(Video) SEO For Therapists: 3 Common Mistakes That Keep Your Therapist Website From Being Search Friendly

Kat:

All right we are live hello and welcome everybody thanks for joining us we'll probably get really into the content for today in a few minutes so as you guys are coming in go ahead and say hi in the chat it should be open for you to comment and let us know where you're calling in from. A lot of people have already said hello! Hello Andy, Dante from Italy, Jamie Burke from Bainbridge Island, Washington, I think I've actually been there strangely. Alison had posted earlier so if you guys are here welcome thank you for joining us.

I wanted to introduce everybody to Cinthia who is so gracious to come and share SEO knowledge here. She is doing health and wellness SEO specifically. Welcome Cinthia thank you so much for being here.

Cinthia:

Thank you so much Kat and I'm super excited to talk with you and talk with everybody about SEO. I think it's one of those things that a lot of people are nervous about and I just want you guys to not feel nervous about it anymore and just feel good about it actually.

Kat:

Yeah, that would be such a relief for many. Can you share a little bit about what what you do? In like a kind of nutshell?

Cinthia:

Yeah sure. So like you said Kat I do I help health and wellness practitioners get clients through SEO practices and I run my company Digital Bloom IQ which I recently rebranded. I decided on health and wellness. There's so many people searching for health stuff on Google and I think there's just such a big opportunity for those types of businesses to connect really organically with an ideal audience and help a lot of people that they maybe wouldn't be able to help in other situations. So it's it's such a perfect fit and I personally am really passionate about health and wellness as well so it just really worked out.

Kat:

Yeah and some more people are jumping in here. Sandra from Scotland is here. We have like a really international crowd. Thank you for joining Sai, founder of crowdcast, hi I love you I hope you are doing well over there in Oakland, California.

So before we jump in, you did mention Cinthia that SEO is about getting found through search and you said SEO as if our audience already knows what SEO is. So before we jump into the SEO mistakes perhaps we should kind of define what SEO is. Can you give like a kind of a simple explanation of what SEO is?

Cinthia:

Yeah sure. So SEO stands for search engine optimization. Basically it's making our sites friendly for Google and people to find us so there's a component that's more technical for Google and then there's a component that's very psychological for people.

A lot of people think it's just about the technical and it's not actually. There's this human and thought component that should go behind it and the cool thing is that a lot of you are probably already doing SEO to some extent. You know if you are connected with your ideal audience you know what their worries are, right, so you are naturally already right for this type of person.

But I believe doing it even more consciously and having some understanding of just the basics can make such a big difference of how to approach it. It can just be actually really natural and really easy. It doesn't have to feel like like an algorithm that we're beating or anything like that. It's just kind of a the rules of the game of having a website and having an online presence.

Kat:

Yeah totally I love how you bring in it's like the technical piece but also the psychology piece and I think for the audience today which is primarily therapists that's going to really speak to how they already think.

Like I feel like therapists already have the skill of, as you said, knowing what people might be searching for. And so that's going to be a great benefit if a therapist can tap into that for this.

Cinthia:

Totally like I said the great thing is you're already kind of doing it so sometimes some small tweaks can already make a big difference of how your how your website's working in your favor right.

Kat:

And it's kind of just like spreading more love around the world we love we love that heart centered over here so let's go ahead and jump into the three common mistakes that we see or that you see like health and wellness and maybe therapists also making on their websites

I just lost the video from you Cinthia are you still there? Oh yes okay it might be a internet speed issue let's see I don't know if I can um okay it says it's waiting for Cinthia to reconnect oh there's probably just oh yeah I came back oh you're back your video and everything is back in temporary tech issue yeah okay awesome

So yeah so let's jump into the three three common mistakes.

Cinthia:

That's what it was, awesome. Yes all right cool.

So mistake number one is prioritizing quantity of blog posts or content versus quality. So this is a very big misconception and actually a lot of these misconceptions are based on things that were true in the past so maybe ten years ago if you did post often then your ranking would be better but nowadays its flipped around and actually Google and people we like quality content.

So when I say quality I mean long blog posts at least a thousand words you know with real information that we can we know that someone would benefit from. And so instead of basically worrying about posting, you know, every week maybe think about posting once a month and it being a really meaty and helpful piece of content that you know will be helpful.

You can read it early like name someone either a client or an ideal client or someone who's been contacting you in your audience who would like love that that piece of content. So that's that's really important and a lot of people don't know that. They think, “oh I have to post all the time” and it's not true.

