Dear Melanie, I recently had a website created on Squarespace with a web designer who set up the basic SEO but digging deeper, I see that there are some issues with google and I’m not getting any leads. I am looking to get some help in setting up some proper but basic SEO for my website, but I don’t have a budget for ongoing SEO and I’m wondering what I need now because what I really need are clients. Can you help?
The short answer is, of course yes. But, this question highlights an important set of details around what a website can actually do for you, even when it’s fully SEO optimized. It also gets at the heart of why just building a website isn’t a complete marketing package.
To use an analogy, your website is like the catcher at a baseball game. It’s there to collect and organize any traffic that comes your way. The traffic is what you gain from your marketing efforts. You may run Google Ads for leads, sign up with a service like Psychology Today, share your point of view on LinkedIn, network with colleagues on a list serve or many other things. Each of those actions sends the ball (in this analogy, that is your potential client) to your website.
Once the potential client is on your site, they can navigate around, click to read articles or get to work and schedule an appointment with you. The website’s job is to be available to educate the client when they land there, but the website itself isn’t out in the world building relationships or connecting with potential clients. Like the catcher waiting for the ball to come to him, your website is waiting on potential leads to visit.
That means, your website alone will never be enough to generate the leads required to build a thriving therapy (or other service based) practice. You need to have the other players in the mix sending balls your way. And that, comes from marketing.
SEO is one piece of the puzzle, but it’s not the full picture.
Basic SEO tells Google and AI what you intend the page to be about. Because it’s generated by the website owner, that description can be bias, and Google may not accept your declaration at first blush. The truth is, generating traffic from SEO efforts requires establishing trust. You have to prove to Google that you are who you claim to be which takes time and experience. Visitors have to experience your site, and their behavior of spending time on your pages and clicking around the website tells Google a story. Did it deliver on what the user was searching for? Did the user stick around? Click a few pages? Hit the back button and leave quickly? All of those details matter.
Every SEO project revolves around the math of your individual practice. If you’re a website that serves couples and families in Annapolis with issues around anxiety, depression and infidelity, then your math needs to show a concentration of keywords around those areas. If you have a simple website with one page dedicated to each topic, but no blog or other content supporting your main landing pages, each page of your site will be viewed as it’s own mini website.
If you want to bring in more clients seeking therapy for depression, you need more content on depression-based topics. Ideally that content is aligned with buying questions people ask when seeking to hire a therapist. This can be articles around “signs normal grief is settling into clinical depression” or “how job changes can lead to a surprising bout of depression.” There are a ton of ideas here… you get the point.
Basic SEO, as it’s described here, will help clarify what is being sold on the website and to whom, but that is not enough to generate leads if you’re in a community where there are many therapists or options for care. That’s why marketing matters. You have to connect with potential clients and then, bring them to your website. Organic SEO can lead those curious folks to the website, but only if you have content on the topics they query. That’s why SEO marketers swear by blog writing; it lives on your site forever and can therefore help drive traffic to your site for as long as the content is relevant.
If blogging is not your thing, then you’re left with ads and referrals. Both of which are great, but have their own set of costs and details.
Whatever you do, there are specific timelines and cost estimates that you want to consider. For many people, the short-term win found in ads is important. They get the leads they need to keep things going. Add in blogging and eventually, you can get off advertising because your website generates enough business to keep your practice full.
I wish there was a simple answer here, but the truth is, basic SEO isn’t enough. What’s needed is a marketing plan that fits your budget and client acquisition goals. For us, every project is unique but there are common variables like budget, lead generation goals and how you want to work that shape the marketing solution.
My advice, decide if you have a budget for Google Ads, that will be the fastest route. Once you’re getting some leads, revisit your website and decide if you can start blogging so you are diversifying your website to attract clients naturally. This takes time for sure, but it works. Take a look at our most recent case study to see how we do things around here.
Hope this helps and here if you need us!
