How Social Media Marketing Improves Your Therapist SEO
We love to help you make the most out of your online marketing, so you’ve probably heard us talk about how impactful social media marketing can be for your practice. Once upon a time marketing on social media was best suited for targeting teens, but nowadays almost three-fourths of all US adults use social media.1 Social media platforms are now a prime marketing location for almost any industry.
However, social media marketing does a lot more than that. Keeping active social media accounts for your business can tremendously increase your search engine optimization (SEO) by helping you appear more frequently in search results and higher up the page in Google. In other words, getting your business on social media can help even more potential clients find you online!
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How Social Media Marketing Improves Your Therapist SEO
Building Your Backlink Network
If you’re behind on why Google and its search rankings love backlinks so much, we wrote an article last month that you need to read! In case you don’t have time right now (or in case you’ve already read it), here is the cliff notes version on why backlinks are big SEO boosters:
“Backlinks” are clickable hyperlinks to your website or your website content. Backlinks can be anywhere on the Internet, and in fact, it’s much better to start building a network of backlinks that are outside your own website.
This is because Google sees backlinks from other people as a vote of confidence for your website – like someone is directly recommending your website to their readers. But not all recommendations are equal. The best backlinks are those that appear on reputable, trusted websites since their recommendation will have more weight with Google.
The more backlinks you have on other trusted websites, the more Google will trust you – and the better you’ll rank in their search results.
Here’s where social media platforms come in. Social media platforms are like backlink-building machines.
Every time someone shares a link to your website (such as by sharing one of your posts that contains a link to your website, or one of your posts that recommends one of your blogs), that’s another backlink in your bank. Even just filling out your social media profiles in detail can give you opportunities to create hyperlinks to your website on another trusted site, such as Facebook or Instagram.
And what’s more: Journalists search for great content and expert voices on social media. If you write an excellent article and share it on social media, that increases the likelihood of a reputable source, like the NYTimes, Washington Post, Psychology Today etc., picks it up. And if you get a link from one of those sources back to your website, WHOA NELLY! That is some serious SEO love and will send you soaring up the search results.
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Focusing on Your Local Market
One of the most powerful features of social media marketing is its ability to narrow in on your local community. Simply by sticking your toe in the water and establishing a presence for your practice on the different social media platforms helps to get yourself listed locally for the potential clients around you. When people search for your kind of services near them on social media, you have a good chance of popping up in the results.
However, the local benefits of social media marketing go further than that. Not only are you listed locally in the searches of potential clients, but your audience of potential clients can now be targeted geographically, as well.
Using the powerful targeting features of many social media platforms can allow you to serve your marketing only to ideal potential clients who live close enough to become actual clients. In addition, boosting your exposure within that local market – especially by using local keywords like your city and state in your social media posts and profile – helps Google associate your practice even more with your geographic area.
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When you use social media to help boost the association between your practice and your location, your local SEO can get a boost. That means when people search for help in your specific area, you’ll be showing up in their search results more often and in a better position on the page.
Increasing Branded Searches
Company mascots became popular for a reason: it’s hard to make a personal connection with a corporation. Putting a face and personality on a professional business allowed customers to form a more personal, emotional attachment to the brand. It’s much more pleasant to think of buying insurance from a funny little gecko than it is to buy from a corporation.
With the rise and integration of social media marketing into our normal lives, however, it’s easier than it ever was to put a friendly spin on your business without the need for a middle man. Social media allows your practice to socialize and interact with potential clients in the same way that you would as an individual citizen.
Since social media is a designated space for more casual socialization, it’s the perfect environment for your brand to form that more personal connection by engaging directly with your audience, answering both their professional and casual inquiries without needing to jump into a formal business email.
All of this leads to more direct exposure for your brand, getting your practice’s name out there. And the difference between being known as “that one anxiety therapist in Quincy” and your actual practice name can be massive.
The more brand awareness you build for your practice, the more branded searches your brand is likely to receive.2 A branded search is when a search engine user searches for your business by name.
Think about how much more powerful that is. In a branded search, instead of a potential client searching for something like “depression help in Austin” that may or may not list you in the search results, your potential clients are looking for you specifically. That means they’re likely to not even want to look at options that aren’t you.
The more you use social media to build connections between your brand and your audience, the more your branded SEO will increase.
A website may be the most important part of your online marketing, but social media marketing could be a close second. Getting your practice’s name out there on social media can help net your practice website some great SEO benefits. The more effort and thought you invest in your social media accounts and strategy, the more rewards you and your brand will reap in the long run.
If you’re looking to get your practice on Google’s good side, Twitter may well be the perfect place to start.
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SOURCES
1. Smith, Aaron, and Monica Anderson. “Social Media Use 2018: Demographics and Statistics.” Pew Research Center: Internet, Science & Tech, Pew Research Center: Internet, Science & Tech, 19 Sept. 2018, www.pewinternet.org/2018/03/01/social-media-use-in-2018/.
2. Flint, Levi. “5 Ways SEO and Social Media Work Together | Leverage Marketing.” Leverage Marketing, LLC, Madeline Jacobson Https://Www.theleverageway.com/Wp-Content/Uploads/2016/05/Logo-1.Png, 5 Mar. 2018, www.theleverageway.com/blog/5-ways-social-media-can-improve-seo/.
Asher says
What do I actually do with a twitter account? Whom should I follow, when should I comment? And what should I post?
Also, what facebook groups are good to join to connect to people who would be interested in my page?
Perry Rosenbloom says
Hi Asher,
Great questions! More important than following and commenting is writing engaging posts. We have a piece of software coming out soon that will help you with this.
Please let me know if you’d like to be added to the list to be made aware of it when released.
Teri Ehlers says
I would love help writing engaging posts for my website Postpartum and Relationship Counseling
Thanks!
Teri Ehlers