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Psychologists SEO
Explore Our SEO Resources for Psychologists
This Psychologist SEO Guide Has Been Comprehensively Updated for 2023
Due to consistent algorithm updates, the relatively recent Helpful Content Update in late 2022, we’ve updated the written content that already existed on the page. We’ve written new content. And we’ve filmed new video content. Everything is up-to-date, fresh, and helpful for your psychology business to dominate Google for 2023.
How We Help Psychologists Grow Their Practice & See A
5.7x ROI on Their Monthly SEO Investment
Increase Google Rankings
Get your clinic’s website ranking on Google for high-value keywords that mental health patients are searching for.
More High-Quality Web Traffic
Get more interested patients (who are ready to “buy”) coming to your website each month.
Increased Leads & Phone Calls
Get more motivated potential patients calling your clinic to schedule appointments.
You Get Your Time Back
Stop writing blog content or trying to figure out digital marketing on your own.
Here's What You Want To See With Your Mental Health Clinic’s Website & SEO
When Someone Types "Psychologists Near Me" or "Therapists Near Me" Into Google, You Show Up Here …
When Someone Types "Psychologists Near Me" or "Therapists Near Me" Into Google, You Show Up Here …
Think about how potential patients search for mental health professionals. They’re probably feeling like they could really use some help – and fast – and pull out their smartphone.
They go to Google and type in something like “psychologist near me” – the FIRST thing to show up is the Maps area of Google called the Google Local Pack. The providers who show up here “win” and get the most phone calls.
When Someone Types "Best Psychologist in [City]" or "Best Therapist in [City]" Into Google, You Show
Up Here …
When people are looking for mental health professionals, they often use the language of “best therapist near me” or “best psychologist in [city]”.
The providers who rank in the Maps area for these keywords get the most website visitors and phone calls.
When Someone Types Questions Into Google Like "Can a Psychologist Help With Anxiety" You Show Up Here …
When Someone Types Questions Into Google Like "Can a Psychologist Help With Anxiety" You Show Up Here …
Potential patients ask tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of questions on Google every day. Questions such as:
- How can therapy help depression?
- What type of therapy is provided for depression?
- Does couples counseling work?
If your website can rank in Google for these types of questions, you’ll prove to potential clients that you are an “authority” in the industry and can be trusted.
People Are Searching Differently For Mental Health Professionals Than They Used To
It’s easy to see how search trends have changed over the last several years. Let’s look at the increase in people searching for “therapists near me.”
The above screenshot was generated by a tool called Google Trends (a tool created by Google itself). You can see the increase in the number of people searching for “therapist near me” over the last five years.
See The Common Theme? You Want To Increase Your Clinic's Digital Presence Online To Be Found By Motivated Patients
At the end of the day, you want more people in your city seeking mental health services to know you exist.
When they do a Google search online around psychologists, therapists, or mental health professionals, you want to have a stronger online presence than your competitors so that your clinic will appear higher in rankings.
How Do You Get Tangible Results With Psychologist SEO Services?
Step 1: Comprehensive SEO Audit
This first step is one that many SEO companies fail to complete.
And we believe this is the most important step of all!
It’s very difficult to know where you want to be if you don’t even know where you currently stand.
We always recommend completing a comprehensive SEO audit to determine:
- Your current website performance in terms of SEO
- Any errors on your site that may be impacting your SEO performance
- How you compare to your local competitors
- How your technical SEO is performing
- And more
Step 2: Local SEO Visibility Audit
The main goal for SEO for therapy practices is to increase your “local visibility,” as we call it.
We use third-party tools that provide robust and powerful data through “SEO visibility tests” around your business. This gives us insight into how visible your business is on Google.
One of the reports looks like this:
Step 3: Create a Roadmap Based on Data
Once a comprehensive SEO audit and local visibility audit have been completed, we will have a lot of data to analyze.
