the same tracking benefits of the Tag Manager. But, without having to take the extra steps to create and manage new tags.

Using this method will also allow you more control over the exact code that goes into your site, but will also require you to manually update the code if changes need to be made. Google Tag Manager offers a more user-friendly experience that can offer more support for websites that wish to implement tags to track data and conversions that may not already be included.

Closing Thoughts

A graphic of two people looking at a rising graph while looking at their laptop and phone. Learn more about how SEO services for therapists can help improve your private practice website. Contact Simplified SEO Consulting to learn SEO online today. Regardless of your preferred method of integrating Google Analytics, doing so will offer many invaluable insights. You can better understand how your site is performing, how you can improve, and what needs to be done in order to do so. While this may take a certain level of technical expertise, the juice is worth the squeeze.

Start Working with an SEO Specialist for Therapists

Adding the correct code in the correct location of your site is much easier said than done. But, our team of SEO specialists would be happy to offer support to improve counselor SEO and make these integrations on your behalf. To start your SEO journey with Simplified SEO Consulting, please follow these simple steps:

Apply to schedule a consultation
Meet with an SEO specialist
Begin SEO services for therapists

Other Services Offered with Simplified SEO Consulting

There are so many aspects that go into a successful SEO strategy in addition to analytics. This is why we are happy to offer a number of services in support of your private practice. We are happy to offer support with our Done For You SEO Services and DIY Online SEO Courses. We also offer a 12-week Done With You Intensive SEO Program as well. Please visit our blog to read other informative posts today!

About the Author

Sterling Humburg-Cage graduated from the University of Missouri with a BA in Psychology in 2020. He integrates what he learned in school into his work as an SEO Specialist with Simplified SEO Consulting. Sterling prides himself on helping current clients & alumni problems solve difficult SEO issues. He’s great at giving clients multiple options about how to approach a situation. And, responding in a timely manner to client concerns. Since he started, Sterling has met frequently with our alumni and provided them extra problem-solving support. He now provides additional support with a variety of local SEO services. He often goes the extra mile to do outside research. By doing so, he sure private practice owners have everything they need to rank well on search engines long term for the keywords their ideal clients are using!

November 15, 2022/0 Comments/by Sterling Humburg-Cage

Analytics, SEO Basics, SEO Tips

Universal Analytics & Google Analytics 4: Understanding Key Differences

Google and the tools used to track essential website metrics have evolved a lot over the years, and one of the biggest upcoming transitions will take place on July 1st, 2023. That change is the discontinuing of Universal Analytics and migration to exclusive use of Google Analytics 4 for all Google Analytics properties. This may sound Greek to you. But, today we are going to be talking about some of the key differences between the two, and what you need to understand before this transition.

Data Collection Changes

Historically, Universal Analytics has used a session-based data model that makes use of different “hit types.”

Google defines hits as “an interaction that results in data being sent to Analytics.” There are a variety of hit types, such as social interactions, a user loading a new page, or clicking on a link. Google reports these interactions by breaking them down into categories, actions, and labels. Universal Analytics collects and processes data based on the number of sessions on your site. Due to how the data is collected, the same person may visit the site more than once, but it will count as multiple sessions, even though it’s just one person visiting your site multiple times. As a result, tracking sessions can sometimes report less accurate data in terms of understanding how many users are actually viewing your site.

Understanding Categories, Actions, and Labels

Universal Analytics reports different kinds of events on your site by breaking them down in a way that separates them into different categories, actions, and labels. Because of this, it can become difficult for the average user to understand how to track the correct categories, actions, and labels so they can capture the specific data they want from their site. An example of this could include a clinician wishing to track every time a visitor clicks on the “contact” button, or visits their scheduling page. Generally, more technical knowledge is required to create triggers to get the data you want since these are not automatically captured by Universal Analytics.

Google Analytics 4, everything is an event

As previously mentioned, of the biggest changes in how Google Analytics 4 approaches capturing data. Google Analytics 4 uses machine learning and automated data collection. It also uses a different model from Universal Analytics that is centered around events rather than sessions. Everything is seen as an event; every page view, every time a person loads up a new page, every click on a link, etc. By transitioning to this approach, things become a bit more streamlined when tracking important data, and setting up other triggers to track additional events. Instead of having to remember each category, action, and label for each event you want to track, there are now four main types of events that can be tracked within Google Analytics.

The first set of events is automatically collected events

These are events that are automatically recorded by GA4 once they occur on your site. These events may include:

When users click on an ad
Loading up a new page
Starting a new brand new session on the site
Users the bottom of the page for the first time
A variety of other collected events.

The second type of event is enhanced measurements

A graphic of a laptop screen with the text “web analytics” representing how to rank on Google for therapists. Learn more about private practice SEO and SEO for psychotherapists today. These are measurements for more specific things you want to track on your site. This could include events like when someone downloads a file from your site. Or, clicks on an external link leading to another site. With Universal Analytics, only page views were tracked originally, and capturing other important events would be something that must be set up using categories, actions, and labels. But with GA4, this process is automatic, so you don’t have to worry about setting it up yourself! You can simply choose to enable Enhanced Measurement when creating a data stream (which we will get to in just a bit).

Next, we have recommended events

Events of this type are those that Google suggests you implement on your site. Events like these often need a bit more background information to implement fully, which is why they are recommended by google instead of automatically recorded. Adding these can provide additional features and extra data on reports. Google will offer a predefined name for specific events that are common, such as when a user submits a form or requests information. In this case, Google would likely recommend setting up an event that is titled “generate_lead.”

