5 Easy Ways To Be The *Queen* (…Or King) of Therapy Blogging
If you’ve been reading our blogs, then you might have guessed it… we love blogging! And we want to help you love it too.
While there are many ways to market yourself as a private practice therapist, blogging tends to be the most stable and consistent.
Social media platforms are constantly changing algorithms (i.e., Instagram switching to reels, Facebook Ads + privacy, TikTok blowing up). With all of these changes, blogging with SEO in mind remains a consistent approach to driving traffic to your website organically instead of a quick spike that then quickly declines.
Benefits of blogging for private practice therapists
1. Blogging is Great for SEO
Blogging for SEO is the process of writing and optimizing blog content to rank on search engines like Google.
Blogging as a private practice therapist is great for SEO (which is a long-game approach). You might not go viral right away as a Somatic Therapist in Bend, Oregon (that’s a longtail keyword!), but by consistently blogging about somatic therapy over time, you can potentially rank on the first page of Google when someone types “somatic therapist near me [Bend, OR].”
When blogging for SEO as a therapist, make sure your posts are at least 1000 words long. In general, Google ranks blog posts as the first page with more content.
Longer content gets more backlinks.
Longer content gets more organic traffic.
It’s more important to write succinct and quality content than it is to have lengthy blog posts filled with fluff.
2. Blogging is easy to repurpose
Blogs are amazing for content creation. You can spend just an hour a week writing a really good blog post and have tons of secondary marketing material from one post. Let’s take this blog, for instance. We are going to do the following things with this one blog after posting it:
Create an Instagram graphic with a snippet of the blog as the caption.
Create multiple Pinterest images with links to the blog.
Create a newsletter promoting the blog.
Link to this blog in other blog posts.
Link to our lead magnet* to build up our email list.
*A Lead Magnet gives users a free resource in exchange for their email addresses.
Continue to expand this blog if people request it.
3. Blogs can vary in length and depth
Blogs are YOUR creation, and therefore you are in charge of their length. If you want to write a 3000+ word blog on the benefits of boundary setting, go for it! If you are feeling “meh” about the topic, but just want to put something out there on your site, you can write a shorter blog.
While it’s important to have a consistent voice and tone throughout your blog, you can switch things up from week to week. Because remember, you are in charge!
4. Blogs are easy to share and promote
Blogs are super easy to share. For instance, you might have found our site through a therapist's Facebook group. Julie shares blog posts in therapist Facebook groups that answer questions therapists are searching for (i.e. how to build referrals in private practice).
You can also share directly to Pinterest and Facebook from this blog page. Squarespace offers plug-ins that are easy to install.
5. You can write a blog from anywhere
Unlike TikTok and Instagram Reels, you can literally blog in your undies. Julie’s writing this blog on an airplane to California. It’s a convenient marketing method that only requires a computer (or smartphone) and access to the internet.
6. Blogs build brand trust
Blogging helps your ideal client to KNOW, LIKE, and TRUST you by allowing your style and therapeutic voice to come through. It also provides a free, quality resource to people that might not be able to afford to meet with you individually.
How to create a therapy blog
5 steps to starting a therapy blog page:
1. Get a website with a blog feature
We love Squarespace for many reasons, one of them being their blog page! It’s easy to use, and the built-in SEO features are great. If you are on the fence about creating a website for your practice, all of our templates come with a blog page designed specifically for therapists in private practice.
2. Get a plug-in editor + human editor
We recommend downloading Grammarly and using it for all blog posts…and just about everything else! Grammarly is constantly running deals, plus paying for it for the year is pretty cheap and 100% worth it.
Google prioritizes well-written blogs, and Grammarly gives you a leg up!
If you can, try and find an actual human to edit your blog post as well before you go live. You can find another therapist to do a “trade” with—send each other weekly blog posts and edit them on Google Docs. You are getting feedback from someone that knows the field and can point out some really obvious stuff that might be missing.
Post on a Facebook group that you are looking for a trade!
3. Find Quality Images
Quality images help with SEO and make your blog post more visually appealing. Make sure your images are optimized for SEO by doing the following:
Use descriptive filenames. When saving the file and/or make sure to change the file name to a descriptive and clear name. Think somatic-therapist.jpg, not IMG_95742.jpg.
Add descriptive alt text. Describe your images in a few words to help visually impaired users that use screen readers.
Compress your images. Use a plugin like ShortPixel Image OptimizeR, or Website Planet for this.
You can find images on the following sites:
4. Create a catchy (and SEO friendly title)
Your blog title should have relevant keywords in it. We are writing about blogging in this blog post, so we included “therapy blogging” in the title (learn more about SEO-friendly titles HERE).
You can write your blog in a variety of formats. In general, most blogs are written as:
How-to guide
Step-by-step tutorial
Opinion piece
Review
Comparison
You’ll want to include the type of blog in your blog's title.
Blog TITLE EXAMPLES:
A Personal Experience BLOG TITLE: 10 Therapy Tools I Use In Session To Get Lasting Results
Best OF BLOG TITLE: The 5 Best Trainings For Therapists In Private Practice
Expert commentary BLOG TITLE: 20 Expert-Backed Tools To Soothe Anxiety
For beginners BLOG TITLE: Therapy Tips For Beginners
Specific outcome BLOG TITLE: 12 Quick Breathing Exercises To Feel More Present
Tried and tested BLOG TITLE: 10 Apps to Ease Anxiety Best Free Chrome Extensions for SEOs (Tried & Tested)
Freshness BLOG TITLE: Online Therapy: A Comprehensive Guide For A Post-Covid World
A “fun” way to find the right title is to come up with at least ten different titles for each blog post. Play around with the wording, angle, and voice. Often your first title will not be your final. Get good at crafting a title that converts.
5. Post and share!
One of the main reasons to write a blog is to have people read it! Make sure you are actually sharing your blog post after you go live. Once your blog is live, share it with your newsletter, social media community, family, friends, and colleagues!
SEO Checklist for Blogging
Keep these things in mind when blogging for SEO:
Include your keyword in the title
Keep your SEO title short on Squarespace. Your SEO title displays on browser tabs, search engine results, and social shares.
Make your meta description interesting and similar to other top-ranking blogs.
Add internal links throughout the blog post.
Internal links are links from one page or post on the same domain to another. They’re important because they boost the ‘authority’ of pages and help Google to understand what a page is about.
Next Steps
After you’ve posted a few blog posts and begun to see increased website traffic, you’ll want to start paying attention to your page analytics. Squarespace has google analytics built into the platform, but if you haven’t already, connect your site to Google Search Console!
Then, start to look at the time spent on each blog post. This gives you great insight into whether or not your ideal client is actually reading your content. If people spend less than 30 seconds on your blog post, that probably means the content isn’t resonating with them. If they spend three minutes or more, great! Keep writing similar content.
It’s also important to be consistent. Ideally, for SEO purposes you’ll want to post a blog every week. This generates new content and keywords and lets Google know your site is active and relevant. If that isn’t doable, stick with once a month and commit to following through consistently.
If you are ready to take the plunge and create a website with a blog that speaks to your ideal client, check out our templates! All website templates for therapists come predesigned with a blog page, optimized for SEO.
JULIE GOLDBERG is the founder of Third Nature Therapy, a virtual therapy group offering holistic mental health care for people seeking a different perspective on wellbeing. As a co-founder of PREMADE and mental health practitioner herself, she offers straightforward and easy to implement methods for running a successful private practice.