New Clients are Looking for You Online

TV, radio, and newspaper ads were once enough to get new clients flowing through your therapy business’s door. However, some of these traditional marketing strategies are no longer the most affordable, efficient, or effective. As the healthcare industry continues to evolve, so do client expectations regarding finding, trusting, and maintaining relationships with therapists.


We know word-of-mouth will always be one of the best ways to gain new clients, and this is still true in today’s day and age. Simply think of online listings and reviews as digital word-of-mouth referrals. Listings with consistent, accurate business information enhance your discoverability and credibility while strengthening clients’ trust in you.

Top Online Platforms To Find A Therapist:

  • Online Therapist Directories (like Psychology Today)
  • Review Sites
  • Search Engines
  • Google Maps
  • Mobile Applications
  • Individual Business Websites

1. Help Clients Find You

More often than not, clients will discover your business on the internet. Nearly half of all therapy clients ultimately select their provider based on information they find online. Why is that?


Most clients will find you through an online directory. You’ve likely used them to find local businesses near you on apps like Yelp or mapping applications like Google Maps. But did you know some directories cater to specific therapist specialties?


Directories like Psychology Today and ZocDoc are ideal for therapists and are a great way to capture high-intent clients. Actively searching for therapists online means clients are likely ready to book an appointment as soon as possible. Online directories make your business more visible and put you at the top of search results, so those eager prospects can find you before they find your competitors.

2. Don’t Let Inaccurate Information Turn Clients Away

Your business may appear on maps, apps, and other online directories (even if you didn’t create these listings yourself). Making sure each listing contains accurate data is incredibly important to a client’s decision to choose you, so it’s vital to weed out listings with incorrect information.


Directory publishers combine web crawlers, user-submitted data, and business-submitted data with complex algorithms to determine what content to display online. However, these solutions can sometimes get the data wrong.

Consider the statistics:

  • 68% of listings had a name-related error
  • 48% of businesses listings contained basic address errors that misdirected clients
  • 29% of healthcare business lacked accurate phone numbers

Avoid giving clients a negative experience before they even walk through your doors. In today’s age of instant gratification, clients need to be able to access your business’s information easily. If clients find outdated or incorrect information, they’ll likely become confused and frustrated, which will lead them to choose someone else.

3. Improve Your Ranking With Quality Listings

Search engines, like Google, use algorithms to determine the consistency of your business’s information across the internet. Consistent data can help improve your ranking in search engine result pages (SERPs).

As technology advances, so does the way clients find a therapist:

  • 90% of U.S. smartphone users rely on their devices for location-based services, such as directions, reviews, or recommendations.
  • Nearly 75% of people who own a voice-activated speaker, like Amazon Alexa, say the devices are part of their daily routine. Ensuring the accuracy of your therapy business’s information is especially crucial regarding these technologies since the speaker does not display information on a screen.

Quality listings with consistent, accurate information help your business rank higher and appear more credible. On the other hand, those that have not maintained their online listings fall to the bottom of search results. Since less than 1% of people click past the first page of Google, low search rankings hurt your visibility, credibility, and, ultimately, your profitability.

4. The Dangers Of Duplicate Listings

Search engines rank businesses with duplicate listings lower than those with one distinct listing per online directory. Why? Because multiple listings may signal that the business listing is inaccurate, and therefore the business seems less credible.


When web crawlers come across several versions of contact or location information, they cannot read the data as if it belongs to several unique businesses and creates duplicate listings in response.


Duplicate listings can confuse your clients, and even positive reviews become scattered throughout those duplicate listings, further confusing web crawlers and potentially diminishing your online ranking. So, how can you prevent duplicate listings and disjointed reviews? Regularly verify and monitor your business information and confirm it is consistent and correct across all online directories.

5. Boost Business Credibility And Client Confidence With Reviews

Online reviews are used for more than just choosing where to get a cup of coffee. 93% of consumers read reviews before making purchasing decisions, and when seeking a therapist, there is no exception. Online reviews have become an integral part of the client journey.


Healthcare ranks as one of the top industries where reviews have the greatest influence on credibility. According to Forbes, 81% of clients rely on reviews to select a therapist, and this reliance has nearly doubled since pre-pandemic days. It’s simple. Favorable reviews give prospective clients peace of mind and confidence in choosing your business, while negative ones do the opposite.


Monitoring your online reputation can be time-consuming, but outsourcing your reputation management services to a third party, like TherapySites, may be the ideal solution for your business.

Conclusion

As the digital world grows, so does the importance of maintaining your listings and reviews on Yelp, Google Maps, and wherever else you appear online. Your success, visibility, and client base depend on the strength of your online presence and search ranking, built from credible, consistent business information.


The first step to enhancing your digital reputation and client reach is simple. There’s no need to get overwhelmed in figuring out where to start or who to hire. Use one affordable service for online reputation maintenance, SEO advantages, appointment scheduling, and more.


TherapySites offers personalized solutions that can fit any specialty or business size. In your free consultation, one of our digital marketing experts will walk you through your current search ranking and how to improve it. Together, you will develop a personalized strategy to get more positive reviews, book more appointments, and appear the way you want to online.

About

TherapySites is a unique, all-in-one digital marketing service for therapy businesses. With industry-specific knowledge and digital marketing expertise, we help businesses grow their client base with powerful websites, social media & reputation management, search engine solutions, and telemedicine. TherapySites can help to set up your business’s time-heavy processes (i.e. appointment scheduling, client forms, etc.), so you can save your team (and clients) more time.


TherapySites makes marketing your business easier, more affordable, and more effective by offering all your digital marketing services under one roof. For more information, or to see a demo, visit therapysites.com.