Tag Archive for: driving traffic

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Why Getting Press & PR Matters For Your Private Practice Web Presence

A guest post by Melody Wilding

You’ve created an awesome website for your private practice. You’ve identified who your ideal client is and refined your niche. You’re even blogging on a consistent basis!

 

A guest post by Melody Wilding You’ve created an awesome website for your private practice. You’ve identified who your ideal client is and refined your niche. You’re even blogging on a consistent basis! The only problem is, no one is reading your content or signing up to work with you because they don’t know your practice exists.

The only problem is, no one is reading your content or signing up to work with you because they don’t know your practice exists.

Creating a thriving therapy practice requires that people know about your business and trust you.

But how do you stand out in a crowded marketplace and attract more people to your website?

One of the most powerful ways to stand out, connect with potential clients, and create instant credibility is by leveraging the power of free publicity.

You might be stumped at how to go about getting a slew of shiny “As Seen On” logos on your website. Maybe you feel nervous at the thought of giving media interviews. It’s understandable, but if you can put your doubts aside for a second,

I’ll show you how to get free PR right now, whether you are a seasoned clinician or just starting out in private practice.

Why Psychotherapists Need Media Exposure

Your public profile and platform are keys to your success, regardless of what your business goals are. By getting featured in the media you:

Become easier to find online through Google.

Media exposure is one of the best ways to drive more traffic to your website. It also helps you rank higher on Google by boosting your SEO.

When large, reputable news sites link back to your therapy website, it makes it more likely you’ll show up high in Google search results.

Connect with ideal clients.

You’ve probably heard that you should “go where your ideal clients are hanging out”.

Giving interviews and getting featured in the media is a shortcut to showing up exactly where your ideal customers are consuming content and looking for solutions.

It gives you an opportunity to speak directly to them by providing advice that solves the pain points they’re experiencing.

Gain powerful social proof

Social proof is a powerful marketing tactic that helps potential clients see you more positively.

It legitimizes your expertise in the outside world. When potential clients see you’ve been featured in the media, they come to regard you as an expert.

They trust you more. Having credibility indicators like press logos on your website can mean the difference between a website visitor choosing to book a consultation with you over your competition.

How to Get Free Publicity for Your Private Practice

The simplest, fastest to get media exposure without spending a penny is by using a powerful, free PR service called Help A Reporter Out or HARO.

HARO is a free service that connects journalists with experts. Through HARO, you can get featured in over 55,000 media outlets including top publications like TIME, USA Today, and The Washington Post.

I used HARO to go from zero clients and credibility to being featured in major publications like New York Magazine, Fast Company, Forbes, Shape, Cosmopolitan, Glamour, and Mashable, within one year of starting my business. 

Working with the media is what’s allowed me to build a six-figure business and be booked out with a wait list.

Publicity has also helped me pursue other opportunities like paid writing, speaking, and building courses.

How HARO Works

After you sign up at helpareporter.com, you will start getting three emails every weekday with a list of requests (called “queries”) from reporters looking for experts to comment on topics ranging from health and wellness to relationships and career development.

Each HARO email contains about 50-75 different requests from reporters. This adds up to over 150 more opportunities to get featured in the media every single day, delivered straight to your inbox at no cost.

Here’s how it works:

  1. Scan the HARO emails every day. When you see a query that fits your expertise, act quickly. Journalists get hundreds of emails from HARO, so time is of the essence.
  2. Next, compose a new email to the reporter. Make sure your response is concise, adheres to the reporter’s requirements, and most importantly, provides helpful advice for readers.
  3. If the reporter opens your email and is interested in what you have to say, then you may be quoted in an article or be interviewed. When that happens, you get exposure to the thousands or millions of readers of that publication.
  4. Share it! You worked hard to earn this media exposure, so celebrate. For example, post the article on social media, send it to your email list, and put the publication’s logo on your website. Make sure to follow up with the journalist and thank them, as well.

HARO gives you a great opportunity to drive more traffic to your website and boost your credibility so that more people want to engage your services. It’s also a powerful tool that can help grow your business, your reputation, and your impact.

Discover How to Have Success with HARO

Sign up for my free training, Media Made Easy: The Secrets To Getting Press Coverage (Even When You Have No Connections) and discover the top 3 tips to use HARO successfully and get featured in the media.

About the Author

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Melody Wilding is a licensed social worker and coach who help high achievers mentally and emotionally thrive in their careers. When Melody started her practice a few years ago, she had zero clients and no credibility. Today she runs a six-figure business, has a client waitlist, has given a TEDx talk with over 20,000 views, and has been featured in dozens of top media publications including The New York Times, The Washington Post, Inc, Forbes, and Fast Company, Cosmo, Shape, Glamour, and dozens more. Melody is also the creator of The Media Darling Method, an online course that teaches therapists how to land major publicity that grows their private practice and personal brands.

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How To Embed A Psychology Today Link On Your Website (and Where To Put It)

Psychology Today is often the go-to directory for most mental-health therapists when they launch their private practice. Because of its high Google rank and searchability, having a profile can help you get found by more clients.

In this article, we’ll go over how you can add your Psychology Today Verification badge to your website.

Psychology Today is often the go-to directory for most mental-health therapists when they launch their private practice. Because of its high Google rank and searchability, having a profile can help you get found by more clients. In this article, we’ll go over how you can add your Psychology Today Verification badge to your website.

What is A Psychology Today Verification Badge?

Simply put, the verification badge is a graphic with a link that Psychology Today provides to you.

It looks like this:

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You can place this graphic on your website as a way to further connect your website to your Psychology Today profile.

You can use it as a small token to boost your credibility with website visitors looking to vet their new therapist.