Finally, we have custom events

These are events that you define. This means that you must set up the parameters to collect information yourself. As a result, it can be a bit harder to implement properly. These types of events won’t usually show up in most standard Google Analytics reports, so you will need to take a few extra steps to set up custom reports with this data.

Data Tracking Changes

Both Universal Analytics and Google Analytics 4 use properties. Properties are websites, mobile apps, blogs, etc. with a unique tracking ID. For both UA and GA4, you will have to add this unique id in order to start tracking data on your site. But, tracking the data will differ for each. With Universal Analytics, data is tracked using a “view”, which is a set of specifications for tracking traffic on your site. You can set up multiple views in order to filter out data, track certain data, or set up different goals.

Google Analytics 4: Goodbye views, hello data streams

Unlike views in Universal Analytics, Google Analytics 4 uses data streams. Views are no longer used in GA4, which means you can’t create new views to filter your data. Instead, data streams are used to allow you to collect data from multiple sources in the same property. Unlike in Universal Analytics where you would have to have multiple properties to track data from your site and a companion app, you can instead create data streams for both your site and app to track each of them on the same property. For most private practice owners, you likely won’t have to worry about including apps with Google Analytics. But, it is still worth knowing how things are changing between UA and GA4.

Data Metric Changes

Finally, we are going to address how metrics have changed between UA and GA4. In Universal Analytics, you are likely familiar with the metrics “bounce rate”, “pages per session”, and “average session duration”. Bounce rate is the rate at which people only visit one page of your site before ‘bouncing’ off your site. Since GA4 has moved away from a model centered around sessions and page views, these metrics haven’t been available until recently. Instead, new metrics have been implemented to track how engaged users are with your site.

A hand points to a graphic that reads “analytics”, surrounded by technical symbols. Learn how to rank on google for therapists by contacting Simplified SEO Consulting. We offer seo services for therapists and other services. The new metrics used with GA4 won’t show you data like how long someone is staying on your site. Instead, these metrics aim to focus on how engaged users are with your site. One of the main metrics is “engaged sessions”, which are the number of sessions that:

Have lasted longer than 10 seconds,
Have a conversion,
Or have had 2 or more screen/page views

Other related metrics include “engaged sessions per user,” “engagement rate”, and shift the focus from “how fast are people leaving my site” to “how long are people staying on the site”. In essence, the engagement rate is essentially the inverse of the bounce rate. But, it can still tell us vital info about how engaged people are with your site. using

Why these changes matter

The upcoming migration to Google Analytics 4 isn’t something that can be avoided. As a result, SEO specialists and therapists alike must understand how things are changing to accurately collect, track, and report site data. Taking the time to understand how to adapt to the new processes implemented in Google Analytics 4 will be vital in continuing to keep track of important data. Our team is here to offer support during this transition.

Begin Improving Private Practice SEO with Simplified SEO Consulting

Our team is preparing for the upcoming transition, and honing in on the data we need to focus on most. By doing so, we hope to ensure we are providing the best insights for our clients. We would be happy to offer support in cultivating your site’s SEO and helping you get to the first page of Google. To start your journey with Simplified SEO Consulting, please follow these simple steps:

Apply to work with Simplified SEO Consulting
Meet with an SEO specialist
Begin SEO services for therapists

Other Services Offered with Simplified SEO Consulting

SEO is an ever-changing field. This is why we are happy to offer a number of services in support of your private practice. We are happy to offer support with our Done For You SEO Services and DIY Online SEO Courses. We also offer a 12-week Done With You Intensive SEO Program as well. Please visit our blog to read other informative posts today!

About the Author

October 17, 2022/0 Comments/by Sterling Humburg-Cage

Analytics, SEO Tools

Organic SEO vs. PPC ads : The pros and cons.

Organic SEO vs. PPC: Pros and Cons

Many of our clients often ask what the benefits of organic SEO vs. PPC ads are. They both serve a purpose specific to driving consumers to your business. They just accomplish this goal with different tactics and strategies. Let’s take a look at both of these concepts and see what they have to offer.

What is Organic SEO?

SEO stands for search engine optimization. The goal of SEO is to help your site show up more often in search engine results pages or SERPs. This is accomplished by optimizing your web pages with keywords and phrases that you want to rank for. There are many pros and cons to using organic SEO. Let’s look at a few examples.

Pros of Organic SEO:

ROI

Historically organic search engine optimization can create more return on investment over traditional forms of paid media. This is due in part to the low cost of implementing search engine optimizations on your pages.

Awareness of Your Brand

High-ranking visibility in SERPs can raise brand awareness as you garner more attention from people searching for keywords related to your website. This can result in a positive branding effect as customers who are searching begin associating your brand with answers to their questions.

Credibility and Trust

This is a big one! When your site shows up in organic search results this influences your credibility with your consumer as they look for services. In today’s hypercritical world many consumers automatically skip ads and go straight to organic search results as they feel these are more legitimate and trustworthy connections.

Cost

While there is some cost associated with SEO in regard to who you are paying to do your optimizations or how much of your own personal time you are investing in optimizing, the overall cost is more effective than other marketing tactics.

Sustainability Over the Long-Term

Unlike PPC ads SEO continues to be profitable even after you stop actively paying or optimizing. Efforts put in place to develop organic traffic can sustain your business over a long period of time even if budget concerns do not allow you to invest the time, energy, or funds to the process at the time.

