SEO for therapists - A detailed guide with tips and examples

Most search journeys start with a google search. 

If I am located in X location and am looking to find a therapist who treats anxiety, I might start with “anxiety therapist in X”. 

To help you improve your SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, skills, I have created a guide that covers the basics of SEO for therapists. This guide is designed for therapists who are just starting to build an online client referral strategy.

By the end of this guide, you will:

• Gain a strong understanding of what SEO for therapists is

• Learn practical strategies for implementing SEO best practices yourself

What is SEO for therapists?

SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is the practice of driving more visitors to your therapy practice website by increasing your website’s position in search engine results pages. 

In other words, these are the links that appear after you type something into Google, Bing, or another search engine.

If your therapy practice appears near the top of search engine results, especially on the first page, you’ll attract more visitors to your website. SEO does not include any ads that appear in the search results.

Once visitors click on your website link (and if your website offers the initial information they need and are searching for), they will likely contact you to find out more about your services and schedule an appointment.

Does SEO work for therapists?

Absolutely—when it’s done right.

The significant challenge is determining how to get your therapy practice to the top of the organic search results.

While many providers offer SEO for therapists, there are no guaranteed methods to achieve the number one position in organic search results.

Fortunately, you can take some simple steps to improve your changes of ranking on the first page. 

I have broken down these steps into three key factors. 

SEO ranking factor #1: Content

What does good website content look like for therapist SEO?

Ultimately, it comes down to meeting these three criteria:

1) Your content needs to answer the query or search term used by the user

For example, if you want your therapy practice website to appear for the keyword "therapist in Austin," you need specific content on your website that tells potential clients about your practice area—in this case, therapy in Austin.

Think about it from the perspective of your potential clients. If they land on your website, they're probably wondering:

• Is this therapist located in Austin?

• Does this therapist specialize in my needs?

• Can this therapist help me with my specific issues?

• Is this therapist qualified and trustworthy?

• Is this therapist's fees within my budget?

• Do I feel comfortable working with this therapist?

The content on your therapy practice website should provide initial answers to these questions.

Search engines want to direct users to the best place to find answers. If Google believes your site is likely to fulfill a user's intent, it's more likely to feature your website higher in its search results. In this way, Google can actively help generate leads for your practice.

Pro Tip: Consider the most effective ways your therapy practice can answer a website visitor’s questions. This might include clear descriptions of your specialties, information on your therapeutic approach, or details on how the process works. Also, ensure that all content and answers on your site are up-to-date!

2) Your content needs to be keyword optimized

Answering potential clients' questions is important. 

However, how do search engines determine the relevance and quality of your answers? And how does this impact SEO for therapists?

This is where keywords come in.

When search engines like Google evaluate your website, they use automated bots to analyze the content on each page to understand its topic.

To ensure potential clients can find your services, clearly indicate the target keyword for each page of your therapy practice website. This not only helps visitors, but also signals to search engines that you specialize in a particular area, such as "anxiety therapist in [Your City]."

To fully optimize your content for relevant keywords, include them in the following key areas of your web page:

• Title tag

• Meta description

• Headings and subheadings

• Naturally within the body text

• The page's URL

Pro Tip: If you have a local therapy practice, most of your clients will likely be from the surrounding area. To appear in local search results, optimize your website for local SEO. This involves strategies like including your city and region in your keywords and website content.

This infographic by Wordstream explains where to add keywords really well. 

3) There should be a variety of content that addresses keywords within the same category

A more challenging aspect of SEO involves identifying a core keyword and then discovering its variations and long-tail forms. This allows your content to maximize its reach when users search online.

While many users search using common keywords, others use natural language questions or different versions of the same keyword. The aim is to develop a substantial amount of content that answers search queries related to your main keyword.

Consider this example: If your main keyword for ranking is "anxiety therapist in [Your City]," related keywords could include "best therapist for anxiety in [Your City]" and "anxiety counseling in [Your City]." Targeting both "therapist" and "counseling" helps you reach a broader range of potential clients.

SEO ranking factor #2: Backlinks and off-page citations

Great content is important, but the internet has a vast amount of information. 

How does Google decide which content ranks highest? 

A key factor is the quality and number of backlinks—referral links from other websites to yours, which drive traffic to your site.

For therapist SEO, backlinks are like endorsements. If your therapy website receives many links from other respected websites, it signals to search engines that your practice is knowledgeable and trustworthy. Conversely, few backlinks suggest lower credibility.

In simpler terms, other websites should link back to your website. 

Pro Tip: While link building takes time, it's a crucial part of your SEO strategy with substantial benefits. Here are ways to get backlinks from relevant sources:

• Offer free expertise or insights to local media outlets on mental health topics.

• Write engaging blog posts related to your therapy specialties and encourage your network to share them.

• Speak at local community events or organizations.

Local Citations

Your goal is to rank for a specific local area, correct? 

Your therapy practice's contact information appearing in various online locations makes it visible to both search engines and potential clients.