Also, linking to credible websites, such as Psychology Today, can also have a slight benefit to your search engine optimization.

Where to Put Your Psychology Today Verification Badge

My personal opinion is that you’re going to create far more connection with your potential clients on YOUR website and NOT your Psychology Today profile.

Plus, because of Psychology Today’s high Google ranking, many visitors will see your profile first, and then go to your website to learn a little more about you.

Because of this, I like to make sure we’re keeping visitors ON your website, reading your blog posts and getting comfortable with you and CONVERTING into clients.

Not just sending them away from your website.

So, where do I recommend you put your Psychology Today verification seal?

Well, there’s no “one size fits all” for this and it really depends on the design of your website.

First and foremost, I usually relegate the graphic to my clients’ about pages.

There, you may have a section toward the bottom of the page that lists your credentials and trainings. It’s here where you can put the seal, along with other organization seals you may be affiliated with.

This creates one area of the website that a visitor can see your credibility.

Another place I may put the graphic when I’m designing private practice websites would be the website footer.

And if I do, it’s usually small and probably the last thing on the page.

Like I said, we want to keep your visitors on your website and lead them to contacting you through your calls to action.

While they could still convert off your Psychology Today profile (which is great), to me, your website provides a better representation of you and your personality and a better chance at converting.

That’s just my opinion!

How to Embed The Psychology Today Verification on Your Website

Ok, so how can you embed this nifty little badge on your own website? Just follow the steps below:

1: Log into your Psychology Today profile

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2: Under your name, in the top right corner, click on “Link and Share”

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3: Choose a size and theme that will work with your website styles

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4: Click on the “Copy” button at the bottom of the page to copy the code

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5: Paste the code into your website

This is where things may get just a little bit tricky.

Each website builder will be a little bit different, but you’re going to look for your builder’s way of adding HTML code to your content.

For example, in WordPress, you can add it right inside any text on a page by click the “Text” tab (as opposed to “Visual”) in your text editor:

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Once you’re in the “Text” or HTML view, you can paste your code:

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Most website builders work in the same way, allowing you to add code into any text block.

Once your Psychology Today code is pasted into the page, you can save or preview it:

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If you’re having trouble getting the code to appear, it’s possible that the code is conflicting with your theme or some other code going on.

It’s always best to reach out to customer support for your theme (if using WordPress) or your website builder (such as Squarespace or Wix).

There you have it! Now your website will be cross linked with your Psychology Today profile.

 

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5 FREE Ways to Get More People to Read Your Therapy Blog

Blogging can be one of the best ways to boost traffic to your private practice website. But simply putting a post on your website isn’t enough to ensure people actually read it. So what can you do?

Blogging can be one of the best ways to boost traffic to your private practice website. But simply putting a post on your website isn’t enough to ensure people actually read it. So what can you do? In this article we’ll go over five ways you can boost your traffic with blogging while ensuring that visitors stick around and actually read your posts.

In this article we’ll go over five ways you can boost your traffic with blogging while ensuring that visitors stick around and actually read your posts.

1: Write Content Your Ideal Clients Actually Want To Read

5 ways to get more readers therapy blog 1

The first step in increasing your blog readership is to write posts that actually serve your ideal clients.

Your blog should not be a repository of “deep thoughts” or vague reflections.

I certainly encourage you to use your experiences and reflections to inspire your blog posts.

But a blog post titled “My Morning Hike” will get faaaaaar less views than one titled “How A Simple Walk Can Help You Set Goals and Decrease Anxiety About The New Year.”

When we use vague titles and long ramblings, it’s extremely unclear to the reader what’s actually in it for them.

Starting with your headline, you give your website visitors a reason to read each blog post.

Don’t know where to begin?

Start by thinking about why clients come to you.

Make a list of the challenges their facing and the topics you’ve been discussing in your sessions.

Then write about it!

Think of your blog as a way of serving your current clients as well as website visitors that may not even become your clients.

Over time, this will help increase connection with your readers, foster a positive perception of you and your practice, highlight your expertise and hopefully turn into more clients.

2: Be Consistent When Publishing New Blog Posts on Your Private Practice Website

more readers therapist blogging counseling calendar

Google loves seeing fresh content on your private practice website.

When you consistently add new blog posts, this lets Google know that your website is growing.

It says, “Now here’s a website that is constantly growing in resources. I like that!”

Plus, the more you write, the more words are on your website.

This means that your chances for ranking for new keywords is increasing constantly, so your ability to rank higher in Google for various phrases goes up and up over time.

When we first launched my wife’s website back in 2011, we saw her traffic double after she began blogging.

She added one new blog post each week for a few months.

And she didn’t even use social media to share the posts!

So, if you want to increase traffic to your blog, find a schedule that works for you and stick to it.

For tips on how to maintain a consistent blogging schedule, check out this post.

3: Use Social Media To Drive More Traffic to Your Blog Posts

5 ways to get more blog readers therapist marketing social media

If your clients don’t know your blog post exists, how will they ever read it?

Plus, your blog posts may or may not be ranking well in Google, making it hard to even find some of that great content you’ve been working on.

So, another way you can get your blog posts in front of potential clients is to use social media.

When you use social media to create a following, it’s another way to get your content in front of people.

And if people are liking your private practice Facebook page or following you on Pinterest, then they’ve already expressed some interest in what you’re doing.

This makes them more likely to read your posts when they show up in their feed.

Heck, even if it’s your friends and family that see your blog posts on Facebook, you never know who will read it, share it and get it in front of your next client.

My favorite social network for driving traffic is DEFINITELY Pinterest.

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<script async defer src=”//assets.pinterest.com/js/pinit.js”></script>

Did you know that Pinterest is the second largest driver of traffic, second only to Facebook?

