I talk a lot about keywords (in fact, my blog post on Counseling Keywords is one of the most popular pages on our site!), but I realized that most of what I say is related to keyword research. Then, I’ve been getting a lot of questions lately on where to put keywords. Therefore, I thought I’d write a short blog post (let’s face it: short for me means under 1,000 words so let’s see how this goes…) on that exact topic.

Where do I use keywords on a counseling website?

So, my short answer is everywhere that makes sense. But, I’m guessing you’re looking for a more detailed answer than that. Here’s the list of places I most often recommend you think about including keywords on a counseling, therapy or other mental health website:

The Page Title
The Meta Description & SEO Title
In the text
Subheadings
In Photos
The URL slug

Now let’s look at a little closer at each of these….

1. The Page Title

Your page title should be a quick description of what the page is about. However, it should also try to include at least one keyword you are targeting. If someone was looking for the information you have on that specific page of your website, what would they look for? This is where a little keyword research really helps you make difficult decisions like are you going to call a page “Trauma Therapy” or “PTSD Treatment?”

2. The Meta Description & SEO Title

Your SEO title for your page and the meta description should hold a couple of the top keywords that you want to target on that page. For instance, your SEO title might contain the word “Trauma Therapy,” and then your meta description might include the words PTSD symptoms, EMDR, TF-CBT and trauma therapist.

Here’s a couple blog posts we’ve written in the past about these:

3. In the Text

To be honest, I have a lot of fun with this one. You want to write in a way that seems fairly natural. However, you also want to work in as many keywords as you can. I can look at almost any sentence at this point and figure out a way to add at least one more keyword. For example, if you’re said, “I usually recommend….” you could change it to read “As an anxiety therapist, I usually recommend….” and that helps you rank better for the keyword “anxiety therapist.” Or where you say, “We are here to help” you could say “Our therapists are here to help” or even “If you live in the Baltimore area, our therapists are here to help” if you’re trying to rank for the search term “Baltimore therapist.”

Occasionally, I’ve even been known to add a whole section to be able to fit more keywords on a page. For example, if I’m targeting “ERP San Diego,” I may add a section to a page all about OCD titled “ERP is Available in San Diego” where I explain that my practice offers exposure and response prevention to those struggling with OCD in the San Diego area. By creating that section (I’ll describe this a bit more and give another example below) I’m giving myself opportunities to naturally weave that particular keyword throughout the section.

4. Subheadings

Search Engines assume a subheading describes the information below it. Therefore, words in subheadings are most likely given more “weight” when determining how to rank a page.

I’ve been known to add entire sections of a page just so I can use a specific keyword in a subheading. For instance, if “symptoms of PTSD” is searched for a lot (hint: in most areas it is), I’ll create a specific section of the page called “Symptoms of PTSD” just so I can use that keyword in a subheading. Google assumes that subheadings describe the content of that section. And if you have a whole section about something, it must be an important part of your page, right?

I sometimes say that if you mention the phrase “panic attack” on a page, Google will assume you know how to spell the word. If you write an entire section of a page called, “Signs of a panic attack,” you must have some decent information to share on the topic. Then, if you create a whole page about panic attacks Google will believe you really have a lot of great information and is even more likely to rank you at the top for that search term.

Here’s an article I wrote specifically about best practices using subheadings in a way that’s helpful for SEO in the mental health field.

5. Optimizing Photos

I recommend using keywords in both the photo file name and the alt text. In fact, you can fit in some of the keywords you don’t know where else to use on your website here. Once you’ve picked a photo that goes well with your page, you can change the file name for the photo to include a keyword and specify the alt text for that photo. This is what will be read to someone using a screen reader when they visit your site.

6. The URL Slug

When I’m creating a new website page, I’ll check the url slug. I want to keep a url slug short, on topic and include 1-2 keywords. For instance, the slug for this page is “Keyword-placement-website.” It communicates that this post is about keyword placement on a website. It’s relatively short and easy to type and on topic. However, “keyword placement” is a keyword I want to target for this blog post as well. Here’s a great Yoast article if you want to learn more about optimizing a url slug.

*Important note here: If you are going back and changing the slug on a page that’s already been published on your site, be careful. You will likely need to create a “url redirection” as well to avoid 404 errors. So, you may want to start out by just using keywords in the slug of new pages you create.