Strategies around SEO for psychologists should always be based on thorough data. We find that most other SEO companies fail to do this! Instead, they recommend strategies based on a “hunch” that something will work.
We will create a comprehensive roadmap based on the data we find through our initial analysis – the roadmap will progress from high priority to low priority changes/additions. For example, if the data shows that your website loads slowly (which is negatively impacting performance), you should probably fix that first!
Step 4: Implement Highest Priority Changes First
Now, here’s where the magic happens:
Not all site changes made for SEO purposes are created equal.
For example, while updating the alt text for images across your site can be helpful, doing so on a blog post from 2015 won’t be as impactful as improving the content on your homepage.
We will always recommend targeting the “low-hanging fruit” opportunities we discover after analyzing the data gathered from steps one and two.
Don’t have a Google Business Profile set up? You should probably make one! You don’t have Service Pages specifically for “In-person Sessions” and “Telehealth?” You should probably implement those first before worrying about images on your “About Us” page.
Step 5: Local SEO Best Practices & Content Creation at Scale
Local SEO for psychologists boils down to the following:
- Providing consistent content that Google trusts
- Authority
- Accuracy of the information across all areas of your digital presence
If the phone number listed on your website is different than the phone number listed on your Facebook page, Google may see that as a red flag.
Google may not choose to rank your business because they can’t trust that if a user picks up the phone and calls, they’ll actually get through to you.
Consistent NAPs on high-authority directories across the internet are critical.
When we talk about “authority,” – this is where content plays the biggest role. By creating valuable content that answers your target audience’s questions, Google will see your business as having more authority than a therapist or counselor who doesn’t provide much content on their website.
Step 6: Meticulously Track Data
The goal of SEO should always be to create a tangible impact on your mental health clinic. To increase the number of visitors to your website. To increase the number of calls to your office. And to ultimately boost revenue via leads created by these increases in activity.
To determine if your SEO campaign is performing and identify any areas for improvement, you have to track data closely. You’ll need to build a comprehensive dashboard that will give insight into your:
- Website visitors
- Phone calls
- Keyword rankings
- And other important KPIs
Top 4 Common SEO Mistakes Made by Psychologists
Mistake 1: They Don’t Fill Out Their Google Business Profile in Detail
It’s absolutely essential to be as comprehensive as you can possibly be when creating your Google Business Profile.
Almost every business owner makes sure the essentials in their Google Business Profile are covered. Like providing:
- Addresses
- Phone numbers
- Hours of operation
- Main category; and
- Website link
But, if you want to improve your chances of ranking in the local pack and out-performing your competitors, you need to go beyond the “essentials.”
Ask yourself the following questions:
- Have I included all of my services with detailed descriptions?
- Have I listed all applicable secondary categories for my business?
- Have I added all applicable attributes to my business?
If your answer is “no,” add this information!
Maybe you’ve carefully selected five photos to include in your Google Business Profile. Take it up a notch and post 20 photos. Include photos of the exterior of your building and your parking lot. Want to stand out even more? Upload a video explaining what your clinic is like and what makes you a unique provider.
Google LOVES seeing as much information about you and your business as possible. And potential clients do, too!
Mistake 2: They Don’t List All of Their Services Properly on Their Website
Let’s say there’s a page on your website that provides a bulleted list of every mental health service your clinic offers. But that’s the only place your services are discussed on your entire website.
This is a wasted opportunity to go after low-hanging fruit such as:
- Implementing a strong site architecture
- Maximizing ranking opportunities for valuable keywords
- Having comprehensive content on your site
A better approach would be to create individual pages for each of your services.
Your URL structure for service pages may look something like: .com/services/couples-counseling. Your original services page can link each of your services to these individual pages.
Think about potential patients searching for keywords like “couples counseling near me.” Does the information on your existing page answer questions they may have about your couples counseling services?
For an extra boost of comprehensiveness, you may also consider adding FAQ sections at the bottom of your service pages.