Because of its traffic-building potential and nature of finding helpful articles on the platform, I believe it can be a powerful marketing tool for any therapist with a blog.

Related article: Why Your Private Practice Needs To Be On Pinterest.

But no matter what platform you love to use, social media is a great way to take your blog post a bit further and drive a little more traffic to it.

Some tips for using social media to promote your blog posts:

  • If you’re just starting out, choose ONE network and learn how to use it effectively before adding another
  • Be consistent. Just like how you should frequently publish new blog posts on your website, you should frequently be sharing on social media
  • Try and balance 1 post about your business to every 4 posts that are not promotional, such as quotes and helpful articles from others
  • Use Google Analytics to check in from time to time and see which platform is bringing in the most traffic and then focus on that platform to drive even more traffic

4: Use Email Marketing to Let People Know When You’ve Published a New Post

5 ways to get more blog readers therapists email marketing

Just like social media above, using email marketing is a great way to send your blog posts to potential clients who have already expressed interest in your work.

One of the first questions I hear from people starting out with email marketing is “what do I say to people on my email list?”

Letting people on your email list know that you’ve published a new blog post is a great way to keep in touch with your list.

Once your blog post is published, you can write an email summarizing it and include the link back to your website.

I encourage you to link to your website, rather than just send the blog post in an email.

This way, people can visit other pages on your website if they want to – continually learning more about your services – and hopefully lead to scheduling a session with you.

Your email list should be filled with people who have already enjoyed your content enough to even give you their email address… so this audience is really the best target for reading your blog posts.

When they continue to get helpful and insightful articles a couple times a month, it warms them up to you, creates trust and helps remind them that you can help them.

You never know when someone will respond to one of those emails asking when they can schedule their next session!

5: Include Images in Your Blog Posts

private practice blogging tips

So here is a stat that is pretty crazy:

Blog articles with images get 94% more views. (source)

94%!! Wow!

In our fast-paced world, photos help get our attention and drive engagement.

If you want to increase the amount of views your blog posts get, be sure to include at least one photo with each one.

This will help your posts stand out, especially when shared on social media.

Including images can also help you optimize your post better for search engines.

To learn more about how to optimize images for SEO, click here.

Conclusion

If you’re wondering why more people aren’t reading your blog posts, I encourage to give the five tips above a shot.

Test it out over time and see if your traffic is increasing.

Remember, just publishing blog posts is not always enough to increase your traffic.

You just may need to give people a reminder that your new blog posts exist. The more chances people get to hear about your post, the more clicks over to your website there will be.

And the best part about all the tips above is that they’re totally free for you to try!

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10 Ways to Market Your Group Practice That Bring RESULTS

Guest post by Maureen Werrbach

Does the thought of marketing your group practice have you scratching your head or making you turn and run in the other direction? I hear ya. Most of us were able to make it work when we were growing our solo practices, but then we didn’t realize that what was working for us as solo providers doesn’t necessarily help our group practices grow.

Does the thought of marketing your group practice have you scratching your head or making you turn and run in the other direction? I hear ya. Most of us were able to make it work when we were growing our solo practices, but then we didn’t realize that what was working for us as solo providers doesn’t necessarily help our group practices grow.

One of the most common complaints I hear from group practice owners is that they have a difficult time getting potential clients to see their therapists.

Part of the problem is that often times, that group practice owner gives the potential client the tone that they feel bad that they can’t take them, only perpetuating the idea that whomever the client gets is a second-rate therapist to the group practice owner.

Working through that issue is a whole other article for another day. But the other part of the problem is that the group practice owner is continuing to market in ways that worked for them as solo providers, further increasing the probability that potential clients will call to see them.

In an effort to help group practice owners learn ways to market that actually work for their group practices, I’ve come up with 10 ways to market a group practice.

1: A website that’s engaging, easy to navigate + makes it easy for clients to reach you.

Nothing screams a bad practice (in the eyes of a client) than a website that’s disorganized, outdated, and difficult to navigate.

Clients need to easily be able to see if your group practice can help them or not, and fast.

They do not (and shouldn’t) want to spend a lot of time scrolling and clicking around your website to see if there is a therapist in your practice that works with their needs. Potential clients will just exit your website.

Even more, with websites being so well designed lately, clients expect that yours will be too. It is a reflection of our physical group practice. If clients feel dissatisfied or think your website is lackluster, it’s unlikely that they will reach out.

Circling back to navigation, it’s equally important that potential clients and referral sources can quickly scan through your list of therapists and find the best fit.

The more therapists you have, the more important it is to have subcategories of presenting issues you work with, to make it easier for them to find their ideal clinician.

2: Having your clinicians blog regularly to their ideal clients. 

Not only does this increase your ranking on Google, it also helps your potential clients have another touchpoint with a therapist before scheduling.

Research shows that potential clients need around 7 touchpoints before scheduling an appointment.

Blogs offer a way for clients to get to know your therapists in another light outside of their bios. Vlogs are even more successful in converting potential clients into clients.

3: Google AdWords, done professionally. 

I was a naysayer of Google AdWords for a while.

For years, I had tried to do it myself, with minimal results.

When I hired out my Google AdWords, I increased my website traffic by 71% in the first month!

In the digital age, an overwhelming majority of people search for the things they need, including therapists, online. Going behind the scenes to make your website get more traffic is one way to increase those referrals.

4: Community outreach + speaking engagements. 

My group practice engages in one free community speaking engagement (often at a local school or business) as a way to give back to the community but also as a marketing strategy.

When we give an hour of our time to presenting on a topic that is important to us, we often get a handful of new referrals that week because of the people who heard our presentation.