Begin SEO Services offered by Simplified SEO Consulting

Simplified SEO Consulting is pleased to offer you a variety of SEO services designed to meet your needs as a small business owner. If you’re too busy and don’t have time to optimize your website, we offer the popular Done for You SEO Services. With this package, our team of SEO specialists will optimize your page for you. If you are the do-it-yourself type, we can help you too. We have SEO training packages designed to teach you the skills you need to get your website ranking well including our “Top of Google” online course and our “Top of Google” 2.5 Day SEO Workshops.

About the author:

Jessica Tappana is a therapist, group practice owner & an SEO expert. Jessica is passionate about helping therapists and their ideal clients find one another. She believes quality mental health care can change the world. Her group practice has grown primarily through great SEO. It now has seven clinicians and one virtual assistant and she still sees around 10 individual therapy clients a week herself. However, most of her focus has shifted to helping other therapists around the world rank better on Google.

You have a great therapy practice, but do you even exist without a website? Not in today’s world! Check out these free, relevant resources for mental health professionals. If you want to learn more about how we can help your therapy website rank higher in the search results, book a free consult. I’d love to talk with you about which services could help you help more people.

I am not new to WordPress. For years, I had the responsibility of keeping up with my office’s website on the our local University’s server. Y’all, it was the Wild, Wild West when we first set up that site! I am definitely a DIY-er on a lot of things, but this was overwhelming. Coding? Site navigation? Design? We weren’t even thinking about meta descriptions and SEO at that point! After supervising two huge redesigns, I learned a ton about site upkeep, plugins, widgets, themes and accessibility (more on that next month). But, I did not know how to launch a brand new, DIY website. In fact, I thought all you had to do was purchase a domain on Google and WordPress would magically make it happen.

Nope. Not so much.

Well…sort of. You can go through WordPress.com, which is what I did with my birth services site a few years ago. Whoops! Don’t do this, unless you want to spend a bunch of money to “rent” the space. I can’t even get Yoast SEO tools on the site without upgrading to a more expensive package! No, thank you.

So, how do I get started with my therapy website?

First, you need to have a clear vision and mission for your website. This will help make the decisions much easier to make while getting setup. You do not have to have a fancy brand kit, but you will need to make some aesthetic decisions eventually. Don’t worry, these can be changed! Having a budget for what you are able to spend on basic website setup now, and on an annual basis, would be helpful. This is especially important if you have “shiny object syndrome” like I do. There are a ton of people who would love to sell you a bunch of bells and whistles online. Of course.

Okay, great! I have time and money. What’s next?

Next, I HIGHLY recommend you block out a day to do the basic launch for your mental health or therapy website. Can it be done in a few hours, here and there? Sure. But, if you’re like me, focused time is way more productive than pieces. If you are able to immerse yourself in the training, and set up your site as you go, you’ll end your day of action with a live website! Celebrate your wins, folks. You deserve it.

Didn’t you say there was training involved?

Finally, get yourself registered for the FREE Yoast SEO Training on WordPress for Beginners. Like I said, I was not a beginner, but wanted to approach the process as a beginner would. This way, I could catch up on any features, tips and tricks that I didn’t already know. Let me tell you, I am so glad I did it this way! Was some of it a review of information I already knew? Sure. Of course. Here’s a hot tip for those modules that are more of a review for you:

Hot Tip: You can adjust the speed of each video! 1.25x was a decent pace for me to still listen for new concepts without feeling like I was “wasting” time. (Because NO ONE has extra time, amirite?)

For those of you who are less auditory, there are PDF pages with every module that provide more details than the videos. I started the training watching every video, then reading the PDF, then taking the quiz for that module before moving on to the next. After a couple of topics, I either just watched the videos or just read the PDF, depending on my comfort level with the action steps for the concept. Basically, you can do this however YOU learn best. Yes, this is the instructor in me talking now.

Wait…there’s a quiz?!?

Yes. Yes there is. Quite a few of them, actually. I was sort of hoping you wouldn’t notice that part, perhaps? In order to get your certificate at the end, you must score at least 80% overall. (Yes, you can re-take the quizzes after you’ve reviewed the answers and the concepts again…it’s really not that bad) Actually, this was a fun part of the training! As a high-achiever, you know I needed to do well on those quizzes and get that certificate.

Now, there were a few key takeaways from the training I would love to highlight! These are things that some of our clients have had questions about, so you might be curious too. I’d love to know what else you are curious about, so please leave a comment below with additional questions and/or topics you would like for us to cover.