Now if you're starting of course it's good to like, if you have a brand new site I always say but if you've been around for you know a year posting once a month or even once every two months and it's good content like you're you feel awesome sharing then that actually is more beneficial to your SEO then having to worry about constantly pumping out small posts that aren't as valuable.

Kat:

I love it I love that and I also it kind of helps therapists with this idea of again going back to like the empathy. And I loved how you were saying like think of like a best fit client and write for them. Like what is a great blog post that they would actually find value in? And then focus on that type of quality content instead of like pumping out, being a content machine, and pumping out like a post every day like or every week or at like the unsustainable rate.

Cinthia:

Yeah, now there are people who love to write and you know if you're like a blogger type and you like just have so much to give that you are writing long posts once a week then do it.

Like I'm not saying you have to, you know. It's not about the frequency, it's just about the quality. So if that quality is still there, and you have the energy and the time and everything to put that out, then of course you know, write as much as you want.

But I think most of the clients I work with they don't have that much time. And they want to make sure that everything they're doing for their site is really working towards something. It's not just like random. So yeah I feel like once a month feels more manageable and or even like once a quarter.

You know the cool thing is it simplifies all your marketing as well if you think about hosting one really chunky guide or like a really long list of tips and you re sharing that across all your marketing. It suddenly simplifies everything. You don't need to worry about, “what am I going to say on social media? What am I going to say on all my other platforms?”

It's just like one thing and you're able to use it. You know and showed the different sides of that one piece of content, that one question that you're answering.

Kat:

Yeah totally and I think one thing that I'm thinking of as you're talking is like how to bring this back to search. So I think for some of our like beginner beginners, or people that are new to SEO, how does this like blogging help with the getting found through Google?

Cinthia:

Right so basically as soon as we have a website Google starts to track it automatically so that's the great thing about SEO. It's a lot of people who've had a site for a while they'll naturally have just some ranking pages because something else that Google looks at is how long has your site been up. So time of like birth, I guess in a way, is something to consider.

So as soon as you start writing blog posts, Google will start to track that and to see how many people are actually staying on that page right. So this relates to the point that I just pointed out because if you have people who are clicking on your page and staying there for at least three to five minutes Google says, “hey this page is actually useful to people.”

There's a lot of other triggers that they look at but this is one, “linger time” it's called, that Google really is paying attention to. So the quality matters.

If we just forget about Google, like if we're just thinking about, “well I want to help someone,” right? If I'm a therapist that is helping someone through their anxiety, if I'm creating a bigger piece of content that I think will be useful that has maybe a video or has you know images or has something else that's like just more engaging, then that's gonna help someone way more.

So not only is it something that Google is looking at but also people will be more likely to share because that's the thing people forget. Doing SEO for Google is important but if you have good content people are going to share that content and that's also SEO worthy.

So that's how it relates and Google basically looks at it like kind of scans your page basically in a way and looks at all the words that you're using and that's how they kind of end up matching them up with searches on Google.

Kat:

Yeah I love that, awesome. And I love how it's kind of like there's like a mistake within this mistake as well where you're kind of saying like: it's a mistake to focus on making a ton of content that's not very high value. Like that's a mistake. But then another mistake would be just to think about the technical SEO things and not think about the humans like it's a human experience on your website and I think search engines like Google are getting smarter about making things ranked that actually provide a good experience for people.

And so if you're a therapist watching this and you're just focusing on that empathy that you have for your client and making sure that everything is very high quality and high value on your website, that's also actually doing SEO. It’s kind of what you're saying?

Cinthia:

Yeah exactly yeah yeah. From that point of view, Google has gotten better because it's focusing on like the human experience right. There's still other things that you could say okay that doesn't feel as human but overall they just want to serve you the best content, the best most valuable content so if you're doing that already you're kind of ahead of the game and part of that is the quality factor.

You know quality is subjective in a way but I think if we know our audience and we know what's going to be valuable to them, like what's going to be something that really impresses them, the great thing is like that's pretty much free, right?

Like obviously you have to put time and energy but if we know our audience and we really want to help them then it's just a matter of sitting down and creating that for them and then once that's up its gonna start working in our favor.