Outreaching and speaking engagements are also a way to increase brand recognition and your like, know, and trust factor from potential clients, referral sources, and community members.

5: Clinicians marketing themselves to places their ideal clients go. 

One thing to let go of as a group practice owner is marketing your clinicians individually (unless it is done digitally).

When a group practice owner goes out into the community to market their clinicians individually, what happens is that the group practice owner becomes the person those referral sources refer to.

It’s also less effective than if the clinician marketed out in the community themselves.

An example I like to use is with a therapist in my practice who is a CADC. I have no substance abuse counseling experience. I would have a much harder time, and be less effective at expressing my clinician’s experience in working with substance abuse clients than she would.

6: Checking Google Analytics for sources of potential problems. 

This one is important.

I learn a lot from my Google Analytics.

Like, which pages on my website get less than mediocre traffic. Or which pages have high bounce rates (meaning clients come to it and exit out of my website completely right away.

This tells you which pages need updating or changing in content or design.

7: A Facebook business page or other form of social media for business. 

One that’s engaging and relevant.

Social media is a thing. People spend a lot of time on Facebook and Instagram.

Finding one place (not all of them!) to have a presence not only increases your visibility (and like, know, and trust factor) it also is a great way to lead people back to your website.

8: Having an email list that’s targeted.

Email lists may seem like they have gone on the wayside, but you’d be wrong.

What people hate is getting spammed or receiving emails that aren’t relevant to them. Or being added to an email list they didn’t sign up for.

Email list providers like Mailchimp, Aweber, ActiveCampaign, and others, have some pretty awesome features these days that help you target the right information to the right people.

When people sign up for my email list, they choose what information they want to know about.

Parenting? Relationships? Health counseling? Anxiety? Stress Management? You get the idea.

Adding these subcategories that relates to the presenting issues your therapists work with and write about helps clients and potential clients get the information they actually care to read and need.

This increases the likelihood that they will engage in the email and take an action, like scheduling an appointment or calling to take a group you are offering.

9: Optimizing your website’s SEO so your website shows up for keywords that are relevant to your business. 

This is something you can learn to do yourself (with a lot of time) or something you can delegate. Things like Yoast for WordPress sites is useful for optimizing your website in a DIY fashion or hiring someone to check each page that its optimized can be a one-time investment.

10: In person networking with other providers, especially those that your ideal clients go to and other therapists who specialize in things your group practice doesn’t.

The one type of in person marketing I do (my focus for marketing tends to be behind the scenes-digital) is networking with other groups, whether medical, business, or counseling group practice owners.

Since we are all in the same boat, other business owners tend to be able to understand the concept of referring to other members inside of a group rather than to group practice owners themselves.

Helpful hint: I have a Google Spreadsheet that I open up when I meet with other group practice owners that categorizes referral sources by specialty. That way, we can refer to specific people in other group practices or medical offices that specialize in something specific, versus deferring to the owner of the practice.

I hope these 10 marketing tips helps you organize your marketing strategy in a way that works for you and your business. As a final tip, do only one thing at a time so you can measure that marketing strategy is helping your business receive new clients. Good luck!

Maureen Werrbach is a trauma and relationship therapist in Chicago, a group practice owner [Urban Wellness], and a group practice business coach who helps group practice owners start and scale their group practices [The Group Practice Exchange].

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Client Spotlight: Lisa Kendall

I’m super excited to introduce you to another amazing counselor, Lisa Kendall. I had the pleasure of working with Lisa to breathe new life into her private practice website in order to support her growing counseling and consulting business.

I’m super excited to introduce you to another amazing counselor, Lisa Kendall. I had the pleasure of working with Lisa to breathe new life into her private practice website in order to support her growing counseling and consulting business.

Before Her Website Project Began

Lisa is a social work psychotherapist and gerontologist.

Her passion is for working with elders and their care partners to create balance in their lives and cope with the challenges that may come from aging.

I instantly admired Lisa because it was so clear how much she cared for the population she served.

When we first chatted about what a new website could look like for her practice, Lisa had a clear vision for growth in both her business and her impact.

With a growing community, coaching services and educational/speaking opportunities, she needed a website that would help her stand out, establish her as an expert in gerontology and attract new clients and opportunities.

But her business had outgrown her old website. Here’s what it looked like:

Lisa Kendall therapy website

Her website looked more like an old-school blog, rather than a website for a counselor, coach and speaker.

One thing Lisa did have?

Great content and a warm and inviting tone to her copy.

Because she knows who she wants to attract to her website (elders and their caregivers) she can write copy that speaks directly to their concerns, creating trust and warmth.

So our challenge was to create a website that was more modern and let that warmth and personality come across.

Her current website felt a bit cold and didn’t allow for much connection.

So we went to work.

Creating A Private Practice Website That Let Lisa’s Personality Shine

So we had a few requirements for the new website and the business goals it needed to achieve:

  1. Attract more of Lisa’s target audience (elders and their caregivers) so that she can increase the number of clients
  2. Showcase her speaking and educational work in order to establish herself as an expert and grow this part of her business
  3. Allow users to easily opt into an email list so that she could grow an audience and market to them in the future
  4. Create a responsive website so that no matter what device a user was on, they’d be able to get to Lisa’s great content
  5. Make it super simple for users to contact her so that Lisa could have more conversations with potential clients

We decided to start with one of my pre-designed Divi WordPress templates as a foundation for her website.

Doing this helped save on the cost of her website and also gave us a great starting point that addressed some of the goals above.

As with all my clients, I had Lisa complete a questionnaire prior to our work together.