Therefore, to increase local SEO exposure, it's best to get backlinks from sites that display business contact information (citations). This will significantly benefit your practice's long-term SEO success.

Here are examples of places to gain off-page citations to improve your local SEO:

• Therapy directories, such as Psychology Today (You can purchase from premium listings such as TherapyDen or Zencare if needed)

• Local business directories, including Google Business Profile

• Social media profiles, like Twitter, Facebook, etc.

• Shares of your content on social media platforms

• Reviews and testimonials on other websites

SEO ranking factor #3: Technical SEO

When it comes to SEO for therapists, technical SEO is a critical element.

Like no other factor, technical SEO can significantly impact your therapy practice's online visibility, making it a major contributor to your SEO success.

While it can be the most challenging aspect to implement correctly, especially without specialized SEO knowledge, understanding the basics is essential.

In simple terms, technical SEO assesses how "Google-friendly" your therapy website is. This includes user-friendliness, as well as other factors like security and sitemaps.

Here are key aspects to consider for technical SEO:

Ensure your website adheres to Google's guidelines

Google offers transparent guidance on how to enhance your therapy website's technical SEO. Familiarize yourself with the Webmaster Guidelines for valuable tips.

Ensure your website is fast and mobile-friendly

Two fundamental (yet vital) technical SEO factors include verifying that your website:

1. Loads quickly—aim for under 2.5 seconds.

2. Loads effectively (and seamlessly) across various screen sizes, particularly mobile devices.

Ensure your website is easy to navigate

If your therapy website offers a seamless user experience, it's likely that search engine bots crawling your site will also be able to:

• Locate all your pages.

• Understand the content of those pages.

Therefore, it's crucial to implement clear and user-friendly menus and consistently link to other relevant pages within your website.

A very simple way to accomplish this is to group your pages in top level menus as well as link to them from the footer. 

That’s it - nothing else is required. 

Implement proper setup from the beginning

A significant advantage of technical SEO is that establishing a strong foundation from the outset can lead to long-term benefits. Once properly configured, especially for smaller therapy websites, you can generally maintain it without ongoing stress.

Pro tip: If you are using a popular platform like Wix or Wordpress, it handles the majority of the technical SEO elements by default. Just ensure that your website uses a simple theme (too many interactive elements slows the website) and is structured well. 

How to implement SEO for your therapy website?

There are two ways to implement SEO. 

You can either do it yourself (easier to do, a great learning experience and almost zero cost). 

Or you can hire an expert who has experience in SEO for therapy websites to help you out. (Recommended if you are in a competitive locale) 

Option #1: Implement SEO yourself

Learn the basics

First, you need to learn some basics. 

Start by reading and understanding the Moz beginner’s guide to SEO and Google’s Webmaster Guidelines.

Do keyword research

Here is a simple no brainer way to do your own keyword research. 

• Write down a list of your practice’s specialities, services and locations. 

• Create a unique list of {Speciality + Location}

• These are the types of web pages you should create. 

Write and publish content for your website

Other than the web pages, it is important to have informational content as well. You should look deeper into what are some of the topics that your ideal clients would be interested in and write about them. 

For specific questions that are related to your specialities or services, you should answer them within a FAQ section on the web pages you originally created. 

Build your presence and links

• Claim all of your online profiles.

• Invest in a tool like Brightlocal to automate submitting your practice website to various local directories.

• Keep your content up to date by publishing informational blogs and updating your website pages monthly.

Pro tip: If you are targeting a location that is quite small e.g. Henrico, Virginia, you can look up a practice website in a bigger location and copy their approach (but don’t copy the content!) 

For instance, if I search for “anxiety therapy san francisco”, I see this website ranks at the top. It is quite instructive to see how they have set up their services and resources pages. 

Option #2: Hire an SEO expert

This is recommended if you want to rank for a wider search term in a more competitive space. If you are unsure if that’s you, I would suggest to first do everything in option 1 and see if you can break through the search results (you will 95% of the time). 

Here are some things to keep in mind when looking for an expert that will help boost your therapy practice’s SEO.

Budget

How much do you charge for your services? 

A good SEO expert will likely charge a similar hourly rate; maybe a little less. 

And as mentioned, SEO is a time-intensive task. For monthly retainer rates, $500-$1,000 per month is fairly standard. 

How to find one?

The best SEO experts rarely have time to invest in their own websites. (I tried to work on mine countless times in my SEO career, but never did it!) 

This means you won’t find them by searching “therapist SEO,” etc.

Instead, ask around in your network for referrals. 

If you engage with someone and are not sure if they are the right person, ask them to write a short one pager answering the question “How would you rank {website name} in {location}” and send it to me on Linkedin. I will happily sift through the fluff and give you some quick feedback. 

Parting thoughts

SEO can be a very lucrative channel if done right. It requires baby steps but consistent ones. If you are unsure about anything, feel free to drop me a DM on Linkedin!