Mistake 3: They Fail to Create Data-Driven Content That Adds Value to Their Target Audience
Any content created for your site should be supported by data.
Oftentimes, we see psychologists create content based on what they think their target audience is searching for – only to find out, after extensive keyword research, that their target audience is searching for completely different queries.
Using keyword research as the backbone for your content creation is the only proven way to ensure you are targeting keywords that are truly valuable and to make sure your content is seen by as many people as possible.
Mistake 4: They Don’t Have a Replicable Process for SEO
The only way to produce consistent results with an SEO campaign is to establish a consistent and replicable process for your SEO strategies.
SEO is long-term. And it needs to be nurtured in order to continue to provide results for the long haul.
Due to circumstances like …
- Increased efforts from competition
- Changes within your industry; and
- Changes within the SEO industry
… SEO is not a one-and-done deal. At SEO Growth Partners, we have designed and produced repeatable SEO strategies that yield results time and time again.
Psychologist SEO Services Shouldn't Be 
Cookie-Cutter — Everything Is 100% Customized To Your Business
SEO for mental health providers is not the same as SEO for other types of businesses.
Unfortunately, many other SEO companies treat all industries the same. They use the same “tips and tricks” that they apply to all of their other clients, thinking it’ll work with psychologists.
This simply just isn’t the best way to do it.
We treat your business as unique.
We take an individualized approach to:
- Each industry (such as mental health providers)
- Your specific city (NYC might be different than a smaller town in Idaho)
- Your unique website (is your website built on WordPress or Webflow?)
5 Tactical Local SEO Strategies for Psychologists
Strategy 1: Google Business Profile Optimizations
This is an example of a Psychologist’s Google Business Profile:
Actually, this is an example of the front-end of a Google Business Profile – the part that a Google user can see.
Before we go any further, let’s back up:
Why do Google Business Profiles matter for mental health professionals?
A Google Business Profile is an extremely relevant and important factor for ranking in the Google Local Pack. If you forgot what the Google Local Pack is, here is a screenshot:
Optimizing your Google Business Profile boosts the probability of your clinic appearing in the Google Local Pack.
Remember, when you show up in the Google Local Pack, you WIN. You will get more phone calls and website visitors than your competitors who do not appear in the Local Pack.
So, with a goal of populating in the Local Pack, how should a Google Business Profile be properly optimized?
The answer is … are you ready for it? Comprehensiveness.
The absolute best way to optimize your Google Business Profile is to pack it with as much comprehensive information as possible.
Google Business Profiles have multiple sections where you can provide comprehensive information, including:
- Categories (this is the type of business you operate)
- Main description
- Services
- Products
- Photos
What does a comprehensive Google Business Profile look like compared to a non-comprehensive profile?
In the main description, you may be inclined to write a simple sentence like… “I am an experienced psychologist who implements many different modalities to help patients suffering from mental health issues.”
Just one sentence? Google allows you to use up to 750 characters for the main description. And you should use all of them. Do you offer remote services? Do you offer couples counseling? Treatment for anxiety and depression? Do you offer emergency visits?
Think of several questions your potential patients may ask and answer ALL of them. This is how you can be more comprehensive than your competitors.
Strategy 2: On-Page SEO for Your Homepage and Location Pages
On-page SEO for psychologists is just a fancy way of describing the content available to Google users on your website.
It includes content and technical aspects like:
- Title tags
- Meta descriptions
- Header tags (H1, H2, H3)
- Internal and external links
- Images
- And, basically anything that you can put on a website page!
Why does on-page SEO for psychologists matter? Well, Google cares about it. And without optimization, Google may not think your website is worth ranking.
For single-location mental health professionals, the most important page on your website, from a local SEO perspective, is your homepage.
For multi-location mental health professionals, the most important pages on your website are your location pages.
When optimizing on-page SEO for these pages, you want to implement SEO-friendliness through keywords while also providing as much comprehensive information as possible to the user (and Google).
