What you need to know about SEO
SEO is the practice of increasing website traffic through non-paid (also known as "organic") search engine results. The majority of online traffic is driven by search engines, and 90% of web searches happen on Google, so it’s important for your website to show up highly in Google search results.
The Google algorithm is complicated and always changing. Basically, it discovers and catalogs all available content on the internet by a process known as “crawling and indexing,” and then orders it by how well it matches the search query by a process known as “ranking.”
As a therapist, there are really only two things you need to know about SEO: quality content and quality user experience.
Quality content is about understanding what people are searching for online and then optimizing your website content to best answer their search queries. If you’re not sure where to start, Google Trends will tell you what people are searching and Answer the Public will tell you what questions people are asking based on keywords.
Quality user experience is about how well Google can understand what your website is about. Make it easy for them by creating short, meaningful page titles and using page headings that convey the subject of the page. Also, make sure your website is fast to load, mobile-friendly, and follow the Google Webmaster Guidelines. Website building tools like Squarespace, Wix, and WordPress do this.
Here’s some more basic SEO advice.
Claim your listings
Ensure your name, address, and phone number (NAP) profile is consistent across all online listings, including Google My Business, Bing, and Apple Maps. Don’t forget Yelp, too. This will help to signal to Google that your website is an authority, which means it will rank higher in search results.
Build credibility, not links
People try to beat the algorithm by placing links to their website (called “backlinks”) all over the internet, but the general rule is quality over quantity. The more natural backlinks you have from high-authority websites, the better your odds are to rank higher within search results.
Write for your audience, not the algorithm
People also try to beat the algorithm by doing something called “keyword stuffing.” This doesn’t work. Instead, focus on writing for your audience. The result will be higher quality content, which people will actually want to read.
Be skeptical of “SEO experts”
You can perform basic SEO yourself. If you do want to hire someone, here is a good article on how to choose an SEO consultant or agency. Look out for "black hat SEO," which refers to practices that violate Google’s guidelines. It puts websites at risk of being penalized and/or de-indexed (removed from search results), which you don’t want.
I found this Beginner’s Guide to SEO from Moz to be tremendously helpful in researching for this article. Google also has their own Beginner’s Guide to SEO.