SEO FOR Therapists – Ultimate 2023 guide including keywords and videos

Keyword research is an essential component of Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and digital marketing. It involves identifying the words and phrases people use to search for your practice and the services that you can offer as a therapist. By understanding what people are searching for, you can optimise your website content to attract more traffic and potential clients.

Keyword research helps hypnotherapists to identify the most relevant and popular search terms that their target audience is using to find services similar to yours. It also provides insights into the level of competition for those keywords, allowing businesses to identify opportunities for ranking higher in search engine results pages (SERPs). Additionally, keyword research can help to understand the intent behind a search query, enabling the creation of content that better meets the needs of your target audience.

Effective keyword research involves a combination of data analysis, creativity, and strategic thinking. By conducting thorough keyword research, you can gain a competitive edge and improve your online visibility. In the following article, we will explore the different methods and tools used for keyword research, the benefits of conducting keyword research, and how practices can use this information to improve their online presence.

Why is Keyword Research Important?

Keyword research plays a vital role in search engine optimization (SEO) and digital marketing. Understanding why keyword research is important can help businesses develop a more effective SEO strategy. Here are some reasons why keyword research is important.

Understanding User Search Intent

Keyword research helps businesses understand the intent behind the keywords that their target audience is using to search for products or services. By identifying the keywords that potential clients use, therapists can create content that meets their needs and provides value. This understanding of user intent can help improve your website’s relevance, which can lead to higher search engine rankings.

Identifying High-Value Keywords

Keyword research can help businesses identify high-value keywords that have a high search volume and low competition. These keywords can be used to optimise website content and improve search engine rankings. By targeting these high-value keywords, your site can attract more traffic, which can lead to more leads and sales.

Competitive Analysis

Keyword research can also help businesses analyze their competitors’ SEO strategies. By identifying the keywords that your competitors are targeting, businesses can gain insight into their competitors’ content strategy and identify gaps in their own content. This analysis can help create content that is more relevant and valuable than your competitors, which can lead to higher search engine rankings and more traffic.

In conclusion, keyword research is an essential part of any SEO strategy. By understanding user intent, identifying high-value keywords, and conducting competitive analysis, businesses can create content that attracts more traffic to their website and drives more leads and sales.

How to Conduct Keyword Research

Keyword research is a crucial aspect of search engine optimization (SEO) and digital marketing. It involves identifying the most relevant and popular keywords people use to search for information, products, or services online. In this section, we will discuss how to conduct keyword research effectively.

Brainstorming and Idea Generation

The first step in conducting keyword research is to brainstorm and generate a list of keyword ideas. This involves identifying the main topics or themes that are relevant to your practice or niche. Here are some tips to help you with brainstorming:

• Identify the main categories or topics that are relevant to your business or niche.
• Use mind-mapping tools or brainstorming to generate ideas.
• Think about the questions that your target audience may have and the keywords they may use to search for answers.
• Look at your competitors’ keywords & websites and identify the keywords they are targeting.
• Seed keywords are when you use a single keyword or possibly 2 as a starting point. The keyword tools will help you find long tail phrases which may have a good number of searches, but not too much competition. A long tail is where there are three or more words being searched for. These can often be great sources of potential clients. 
• Extra topic ideas can be found in Google’s autocomplete function. In Google, if you start typing a keyword into the search box, it will show you other common words that people type after the keyword. This can help with inspiration and often turns up long-tail keywords that you might not have found. 

Using Keyword Research Tools / SEO Tools

Once you have generated a list of potential keywords, the next step is to use keyword research tools to refine and expand your list. Here are some popular keyword research tools:

• Google Keyword Planner: This is a free tool that allows you to find relevant keywords based on search volume and competition.
• Ahrefs: This is a paid tool that provides comprehensive keyword research data, including search volume, keyword difficulty, and more.
• Moz Keyword Explorer. This is another popular, paid tool that provides various SEO Metrics. 
• SEMrush: This is another paid tool that provides keyword research data and competitor analysis.

When using these SEO tools, it’s important to focus on the search volume and competition metrics to identify the most relevant and valuable keywords.

With keyword research, we are generally looking at organic traffic, that is traffic that the search engines send us for free from the search box. The paid traffic data can also be useful. If people are paying for Google Ads regularly, it shows that this keyword converts into potential clients. No one keeps paying for Google ads that don’t result in clicks and potential clients!

It’s worth saying that the paid tools have free trials. Sometimes you may be able to complete your research using these trials. These tools are fairly expensive, so it’s best to use them for a short period and then cancel your subscription. You can subscribe for a month at a time as you need to research new markets.

It is also worth collecting metrics from your website to see how well your site is performing and see if you can improve its rankings. There are 2 main tools or plugins used with WordPress sites. These are Yoast SEO and Rankmath. These are both simple to install and use and will help you to get better results. Yoast SEO has been the favourite for many years, but Rankmath is a recent challenger which leverages AI to help get more traffic. 

Analyzing Search Data

The final step in conducting keyword research is to analyze search data and refine your list of keywords.

This involves looking at the search volume, competition, and relevance of each keyword. Here are some tips to help you with analyzing search data:

• Look at the search volume and competition metrics to identify the most relevant and valuable keywords.
• Use long-tail keywords to target specific niches and improve your chances of ranking higher in search results.
• Analyze your competitors’ websites and identify the keywords they are targeting.
• Use keyword research data to optimize your website content, including page titles, meta descriptions, etc. 
• Keyword research can give you some great content ideas. Look to add topics that you don’t currently cover or maybe ideas to expand and improve your existing content. 
• Some keywords will have obvious commercial intent. Some posts help to educate people about your services, others are where someone is actively looking to buy. For instance, searches for “Hypnotherapy for pain” is more likely to get a client than “What is hypnosis?”

Professional Tip – The traffic figures are the average monthly search volumes. Be careful not to think that these are daily searches. These figures can also go up and down. Some things are seasonal and this can affect the traffic that you get in a month.  

Some keyword tools provide a Ranking Difficulty Score. This shows how hard it is to rank for this particular keyword. Generally, anything higher than 25 requires greater time, effort and cost to rank for. 

Google Trends is another useful tool. It will show you the long-term traffic for a keyword and if this is increasing or shrinking. If the traffic is reducing, you may not want to target this unless it is just a small reduction. 

By following these steps, you can conduct keyword research effectively and improve your chances of ranking higher in search results.

Potential keywords for Hypnotherapists

Here are some keywords which are a good starting point for Hypnotherapists

• Hypnosis
• Hypnotherapy
• Relaxation
• Stress reduction
• Anxiety relief
• Pain management
• Self-improvement
• Mindfulness
• Mental health
• Personal development

These do need to be expanded out to find niches that match your skills and where there is less competition. Also think about using local terms such as your town, city and county to help expand your keyword list.