Kat:

Yeah totally I love it! So let's move on. As we're talking, everybody here who's live, if you have questions that are coming up, if you're like, “oh my goodness I need to know an explainer of a term” or something like that, feel free to pop that into the chat and I'm going to be looking over that as we go. There is also an ask ask a question feature down below so we will also have some open Q&A at the end if you would like to ask anything that way as well.

But let's go ahead and move on to the second mistake. So that was mistake number one, what other mistakes are you seeing health and wellness and therapists businesses do?

Cinthia:

Right so the second mistake that I see across the board that is kind of a common misconception is that a lot of business owners create amazing content but then they don't share it.

They don't go out and like take that extra time to build a backlinking or an outreach strategy.

So let me explain what that is.

So another factor that Google looks at when it's looking at your site quality and just how worthy it is like to show up in the results is it looks at other sites that point to your site.

So the analogy that I love to use is if you live in a neighborhood, right, you just moved in and you never like talk to anybody and know everybody's like kind of scared too like for whatever reason like no one approaches you and everyone's gonna start to feel it's very human nature like, “what's going on in that house?” Like it can feel kind of sketchy right?

So the same thing goes with Google. If it sees that your site isn't being linked from other sites, especially other authority sites, it's not that it's gonna think it's spammy but you're gonna have a harder time to rank because you're just not relating to any other sites.

You're kind of like isolated right? And this is especially, I'm sure Kat, you see this a lot like building a site and then never sharing it. It's like you're an island and the internet is a very big place nowadays.

So basically the way to correct this is to have an outreach plan. So what's an outreach plan?

An outreach plan is super specific to SEO because not only are you just sharing what you are sharing on your social media but you're specifically reaching out to other sites that would potentially link back to your site.

So this is a very intentional way of going out and looking for links that doesn't have to feel icky because I know a lot of people, you know, may be cold emailing and there's a lot of strategies but you can actually do this in a very heart-centered way where you're just building collaborations and and connections.

Just like you know Kat! I reached out to you and we started talking and now we're on a webinar together. So there's a lot you can do there in terms of just building kind of a connection and having your site begin to have links back to it from other sites.

So yeah that's that's my second mistake and that's something that a lot of people don't talk about when it comes to SEO. A lot of people talk about keywords, I get it they're important, but having an outreach plan is going to make sure that that content is already getting out to people.

So just some ideas in case some of you are like well that sounds great but I have no idea where to start. So one thing you can look at is a lot of sites do this thing called link roundups so they'll actually round up a bunch of links on a weekly basis or even monthly basis and this if this person has a nice amount of traffic this can be a really easy way to get traffic back to your site.

So of course like before you pitch someone on a link roundup you need to build that connection. So I say that there's like a warm-up phase, you're getting to know the person and they're getting to know you, and then later down the line you could pitch them.

You know, “hey I have this great blog post about anxiety or about stress and here's a link roundup that you did specifically about stress. I think this post would be useful to your audience.”

So it needs to feel like a good fit. It should have like a natural feel to it.

I guess of like a next step for them to share another idea is podcast interviews. Those are a lot easier because if you're already giving so much value to the person through a podcast episode they're gonna naturally link back to your website it's a great way.

And then guest posting that's another, especially if you're starting out guest posting is awesome because you're able to really show off your knowledge and then at the end you know in a bio you'll have a link back to your site and who knows you might get some clients that way as well.

So those are some ideas but there's tons. When I work with my clients I really focus on, again, the connection. I mean a lot of people feel awkward reaching out to people you don't know but it should feel like a good fit. Like a little bit of like discomfort is normal but it should be okay.

I can see this being like a good exchange for both parties, not like a forceful thing or yes bad.

Kat:

So how would a therapist locate, kind of do that research, is a question that I could see some of our watchers may be having at this point. Like, you know, find people and build the relationship. Like is there a good first place to start searching? Should they just use Google and go like “depression blogs” or something like that? What's the absolute first step into finding places to get links from?

Cinthia:

Yeah so Google is a great place you could start googling other sites. I recommend starting with a site that is slightly more advanced than you so like you know maybe the Washington Post isn't like first. You want to aim high but yeah like people who are like maybe a little bit higher than you who aren't necessarily like exactly doing what you're doing.

So I talk a lot about peripheral businesses. So for example you and I, we're not direct competition but we serve the same audience. So we really benefit from each other because we both talk to the same type of people but we're doing different things.