In the questionnaire, she was able to share with me the websites that inspire her, the feeling she wanted to evoke to her website visitors and specific preferences such as fonts, colors and the way she wanted her header to appear.

I was able to take all that info, along with her content and get to work putting all the pieces of Lisa’s brand and content together into a new website.

Launching Lisa’s Website

Lisa was truly a delight to work with and a model client!

She was extremely responsive, uploading all her content to our shared Dropbox before the project began and providing all necessary feedback to me along the way.

Because she was so readily available, we were able to complete the website rather quickly and launch it to the world.

Here’s a few shots of the final website:

lisa k homepage therapy website design

lisa k about page therapy website design

As you can see, Lisa’s new website is much cleaner and fully branded.

The logo, fonts and imagery all work together to create a brand for Lisa that evokes feelings of peace, rest and balance – exactly what she brings to her clients.

The white space makes it easier for readers to digest her great content and learn more about who Lisa is and grow to trust her as an expert as well as a warm person.

You can check out Lisa Kendall’s new website by clicking here.

Here’s what Lisa had to say about her new website:

My new website really reflects my personality, and is ready to take me and my professional services to the nextlevel!

It’s really beautiful, easy to navigate, and I believe I’ve already seen an increase in followers as a result.

I would enthusiastically encourage colleagues to look at my website and to talk with Daniel and to trust in the fact that he’s a good listener, phenomenally well organized and well-prepared to walk people through what could be a painful process.

He made it a joyful, collaborative, and creative experience.

I am very grateful, and would recommend Daniel and his services without hesitation!

Is It Time to Update Your Private Practice Website?

One thing I love about my work is that I get to create change in a person’s life and business.

And I’m not just talking about creating a new website.

A website is nothing unless it is working for you and your private practice goals.

It was an honor to help Lisa redesign her website into something that truly reflects her personality and lets her warmth shine.

If you think your website is lacking in personality and isn’t helping you grow your practice, let’s have a chat.

I offer a free 30-minute consultation where we can discuss your private practice goals, current challenges and how a new website could help move your business forward.

Click here to learn more about how we can work together and to schedule your free 30-minute consultation.

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How To SEO Optimize Your URLS

When search engines crawl through your content, one of the first indicators as to what the page is about is the URL. You can use the URL of each page and blog post on your private practice website to boost your SEO game.

In this article, we’ll talk about 5 ways to optimize URLs for SEO.

When search engines crawl through your content, one of the first indicators as to what the page is about is the URL. You can use the URL of each page and blog post on your private practice website to boost your SEO game. In this article, we’ll talk about 5 ways to optimize URLs for SEO.

1: Optimize for Humans, First

Google is VERY smart.

Gone are the days of just slapping keywords in your content and ranking on page 1.

Because Google wants to show the BEST content for a user’s search, you have to write for humans, not for Google.

Make your URLs as easy to read as possible.

This way, when someone sees a URL, they’ll have a clear understanding of what they’ll find by clicking on it.

Instead of URL like this: http://www.mywebsite.com/home/post?ID=128

You want something like this: http://www.mywebsite.com/10-ways-to-naturally-battle-depression

Which link would YOU rather click on?

2: Place Your Keywords in the URL

This one is pretty straight forward.

Decide what someone would type into Google to find the content you’re creating and place those keywords in the URL.

As I mentioned in this post’s intro, the URL is one of the first places Google will look to indicate what the page is about.

Research has also shown evidence of something called “domain bias”.

This means that users will often judge content based on whether they believe a domain to be worth a click based on the URL.

Putting your keywords in the URL will help users know exactly what they’ll get from clicking your link in search engines.

3: Keep URLs short, If Possible

This one is about usability, more than the technical side of Google.

Going back to tip #1 in this post, you want your URLs to be easily read and understood by humans.

A shorter URL will be much easier to read, easier to remember, easier to copy and past and can be understood more quickly than a super long URL.

There’s not hard and fast rule here, but I’d try and keep it as short as possible and well under 100 characters.

4: Separate Words with Hyphens & Underscores

You can break up the words in your URLs by separating them with hyphens or underscores.

Sometimes, when you leave a space in your URL, it will render as %20, which just looks weird and detracts from the keywords I know you’re putting in your URL.

Most content management systems, like WordPress take care of this automatically, but it’s worth a mention.

5: Keep URLs Consistent with Page Titles, If Possible

To create a consistent user experience and re-iterate the page content, try and match the words in the URL with the words of your page title.

If you have a super long title for a blog post (10 Ways To Survive Family Dysfunction During The Holidays… Without Drinking), it doesn’t mean that it has to be word for word.

But you do want some consistency that will let the user know what they’ll find by clicking the link and then be reassured when they see the title when they land on the page.

Something like http://mywebsite.com/survive-family-dysfunction-during-holidays would totally work here.

This will also help when you share the link on social media.

Your followers will see the title of the page and the matching URL close by, giving them confidence to click.

Wrapping UP

I hope you’ve found these five tips useful as you optimize your private practice website for search engines.

SEO can be a fickle beast, but if you keep tips like the above in mind while you consistently create content, you’ll see positive movement over time.

If you’d like to learn what Google finds most important and how to SEO your private practice website, check out my mini-course, A Little Course About SEO.

Want To Learn More About SEO?

Check out my mini-training, A Little Course About SEO:

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A Sneak Peek at My New & Improved Website-Building Course

I began Create My Therapist Website in 2015 with one main goal: to help therapists get more clients by giving them the necessary resources to create a private practice website that they’re not embarrassed to show potential clients – one that’s beautiful, modern, and functional.

This all came out of our own story, when my wife began her private practice here in Atlanta.

Building a practice was HARD.

She was working toward her license and needed the right amount of client hours to get there.