For example, instead of a title tag like “Jensen Mental Health – 503.111.1111” you can provide more context to Google by writing something like “Trusted Therapy Services in Downtown Portland – Jensen Mental Health.”
Strategy 3: Website Architecture Best Practices
This is an extremely underrated SEO strategy for psychologists. Your website architecture and your sitemap are intimately intertwined.
Google has bots that crawl your sitemap to understand your complete website architecture, which in turn allows Google to fully understand what your website is about and what value it adds for users.
Here’s what a sitemap might look like to Google.
Seem a little confusing? It’s not something you need to worry about too much. Just know that when Google crawls a sitemap, it’s putting together what your website is about (which is really important for local SEO).
The main point to understand with site architecture is that your website should make sense hierarchically.
Let’s use two services that psychologists may offer – 1) in-person sessions and 2) remote sessions.
Where should these pages live on your site? First, it’s important to have a “services” page with a URL structure similar to .com/services/
Now, any services that you offer (such as in-person sessions and remote sessions) should live UNDER this main services page. See below:
- .com/services/in-person-sessions
- .com/services/remote-sessions
Although this may seem obvious, many websites do this wrong. There’s often no vertical architecture. Instead, every page lives directly under the homepage.
See below:
- .com/services/
- .com/in-person-sessions/
- .com/remote-sessions/
- .com/talk-therapy/
- .com/play-therapy
With a structure like this, it’s not clear to Google that “Talk Therapy” is a service that you offer. It’s just another page on your site!
Strategy 4: Content Creation at Scale
This is where SEO strategy gets fun. Potential mental health patients search for thousands of queries on Google every day.
Some are very local:
- Best therapist in Portland
- Couples counseling in Portland
Some are generic:
- Does therapy work?
- Best type of therapy for anxiety
- Can a therapist prescribe medication
- How long does it take for therapy to work
- Therapy for children
By answering these types of queries via comprehensive supplemental content (like a blog) on your website, you will accomplish two things:
- You may rank in Google for these specific queries – users will click on your blog post and therefore drive traffic to your site.
- With more rankings and increased traffic, Google will take notice and label your website as an authority over your competitors. Google will think, “wow, this provider is answering so many mental health-related questions that our users have. Their website is, therefore, more valuable to our users than local competitors who haven’t answered these types of questions.”
Strategy 5: User Experience is a Bigger Deal Than You Think - Stop the Keyword Stuffing!
SEO strategy has evolved and browsers have gotten much more intelligent over the years. Keyword stuffing … PBN link building … all the stuff that used to work – doesn’t anymore.
Google’s getting smarter with every user interaction. And Google understands that a user’s experience on a website is vitally important.
What does this mean for you as a psychologist?
- Make it simple for users to find the information they’re looking for. They shouldn’t have to spend 5 minutes figuring out if you offer couples therapy or not.
- Make it simple for users to contact you.
- Your phone number should always be clickable on a mobile device.
- Consider online scheduling so someone can easily make an appointment.
- Provide a clickable email address for simple digital contact.
- Anything to make the user’s experience on your site SUPER easy.
- When writing content – truly offer value to the reader. Gone are the days of ranking with vague, keyword-stuffed articles from outsourced writers who don’t take the time to intimately learn about your business. Your content should comprehensively answer users’ questions and provide as much value as possible.
On Average, Our Psychologist SEO Services for Cost
31% Less Than Other SEO Companies
Compared to Other SEO Companies That Average Between $1.5k and $3k Per Month.
FAQs About Psychologists SEO Services
Here are the most common SEO questions we’ve heard from your industry.
What Is SEO for Therapists?
SEO marketing for therapists is a type of digital marketing that helps providers increase their visibility in search engines – particularly Google.
The specific SEO strategies used for psychologists vary greatly based on your specific goals, location, and services (which is why all psychologist SEO is NOT created equal).