Key Takeaways For Mental Health Professionals for Your Therapy Website

Module 4.2: Adding images, videos and embeds

Even those who know how to add images could benefit from this enhanced training. However, remember that with our Done For You Comprehensive SEO packages, we can do this for your counseling or therapy website.

- Notice that GIF I included up there? Yep, fancy right? I didn’t know how people did that until going through this module! AND, because I know how to optimize Alt Text for both SEO and accessibility, that fun little image is giving this post a nice boost in the rankings while ensuring that all who read this page are able to experience the content. If that doesn’t put a smile on your face, I don’t know what will.
- Maybe the GIF isn’t your thing. That’s okay. I also know that in order to captivate, connect and convert our potential (read: ideal) clients, we need to build the “Know, Like and Trust” factor. One great way to do this is to have more of you and your team featured. One way to do this is to spend a quick two minutes talking about a particular concept, on camera, and add it to a service page! (I know, it sounds scary…but you can do hard things, right?) Perhaps you could do a quick Facebook Live, download it to YouTube and embed the video on your site? If all of that sounds too scary, find a quality clip of Brené Brown for the time being.

Module 6.3 & 6.4: Common Mistakes and Security

Well, if that doesn’t entice you to watch this 3.5-minute video, I don’t know what will! Yes, please…just tell me the common mistakes. Not surprisingly, they are the type of things that we at Simplified SEO Consulting have a tendency to mention every month on Facebook, on consult calls and via e-mail. So, let’s review the top three for SEO, shall we?

Improper Permalink Etiquette: Set them up in a smart, strategic, SEO-enhancing way (or let us) before hitting “Publish”, and don’t touch them once they are published!
Avoiding the Updates: Be sure to update your website, plugins and theme regularly! At least twice a month is best practice. If you have a web developer, they may be doing this already but you should still ask to be sure.
Create a CLU password! Passwords shouldn’t be simple, or easy to guess. Did you know, StarWars made the list of most popular passwords? Yep. We’re not quite as clever as we think we are, huh?
Get a CLU instead: Complex, Long and Unique!

Module 7.2: WordPress and the Yoast SEO Plugin

Before the training, I honestly didn’t know everything the Yoast plugin could do for therapy and other mental health websites. I’m still not positive I know the ins and outs of every piece (canonicals? crawlability? sure…) What I love most about the plugin is:

Bullet feedback –

Red. Orange. Green. I’ve been driving for over half of my life. I can certainly get on board with a basic stoplight system! Easy. Even as I’m typing this post, I check the real-time feedback every so often to be sure I’m optimizing this blog. (How Meta……get it?)

Readability analysis –

If you’ve been on a call with me, you know my oh-so-shameful secret already. Okay, it’s not really a secret, but it’s my biggest “growth edge” when it comes to SEO for therapy websites. Drumroll, please…I’m an academic. Yep. I have the horrible habit of making things WAY more complex than needed. In fact, I think I had that last sentence written three different ways before settling on its current form? (Checks readability color again)

Snippet editor –

What kind of magic is this?! I know we can’t actually dictate what the search engines choose to feature in search results. But, if we take the time to make it easier for the bots, they should reward us, right? I think so. This is that “secret sauce” that Jessica refers to, the meta description! In the past couple of months, I have learned a ton about meta descriptions. Way more than I knew was possible. If that sounds like a fun venture for you, definitely snag our free, 7-day SEO e-mail course.

To Wrap it All Up

In the final, “What Should You Do?” module, my favorite quote was “…of course, you could outsource this, but it remains a task that requires human effort.” Yes. Yes it does! That’s where we come in. If you are the DIY type, I totally understand. I am too. There are certainly some basics to know that will help you get set up, but ranking well on the search engines is a process that involves a surprising amount of trial and error. To make it easier, we are so excited to finally offer a live crash course in SEO via a weekend workshop! We would love to work with you online and/or in-person.

With affordable, accessible options for all sizes and scopes of clinics, we can help you maximize your online therapy website presence and attract more clients who are already looking for you. To get started, just schedule a free, 30-minute Zoom consultation by clicking here.

Happy helping, however you practice,

~Danica Wolf, MSW
Mental Health SEO Specialist

Where Do I Put Keywords on My Private Practice Website?