So for a therapist this might be maybe like a wellness blog or maybe a nutritionist maybe like a fitness coach anybody who's like vibing with what you specialize in but they're not doing exactly what you're doing and that's that's important to identify.

Maybe some of you've never thought of your business this way but this is going to change how you do your marketing because suddenly you're not just pitching to your direct clients which are important but you're also pitching to other communities who already have that trust factor that you can then kind of plug into and get clients from.

So maybe the first first step would be to actually brainstorm like on a piece of paper what types of communities you would be interested in helping. Maybe it's like a yoga community that specializes in mental health maybe it's like a meditation community maybe maybe it is other therapists as well right but again those are direct competitions so it's a little bit it can it can happen like you can totally be featured but there's a little bit more of you know it's a little harder right because yeah in the same type of client

Kat:

With therapists I believe there is an opportunity with other therapists because sometimes therapists are very specialized. We'll have for instance someone who does DBT which is very specialized modality but then, you know, they work with really tough cases they might work with you know suicidal ideation or something and then there are other therapists that don't don't work with DBT or don't work with the suicidal cases and then that referral can also go that way as well.

You know is a simpler example is like someone who's specialized in working with kids but they don't work with adults and then you can also network that way. But yeah it's totally important to do like distribution and get yourself in front of other audiences and also for SEO because of those links yeah.

Cinthia:

Yeah, so I'd say the first step is you know to brainstorm what other audiences you'd love to talk talk to. Once you have that you can actually start investigating on a day to day basis because I believe that we should be looking for opportunities all the time in our business. This shouldn't just be like an isolated thing for SEO. It's beneficial overall for our marketing to be contacting new people and associations and individuals to be featured or to feature them or to do a collaboration. Like there's just so many options.

Another idea that I got for therapists are many coaches right so yeah coaches who maybe have an audience who would need help in your type of your specialization could be another good fit because a coach is not the same as a therapist and that could be like a another step to serve that audience.

Then in terms of like where to search, Google obviously, but Instagram is also great because people are so vulnerable on Instagram. So they give you so much information and that's awesome. It's kind of crazy yeah.

Facebook groups are also a great place, you know, just kind of tapping into a couple and seeing what people are interacting with. Or you know, resonating with. And then really, I recommend this become like an ongoing pitch. You should be pitching regularly and I'd say like a couple per week.

The reason for that is not everybody is going to say yes and not everybody is going to respond and that's normal, that's just part of the pitching process.

I would say if you can get out a couple pitches per week then one might actually confirm of out of those. Maybe five pitches. And then there you have it right? You have a collaboration you can start building that relationship. So if you podcast or if you have like a guest series like a guest expert series on your blog that could be a great first pitch that usually people love to be featured. If you go to them with some sort of something proposed then a lot of the times that will hook that person and that will start the relationship.

You can also just reach out and say, “hey like I noticed we serve similar audiences I'd love to chat on the phone for 15-20 minutes” and just keep it really short and simple and easy for the person to follow up and take the next step.

And then after that you can kind of enjoy that and then you know maybe a month or two months or three months down the line you can do something a little bit more serious where you're asking them to, you know, link back to your site.

Or doing something where they have a permanent link like on a main site section. A lot of people have like “resources” right? And then they'll include a bunch of links back to other sites and that could be a really interesting opportunity.

Kat:

Awesome, wow, so many ideas of how to do this. And I also love that we were able to break it down and like where to start.

Like the first baby step of thinking about who it is you want to reach, who has the audience's that you want to reach, what types of audience you want to reach, yeah super helpful.

Let's move on to the third a mistake. So this is the third mistake of people’s misconception about SEO or something that they're not exactly doing in the most optimal way to get found through Google.

Cinthia:

So this kind of ties in to the last step but I do want to point it out because it's really important. I think the third mistake with SEO is creating content that just targets our ideal audience.

So let me explain this a little bit more but remember we were just talking about this peripheral vision or the like partner business that we could work with or collaborate with.

So when we have our ideal client, a lot of the times for that ideal client, it's not a natural thing for them to share content that's specifically made for them.

For example, let's say I suffer from anxiety or depression, so if I'm reading a blog post that someone wrote about depression, unless I know someone who's suffering from depression I'm probably not going to share that on my social media.

Like, “hey depression!” I mean some people do and a lot of especially for therapists right these are very intimate and personal topics that were reading at like 2:00 a.m. when we're freaking out or whatever and we don't want people to know.