Improved Clickthrough Rates or CTR

It’s been proven that organic SEO results in improved CTR over the long haul. More often than not you can produce more clicks from a well-placed organic search result than you can with a PPC ad.

All of these things lend themselves to the long-term success of SEO but there are some cons to consider.

Cons of SEO:

SEO is a Long-Term Commitment

If you are looking for instantaneous results that will drive consumers to your business in a short period of time, SEO is not the best option. Organic SEO is a long-term commitment that takes consistent input and adjustments for an extended period of time to be successful. It can take months to start seeing results after you optimize your site. This often leads people to feel that their efforts have been for naught.

Competitive Markets

Competition to rank for high search volume keywords can be intense. You must remember that you are not the only business owner who wants to rank for these keywords And understand that you may need to pick and choose which keywords to go after in order to be successful in your strategy.

SEO is Fluid and Changes Rapidly

As stated above SEO is a long-term commitment however that does not mean it’s stagnant. Search engine results and volumes change constantly based on user needs and demands. What’s popular one month could be at the bottom of the list the next and it’s important to keep track of these insights when optimizing your pages for organic search engine results. Google also regularly tweaks and changes its search engine algorithms over 600 times a year. This means that what’s driving search results to the top of the page can change in an instant.

What is Pay Per Click or PPC?

Now let’s examine some pay-per-click or PPC information. As you may have guessed PPC are paid ads that determine your cost based on the number of clicks your ad receives. PPC ads still utilize keywords that you want to rank for but they do so in a more targeted and laser-focused manner.

Pros of PPC:

Reach Your Target Audience

PPC ads allow you to specifically target a group of people based on their interests and demographics. This can help you specifically target your ideal consumer in a more effective and efficient way. Google ads allow you to personalize your campaigns to accomplish this.

Quicker ROI

PPC ads generate a quicker return on investment due to their increased visibility and placement on SERPs. This allows you to accomplish your goal of driving customers to your brand much more quickly and effectively than traditional organic SEO can.

SERP Position

PPC ads or just that, advertisements, as a result, will appear at the top of search engine results pages above typical organic search engine results. This can drive more consumers to your brand simply by virtue of placement on the page and visibility.

Speed and Agility

As stated, developing good organic visibility can take time while a PPC campaign can be created in days and see results within weeks. PPC ads allow you to get in front of customers much more quickly and that speed offers you agility. If you have an upcoming event or a new service you want to promote, the speed of PPC ads offers you the ability to do so in a very short period of time with a very quick turnaround.

Measurability of Success

PPC ads, unlike organic SEO, allow more collection of analytics related to conversion tracking, integration, and what keywords are converting at what percentage and cost. This information can then be utilized to help inform your organic keyword research into what keywords are converting and should be used long-term to drive consumers to your site.

Stability

PPC ads are not at the mercy of the same market volatility that organic search results are. While there are changes, they tend to have a lower impact and are more easily managed by carefully utilizing match types and analysis of search terms and quickly adjusting your PPC ad to meet those changes.

With that being said there are some cons that come along with PPC ad campaigns. Let’s look at a few.

Cons of PPC:

Cost

Because of the nature of PPC ad campaigns, the cost can quickly add up. If you are not monitoring your cost per click regularly and adjusting your budget consistently you can easily spend thousands of dollars before you realize it.

Short Term

PPC is great in the short term but in the long term, it is not such a good investment. As the name suggests it is paid so it requires constant investment. So when you stop paying for the ads the return on investment dries up immediately and you no longer have access to the benefits as you do with ongoing organic SEO

Clicks Do Not Always Turn Into Conversions

Another downside to PPC ads is the fact that just because the consumer is clicking on your ad does not mean they are going to follow through with utilizing services from you. If a high number of people are clicking on your ad but there is no conversion your cost per click and spend on your PPC ad campaign can increase without seeing any ROI. It is important to not just set a PPC ad and forget it. You must also ensure that your website is set up to convince visitors that your products and services are valuable.

Closing thoughts about Organic SEO vs. PPC

As you can see there are upsides and downsides to both organic SEO and PPC ads. Ideally, these two will work synergistically together to provide the greatest return on investment for your business. For all points and purposes if your budget is limited and you are in this for the long-haul organic SEO may be the best way to start. Then as the need arises for new services or upcoming events you can use pay-per-click ads to get in front of consumers quickly to establish dominance in those new categories.

Key Takeaway

However, there is one key factor to remember about using PPC and organic SEO together. If you are optimizing for a group of keywords in your organic SEO you do not want to optimize for those same keywords with your paid advertisements. This could result in your PPC ads cannibalizing your organic SEO results. You would basically be spending money for something you were already ranking for organically. Always make sure your organic SEO optimizations and keywords are different from what you are targeting for your PPC ads.

Begin Improving Your SEO and Analytics Understanding with Simplified SEO Consulting

Our team works closely with therapists nationwide to optimize their SEO based on analytical metrics! If you have been searching for an SEO company that understands analytics and its real-world applications, you’re in the right place. Our wonderful team of mental health SEO specialists at Simplified SEO Consulting would love to talk strategy with you and help you get connected with the best service for you. To get started with our service follow these simple steps:

Schedule a consult with our Consultation Team
Learn more about our talented team of mental health SEO Specialists
Start learning SEO for Mental Health Professionals!

