Advocacy and SEO…What’s the Connection?

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!

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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!