So the when it comes to understanding what we're supposed to write about with SEO we should definitely be writing content that directly helps our audience but we also need to think about these other types of businesses that can then take that content and share it with their audience.

There's a little bit of a shift in how you think about that because suddenly you're thinking okay if I had to help a coach who is wanting to help their clients with depression or with anxiety how would I write that content? Or how would I think about that content? Or you know if I'm writing for a yoga instructor who is teaching breathing techniques for anxiety or stress how would I write that content?

So experimenting with content that is slightly more designed for this other type of business might feel counterintuitive because you're like, “but I'm trying to help my ideal client” but when it comes to SEO we want it to be super shareable.

We want people to be like I feel so smart sharing this. Like I just want everybody to know about it, right?

So what I recommend is to create two personas. A persona is just a profile of who your ideal client is. So their age, what communities they hang out in, what they buy, what they like, you know like a like a fictitious person that you just come up with so that you can write.

Like keeping a buddy in mind when you're doing content creation.

I usually do like a mix of like someone real but then someone famous because it’s fun to say, “ Oh Reese Witherspoon would totally hire me” right? But then you can also be like okay, but I have this other persona.

So you create one for your ideal client and then one for this other business who is kind of very beneficial to you and when it comes to SEO you're creating content for both and really looking at where you can get that other business or that peripheral business to share that that type of content.

So this is a this is like a kind of advanced tip! I wanted to mention it because you guys are getting all the all the advanced stuff right off. It's important to think about this because it's gonna get you a lot faster results from your SEO instead of just writing for your ideal client who again they might share it but they don't have as much of a reason to share it right because they're just thinking about them.

Unless they have a girlfriend or someone. But when it comes to another business, they have an audience who this type of content would benefit. So you have a way wider opportunity of getting shares and getting a new set of eyeballs on that beautiful content that you spent so much time creating. So yeah. That's why that's my third mistake.

Kat:

Oh yeah, that's super insightful and I think something that I always like to say is that we create websites for for two audiences. So it's interesting that you're saying it basically like the same kind of way. The way that I frame it is like one audience is your best fit client but the other audience is your best fit referral.

So who do you want to get referrals from? Is what we in therapy practice lingo call it. Building that referral network where you have clients that are getting coming into you into your practice because you know they saw a great blog post that you wrote or they read have downloaded a free ebook that you created and they found it really helpful, for like you know, in their medical practice for their teen girls who are showing signs of like eating disorders right.

So maybe you made the e-book that helped that doctor with their clients and then that's a way that they're going to be linking to your site sharing your resources and actually get you clients in the door.

I love that how human you're making SEO!

Cinthia:

Yeah it's super human-centered. It's important. I think it's way easier to think about it that way because suddenly you're not worrying about algorithms or like, you know, whatever your code or something.

You're thinking about who am I connecting with? Who am I helping? What communities am I a part of? What conversations do I want to be having? And you know everything else will happen right like the technical stuff but you're basing it from a place of humanity and thinking about how you can help other communities and other people.

Kat:

So yes help all the people! I do have some questions that are queued up at the bottom here in the ask a question. We are going to get to those right now. We're going to open up to questions.

Also if you are watching live feel free to ask a question either in the chat or also below.

But before we jump into the questions, I wanted to make sure that we share that Cinthia has a free gift for everybody who is watching! Cinthia do you want to share about what your free gift is?

Cinthia:

Sure so just going off that last mistake of the search persona I created a search persona worksheet and that's a printable worksheet that you can brainstorm on if you know if you're into paper like I am you could or you can do it on the computer.

So that's a great starting point for uncovering who this person is in terms of who you're trying to target with your searches and this referral business that you can also talk about. The worksheet just has some questions and some ideas to get you started on that that step in you know having a more SEO conscious blog strategy for your website.

Kat:

Yay thanks so much for sharing that with us. So I did just activate the button if you're watching in the webinar platform you'll see the button is down below it says free search persona worksheet and it will link you direct to Cinthia's free gift. If you're watching this in the blog later on you will probably find the link in the post itself further down on the page.

But yeah search persona, that sounds so cool, and I think that it's helpful to have that also for that like content creation like going back to the first mistake that you were talking about of you know like trying to create a ton of content instead of creating quality content. If you have a really clear search persona it should help you with creating content just for them.