Other Services offered by Simplified SEO Consulting

Simplified SEO consulting offers a wide range of services that can help you begin working with your people. We offer Done for You SEO Service packages, online courses, and SEO training opportunities. Our most popular course includes our “Top of Google” online course, and we have 12 weeks of intensive SEO for those who want to learn with a guide. For those looking for a more specialized package, we also offer an SEO strategy package. To get started, schedule a consultation with our Client Success Specialist today!

About the Author

Mary is one of the newest members of our dedicated and knowledgeable SEO Specialists here at Simplified SEO Consulting. She brings with her certification in Google Analytics (Google Analytics IQ Certification). And she also understands the importance of analytics and their application. She loves staying up to date on all things analytical in order to bring clients the most informed service possible.

If you are ready to start your analytical SEO journey with us, schedule your free 30-minute consultation with us now. Mary and the rest of our team are ready to support you!

August 25, 2022/0 Comments/by Mary Miller

Analytics, Local SEO, SEO Tools

The Benefits of Heatmaps for SEO

There are many tools out there that exist to support you in finding the best ways to optimize your business, site, and content. Some tools are more invaluable than others to meet basic SEO tenets such as keyword research. Others can help give deeper insights to private practice owners looking to take their business to the next level. One of these handy tools to help gain an edge over the competition is referred to as a heatmap.

First Off, What Is A Heatmap?

An illustration of a heatmap of a site. Simplified SEO Consulting can offer support with therapist seo. Learn more about SEO for therapists and more today. Heatmaps come in different forms. But, they often work to help therapists understand how visitors interact with their websites. Forms and surveys can also accomplish this. But, the results they share may or may not be accurate with what visitors actually do on the site. Heatmaps on the other hand visually show the most popular and overlooked parts of a page. This can be represented with a red to a blue color gradient. The more blue an area, the less engagement it has on the page. Similarly, the more red an area is, the more engagement there is. Yet, not all heatmaps track the same information. Different types of heatmaps may offer insight into aspects of your site such as:

How to optimize the content of your page
How to improve user experience on your site
Ways to better understand what interests your readers most
How to improve client conversion rates

So, let’s talk about some of the other types of heatmaps. Plus, how they can support local SEO for therapists.

Types of Heatmaps

When it comes to the most common heatmaps you may find, the top three include scroll maps, click maps, and hover maps. Each uses heatmaps in different but subtle ways. Scroll maps show you how far users scroll down your page. By doing so, you can better understand if they are reaching the most vital parts of your page that you want them to see, and where to place your most important content. Click maps also offer similar support. But, these focus on where users click most often on a page. This insight can help you determine which links or buttons are most popular on a page. Finally, hover maps also serve a similar role in tracking where users hover their mouse cursors most often on a page. This gives an idea of where most of the focus on the page is being placed, and how long people are hovering in a certain area.

A graphic showing a scroll heatmap. This can improve therapist seo, and Simplified SEO Consulting can help improve SEO for therapists. Learn more today! These three work similarly to improve on-screen elements of SEO. But, there are still others that can also offer other forms of valuable information. Local SEO heatmaps can offer insight into how certain keywords perform in a given area, and other important stats based on geographical location. In fact, there are even more advanced heatmaps available that track how visitors actually

How Heatmaps Can Benefit SEO for Therapists

Making use of the data heatmaps provide can offer a variety of benefits as previously mentioned. One of these benefits comes in the form of giving insight as to how effective the design of a given page is. By using heatmaps, therapists can better understand what aspects of a page may be getting overlooked by visitors to their site. As a result, they can work to redesign elements of their site in a way that improves the different elements the heatmap addresses. These elements can include:

The actual design and layout of the site/page
Optimizing the length of content on the site
Understanding the type of content visitors spend most of their time reading
Redistributing internal and external links on the page

However, this is not the only information that can be gained by using heatmaps. With different tools come alternative benefits.

Different Heatmaps Offer Different Benefits

A graphic representing local seo for therapists. Simplified SEO Consulting can offer support with SEO for therapists across the country. Learn more about therapist SEO today. Heatmaps that track data related to keywords or geographical location may not offer much support in terms of on-page optimization. Yet, they can still offer valuable off-page data to support therapist SEO. Heatmaps that focus on local SEO can show therapists how well they rank for specific keywords in specific service areas. With this data, therapists can better focus their keyword efforts on specific location indicators they hope to rank for. Plus, they can get also get an idea of what competitors in the area may be trying to rank for the same terms!

Conclusion

Heatmaps come in different forms and offer a variety of different insights. Therapists can use these insights to gain an edge in both on and off-page optimization. As tools like these continue to evolve and improve their ability to draw from different user experiences, so do the opportunities for private practice owners to improve their websites. By doing so, they can better connect with their ideal clients.

Begin Improving SEO for Therapists

The team at Simplified SEO Consulting is trained to offer support with both on and off-page elements of your site. Our team is happy to offer support across the country with on-page optimization and List Management tools including heatmaps! You can start improving your local SEO presence by following these simple steps:

Apply to work with us to improve your SEO
Meet with an SEO specialist.
Start improving your SEO!

Other Services Offered with Simplified SEO Consulting

Our team is happy to offer a variety of services in support of building your private practice website. Our team can offer support in optimizing your site with our Done For You SEO Services. We also offer DIY Online SEO Courses, and a 12-week Done With You Intensive SEO Program. Feel free to read other posts from our blog for more helpful information!

