SEO for Mental Health Professionals: What No One Tells You
First and foremost, SEO for mental health professionals is no longer optional—unless you think you can rely solely on social media and referrals to grow your business. For most people and businesses, that isn’t possible.
This is why a great marketing strategy is like a great stock portfolio: it’s diverse. You leverage multiple strategies to make sure that you have multiple streams of traffic and potential clients coming to you.
The thing is, most people ignore SEO. It feels too complicated. They have no idea where to start. Social media is easier to figure out. Emails are easier to send. Or, worse, they think they can DIY it because they found a 5,000-word tutorial on how to get started.
I’m here to tell you a few important things:
Yes, SEO is important.
No you can’t do it yourself.
Yes, it should still be getting done.
So, let’s get into what SEO is, how it can support your business growth, and a few things no one tells you—but that you need to know.
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What is SEO for Mental Health Professionals?
SEO for mental health professionals is the process of leveraging different strategies to improve the visibility of their websites on search engines, making it easier for potential clients to find them online.
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization and you’ve likely heard it more than once in marketing workshops and within your community of professionals. That’s because it’s a critical piece of your overall marketing plan.
Why? Google gets more than 1 billion health searches daily. Questions like “How to stop a panic attack” and “How to cure depression” were among the top searches in 2022.
If you’re not showing up when people are searching for the topics in which you’re an expert, you’re missing out on an opportunity to showcase your expertise and bring in clients. Bottom line: SEO ensures people find you when they’re looking for what you know and have to offer in search engines. And, they’re searching a lot these days.
The Benefits of SEO for Mental Health Professionals
SEO is a crucial marketing avenue to attract more clients, build credibility, and establish a strong online presence. By investing in SEO, you can ensure that your practice stands out in a competitive market and reaches those who need your services the most. Dig into the specifics of why SEO for mental health professionals is a worthwhile investment.
Boost visibility: When your website ranks higher in search engine results pages (SERPs), more people are likely to discover your practice or organization when they search for mental health services online. This gives them an easy step to get closer toward what you offer.
Drive targeted traffic: SEO helps attract relevant traffic (people) to your website. When we optimize your landing pages and blog posts for specific keywords related to your practice and the services you offer, you're more likely to attract potential clients who are actively seeking exactly what you have to offer.
Build credibility and trust: Websites that appear at the top of search results are often perceived as more trustworthy and credible. By optimizing your website with SEO, you're signaling to potential clients that you're a reputable mental health professional, which can help establish trust from the outset.
Spend less long-term: When you compare against the costs of paid advertising, SEO is actually a cost-effective way to market your mental health practice. While it may require an initial investment in terms of time and resources, the long-term benefits often outweigh the costs and it requires significantly less money to maintain.
Optimization for local search: Many potential clients will search for mental health services within their local area—this is especially true for professionals like therapists, bodyworkers, and those who run community mental health organizations. By optimizing your website for local SEO, you ensure that your practice appears in local search results, making it easier for potential clients in your area to find you.
Create content that lives long-term: Social media content has a very short half-life. On the other hand, by consistently publishing blog posts and resources related to mental health, you’re building an arsenal of content that will live long past its publishing date.
Gain a competitive advantage: The reality is, few organizations (even big ones!) are not prioritizing SEO. Yet, having a strong online presence is essential for any business, including mental health practices. By investing in SEO, you stay ahead of your competition so potential clients choose your practice over others.
Get measurable results: When investing in SEO, especially with an agency like ours, you get measurable results. By using tools like Google Analytics or SEMRush, you can track the performance of your website, monitor traffic, and gain insights into user behavior. If you're data-driven like us, you’ll love having this information to better understand your audience and make data-driven decisions.
What No One Tells You About SEO
People are Googling to find trustworthy information about their mental health. The great news is that you have that information! Yet, if you’re not showing up on Google, you’re missing a chance to connect with these people and support them—even if all they do is find a blog post that you wrote.
Because from that blog post, they might…
Become a subscriber.
Join your Instagram community.
Share with a friend.
At the very least, they know you gave them an answer to a vulnerable question so they’re more likely to come back to you again. This sounds ideal, so what’s the catch? Well, it’s not quite as easy to execute SEO as it is post on social media or do a podcast recording—and it takes time.