Cinthia:

Totally it should really be centered on what you want to talk about but also what you know will help them. And so taking that time to understand that and to feel confident about that is going to completely change how you approach your blog and you're probably going to feel way more motivated to write and to create content it's just gonna feel just easier and more flowing I guess.

Kat:

Yeah, and also if you do go into like video content, which is also super good for search, if you go into like video content you can actually like look into the camera and you can speak directly to them. So it’s really cool to have like that person that's on the other side of the lens you’re addressing when you're doing video content as well which I love. I love it.

So awesome super cool.

Let's check out the questions. We have two queued up if anybody watching has further questions please do not hesitate.

Our first question is from Vicki and Vicki asks, “How much effort as in time hours days months years will it take?”

I suppose Vicki means SEO. How much effort will SEO take and is it ongoing? So this is a great question.

Cinthia:

So really good question. A lot of people ask this because get it it can feel like, “why am I doing this?”

So at first it depends on where you're at right now. So if your site has been online for a couple years, let's say like three to five years, doing SEO strategically will be a lot faster. So you might actually get results within the first month if you're already ranking on some keywords and it's just a matter of tweaking that and you know improving those blog posts and having the outreach strategy like we talked about.

Now if your site is like brand new, just like born into the World Wide Web, you know you're starting out with a couple blog posts, it will take more time. It might take six months, it might take a year, in terms of the effort.

I mean like we talked about during this webinar, if you have a site that's already been around for a couple years, if you spend a little bit of time every week, let's say, I don't know like two hours a week, like writing/tweaking blog posts doing your outreach, that should be enough.

I think it's harder for a new site. A new site is a little bit more intensive. It's kind of like going to the gym, you know? If you've ever gone for a while and if you go and you say to the fitness instructor, “hey I want abs” or they're like, “I want defined muscles” and the guy's like, “okay you've been here once,”

Like so it takes a couple months right? And so usually with the clients I work with if the site is brand new I tell them at least six months to see some like ranking.

But the cool thing is that if you do this consistently over time it becomes a snowball effect and it's so much easier to rank and that's why all the strategies we talked about today I think are beneficial for not just SEO but all parts of your business.

When I work with my clients it's really focused on getting their next client.

The outreach strategy, just the act of doing outreach, might generate some leads for you.

The act of creating a blog post and then sharing it with whatever your email list is right now already might generate some leads for you.

So I get it, we all want more traffic, but I always think, “okay what's going to get you your next client now?” and sometimes it's just about doing the simple things of writing a great blog post and sharing it with people who are already in your audience.

So it is an ongoing thing. That was like the last part of Vicki's question but it doesn't have to be like torture. It can be something that feels really natural and just beneficial to everything you're doing in your marketing and it can also be an interesting way to uncover what your audience is needing help with.

A lot of the times, because we're in our businesses every day and we you know we have all this knowledge, we forget what it's like to be on the other side. And so SEO is also a great opportunity to take the time to stop like worrying about our stuff and like just listen to the other person the other side of the question and say, “okay what's what's going on?”

Like what are they really worried about? And you'd be surprised sometimes it's something really simple that you think like you have to get into all the technical details of what you do but it's sometimes the simple questions that are the most impactful.

So part of that process, that ongoing process, is listening to your audience, serving your audience, asking them questions, getting on the phone once in a while for free with someone, and just asking them like “what's your life like?” and you know, “what are you going through?”

Well you don't need to ask it like that because that's very but you know just asking them like what are their worries, what are their concerns, you know, not just related to what you do, about just in general. And that can open up new ideas for you, new service ideas, new opt-ins, or new online or passive income products.

Having that knowledge can really really benefit you.

So yes it is an ongoing process.

Kat:

Yeah it is an ongoing process but the benefit is so big that it makes sense to find a way to incorporate it into your into your week. Like you were saying, you know, set aside two hours to like write a blog post or tweak something or do your outreach.

I think if you have it in your schedule makes it a lot less overwhelming to do if you have actually like dedicated time for like “this is my SEO time” and then you know break things down like kind of what you were saying.

Like the first step if you wanted to start doing outreach would be to make that list of the audience that you want to reach so can you you know write that down you know set aside a specific date in your schedule and then do that.

And then also kind of set aside more time perhaps to like make a plan and schedule that.

So you just follow your plan. It doesn't have to be complicated and scary.