About the Author

Sterling Humburg-Cage graduated from the University of Missouri with a BA in Psychology in 2020. He integrates what he learned in school into his work as an SEO Specialist with Simplified SEO Consulting. Sterling prides himself on helping current clients & alumni problems solve difficult SEO issues. He’s great at giving clients multiple options about how to approach a situation and responding quickly to client concerns. Since he started, Sterling has met frequently with our alumni and provided them extra problem-solving support. He often goes the extra mile to do outside research and make sure private practice owners have everything they need to rank well on search engines long term for the keywords their ideal clients are using!

August 16, 2022/0 Comments/by Sterling Humburg-Cage

Analytics, SEO Basics, SEO Tools

Analytics, what is it and why is it important to my SEO?

If you’re reading this blog, chances are you already know about the importance of SEO, also known as Search Engine Optimization. But, there’s a second, often overlooked, aspect to SEO that is extremely important as well. It’s called analytics. Analytics can be a scary word that brings to mind thoughts of statistics, mathematical equations, and computations that many of us just don’t understand. However, analytics really aren’t that scary and they play an important role in SEO. So, what are analytics? Let’s take a look.

Analytics and SEO: The Intersection of Knowledge and Application

The definition of analytics, in simple terms, is the process of discovering, interpreting, and communicating significant patterns in data. Ok, maybe that is not so simple! Let’s try this, analytics allow us to see insights and meaningful data that we might not otherwise notice in relation to our SEO efforts.

Four Key Reasons to Utilize Analytics with Your SEO:

Analytics can tell you where your organic site traffic is coming from.

This is important because understanding where your traffic is coming from tells you how to attract more potential visitors. Are clients coming from referrals or google searches? This helps determine if your SEO is driving your target customers to your brand through organic search or other sources.

Analytics help determine which keywords you should attempt to rank your private practice for.

Analytic tools can tell you the monthly search volume of the keyword, ranking difficulty, and where you are ranking for that keyword. Analytics also monitor your movement up or down in rankings, so you know which keywords need more optimizations!

Progress tracking made easy

Analytics help you track your overall progress with your website’s optimizations through a number of key metrics listed below:

Organic traffic

This is any traffic that comes to your website that originates from a search engine. Organic traffic is not paid for.

Bounce rate

This tells you the number of visitors to your website that leave after viewing only one page. A high bounce rate could indicate a problem with the user experience on your site that needs to be addressed.

Returning Visitors vs. New Visitors

This metric tells you how many new individuals are visiting your page versus visitors that have been there before (such as an existing client). The more new users the better as this means you are more visible on the internet.

Page load speeds

This refers to the amount of time it takes for your webpage to fully load for your users. Slow load times not only drive clients away from your page but also negatively impact your SEO results with Google. Statistics state that if a page takes longer than 3 seconds to load, more than1/4 of all users will click away from your site.

Conversion rates

This is the percentage of people who visit your site and complete the desired task before leaving. For example, say your goal is to get people to fill out the online contact form. Conversion rate can measure the percentage of visitors to your site who complete this task. This allows you to see how compelling and successful the SEO work on your site is.

Click through rate (CTR)

This last metric measures the number of people who see your result on the search engine result page (SERP) such as the Google search results and actually click on the link to go to your page. The more people clicking to your page the better! This is where your meta descriptions come into play. A great meta description will draw people to your site because they want to learn more. Learn more about writing the perfect meta description here.

Return on Investment

Lastly, and maybe most importantly, analytics help you measure your return on investment (ROI). When you look at all the combined analytics listed above together, they paint a picture of how well your SEO work, applications, and optimizations are working together to drive your ideal client to your site. This lets you see in real-time on a regular basis how effective your monthly SEO spend is and what needs improvement.

Free Analytics Tools for SEO:

There are a wide variety of options available on the internet for gathering your analytical information that are free. Below is a list of some available tools for you to explore and use:

Google Analytics

Google Search Console

SEM Rush

Moz

Ahrefs

Closing Thoughts

Here at Simplified SEO Consulting, we consistently use analytics to inform our decision-making when it comes to optimizing your web pages and blogs. In fact, all of our clients have access to a customized Data Dashboard pulling the metrics we most want to target to track SEO success and ROI. We know that these tools give us a greater understanding of how best to serve our clients and help them achieve their business goals. We also encourage you to get familiar with these tools! Understanding analytics gives YOU greater control and insight into helping your business reach its goals on the path to becoming everything you dreamed it could be, now and into the future.

Begin Improving Your SEO and Analytics Understanding with Simplified SEO Consulting

Schedule a consult with our Consultation Team
Learn more about our talented team of mental health SEO Specialists
Start learning SEO for Eating Disorder Therapists that align with your brand!

Other Services offered by Simplified SEO Consulting

About the Author

Mary is one of the newest members of our dedicated and knowledgeable SEO Specialists here at Simplified SEO Consulting. She brings with her certification in Google Analytics (Google Analytics IQ Certification) and understands the importance of analytics and their application. She loves staying up to date on all things analytical in order to bring clients the most informed service possible.

If you are ready to start your analytical SEO journey with us, schedule your free 30-minute consultation with us now. Mary and the rest of our team are ready to support you!

July 28, 2022/0 Comments/by Mary Miller

Analytics, Local SEO, SEO Tools

Google Business Profile Strategy for Multiple Office Locations

Your practice is growing, and so are your responsibilities

An image of many pins in a board being connected by twine. Google My Business in counseling can feel difficult with multiple locations, but Simplified SEO Consulting can help. Learn more about improving SEO for therapists and more. Expanding the reach of your practice can be hard to accomplish, but very rewarding. Along the way, you may learn that managing more than one listing for your practice can be a difficult experience. Having more than one office location Google Business Profile listing can feel like a nightmare depending on the number of locations and listings you have. Managing multiple listings in an effective way often requires strategies for success that are different from managing a singular location.