Instead of trying to tell you how to do this yourself (which will take even more time and, even then, it might not be done right), I want to give you the hard truth—but the truth that will lead you to see actual results.
DIY is a Dangerous Route
If you search “SEO for mental health professionals” in Google you’re going to find a wide range of articles telling you how to do SEO yourself. My guess is you take one look at that content and feel immediately overwhelmed; like you’re reading another language. That’s because you kind of are.
You’re a brilliant person. There’s a lot that you can DIY. One thing you shouldn’t DIY is SEO. That’s not because you can’t learn it— but because to learn it well enough to implement a strategy that works would take more time than you have in your schedule.
So, what happens is a predictable cycle that we’ve all been in before: try to learn, try to implement, get confused, get frustrated, give up. Don’t DIY this. Work with someone, like our team at Echeveria Organic, a mental health content agency, who knows your industry and how to do SEO correctly.
It Takes More Time Than You’d Like
The bottom line, SEO takes time to work. Especially if you’re starting SEO with a website that’s brand new, or that doesn't get any traffic, growth won’t happen overnight. In fact, it might not happen within 6-12 months. It also won’t happen if you don't commit to it for at least six months, if not more.
This is why you have to remember a few key things when tackling SEO:
SEO content can support your entire marketing funnel. From one blog post you can create an email newsletter, a podcast episode and 3-5+ social media posts.
You’re investing in your long-term success. If you plan to be around in 5 years, you want to put time into your website. If social media slows down, the algorithm changes drastically, or your referrals dry up, you have another outlet for leads and traffic.
It will cost money; bottom line. As such, like any investment you make in your business, you have to build it into the budget and plan for it. Our SEO Growth Packages start at just $1,400/month.. It’s just about prioritizing the budget and knowing what’s worth the investment.
Not Everyone Is Following Best Practices
If you talk to a marketing agency, and their offering seems too good to be true, it probably is. SEO has greatly evolved in the last 15 years and many practices are no longer considered appropriate or helpful. Still, some people are using those practices and charging less than their competitors, which is appealing for many businesses.
The best-case scenario is this just doesn’t work and you don’t see any results. The worst-case scenario is that it actually hurts your ranking and SEO and you’re punished by Google. This makes it even harder to start ranking in search. Some red flags to look for, include:
Extremely low rates (average freelance and agency costs)
Won’t talk on the phone or via Zoom
Offers to build links back to your website
Promises specific (and very positive) results
Here are a few more SEO red flags to consider. While not all of these are bad things, they’re all just signs to take another look and make sure you’re clear on who you’re working with. The right mental health marketing agency isn’t hiding anything or making outlandish promises.
SEO Can Support Your Entire Marketing Funnel
SEO isn’t just about ranking in Google. The way we approach SEO at Echeveria Organic is through creating high-value content that both educates and ranks in search. That content lives at the top of your Integrated Content Strategy.
The idea is simple: your most robust content (Ex. blog posts) live at the top of your upside-down pyramid, and from that content, you can draw all other content for every other platform. This includes email, social, podcast, etc.
When you invest in SEO, you’re investing in fresh content for every single marketing channel where you’re active, which makes your life easier each month that you publish fresh content.
Check out the diagram below for a visual representation of this.
You Can’t Half-Ass It
You can’t SEO-optimize one page and expect to see results. Yes, it’s a start. Yes, this is a good foundation to set. But if you actually want to start getting traffic and ranking for more terms, you have to consistently create fresh content for Google to index and rank.
In an ideal world, you’re publishing 2-4 blog posts each month. At the very least, 1-2 each month. The fewer you publish, however, the longer it will take to see results.
Don’t Underestimate SEO for Mental Health Professionals
SEO for mental health professionals is non-negotiable in our digital world. More people than ever are looking for help online, and if they’re not finding you, they’re finding your competitors. Don’t miss out on this opportunity to reach more of the people who need you—while also building brand awareness, thought leadership, website value, and industry authority.
Are you ready to invest in SEO for your mental health business? Let’s do it! Drop us a line in the form below to see how you can be supported by us!
