Shows a beach scene with a stack of books that have sunglasses on them. Represents how seo for mental health can help therapists with the summer slump.
, ,

SEO for Therapists: Surviving the Summer Slump 2023

As a therapist, you may have noticed a slump in the summer months. Especially, when it comes to new clients showing interest or calling for appointments. However, there is a solution: implementing SEO strategies for your private practice. This can increase your visibility online and attract new clients year-round or reinterest past clients. In this blog post, we’ll explore how SEO works and provide tips on how to implement it effectively.

Understanding the Slump in Summer for Therapists

Therapists often experience a slump in the summer months due to various factors. These factors can range from clients going on vacation, school being out of session, or simply lower demand for therapy services. But, that doesn’t mean you should give up on marketing!

It’s important for you as a therapist to continue to market your private practice with strategic SEO tactics. You can consider factors such as algorithm updates, creating relevant content, and optimizing your website for better visibility. Doing this will help you stay ahead of the competition and stay visible to potential clients. By implementing effective SEO strategies, you as a therapist can ensure steady growth for your private practices throughout the year.

Summer Vacations and Decreased Client Interest

Shows a person at a conference. Represents how seo for therapists can even come from going to conferencing and networking.

Photo by Jaime Lopes on Unsplash

The summer season can impact the attendance of clients. Many of them take the time to go on vacations or take a break from counseling. To maintain contact and engagement with them during this period, consider alternative methods. This can be creating relevant content or using algorithms to convert new website visitors into leads.

Additionally, therapists can use this opportunity to focus on self-care and personal development. You can do this by attending conferences or workshops related to your field. These opportunities can be great for networking with other professionals. But also learning new methods for therapy services, and staying informed on the latest trends. Then you can even share content about these developments on social media platforms, such as Twitter and Instagram.

Effect of School Being Out of Session

One way to adapt your marketing strategy during the summer is to focus on parents who are looking for therapy services for their children. School-age kids are often out of session during these months. This is a time parents may consider counseling or more intensive therapy services. You can use SEO tactics by optimizing your website for better visibility and creating content focused on this topic.

By targeting your SEO marketing strategy to target this audience, your practice can increase visibility and attract more clients. Consider optimizing your website’s content to target these potential clients. You can do this by incorporating relevant keywords and phrases. This will help you rank higher on search engine results pages. Additionally, creating new content, such as blogs, that speaks to the concerns of families during this period can convert visitors into leads.

What Strategies Can Therapists Use to Combat Summer Slump in SEO?

SEO strategies can be specific to the situation as pointed out above, but there are more general strategies you can take. Here are a few tips for therapists to consider when optimizing their private practice’s SEO during the summer:

Focus On Local SEO

Since many people will be at home more or students will be going on summer vacation, therapists should focus on local SEO. This means ensuring that you focus time on optimizing your website for local SEO searches and ensuring your website-and content-is indexed and ranking. These keywords you can be ranking for are “therapist in Arkansas” or “children’s anxiety therapist in New Hampshire”. Another way to do this is to make sure that your Google Business Profile is up to date and fully filled out.

Create Summer-Specific Content

Shows a sign that says "Difficult Roads Lead to Beautiful Destinations". Represents how seo for mental health professionals can help individuals find the help they need during the summer.

Photo by Nik on Unsplash

While your services may stay the same year-round, creating content that speaks to the unique challenges of summer can help attract new clients. Consider writing blog posts or creating social media content that focuses on topics that are unique to summer. These can be content ideas such as managing stress during summer vacation, maintaining healthy relationships with family members during extended time together, or online therapy in the summer months.

Webinars or Podcasts

Webinars and podcasts can be great ways to not only give out interesting, informative information but also to engage with your existing clients. By hosting webinars on relevant topics or participating in podcast interviews, therapists can showcase their knowledge, build credibility, and increase their online visibility. These webinars and podcasts can cover interesting topics that pertain to summer or even phenomena such as themes in movies coming out and how they can relate to therapy. Additionally, promoting these webinars or podcast episodes on your website and social media channels can generate interest and traffic to your website.

