Client Retention | TherapySites

Navigating The Client Journey: How Online Listings & Reviews Influence Decisions

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.

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Client Retention , local seo , Marketing , Search Engine Optimization , SEO April 12, 2023

Secure More Clients With These 8 SEO Tips

Every day, there are roughly 3.5 billion Google searches¹, which means you should absolutely prioritize Search Engine Optimization (SEO) in your marketing strategy. You may be thinking, how is this relevant to my practice? Put plainly; there are approximately 379,000 searches for “Therapists near me²” conducted every month, which means you could be missing out on potential clients who need your help.

SEO is the process of enhancing your website to make it easier for browsers to find. Once your website is optimized, search engines will rank your site higher, helping you gain even more traction and connect with more clients. To get to the top of search engines, you might consider partnering with a third party to create a fresh website and personalized digital marketing strategy that includes SEO.

Here are 8 SEO tips that can help boost your website’s visibility and book more clients.

Research Your Domain Authority Score

Domain Authority Scores are a measure of how well your website ranks on search engine results pages (SERPs). Scores are calculated via machine learning that predicts how likely Google is to show your web domain when someone conducts a relevant search. Your goal should be to aim for a domain authority score above 60. Scores between 50 and 60 are considered good, and between 40 and 50 are average. Scores under 40 warrant your attention and may signal that your website may need a refresh. If you’re unsure how to revamp your website, you may consider outsourcing your web design.

Use Google Analytics

To discover how people found your site and what they do once they are on it, you should set up an account with Google Analytics. You will get your own personalized dashboard to track important stats and insights to understand your website’s trends and traffic. Plus, it’s all free!

Using this data is key to understanding how to optimize your website. You can find out which keywords are most effective, which parts of your site are the most popular, and how long people stay on your site. Additionally, Google Analytics users can see which actions people take on your site (like subscribing to an email list or booking an appointment). By analyzing and applying this data, you can enhance your site and convert web visitors into new clients.

Utilize Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster

If you want pivotal search traffic information like search impressions, clicks, and click-through rates (CTRs), Google Search Console (GSC) has you covered. With GSC, you can also be alerted to any site issues like malware, server errors, and site load issues that may be affecting your search engine performance.

If you want to focus on Bing, their version of this tool is called Bing Webmaster. It provides similar information for the Bing search engine. With Bing Webmaster, you can resolve issues that prevent higher search rankings and monitor your backlinks.

Submit a Site Map

Site maps are files you submit to search engines that detail the layout of your website and highlight the most important pages. Site map files may include links, videos, photos, and any other file contained on your site.

These files help search engines understand your site layout which lets them crawl (or index) your site more efficiently, boosting your search ranking and improving site views. This process also ensures the most important parts of your website are shown first in search, which means potential clients will find the pages that are relevant to them faster.

Establish Quality Backlinks

Backlinks are links on a website that feature another website page’s URL. Backlinks to other reputable websites show that your site is well-established and contains relevant information, which really helps with search engine rankings.

You should aim for a goal of 60+ quality backlinks on your site. If you can’t get 60, including 40 and 50 is still considered good, but less than 40 is subpar. However, don’t use shortcuts to get more backlinks. If your site is linked to irrelevant or shady websites, it will make you look bad by association. Ensuring you only link to high-quality articles and web pages will help preserve and boost your online reputation.

Leverage Authority Builders

Leveraging authority builders is another way to improve your online reputation. The goal of this strategy is to have another well-respected website feature your content and have them link back to you. This legitimizes your website and the information you provide, creating trust with your site visitors by building off the other website’s existing reputation. As an added bonus, these more-established sites generally appear at the top of search rankings, so they can help attract attention from people who may not otherwise have found your website.

WebMD is a great example of an authority builder. With a domain authority score of 94 out of 100, WebMD is one of the most trusted resources for high-quality health information on the internet. Creating a profile on WebMD allows you to benefit from their high rankings while increasing your exposure and securing new clients in the process.

In addition to WebMD, other examples of other high-authority healthcare-focused sites include Vitals.com, Yelp, RateMDs, and others.

Acquire and Monitor Online Reviews

Did you know that more than 90% of people consult online reviews before making healthcare decisions³? It’s unsurprising, then, that online reviews can influence client acquisition, site traffic, and search engine ranking.

However, as a therapist, getting reviews can be tricky because ACA Ethics Guidelines prohibits soliciting client testimonials⁴. So, even though client reviews may improve your search engine ranking, it is important not to request them. The best way to request reviews is to source them from colleagues or other professionals who are familiar with your work. These reviews still have a positive impact on your ranking and show potential clients that the therapeutic community respects your work, trusts you as a therapist, and would recommend you.

Start a Google Business Profile

Google Business Profile is a free tool that allows you to claim your business and manage how it shows up online. Your Business Profile is a great place for your practice’s key information like your operating hours, phone number, and location, but it is also a great place to highlight special offers, photos of your practice, and any other critical updates.

Once you add your location to your Business Profile, your practice will show up on Google Maps, making it easy for clients to find your office, you can message prospective clients who have questions and give them the information they need, and you can feature a link to your website, funneling new clients directly to you.

Conclusion

Incorporating these SEO tips into your therapy marketing strategy will help your practice acquire more clients, create a strong online presence, and boost your reputation in the field.

Consumers are turning to the web more than ever to research therapists in their area and placing more emphasis on finding the right fit for their mental health. To meet their expectations both on and offline, you need to make sure prospective clients find your site, readily identify how reputable you are, can easily contact you for more information, and book their appointment.

Your practice can benefit from a robust therapy marketing strategy, and TherapySites can help.

About Us

TherapySites is a unique digital marketing service specializing in website design for therapists. By combining our digital marketing know-how with unique insight into the industry, we offer therapy practices an unparalleled way to build a high-ranking, easily-discoverable website that clients love.

We ensure client and practice growth with powerful websites, social media marketing, reputation management, search engine solutions, and telemedicine. TherapySites even streamlines your practice’s time-heavy processes (client forms, scheduling, etc.), so your staff can spend more time on important tasks.
For more information or to see a demo, visit therapysites.com.

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Client Retention , Remote Services , Tele-Counseling , Telemedicine November 22, 2019

Five Ways Telemedicine Benefits Your Practice

Many people are becoming more open to technology-based mental health solutions. Today, 66% of Americans are willing to have online sessions with their healthcare providers. These sessions are often conducted over secure software platforms and are referred to as telemedicine.

Telemedicine research, implementation, and policy have made great improvements. The global market is projected to increase to $36.3 billion by 2020. Additionally, many states now require private insurance companies to reimburse telemedicine sessions.