SEO For Shrinks: Can Potential Clients Find Your Practice Online?

Do therapists really need to care about search engine optimization (SEO)? If you're in private practice the answer is YES!

So, what is SEO? SEO is the process of improving your website's visibility in search engines like Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc.

Before you starting thinking about SEO, you first need a practice website. Even a single page site with your photo, practice description and contact information is better than nothing! I predict that in the near future it will be nearly impossible to build a successful private practice with clients who pay your full fee unless you have a website and strong professional online presence. If you don't have a website, stop reading here, and get busy creating a site. If you already have a site and you want to make it easier for potential clients to find your practice on the web, read on!

Since "meeting" Your Google Guy, Peter Hannah, LMHC, online I've marveled at the combination of his therapy education and telecommunications specialties. I couldn't wait to "pick his brain" about SEO basics for shrinks to help you succeed in attracting your ideal therapy clients to your private practice.

There's A Reason They're Called "Keywords"

The most common SEO mistakes that therapists make on the website is not understanding how crucial keyword are. Hannah suggests, "If you're a psychologist in Orlando, those two words should be prominent in your site and appear on each page of your website. They should also be in your meta tags. Because people will be searching "Orlando psychologist" to find you and people like you."

Another mistake that Hannah has observed in his consulting work with therapists will often omit their location on the homepage of their website, "Your home page acts as an orientation point to visitors. Who you are, what you do, and where you do it. Make sure it's all on there!"

Hannah says there are two parts to SEO work: on-page (your website) and off-page (out on the web). "On your site, making sure your website clearly has language in it that matches your city and your services is probably the easiest and most important. You might want to talk about "healing" and "journeys" as you write about your work, and that's good, but make sure you're also mentioning "counseling" or "psychotherapy" once in a while, too!", Hannah suggests.

Create Consistent Content

Hannah suggests consistently creating content on the web. This is what I  love to do, and it's what contributed to Sharecare Now naming me the #1 online influencer for depression. I've never met anyone who works with Sharecare, but because of the amount of mental health content and the number of channels on which I produce regular content (4 blogs/sites, 5 Facebook pages, Twitter, Google +, Linked In, iTunes podcast, blog posts, YouTube channel, links to my site from national sites) I came up on radar of a national health organization! Hannah suggests writing something helpful for potential clients your website blog and always have it link back to your website.

Get Listed, But Don't Pay A Dime

Paid therapist listing sites aren't as beneficial as shrinks might think. Hannah suggests finding site that list your business for free and write as much information as you can and provide links to your website. My therapy site is listed on Google places, Facebook places, Yelp!, All About Counseling, local university referral listings, City Search, and many other free listing sites. Also, remember to get listed on your professional organization referral lists.

Peter Hannah, MA (Counseling) MS (Telecommunications) is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor in Seattle, WA. He's also a former technology professional who helps therapists market their practices on the web. Since 2005, he's worked with several hundred therapists, marriage counselors and psychologists with SEO, Google Adwords and making their websites more effective.  Find out more at his website YourGoogleGuy.com.

photo credit: Flооd

Who's Talking About You Online? Find Out With Google Alerts

Do you know who's talking about you and your practice on the web? If not, you should. My favorite way to to track who's talking is through Google alerts. Google alerts sends me an email whenever they come across "Julie Hanks" or "Wasatch Family Therapy" on the web. It's a quick and easy to see what information your name is being associated with, where you're being mentioned, who's quoting you, and more. If nothing pops up about you and your practice on the web via Google Alerts over several months, that's helpful information too. If Google can't find you, then it's likely that you're potential clients can't find you either. To learn more about Google searches read my article Does Google Love Your Therapy Practice?.

Click here to set up your Google Alert. You can set up your alert to filter different sources like blogs, news, video, discussions, or everything on the web, how often you'd like to be alerted, and how many results you'd like to receive. When you're name pops up on the web, you'll be alerted via email. You'll also find out what other people who share your name are up to on the web, which is amusing, and sometimes annoying.

I found out last week, through a Google alert that I had been named the #1 online influencer making a difference for depression by Sharecare, an website founded by Dr. Oz and Jeff Arnold, founder of Web MD. That's information that I'm glad I didn't miss!

Here's the Google alert email I received last week:

So take a few minutes today to set up Google Alert. You might be pleasantly surprised at what you find. Please post links to what you find below! I'd love to see where other private practitioners are popping up on the web.

To Tweet or Not to Tweet? Using Twitter To Grow Your Therapy Practice

What is Twitter?

Twitter is a popular social media platform where users can send short updates that are up to 140 characters long.  Twitter is basically the equivalent of a Facebook status update newsfeed. If you have no idea what a "newsfeed" or "status update" is, then you may want to stop reading here and start by setting up a Facebook account.

Facebook is THE social network site and is the most effective way to build your practice through social media because of it's high number of daily users. Here's an article on how to set up a Facebook Page for your practice.  If you want to know how to use Twitter, here are a few suggestions on how to effectively tweet to build your practice.

How can Twitter help you build your practice?

Twitter, like all social media platforms, is a forum for conversation and connecting with other people online. It is also a great way to spread the word about your practice, to educate the public about issues you care about, and to share your areas of expertise. The point of social networking sites like Twitter is...uh...the social networking. If your Twitter followers find value in your tweets they will share them by retweeting your information their Twitter followers. Over time you can grow a network of people who are sharing your tweets which helps you get the word out about your private therapy practice.

Ways to Build Your Therapy Practice Through Twitter

1) Follow local businesses and professionals

Following potential referral sources on Twitter can help you build referral sources.  If you specialize in helping clients with chronic pain, then you may want to search for pain clinics, chiropractors, and other health professionals in your geographic area and start a conversation with them about your services.

Don't limit who you follow to only mental health or other psychotherapists. Referrals can come from any kind of social networking relationship. Let your definition of an ideal client help guide who you follow on Twitter so you can attract the kind of client you want to work with. Twitter can also be used a search engine to find other businesses or people in your area and see what they talking about.

2) Don't just tweet, have conversations

Don't just send out information or tweets into the social network universe. Take a few minutes each day to respond to others who mention you or who retweet your tweets. "Mention" other users by using the "@" sign followed by their twitter handle and it will show up on their Twitter page. This builds rapport and relationships. For example, my user name is @julie_hanks. If someone posts a tweet and mentions me, I will be notified of it and it gives me a chance to respond to them.  I've found Twitter to be a source of professional support too, meeting therapists all over the world and sharing ideas. I've found some therapists in private practice featured in recent articles on Twitter.

3) Tweet links to your practice website

Increase traffic to your therapy website by tweeting links to your website. If you have a website blog, you can automate your site to tweet every new blog post. Here's a screenshot of my Twitter page. The yellow text are links that mostly go to on of my websites or blogs to increase visitors and provide helpful information.

4) Use hashtags to attract followers interested in your expertise

A hashtag is a "#" followed by a topic. For example, if you're specialty area is parenting, you can use #parenting on tweets about anything related to parenting to make it easier for others interesting in parenting to find you. When you click on a hashtag it will bring up other tweets mentioning the same topic. Hashtags make it easy to find, follow, and converse with others who have similar interest or expertise.

Do you use Twitter as a mental health professional? What are your suggestions for using Twitter to build your practice?