Strategies include:
- Keyword research
- On-page SEO
- Off-page SEO
- Technical SEO
- Google Maps optimizations
- Local SEO
- Content creation
- Landing page creation
- PR
- Google Business Profile optimization
- And more
Why Is SEO for Mental Health Professionals Important?
Psychologist SEO is important because it increases your visibility to your target audience (the people seeking mental health services RIGHT NOW).
Think about how social media marketing for psychologists works: Online users are scrolling through Instagram or Facebook and stumble upon an advertisement for a mental health professional in their city. They might be actively looking for a therapist, but it’s unlikely.
On the other hand, SEO puts your business in front of motivated potential patients looking for what you have to offer:
SEO for psychologists allows you to populate in Google for people actively searching for a mental health professional – people searching for “best therapist near me” or “therapist in downtown Portland.” Taking steps to rank for those keywords will produce MUCH higher conversion than people scrolling on Instagram.
How Long Does SEO for Psychologists Take to Work?
SEO campaigns for psychologists can take anywhere from one week to six months for you to start seeing results. It depends on a variety of factors:
- How big your community is
- How many of your competitors are actively implementing SEO strategies
- How long your website has been live
- How high your website’s “domain authority” is
- How your current SEO is performing
- And much more
Some of our clients have seen 2x – 3x the phone calls within one month after starting their SEO campaign. Other clients don’t see noticeable increases in phone calls for 2-3 months.
Think about this, though:
If every single business could make just a couple of tweaks on their website and rank overnight for the HIGHEST value keywords out there, like “best psychologist in New York City” the internet would go haywire.
Boosts in SEO performance take time. Google built their algorithms that way for a reason.
What Mental Health SEO KPIs Should We Track?
Psychologist SEO key performance indicators (KPIs) should be meticulously tracked.
It’s crucial for you to know, with complete certainty, that the money you’re investing in an SEO campaign is working for your mental health clinic.
To make this determination, you need to track certain metrics to ensure that your campaign is working:
- Keyword rankings: Are you ranking on page 1 of Google for your most important keywords? How are your keyword rankings changing week over week? Month over month?
- Organic website traffic: Is your organic website traffic from Google going up or down? Which keywords are driving the most traffic?
- Online lead submissions: Are you seeing more online leads? How are they changing month over month?
- Phone calls: Are you getting more phone calls from people searching on Google? How are phone calls changing over time?
What Type of Content Should Mental Health Clinics Have on Their Websites?
Psychologist SEO content should include topics your target audience is actively searching for:
How can we discover what keywords/content your target audience is searching for?
We use advanced software and tools that give us insider information and data. We, for example, know that 320 people per month (on average) search for “does couples counseling work.”
So, to that end, we do extensive keyword research to find the topics/questions that potential therapy clients have.
Questions like:
- “How much does therapy cost?”
- “What is talk therapy?”
- “How does counseling help mental health?”
By creating content that answers these questions, you increase your odds of ranking in Google when users search for queries.
Also, with valuable, author-verified content on your blog, Google will favor your site more than your competitors because Google will have more trust in your content.
What Are the Most Valuable Mental Health Keywords for SEO?
How To Work With Us
First of all – we don’t work with all psychologists.
We only work with psychologists who:
- Are excited about setting goals for growing their business
- Have the bandwidth to support the growth they will experience after kicking off an SEO campaign with us
- Make it a priority to treat their employees and their customers well
If that sounds like you, then go through the easy process below:
Step 1
Request a 'Free SEO Audit'
Requesting an audit will take about two minutes.
Step 2
Check Your Email
In 24 hours or less, one of our extremely talented SEO specialists will send you a customized analysis in the form of a 3-5 minute video. It will explain the SEO opportunities we see for you to improve your digital presence and outperform your competitors.
Step 3
Sit Back And Watch Your SEO Skyrocket
If you’re looking for growth and improved SEO performance, we can help. Contact us today to learn more about our availability and pricing.
Let's Take Your Clinic From the "Best Kept Secret" to the "Most Sought After Brand"