Cinthia:

Totally

Kat:

I also really loved the analogy of showing up at the gym and wanting to have muscles like the next day. So a good analogy for therapists specifically is most therapists, if not all of them, have had those clients that come in for like one session and then they're like, “oh why isn’t my anxiety gone?” We already had it you know so it's like kind of a similar story here too.

You're not going to do SEO in two hours and it does take a little bit of longer work than a lot of people expect but it's possible and you shouldn't lose hope and it yeah it can be it can be human and easy and and full of heart.

Cinthia:

So yes yes and the great thing is that unlike a lot of other marketing you're already doing some form of SEO. Like if you have a blog, if you have a site, you know it's being tracked by Google.

So then it's like a choice. Like do I want to do it a little more consciously? Where it will not only benefit my business but benefit more people who I want to reach? Or just benefit someone who might not be able to hire me but just needs some information right?

That can shift your thought pattern around it. I'm not going to just let this thing run wild like I'm gonna be thoughtful about how I want to do this and I do believe it can be very profitable in the long run.

It can be very powerful because, like I said, a lot of people are searching for health-related stuff on Google. I always love ...it's hilarious when you start typing a search and it starts showing you possible searches sometimes questions like those are real searches from other people! It's like, “oh my god, this is like our intimate space searching crazy stuff”

So when it comes to health it can be just a great place to connect with someone who you know eventually might buy from you or eventually we'll just be part of your community and like Kat said refer other people to you possibly.

Kat:

I love that you hit on the point of like generosity and how it shifts things when you start thinking of content as how can I help instead of like how can I get clients necessarily.

I mean it's going to get clients but if you are coming from a heart-centered place of like, “how can I help my best fit client? How can I help people that are helping my best fit client or are speaking to them and that potential referral sources?” So it's like a really amazing shift when you start thinking of marketing in terms of generosity as well which I think is so cool.

Cinthia:

Yeah and it takes the pressure off. If you think about it like going to the gym you're not so focused on the muscles you're focused on feeling good or feeling strong, right? So when people come to me and they're so hopefull, I get it, we're doing this because we want more traffic we want more clients but there can be like kind of something that gets built along that journey that can be just as beneficial.

And when you focus on that, you're not as obsessed with traffic. It’s the sort of thing that’s more about what we connect over. Like what are the qualities of the connections you're building?

Like that should be the measure of our business.

Kat:

If you have a tiny audience but that audience fucking loves you, then you’re golden. Like that’s really a sign you made it. Awesome.

All right, let’s jump into another question. We have one more here. Again, there’s only a small group that’s attending live, I’m sure a lot of people are watching the replay, hello replay crowd!

But yeah if you do have a question because you're watching live feel free to ask in the chat or down below.

But we're gonna jump into the second question that we do you have here which is from Sandra. Sandra said, “Would it help for therapists who are who are all starting to guest post on each other's sites?”

Oh this is a really good question, Sandra. So I think the question is that therapists that are all starting out in private practice and they're just launching maybe their first website for that practice does it help if they're all like exchanging guest posts among them? I think?

Cinthia:

Yeah so that's a good idea but I would recommend to also pitch sites that have some actual traffic already, right? So the whole idea of the guest post is you want to pitch another site that is already established because they're gonna have an audience that you don't have yet now.

That is a great idea for you know maybe doing a joint guest post where you're able to you know share each other's insight on one blog post maybe that would be a good way to start so that you have kind of a chunky piece of content in one place. But I would recommend finding other sites that are actually more established or slightly more established.

So again maybe starting with something like the New York Times might be too much but you know who knows maybe Mind Body Green, you know could be it's quite competitive but you could try getting a guest post on there.

There are so many sites around health and wellness, so it's just a matter of finding someone who's better a good fit and who has who has an audience that's gonna get you a little bit faster to an actual audience. Because if you're all starting out then you're all gonna be starting out. I mean you can like to start if it gets you going, then there's nothing wrong with that, but complement that with also pitching someone who you're maybe a little nervous about because they're a little more advanced on their SEO stuff and so you can exchange some of their audience for your lovely knowledge.

Kat:

I actually did get a blog post published on mind body green! It's funny that you mention it. I wrote a post about being angry as a sexual abuse survivor so if you type I don't know anger as a sexual abuse survivor it probably comes up in the search.

But the way that you get those types of posts is you go to the website that you're thinking about guest blogging for and usually you can scroll down to the very bottom and it'll have a link for “contributors” or “write for us” or “call for articles” anything kind of like that.