Many of the same principles that apply to managing a single Google Business Profile listing still apply. However, there are a number of other things that should be taken into account with this local SEO strategy for expanding practices. Addressing and organizing your Google Business Profile listings can help you better manage each of your practice locations. So, today we are going over some of the most strategic decisions you can make to help make Google Business Profile easier to manage with multiple locations.

Verifying More than One Location

The verification process for a single location often involves Google sending a postcard via mail with a code to verify they have the right address. While this would technically work for multiple locations, it is by far the most convenient option. If you have more than 10 locations, you will need to use bulk verification to manage them. This will allow you to manage them in a more centralized, convenient way. In fact, these location groups even allow you to create bulk posts to go out to every Google Business Profile listing rather than having to post to each location one by one.

Google Business Profile also comes with the ability to use bulk edits as well. If info about your practice changes, you can use Google’s bulk edit tool to update all the listings in a location group at once instead of going through them one at a time. But, you must be careful when doing so. Since any changes you make go out to each location, any mistakes or inconsistencies will also spread to each and may harm your site’s creditability in the process.

This is why it’s important to keep your NAP information updated and consistent. Focusing on having the right information will help improve the credibility of your practice, and ensure people can get in contact with you if need be. In addition, you can also personalize each post with location indicators for the area the practice is located. By doing so, you can help improve your local SEO presence, helping you connect with those around you who may be more likely to benefit from your services.

Can you Schedule Posts in Advance?

It is also possible to schedule posts to your Google Business Profile listing to be uploaded at a given date. However, this isn’t an option that is native to Google Business Profile. This may involve outside support from a third party to do so. But, this extra support can help you save hours in preparing posts to go out on a regular basis.

Details, Details, Details

Even though some of the smaller details present on Google Business Profilecan be easy to overlook, taking the time to fill them out can have big benefits in making your listing more competitive. Doing so will give Google more important information about your practice, and may include adding important labels, services, and photos to represent your practice. This is also why adding categories is such a vital part of your Google Business Profile profile. So, take the time to let Google know about these details by personalizing them for each of your office locations. This may include different services specific therapists offer at a given location, different hours of operation, or any other important information pertaining to your practice.

Should I Have More Than A Google Business Profile Account?

For the purposes of managing multiple locations, you will likely only ever need one account to manage each of your locations in an effective way. Having more than one account may be beneficial if you manage more than one type of business. But, for therapists that only offer therapy services, one account is all you should ever need!

Transfering Location Groups

With all the moving parts that go into Google Business Profile, it can be easy to make mistakes early on that can make things more difficult down the road. One such scenario is when Google Business Profile listings are created under the wrong account. You may have encountered this, and feel stressed about deleting an already established listing, but you don’t actually have to! Google Business Profile also provides the ability to transfer your listings from one account to another. Having only one account will make it easier to also keep track of vital info like your name, address, and phone number. Plus, other important practice info. And, you can also grant additional account managers access to the listing, making it even easier to collaborate and synchronize each of your office locations.

Expanding your Practice

Last but not least, it is also important to note that you can add new office locations to your existing location group. It helps to take a moment to review your NAP info when adding a new location as well. Google is always looking to have the most up-to-date and accurate data. So, suggestions for edits may be taken into account through third-party data. This means that there is a chance your business information has changed without you knowing, and may take a double or triple check to ensure everything is correct.

Improve Local SEO for Therapists with Simplified SEO Consulting

The team of SEO specialists at Simplified SEO Consulting has the training and experience to provide support with a variety of services including our List Management baseline. We would be honored to help improve your SEO and grow your online presence. To start your SEO journey, please follow these simple steps:

Book a free 30-minute consultation call.
Meet with an SEO specialist.
Start better managing multiple practices

Other Services Offered with Simplified SEO Consulting

Simplified SEO Consulting offers a variety of services to help improve your Google search rankings. Our team can offer support in optimizing your site with our Done For You SEO Services. We also offer DIY Online SEO Courses, and a 12-week Done With You Intensive SEO Program. Feel free to read other posts from our blog for more helpful information!

About the Author

Sterling Humburg-Cage graduated from the University of Missouri with a BA in Psychology in 2020. He integrates what he learned in school into his work as an SEO Specialist with Simplified SEO Consulting. Sterling prides himself on helping current clients & alumni problems solve difficult SEO issues. He’s great at giving clients multiple options about how to approach a situation and responding quickly to client concerns. Since he started, Sterling has met frequently with our alumni and provided them extra problem-solving support. He often goes the extra mile to do outside research and make sure private practice owners have everything they need to rank well on search engines long term for the keywords their ideal clients are using!

May 17, 2022/0 Comments/by Sterling Humburg-Cage

Analytics, Local SEO

Google Business Profile Listing Issues and How to Fix Them

As SEO specialists, we often make use of the services Google provides to better understand SEO for therapists, and how client sites are performing.

Two of the tools we use the most are Google Business Profile (GBP) and Google Analytics (GA). The first allows you to optimize your business profile on Google and improve local SEO, while the latter allows you to track website analytics for your private practice website. Both have their uses in improving SEO for therapists. But, each can also experience many issues that can be difficult to address without understanding what they mean. So, today we are going to cover a few of the most common problems for each, and how to resolve them!

