FREE SEO TOOL: Therapist Keyword Cheatsheet
Search engine optimizing your practice site is often easier said than done. When you’re first starting out there can be so much to learn, and even once you get a handle on what you need to do, search engine optimization (SEO) novices tend to struggle with one essential technique: keywords.
How do you choose the right keywords to use? And where should you use them?
The great news is we have everything you need right here to become a budding keyword master. Not only do we have some awesome user-friendly tips and SEO advice to share with you in this article, but we’ve created a free Therapist Keyword Cheatsheet that is packed with pre-written keywords for practice websites, as well as some essential keyword usage tips in a handy “to-go” size.
Brighter Vision’s Therapist Keyword Cheatsheet
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What are keywords?
Keywords are the short, descriptive phrases or words you use throughout your site content in multiple ways (keep reading below to learn more!) to communicate to Google and other search engines what a particular webpage is about. For example, if you’re a Seattle therapist who specializes in anxiety, some keyword phrases you may use are “panic attacks” or “anxiety therapy in Seattle.”
Since keywords are one of the most prominent ways Google “understands” what visitors will find on your website, choosing and using the correct keywords is essential to convince Google that your site has valuable webpages worth ranking well, to direct the right kind of clients to your website, to situate yourself as an expert in your specialty, and so much more!
How do I brainstorm keywords?
The good news is that you don’t [necessarily] have to!
There are plenty of free tools available for you online that will help you generate lists of related keywords. And if you’re looking for more help, you can use the prepared lists of specialty specific keywords on our Therapist Keyword Cheatsheet above!
However, it’s still a good idea to know how to come up with keywords and keyword phrases on your own. To help generate keywords for your web pages, start by going through the content you’ve already written for those topics and pages. Do certain words or phrases appear more frequently than others?
You can also generate similar keywords based on a list of keywords you already have. For example, say that you have “drug addiction” and “alcohol abuse” as keywords on your list. You can extrapolate from those keywords to add keyword phrases like “drug addict help” and “AA alternative” to your list.
Where should I use keywords?
There are 3 main areas of your website where you should make certain you’re using keywords: your site content, your title tags, and your meta description.
If you’re a Brighter Vision customer, I have good news! You only need to worry about integrating keywords into your site content since we’re happy to customize our customers’ title tags and meta descriptions as part of the extensive work we do to improve your SEO.
Site Content
It’s the most important to use keywords at least once in the first 100 words of each webpage’s content, but you should sprinkle your keywords throughout all of your writing. There’s no hardline rule for how dense your keyword usage should be, but a good rule of thumb is keeping your keyword or keyword phrase usage to roughly 2% – about once every fifty words.
You’ll also want to try and use a keyword at least once in a subheading as part of your page’s organization. To make a part of your text a subheading after you’ve placed it into your website’s text editor, highlight the text and then apply one of the “H2″/”H3” or “Heading 2″/”Heading 3” tags from a drop-down menu.
Title Tags
You’ll want to use keywords in your webpage title tags every time, placing the keyword as close to the beginning of the title as is feasible.
Meta Description
Don’t forget to squeeze some keywords into your webpage’s meta description – the short page description that will show up in search results such as Google’s. Because of the limited space provided for your meta description, it can be an easy rookie mistake to try and jam in as many keywords or keyword phrases as possible. Don’t make that error! It can take some practice, but it’s important to find the balance between using as many keywords as you can – while still writing naturally and personably so you still appear professional.
If you’re still struggling a little to handle SEO for your practice website, I’ve got some good news! Brighter Vision handles all website SEO and keyword integration for our customers – completely free with their Brighter Vision website. Talk about a practice-booster!
To sign up for the world’s best therapist website design company – and to take advantage of our awesome *free* SEO – please fill out the form below and our customer happiness team will get in touch with you. 🙂