But because she was just starting out, it was difficult to get those first clients on her caseload.

Which meant a lot of waiting… and hoping… and praying for those clients to come.

So I used my web design, online marketing and WordPress expertise to built her a website for her private practice.

And pretty soon, we began to see something amazing happen.

She began getting calls from potential clients who decided they wanted to work with her BECAUSE her website looked better than the other therapists.

Within about 9 months, she was seeing 12 – 15 clients a week.

Not long after that, she had grown to about 30 clients a week.

But chances are you are not married to a professional web designer like my wife is.

And at this stage of your business, maybe paying thousands of dollars for a designer to build your website is just not an option.

So you’re left having to DIY your private practice website, like so many that have gone before you.

And just like so many, you soon realize that technology can be a real pain in the gosh-darn tushy.

There. I said it.

You end up spending hours trying to get an image uploaded to your website or Googling for the answers to what seems like simple questions.

Instead of taking hours to create a website, it ends up taking weeks and even months.

All the while you’re missing out on those potential clients you KNOW you could help.

No one should have to go through that.

After seeing the impact a modern and strategically-designed website had on my wife’s private practice and our life, it’s become my MISSION to help others achieve the same.

So I launched my business and soon after created my first training program: the Create My Therapist Website Toolbox.

The Create My Therapist Website Toolbox is my start to finish website building program, designed to make the website-building process as easy, organized and as straightforward as possible.

I’ve Completely Rebuilt This Training, From The Ground Up

The Create My Therapist Website Toolbox is my start to finish website building program, designed to make the website-building process as easy, organized and as straightforward as possible.

Last year I spent a boat load of time doing research into my customers’ biggest pain points when it comes to building a website.

Overall, my students were getting great results.

Check out what Beth had to say:

“I finally have a website that feels more like me and introduces me and my practice to my ideal potential clients in a way that authentically connects with them. It helps develop a relationship with clients even before we’ve had a chance to talk.

It’s worked so well I’ve recently had to shut down my ‘Schedule An Appointment’ button on the website because so many new clients are scheduling with me that I’m running out of room for my current clients!”

But there were still a few places in the website-building process that were tripping my students up.

When I asked them about this, the feedback was unanimous:

They wanted even more specifics about using a theme and designing web pages.

With so many WordPress themes out there, it’s easy to get lost in a sea of options.

It’s also easy to choose a theme you think will serve you well, only to find it’s confusing to actually edit and build web pages.

So I began to treat this course more like a true class with even more show and tell.

I’ve used my own design process and how I work with clients to not only create websites that attract and convert their ideal clients but to make the process as streamlined and headache free as possible.

In order to provide the best hands on support to my students, I’ve decided to focus the course on using just one flexible and intuitive WordPress theme: Divi.

Now I’m able to show them EXACTLY what they will create and take them step-by-step through the process, building the most important pages on your private practice website.

And since I know Divi inside and out, I’m able to answer the specific questions that come up along the way.

A Sneak Peak At The New CMTW Toolbox Online Course

Did you skip to the end of this post, looking for the good stuff?

I like that.

Check out the video below for a behind-the-scenes look at the new and improved course.

I’m EXTREMELY excited to share this with you.

If you’ve been embarrassed to give your URL to potential clients, this course will help you finally create that modern, beautiful website that will help you get the clients you deserve… even while you sleep.

Enrollment will be open soon, so stay tuned.

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How to Convert Private Practice Blog Readers into Paying Clients

Blogging is a great way to increase the traffic coming to your private practice website. But how can you turn that traffic into paying clients and grow your therapy practice?

In this article, I’ll share with you 5 ways you can increase your chances of converting blog readers into paying clients.

Blogging is a great way to increase the traffic coming to your private practice website. But how can you turn that traffic into paying clients and grow your therapy practice? In this article, I’ll share with you 5 ways you can increase your chances of converting blog readers into paying clients.

1: Consistently Create Blog Content for Your Potential Therapy Clients

Sometimes I feel a bit like a broken record on this one… but that’s ok.

Consistency is key!

You must be consistent with your content marketing (blogging) in order to see true impact on your traffic.

As your traffic increases, so do opportunities to create new clients.

When you’re constantly adding new content to your website, you’re doing a few crucial things:

  1. You’re increasing the amount of pages that Google is indexing on your website. This could mean an improvement in search rankings.
  2. You’re also increasing the amount of keywords you’ll be ranking for which, once again, can improve your chances of being found in search engines.
  3. You’re demonstrating your authority and trustworthiness by sharing a wealth of knowledge on subjects that your potential clients are concerned with.
  4. You’re giving potential clients more reasons to stick around on your website and form a connection with you.

I must also stress that consistent does not necessarily mean weekly.

Consistent means what works for you, so long as it becomes part of your routine for marketing your private practice and adds new content to your website over time.

If you’re finding it difficult to stay consistent, it’s time to come up with a game plan.

Schedule some time into your calendar where you can focus on coming up with new ideas for blogs as well as time for writing them.

If you want to learn how I’ve managed to stay consistent with my own blogging, check out this post: Blogging for Therapists: 3 Simple Steps to Blog Consistently

2: Include A Bold Call To Action on Each Blog Post

Your website content should take users and potential clients on a journey.

What do I mean by this?

You want to lead your users through stages of familiarity with you and your services.

When they first come to your website or find one of your blog posts, they may have never heard of you.

So, they read your words, click around your website and get a sense of your services and who you are… they get to know you a bit.

Then, when they decide it’s time to reach out and learn even more, they’re taking the next step in getting to know you and actually beginning a relationship with you by calling or emailing you.

Hopefully that conversation leads to them becoming a client.

