Private Practice Success Newsletter

December 2007, by Lynn Grodzki, LCSW, MCC (Master Certified Coach)
www.privatepracticesuccess.com

Last month we explored some basics about website development. This month I want to take you two steps further: 1) In this month's newsletter we look at the importance of website optimization. 2) You can join a FREE one-hour teleclass, December 18 at 3 PM EST with Deborah Gallant of Webpowertools.com, my resident website consultant. See the Teleclass portion of the newsletter below for instructions to call in.

Website Development, Part 2

A website functions like a brochure floating in space. It exists, but no one may see it unless you help direct them to it.

If you want to boost your chance of having people find your site when they search the internet for certain terms, you need to optimize your site.

Optimization means positioning your site so that it shows up quickly via a SERP (search engine results page) -- the listing of web pages that you see when you search Google, Yahoo or any other search engine in response to a keyword query such as “couples counseling.”

For example, if a potential client is looking for couples counseling in your city and goes to a search engine such as Google and types in: “Couples counseling, Columbus Ohio,” you want your website to show up first.

You can optimize a site yourself, or you may decide that its a better use of your time to hire a company to help you achieve these goals. But even if you hire someone, I still want you to understand what it all means. So take a deep breath, get your technician's hat on, and read further.

"They say a year in the Internet business is like a dog year... equivalent to seven years in a regular person's life. In other words, it's evolving fast and faster." (Vinton Cerf)

Website optimization has one goal: to improve the ranking of your website on a search engine page. Ranking is not random or luck. Why is ranking so important? Internet users are impatient.

Data shows that 80% of users will start a new search if they can’t find what they’re looking for in the first page of Google. And there are 300 million searches carried out every day. So you want your website to be easy to spot, and that means you need to optimize it.

Determining your "key words" is the first step. Keywords are those key terms (depression, couples counseling, therapy, treatment, etc.) that need to show up frequently and in the right way on your site, so that those doing searches for your services, and the search engines themselves, can quickly locate you.

"The winner is the chef who takes the same ingredients as everyone else and produces the best results." (Edward de Bono)

Since Keywords are so important, you need to do some research to determine the best target keywords and key phrases. Here are 3 sites that can help you find the best keywords for your website:

1) www.wordtracker.com
2) http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion
3) https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal

All of these sites help you to analyze keyword phrases.

In a recent article in the Psychotherapy Networker Magazine, Joe Bavonese (a therapist and business coach) writes how he used the Google site above to help a client determine that the keywords “adolescent depression” would be better to highlight on his webpage than "adolescent counseling." Why? Because "adolescent depression" gets searched by potential clients an average of 1200 times a month, and the phrase “adolescent counseling” gets searched only 475 times each month.

It helps to do some research to know how to write your website more effectively, so potential clients can find you quickly.

"I can't understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I'm frightened of old ones." (John Cage)

Here are some do's and don'ts for Optimization

Do have sufficient content and keep it fresh and up to date. Search engines like Google love content—the more content there is on a page, the easier it is for search engines to work out what the page is actually about.

Don’t copy and paste from another website. The major search engines will often discount web pages that seem to be similar to another site.

Do put keywords and phrases in both the first paragraph of your homepage as well as the last. (Example: If you offer counseling for depression in Los Angeles, then you want some of your keywords “counseling, depression, Los Angeles” to be in the text at the beginning and then last paragraph on the homepage of your website.)

Don't put too many different keywords or topics and ideas on the same page. Make your key phrases appear more concentrated and relevant so the search engines can find them. You can always add more pages.

Upcoming Teleclasses

Free Teleclass! "Website Development and Internet Marketing Made Easy" with Lynn and Deborah Gallant. December 18 at 3 PM EST. To register, just email: teleclass@webpowertools.com and you will get back an immediate return email with information telling you how to access the teleclass. The bridgeline can hold a limited number of people, so first come, first served!
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Basic Strong Start Teleclass

Begins Feb 2008

This is my signature 4 month teleclass, which can help you reach your practice goals faster and with more support than you can do alone. We cover the first 6 chapters of my workbook and MORE! Participants rave about the progress they make, the shifts they go through to be more entrepreneurial, and the long-lasting support they develop with other class members. To see the class schedule, curriculum, and to register, please go to: www.strongstartclasses.com
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Advanced Strong Start Teleclass

Begins Feb 2008

This is the teleclass for those who have taken the Basic Strong Start and want to go further. We cover the final 6 chapters of my workbook and MORE! To see the class schedule, curriculum, and to register, please go to: www.strongstartclasses.com

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Books by Lynn Grodzki, published by WW Norton. To order, click on each book.

	The Business and Practice of Coaching By Lynn Grodzki and Wendy Allen (2005) Reviewed by author Richard Leider as "Nothing less than a radical rethinking of the essentials of building a coaching practice. A must read for all coaches, master and novice alike."
	Building Your Ideal Private Practice By Lynn Grodzki (2000) The best-selling guide to what you need to do and who you need to be in order to have a highly profitable, personally satisfying private practice. Often called the "private practice bible" this book has become a resource for tens of thousands of your colleagues.
	The New Private Practice:Therapist-Coaches Share Stories, Strategies and Advice Edited by Lynn Grodzki (2002) A groundbreaking look at the profession of coaching through the eyes of 16 successful therapist-coaches who tell you how to become a coach, what to charge, and show you how they coach their clients.
	12 Months to Your Ideal Private Practice: A Workbook By Lynn Grodzki (2003) This planned, motivational workbook will help you build the practice you desire. The workbook incorporates fresh ideas, new exercises, further skill sets and much more to give you a direct experience of being carefully coached by Lynn, month-by-month, for a full year.

More next time,

lynn@privatepracticesuccess.com
See the website for additional articles, information about individual coaching, and upcoming classes.