Google Business Profile: Suspended Listings

To start, I should first mention that while suspended listings can be scary to deal with, they are manageable. There are many reasons as to why your listing might have been suspended. But, Google will not tell you as to why your listing is suspended. It is up to you to investigate your listing to better understand what Google might be taking issue with. When it comes to Google Business Profile in counseling and any other profession, it is important you have accurate info on your listing. It should also be noted that if a user’s Google Account is suspended, all listings owned by the user will also be suspended.

Reasons for Suspending your Listing

Google wants to ensure that the GBP profiles on their service adhere to their guidelines. As a result, it is important that your listing be accurate and trustworthy. Some of the most common reasons listings get suspended include:

Another business has the same address as your practice
The address on your listing is different from the listing on your website
The information on directory listings doesn’t match your website
Any recent changes made to your primary address, name, or phone number
Multiple listings for the same business or location

Luckily, suspensions are just that, suspensions

They can negatively affect SEO for counselors but are not permanent. Depending on your situation, your listing should be straightforward to fix, given you have identified the issue at hand. Yet, in the event that you can’t, contacting Google Support can help you better understand what the issue might be, and give you a chance to then correct the problem.

Fixing your Suspended GBP Listing

In order to fix your GBP profile, you must ask Google to reinstate your listing. This can be done by completing their support form and providing evidence to resolve the issue at hand. This will be different for each case, but often require images of important documents to prove the validity of your claim.

For example, you may have changed your business address recently. As a result, Google suspended your listing in order to avoid spreading inaccurate info about your practice. In this case, you may be required to send them proof of your address. This may include submitting your business license or providing an image of your building along with signage. Other instances may instead require you to verify the address by sending a postcard.

This postcard often arrives within 5 days of it being requested and will have a code for you to use on your GBP listing. By doing so, you can easily reinstate your listing without having to contact any support.

Google Business Profile : Account Suspensions

As mentioned earlier in this blog, if a user’s Google account has been suspended, all their listings will also be suspended as a result. Issues like these may occur when a person makes a number of changes to their business information over a shorter period of time. Practice owners may also find their reviews have disappeared, along with all their profile listings on the Google search engine.

This result may occur when more serious violations are at hand, or if issues occur within GBP itself. As a result, practice owners should take care to understand what they are putting on their profiles matters. If Google believes something on your account is violating their guidelines for representing your business on GBP, they will have to ensure you will adhere to them before you can request to reinstate your account.

Practice owners should also be careful of creating too many accounts on GBP. If you switch between many accounts over a short period of time, Google may grow suspicious of your actions. It is a similar process to reinstating a suspending listing. But, you may have to provide documentation of some kind to prove you are the owner of the practice for security reasons.

This may verification by providing:

A utility bill with the same billing address as the Google Business Profile
Legal documentation. A business license or tax form, either of which must list the same address listed in your Google Business Profile
Proof of physical address. A storefront image showing both signage and address, including a suite number if your business has a Suite # attached to it.
Proof you are not sharing office space with another business
Your GBP listing’s dashboard URL to confirm the business profile

If this happens, Do Not Make Another Listing

It is vital to also understand that if you experience this, you should not try to create a new listing. Google can still recover your removed listing if it is lost. But, they can’t do so if you overwrite it with a new, fresh listing of your practice. If this happens, your only option is to ask Google to reinstate it.

Closing Thoughts

Dealing with these issues may be annoying at times. But, it is a good effort of Google to protect the security of their many users. Understanding how to deal with these issues can help you better manage your Google Business Profile Account. Plus, doing so helps support SEO for therapists. Google Business Profiles in counseling can be a very beneficial tool for any practice owner, regardless of the size of the practice!

Begin SEO Services with Simplified SEO Consulting

Our team of SEO specialists can offer support in managing and solving Google Business Profile issues and building your Local SEO presence. Our team is happy to offer List Management support and multiple service options. We are happy to also help improve SEO for therapists nationwide, and internationally! To start improving your SEO with Simplified SEO Consulting, please follow these simple steps:

Book a free 30-minute consultation call.
Meet with an SEO specialist.
Start improving Google’s rankings and meet your practice’s goals!

Other Services Offered with Simplified SEO Consulting

Our team at Simplified SEO Consulting is happy to offer support in a number of ways. We can offer support in improving local SEO for therapists as well as DIY Online SEO Courses. In addition, we also offer Done For You SEO services, and a Done With You 12-week Intensive SEO program. Feel free to visit our blog to learn more today!

About the Author

Sterling Humburg-Cage graduated from the University of Missouri with a BA in Psychology in 2020. He integrates what he learned in school into his work as an SEO Specialist with Simplified SEO Consulting. Sterling prides himself on helping current clients & alumni problems solve difficult SEO issues. He’s great at giving clients multiple options about how to approach a situation and responding quickly to client concerns. Since he started, Sterling has met frequently with our alumni and provided them extra problem-solving support, often going the extra mile to do outside research and make sure private practice owners have everything they need to rank well on search engines long term for the keywords their ideal clients are using!

March 15, 2022/0 Comments/by Sterling Humburg-Cage

Analytics, SEO Tools, Uncategorized

Google Analytics: How to Use the Data

You have Google Analytics installed for your counseling website. In fact, you’ve even looked at Google Analytics a few times. But what do all those numbers mean? How do you actually USE any of the data? Every time you look at Google Analytics you just feel overwhelmed and to be honest a little annoyed.

You’re a therapist. You are good at connecting with people. Crunching numbers and pouring over random pieces of data on the computer just doesn’t sound appealing.