In order to get a potential client to take that next step, you have to give them the opportunity to do so.

People need direction.

So, give them a clear and simple call to action at the end of each blog post.

Encourage them to take whatever next step you’d like them to take to move your relationship with them to a new level.

Many therapists like to offer a free 20-minute phone consultation while others give away a free resource in exchange for an email.

Here are a couple examples of bold calls to action from a few recent clients of mine:

call to action private practice

cta lori buckley

cta liz miller

3: Give Something Away

A great way to build trust, serve a population and nurture potential clients is to offer them something of value absolutely free.

This is where being generous pays off.

If you truly want to help your population of ideal clients, find ways to serve them whether they become a client of yours or not.

This can create a great connection with potential clients and showcase your expertise, which may keep you in mind for when they are ready to reach out for therapy.

Some things you could give away to attract potential clients:

  • A PDF checklist on a topic
  • An e-book
  • A video that teaches potential clients about a topic they are concerned with
  • Free consultation calls
  • A PDF resource with lots of information on a specific issue your clients may be dealing with

You could get very creative with what you could give away.

The key is to make it something that your potential clients can’t ignore.

It should be something that would be very valuable to them and meets them right where they’re at – which is often struggling to overcome a certain challenge in their life.

You can help them get one step closer to freedom and give them a reason to call you when they’re ready to go even further by becoming your client.

4: Offer Solutions to Your Clients’ Pain Points

Why even have a blog in the first place?

Is it just to get more clients?

That’s certainly one of the main reasons we jump into blogging and content marketing.

But just like the last tip, at the core of what you do must be a desire to help people overcome whatever it is that’s holding them back.

Isn’t that why you got into therapy in the first place?

So, when you write blog posts, focus on the specific pain points and issues you love to help your clients overcome.

Use your blog as a way to educate potential clients and showcase your expertise.

If you help someone, whether they’re a client or not, this creates an appreciation and affection for you as a person.

That could certainly lead to more clients in the future.

With every blog post, try and focus on a specific lesson, skill or bit of information that can help your potential clients overcome a pain point in their life.

Create small wins for them now so you can hopefully create big wins for them later when they come in for therapy as your client.

5: Eliminate the Distractions

As a web designer devoted to folks in private practice, I’ve reviewed many therapy websites.

One of the biggest mistakes I see therapists make with their websites is having too many distractions.

We live in busy times, where people’s attention spans are extremely short.

When presented with too many options, people will often choose none of them.

So if your amazing blog posts are surrounded with lots of ads, a very busy sidebar, or multiple calls to action… people may bolt.

Which means they won’t even read your blog posts.

They’ll get overwhelmed by the work they need to do to even read your content and just move right along.

So if you want to attract more clients with your blog, you need to make sure they read your content in the first place.

Choose one main call to action to include in your blog post and that’s it.

If your sidebar is jam-packed with images and buttons, try and eliminate what isn’t essential.

And if you want to make sure your text is more readable, I actually wrote a blog all about it!: Blogging for Therapists: How to Increase The Readability of Blog Posts

Conclusion

Blogging still remains one of the best ways to increase traffic to your private practice website.

It increases the amount of keywords you’ll rank for on Google and offers you a great way to serve your potential and current therapy clients.

You can use the tips above to make sure you’re using your blog posts to their full potential in order to attract clients to your private practice.

You may want to take a look at the blogs you’ve been posting and update them with calls to action or make them more readable.

And you can keep these tips in mind as you write future blog posts and come up with new ways to bring in more of the clients you love to serve.

I’d Love To Chat With You About Your Website

I know what it’s like to try and build a website and figure out this online marketing stuff on your own. Oh the Googling, the questions and all the roadblocks that can come up along the way!

So, I offer Skype consultations as a way to help you overcome any challenges you may be facing with your therapy website and keep you moving forward.

Got a problem or just want to pick my brain? You can draw from my 15 years of web design experience and we’ll come up with a plan to improve your website, bring in more traffic and attract more clients.

If you’d be interested in scheduling a Skype consultation, you can click here to sign up.

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How To Write Amazing Blog Post Titles That People Actually Click

The titles of your blog posts are detrimental to the success of your content marketing. In a sea of Google search results and social media, the title of your post can mean the difference between a reader clicking for more or just brushing you aside.

In this post we’ll talk about 5 ways you can write catchy blog post titles that people can’t help but click on.

The titles of your blog posts are detrimental to the success of your content marketing. In a sea of Google search results and social media, the title of your post can mean the difference between a reader clicking for more or just brushing you aside. In this post we’ll talk about 5 ways you can write catchy blog post titles that people can’t help but click on.

Why Blog Titles Are So Important to Successful Content Marketing

Your blog headline is the first impression a reader will have with your content.

It can be their reason for clicking or their reason for brushing your post aside.

How sad would it be to slave over a blog post for hours, getting the content just write and then slapping a title on it that doesn’t draw people to the value they’ll find within the content?

We live in fast-paced times where the amount of information we see each day is astounding.

People are flying through their Facebook feed while waiting in checkout lines or scrolling through Pinterest while watching TV.

It’s become increasingly harder to make your content stand out and reach your ideal audience in this noisy sea of information.

But a catchy headline could cause someone to pause, pique their interest and make them hungry for more of the content they’ll find in your blog post.

It’s also one of the most important factors for your search engine optimization (SEO).

Combine SEO with a catchy, intriguing headline and it’s content marketing gold!

Let’s get into some tips for writing blog headlines that get clicked, shall we?

1: Keep your Blog Post Titles Short and Unique

55 characters is your target for the length of your blog post titles.

This is amount of characters that Google will show users in their search results. Anything longer will get cut off.

