5 Tips to Drive Traffic to Your Therapy Website Using SEO
Many therapists have invested a lot of time and money into creating a website for their practice. However, they find themselves frustrated with the lack of exposure the website it getting from potential clients. The number one problem, they are not being found by search engines. It’s simple. If a website has not been properly optimized, the search engines won’t know how to display it in search results.
While, SEO (search engine optimization) may sound like a full-time job, here are a few starter tips on how to make your private practice website more easily found in search results, so you can focus on your real job. There are two main areas to remember when trying to drive traffic to you professional website – onsite SEO and offsite SEO.
Domain Name
Selecting a Domain Name (or URL) that includes your location and therapist type is important. If the domain you want is already taken, it’s OK to use a dash or your credentials in the URL (ex. Chicago-Therapist.com or ChicagoPsychologistPsyD.com). If you already have a domain name and want a new one, you can look for names that are available at godaddy.com or other registrar websites. Switching your website to a new domain is not difficult, just make sure the old URL points to the new one so people typing in your old website address are forwarded automatically.
Keywords
Your homepage content is the most important. Make sure to use key phrases, such as “I am a Chicago therapist, I am a counselor from Chicago,” 2 – 3 times each. You can also include nearby towns in your content and all your specialties. Fresh content and additional pages are nice, however your time may be better spend off-site writing blogs to drive in-bound links.
Meta Data
This only needs to be done once, but it is critical. Make sure your site contains a title tag and description in its HTML meta data. The title and description should contain your important keyword phrases (Chicago Therapist, Chicago Counselor, etc). If you do not know how to add meta data to your website, ask your website designer to do this for you. Meta Data is what is typically displayed on search results pages. So a good description could be “I am a Chicago Therapist with over 10 years experience specializing in Depression, Anxiety, PTSD, Marriage Counseling in Chicago”. You can include nearby towns. The Title Tag should be less 55 characters and Descriptions less than 160 characters in length.
In-Bound Links
Probably the most important on-going thing you can do to increase your success rate is increase the number of sites that link back to your website. A good place to start are the various social media sites: LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, etc. Create a profile that links back to your website and update it regularly with new posts/blogs that include a link to your website. Another helpful option is to join a therapist directories that allow links to your website and the ability to post blogs like TherapyTribe.
Exchange Links
Reach out to colleagues with websites and offer a link exchange. However, be sure to only exchange links with websites that are relevant to your website – i.e. therapy, health, wellness, nutrition etc.
More from TherapyTribe
Great Work! Now that you have driven onlookers to your website, be sure to showcase a compelling and professional service offering. Review our Webpage Check List and Read more about: How to Marketing Your Practice Effectively Online.
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