How to: Get started with SEO for therapists!
Making sure your therapy website is set up to rank on Google is key to the success of your therapy private practice.
SEO is a long-game technique. It takes time, perseverance, and strategy. But in the end, it can truly be a game changer for your counseling private practice.
Here are the key things you need to know as a therapist to set your website up for success with SEO.
If you are interested in learning about SEO for private practice but don’t know where to begin, we got you. Throughout a series of blog posts, we will introduce key things you need to learn to build a therapist website using SEO techniques and tools.
Warning, there is a lot to learn.
There is no need for you to become an SEO expert (in fact, PREMADE templates automatically incorporate many SEO techniques into our sites). That being said, if you’d like to learn more about SEO for therapists, this is a great place to start.
What is SEO?
According to ahrefs (an awesome SEO resource),
“SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is the practice of optimizing a website or webpage to increase the quantity and quality of its traffic from a search engine’s organic results. The benefits are obvious: free, passive traffic to your website, month after month.”
Ranking on google is important because it drives organic traffic to your website (i.e. your ideal client googling for a therapist at 3 am). It does the marketing and networking FOR YOU!
What are SEO keywords?
According to Moz (another great SEO resource),
“Keywords are ideas and topics that define what your content is about. Regarding SEO, they're the words and phrases that searchers enter into search engines, also called "search queries." If you boil everything on your page — all the images, video, copy, etc. — down to simple words and phrases, those are your primary keywords.”
As a therapist or counselor in private practice, you want the content on your website to be relevant to what your ideal client is searching for. Think of this as “congruency” in therapy terms.
What is SEO keyword research?
According to ahrefs,
“Keyword research is the process of understanding the language your target customers use when searching for your products, services, and content. It then involves analyzing, comparing, and prioritizing the best keyword opportunities for your website.”
Keyword research is key for ranking on google. It’s a simple process but does take some time to ensure that you are doing it correctly.
To learn more about it, read ahrefs blog post here.
If keyword research sounds about as interesting as watching paint dry, you can also reach out to a company to do it for you. We recommend starting with Spacebar or TherapieSEO to start.
Where to add keywords to your squarespace website
All of our website templates for therapists are designed on Squarespace. Why? Because Squarespace is not only intuitive and easy to use but also has tons of SEO tools built into the website platform.
After you’ve done keyword research spend time adding those keywords to these areas of your Squarespace site:
Site domain
Site title
URL page slugs
SEO title and page title
SEO site, page, and item descriptions
Headings
Body text
Categories
Captions and titles for Image Blocks, Gallery Blocks, Gallery Pages, and Gallery Sections
File names for files and images
Alt text
Why is SEO for therapists important?
SEO for therapists matters. As a consumer and therapist, you know that most people turn to google for almost everything, including where to find a therapist. If you want to be a leading EMDR expert in your community, you need to also show up on google’s first page as a trusted source when someone googles “EMDR therapist near me.”
Having solid SEO is one of the crucial steps in making a therapist's website rank on google.
After you’ve launched your site:
01. Connect your website to google search console
Once your website is launched, you want to make sure that it is connected to Google Search Console. This allows Google to “index” your site and read the content.
Huh? Okay, we’ll explain. Google’s robots know that you are a therapist in “x” seeing “y” clients. If your ideal client types “trauma therapist near me” into Google, the only way Google will know to show you is if you are connected to Google Search Console.
Most SEO experts recommend that each page of your site has at least 300 words of content (or more) to let Google know what you are actually talking about.
The great thing about building a therapy website on Squarespace is that you can connect to Google Search Console directly on Squarespace.
To connect to Google Search Console:
In the home menu of your Squarespace website, click Analytics.
Click Search keywords.
Click Connect in the panel's pop-up.
Log into the Google account* you want to connect to your site. If you have multiple Google accounts, ensure you select the correct one.
*You can also get a business Gmail account through Squarespace
Review the permissions, then click Allow.
Wait 72 hours for the data to populate.
02. Connect your website to Bing
Do this AFTER you’ve set up Google Search Console
Log into Bing Webmaster Tools.
Enter your domain to the add a site field, then click Add.
If you have Google Search Console already connected to your website, it will link through that!
Next Steps
We’ll post a series of blogs on SEO tips for therapists, this is only the beginning!
Starting with solid SEO practices from the get-go sets you up for success in the long term. Remember, it’s best to start small and continue prioritizing SEO for years to come.
Julie Goldberg is the founder of Third Nature Therapy, a virtual therapy group offering holistic mental health care for people seeking a different perspective on wellbeing. As a co-founder of PREMADE and mental health practitioner herself, she offers straightforward and easy to implement methods for running a successful private practice.