You'll want to see if there's any kind of link that makes it clear that they are actually accepting guest posts. You click on that link and it'll actually tell you what it is that you want to do in order to submit to them.

You want to write your post in advance usually. I mean follow the directions you find, but the thing that I've noticed is that you want to actually write a post and then you send them that post and try to pay attention to the to the specifications of how to submit to them because some of them will have weird directions like don't put the post as an attachment so like don't attach it as a document a lot of them sometimes will just want to skim it really quickly in the email itself.

So things like that you'll want to make sure that you just follow that to a tee so that you're not wasting anybody's time and you make a really good first impression and then they usually will get back to you in like two to three weeks and let you know if it's accepted.

If it's not accepted you can also take that same article that you've put your heart and sweat into and you can and somewhere else as well but you do want to give a little bit of a buffer time to make sure that you're not getting double published or something like that.

Cinthia:

Yeah no duplicate content! Yeah guest posting is a whole world and it's a great place to get started because you get featured and those sites get a lot of traffic right so it could be a really great shortcut way to compliment as you start to build your own SEO strength on your site.

All the knowledge that you're already helping people with can reach a bigger, bigger audience so definitely a good choice.

Podcasts are also great! I'm a big talker so I personally love to get on podcasts and that's also just really easy, right, because you don't have to write anything, you just have to show up, and talk, and be yourself, it's great!

I mean you can if they are a little bit right but but if you're already really passionate about what you do then it's like really natural to get on the podcast episode and most of them nowadays are super informal so it's very easy for anybody. You don't need to be a professional voice coach or something. Totally I love podcasts. And I love this as well!

Like so webinars and lots of other types of content that you can participate in.

Kat:

I think the other thing I wanted to add was that in terms of your website, it also is a credibility factor if you have guest posts in high authority sites. So Cinthia is saying this is a great idea. It makes sense. Such lovely advice and support!

So in terms of the guest blogging for SEO that's one factor but then also as like a website person I can't help but mention that it's a credibility feature as well so it's gonna really help your website visitors trust you if they see recognizable brands on your site. So you can go to my website, empathysites.com, and you'll see like an “as featured in” bar and so when you get enough guest posts you can actually feature the logos of the different places you've posted for.

It’s really nice if you have you know like Huffington Post's, Mind Body Green and like all of these different ones that your website visitors will instantly recognize and your referral sources will instantly recognize and they'll be like, “oh I trust this person, they know what they're talking about, they're an expert,” “...I want to send clients their way” or “...I want to be their client” so it's really as you has you've been mentioning Cinthia.

Cinthia:

SEO isn't just about SEO itself it also impacts all of the other marketing that you do. It's a great compliment. It also may be something that you're already getting some of.

You’re already doing SEO if you're blogging to some extent.

Kat:

Okay so I don't see any further questions we are also about two minutes away from a full hour session together.

So let's see double check that there aren't any other questions...

It has been so so nice!

So how can people find you Cinthia?

Cinthia:

So I am on the Instagram. Although I have like a weird relationship with Instagram. I don't know if I'm the only one but I do log in and interact with people at digitalbloomIQ.

And then my site has a lot more information about search personas and doing SEO for health and wellness since I recently niched and of all my blog content now is like really focused on that type of a business and how to do SEO for that.

So it's digitalbloomIQ.com

Kat:

Okay digitalbloomIQ.com awesome awesome. I will definitely put all of your links in the chat once we stop and then also I'll put your information and the links mentioned today in the blog post as well!

So ok super great!

People are saying thank you.

Kirsten says, “thanks so much been very helpful great ideas”

Shawna Freshwater says, “ thank you for your time and guidance”

Thank you everybody for attending! It has been absolutely wonderful.

Thank You Cinthia for coming.

Cinthia:

Thank you! I love any follow-up questions. I guess you can leave a comment in the in the blog post that you'll be putting live and yeah I'd love to support you! So if anything comes up as you are like thinking about your search persona, or are feeling stuck with ideas, I'm like a fountain of ideas.

I can coach you through that as you're filling out that information and starting to think about your content differently.

Kat:

Yeah, that's super super helpful.

Dante also says, “thank you”

So thank you everybody for coming we will end our broadcast here. Please if you've missed anything or you missed part of this call today you can stay on this link and this link will refresh with the video so you can watch the replay.

All right. Have a great day everyone and keep doing the important work that you do. Thank you!