Shorter headlines also tend to get more clicks because they’re easier for readers to digest and know exactly what they’ll get when they click.

Get creative here. Don’t just write generic titles.

Include a keyword but also put some emotion into it that will make your title stand out from the rest of posts flying through the internet.

2: Focus On Keywords

Powerful headlines always focus on a keyword.

This is how people may find your blog post and let’s search engines know what your blog post is about.

Decide on what words your audience may type into Google to find your blog post and work that into the title.

3: Get Emotional

A catchy blog post title will have a healthy dose of emotion that will grab the reader’s attention and lead them to click for more.

You can use power words to not only make your post titles unique, but also give a sense of urgency, curiosity and emotion.

You want to stay away from common words like best, awesome, or great.

Go for the jugular here and get creative!

Use words like:

  • Ultimate
  • Greatest
  • Fascinating
  • The Truth About…

For example, a generic headline for blog post may go something like this:

“How to Set Boundaries in Marriage”

It’s not bad, but unless I’m really interested in that topic, it doesn’t really intrigue me much.

But what about:

“The TRUTH About Setting Boundaries in Marriage”

You see the difference? The second title creates a bit of intrigue and makes me feel like everything I’ve heard up to this point about boundaries in marriage was incorrect.

I just gotta click!!

Here’s a great list of 317 power words you can start using today.

4: Use Numbers

There’s something about numbers that increase engagement with blog post titles.

When you say “10 Ways to Set Boundaries in Marriage” as opposed to “How to Set Boundaries in Marriage” it conveys the value of the post and exactly what the reader will gain from checking out your content.

I enjoy creating these types of blog posts myself because they provide a clear outline for the content instead of a giant blank slate.

The same mentality gets passed along to readers, because they can more easily wrap their head around a list of short tips rather than one long “how to” post.

When it makes sense, try and include numbers in your headlines to drive engagement.

5: Write and Re-Write To Get Your Blog Post Titles Right

I had fun with the word-play on that subtitle, not gonna lie…

Writing effective and engaging blog post titles takes a lot of practice.

Rarely will you ever use the first title you came up with.

I like to have a working title for my blog post to give me some direction for what I’m going to write.

But as the content unfolds, it may make sense to re-write the title.

Finally, once the blog post is complete, I’ll spend time focusing solely on optimizing my title.

One of my favorite tools to help me do this is CoSchedule’s Headline Analyzer.

You can put your headline into the form and CoSchedule will analyze it, score it and give you tips to improve it.

Here’s the analysis for a working title I had for this blog post:

blog post headline analyzer

You can see I’ve got some work to do get the right balance of words and structure for my title.

It will also give you some other scores to help you improve your headline, such as analyzing the length:

blog post headline analyzer length

Conclusion

Writing blog post headlines that stand out and get clicks takes time and practice.

It’s a skill, like blogging, that you’ll grow in over time.

Take note of the types of headlines you see in Google and social media and think about why they stood out to you.

Using the tips and resources above, spend time trying to recreate that feeling of urgency or curiosity you felt when you read those headlines.

Keep at it and, over time, I have no doubt you’ll see an increase in traffic to your blog posts.

Want more blogging tips? I've created a FREE checklist, 11 Things You Should Do To Every Blog Post Before You Hit Publish.

Inside, you'll get 11 simple things you can do to optimize each blog post. You can print it out and refer to whenever you write your next amazing piece of content.

I've created a free checklist for you to reference when writing your next blog post

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How to Increase Traffic Your Private Practice Website (Join the Free Challenge)

Getting people to show up to their private practice website is one of the greatest frustrations I hear from therapists.

I mean, why put all this effort into building your website if no one’s even going to visit it?

And how are you supposed to attract new clients if they can’t even find you online?

I’m with you.

I’m all for making sure you’re not spinning your wheels and wasting your time and resources trying to create a website that doesn’t bring you more traffic – and ultimately – clients.

So, how DO you increase your traffic and attract more potential clients to your website?

That’s the million dollar question, isn’t it?

Well, I’ve been there myself.

I launched Create My Therapist Website as a blog back in July of 2015 and since then I’ve learned all about what works and what doesn’t work when it comes to driving traffic to a website.

And after trying so many strategies – from pulling my hair out over SEO to trying to understand Facebook ads – I’ve landed on a simple system that keeps my blog on track and continuously brings me new traffic (mostly on autopilot).

The best part is, this traffic-driving strategy is FREE and it can work for anyone in any niche.

So, to help you get more traffic to your private practice website, I’ve developed a 10-day Kickstart Your Blog Traffic Challenge.

For 10 days, I’ll deliver one daily lesson to your inbox that will share with you simple ways you can increase traffic to your blog.

Each day will build on the day before it and by the end of it, you’ll have a system and a process you can follow to grow your traffic month after month.

I’ll also be bringing you some live video trainings along the way to answer your questions and go deeper into my favorite traffic-building tips.

Click here to enroll in the Kickstart Your Blog Traffic Challenge >>

Now, this isn’t just a bunch of random blog tips and tactics…

I’ll literally be sharing the same strategy I used that led to a 15x increase in traffic to my own website… in just 6 months.

It’s the same strategy I still use today to bring in tons of traffic to my website without SEO and paid advertising.

And I can’t wait to share it all with you inside this challenge…

Because what I’ve learned is that it’s not rocket science, so anyone can follow this system to see an uptick in their own website traffic.

Ready to explode your traffic, grow your audience and attract more of your ideal clients? Join the free 10-day Kickstart Your Blog Traffic Challenge by clicking the banner below:

Click here to join the free challenge

Lesson #1 will arrive in your inbox today!

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