Engaging Videos

Videos or reels are almost more popular ways of dispersing information than posts. This can be a creative way for you as a therapist to address popular questions you receive in therapy, see on social media, or are topical in the summer. You can also engage with your audience by creating a Q&A video, or you can offer tidbits of therapy advice to help people through the summer. This is also a great way to increase engagement with your social media channels and attract more visitors to your website.

For example, you can think of a topic in a popular book, movie, or trend that you want to address, create a short video about it, and share it on your website as well as on social media. By addressing these popular topics, you can not only connect with your target audience more but also add value to their lives. It can engage your audience while they are binge-watching their favorite summer movies or reading all the books they saved up for the summer

Keep Consistently Blogging

Shows a person writing on their computer. Represents how seo for mental health recommends to consistently blog to help with ranking.

Photo by Andrew Neel on Unsplash

If you have read any of our blogs, you know that we absolutely recommend consistently blogging. This is because it not only establishes your expertise with Google but gives information to your established clients and potential ones. Another reason blogging can benefit you during this summer slump or slowdown is that it can create a strong online presence for your website. It is also another way to attract new clients and regain the interest of established ones! By regularly publishing informative content related to counseling and therapy, it can boost your visibility in search engine results and help you stand out from the competition.

Network With Other Professionals

Summer is a great time to network with other professionals who will be able to understand and support your business. Connecting with local professionals will allow you to increase your SEO ranking. One way is by boosting the number of backlinks pointing to your website. It can also be a great way to offer workshops or group sessions aimed at supporting families, children, or individuals who are going through a tough summer.

Guest Blogging

One way to collaborate with other professionals is to guest blog for a fellow therapist or for a popular mental health website. Writing guest blogs for popular mental health websites or inviting guest bloggers, or being one yourself, to contribute to your own blog are great ways to increase your reach. But also to attract new audiences! This can potentially boost your website’s visibility, backlinks, and SEO ranking. Think of who has a large following and would love to work with then reach out to see if they would be interested in partnering with you.

By working together, you can create informative and engaging events that attract a wider audience while also helping each other expand your reach online through. But also helping each other get backlinks and referrals that can boost your SEO ranking. It’s a win-win and is a great way to keep your business running successfully during the summer.

Let’s Work Together to Optimize Your SEO For Mental Health This Summer!

At Simplified SEO Consulting, we want to support you through this summer slump with our team of experts who have experience in SEO for mental health. We specialize in optimizing your website and content to ensure it is indexed and ranking so your ideal clients can find you this summer! We put together a series of SEO packages to help you with your SEO journey.

No matter what stage you are in, from starting out to already having a well-optimized website but needing help with creating content. By investing in your website you are also investing in your and your practice’s future. Want to learn about SEO? Sign up for our SEO Course for Therapists and learn how to use the power of blogs and SEO to reach more clients and grow your practice! Or want to outsource it? Check out our SEO Consulting packages and apply to work with us! Ready to get started?

  1. Please apply to work with us
  2. Learn about our team
  3. Begin reaching more clients this summer!

Other SEO Services At Simplified SEO Consulting

If you feel as if you are already an expert in SEO but want to see what other services we offer, know that we also provide other services. We offer options such as our 12-week trainingsmall group intensives, and courses. Our strategy session can be a great option if you need support getting started with SEO or doing a site move or redesign. These can also be helpful to find better keywords, evaluating your current SEO performance, and more. Or, if you’re ready to work with a passionate and skilled team, our Done for You Program may be a great following approach.

About the Author:Lynsey, SEO Content Writer for Simplified SEO Consulting

Lynsey is an SEO Content Specialist at Simplified SEO Consulting. She is driven by her passion for crafting exceptional content that embodies her clients’ distinctive brand voice and practice. With a specialization in mental health-related subjects, she recognizes the impact of high-quality content on therapists’ search engine rankings and attracting their ideal clients. Lynsey’s primary objective is to leverage her copywriting expertise to assist therapists in maximizing their return on investment, offering invaluable insights on harnessing the power of blogs as effective tools in summer SEO marketing strategies.

Apply to work with us if you’re ready to see how Simplified can serve you!

0 replies

Leave a Reply

Want to join the discussion?
Feel free to contribute!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.