I get it. There’s a TON of data on Google Analytics. And the truth is that some of it is more helpful than other pieces of information on there.

How to Start Using Google Analytics Data

I’d love to help simplify things a bit and break down just a couple of pieces of information you can find on Google Analytics that might be helpful. Here are a few questions that Google Analytics can help you answer:

How many people are coming to your site?

A great place to start on your Google Analytics account is the top of that main page after you login. This has some great basic information. First up, the number of users is exactly what you suspect-the number of people (or devices) that have viewed your site in the given amount of time that you’ve chosen. Sessions is slightly different, because it takes into account that the same person may look at your site several times before calling, so your number of “sessions” is typically higher than users.

While there really isn’t a magic number of website visitors or sessions you want to aim for, you do want to look at this number occasionally. In general, you want to see that as you’re improving your counseling website’s search engine optimization, the number of people visiting your site is increasing.

Where are people finding your website?

You can also use Google Analytics to figure out where website users are coming from. Google Analytics shows you how many clients come to your site directly (they just typed in your web address), through clicking on your link from social media, or another referral (usually through a backlink on another site). After I post a new blog post to my social media sites I sometimes check in real quick to not just see how many people went to the blog post, but how many found it through my social media sites to help me determine if it’s really worth putting these things on my social media pages. Google Analytics can provide you this information for each day.

Additionally, Google Analytics can show small business owners where their website visitors are located. This has some value in that you want the bulk of your website visitors to be people who can actually use your services. While there are some valid reasons for people out of state (or even out of the country) to look at your website, the bulk of your visitors should probably be from the state where your practice is located.

What is Your Bounce Rate & Is that OK?

Bounce Rate refers to people who only look at one page on your site. It’s actually very common for people to only look at one page on your site. For instance, if they are searching Google for a specific issue, click the link and read one of your blog posts and then leave your site. Why? Because your post answered their question. That’s a great reason to have internal links on your site-to show them what other valuable information your site has to offer! But I’ll save that for a future post…

A big question people ask is what is a “good” bounce rate. I don’t have a super specific answer here. I’ve heard that in general it’s really hard to get a bounce rate before 40. Another site said that around 50% is average. In general, the consensus seems to be that you want to aim for below 70. But that is for websites in general. I will say that most therapist websites I’ve seen the data for are between 50-70%. I’ve seen some as low as mid 40s or as high as 80%. My best suggestion is to know what the “average” is for your website. When your website seems to be performing worse than usual, re-evaluate and make changes.

Picture of Google Analytics Top of Page. Begin SEO Consulting Services for Therapist Private Practice Owners

This is an example of some of the basic data you’ll see first when you open Google Analytics. You’ll notice that the bounce rate is right at the top.

Which Pages on my Site Need Editing?

Near the bottom of the main page you can click on “pages report.” I love this feature! It allows a small business owner to see some great information about specific pages on your website. As counseling practice owners, our home page will typically be the most visited.

The next most popular on a counseling website is generally the “Our Team” page or the owner’s “About Me” page. But there’s a LOT of great data if you click on the actual page report. Some of the things I like to check out include which of my therapists pages do people go to the most and stay on the longest? Do any of my therapist’s “about” pages have high bounce rates? If one page people stay on shorter times and tend to exit off of, I look at if we need to change the picture, add more text, personalize the page with a favorite quote, etc.

Similarly, I look at my service pages….if one has a higher exit rate or people spend less time on the page, I look at that page to see if I can make it more informative, more inviting, add more internal links directing them to other pages, etc. I see my service pages as some of the most important on our site, because they’re our way of really communicating to potential clients that we understand their specific concerns and really winning them over. Therefore, I pay closer attention to the statistics on these pages compared to others.

Don’t worry about a high bounce rate on your “contact” page or rates page. After looking at these pages, people have often found the information they need and are either going to

1) Decide they can’t afford you

2) Call your office

3) Fill out and submit the contact form to get ahold of you.

Looking for Help Using this Data to Improve Your Counseling Website SEO?

As a group psychotherapy practice owner myself, I understand the importance of having a well ranking website. One that consistently brings in new clients. I love helping other therapy practice owners. Helping them to experience the excitement of an increase in phone calls once their website is ranking well! My SEO consulting services can help your counseling practice in several different ways. One way is, I have a secret Facebook group for my SEO Consulting clients.

Practice owners who have purchased an SEO package (whether DFY or DIY) have access to this group on Facebook. This is where I do Facebook lives, share how-to videos and post random SEO tips. For almost two weeks recently I did a mini series on Google Analytics to help people learn how to use Google Analytics data to make a plan of action for improving search engine rankings. It has sparked some good conversation in the group with practice owners even sharing specific tips with one another about their unique website platforms (GoDaddy vs. Weebly vs. Square Space, etc).

If you are a group practice owner ready to really focus on getting your website found, book a free consultation to discuss how my SEO services might be able to help!

I provide SEO Consulting services to therapists and other small business owners interested in optimizing their websites for search engines. I offer monthly SEO packages where I provide work on your website for you (keyword research, adding alt text to photos, meta descriptions, headings/subheadings, etc.). Or, I offer SEO Training services where I “teach a man to fish” and teach you the skills you’ll need to keep your website ranking well for years to come! If you’re ready to get started, book a free 30 minute SEO consultation over Zoom video chat. We’ll discuss your business and which SEO services would help you reach your goals!

May 5, 2019/0 Comments/by Jessica