5 SEO Fixes to Bring Traffic to Your Therapy Website
The Math - more traffic, means more visibility means increased caseload
You can sit with a client’s whole inner world for fifty minutes and not break a sweat.
Then someone says “SEO”, and you feel that familiar flicker of I probably should understand this, I don’t, and I’m not sure I want to.
You’re not alone. Honestly, getting found online is one of the questions that comes up in our Q&A almost every week. Some version of how do I actually get people to land on my website?
And here’s the quiet hope most of us are carrying around that the website will just sit there, glowing gently in the background, finding clients while we get on with the actual job.
Wouldn’t that be nice?
I’d love that too. (If you are new to SEO, read this first )
SEO isn’t one-and-done; you can make useful improvements in an afternoon and the timing matters. We’re coming up to summer. Diaries thin out, clients head off on holiday, and you know the small lurch that comes with it, the empty week, the wondering whether it’ll fill back up.
It’s the rare window when you have the headspace to work on the practice instead of in it. So get your website earning its keep now, while you’re off doing something better, and September won’t be a scramble.
I’m putting together a short training on bringing more traffic to your website over the coming month. But you don’t need to wait for it. There’s groundwork worth doing now, and most of it is free.
I asked Sophie from Pocketsite.co.uk what five things therapists could do this week to improve their SEO.
One
Read your meta title like a stranger would.
Your meta title is the title that shows up in Google when someone finds your website.
It helps Google understand what your page is about, but it also helps a real person decide whether to click.
You can usually change your meta title and meta description in the SEO settings for each page of your website. Look for something like Page Settings, SEO, Search Engine Listing, or SEO title and description. You’ll usually need to do this page by page, starting with your homepage and main service pages.
A good meta title should quickly answer three questions:
What do you offer?
Who do you help?
Where are you based?
For example:
CBT Therapist in Wilmslow for Anxiety and Burnout
This is much clearer than:
Home | Sarah Rees Therapy
The second one may look tidy, but it doesn’t tell Google — or the person searching — what you actually do.
Your meta description is the short sentence underneath the title in Google. This doesn’t need to be packed full of keywords. It just needs to sound clear, warm and human.
For example:
CBT for adults in Wilmslow struggling with anxiety, burnout and self-criticism. Online and in-person appointments available.
You can use AI to help draft your meta titles and descriptions. Just make sure you edit them so they still sound like you.
Two
Make your headings earn their place.
Your headings are the titles and section titles on each page of your website.
They help your reader understand the page, but they also help Google understand what the page is about.
Your H1 is the main heading on the page. This is usually the big title at the top. Each page should usually have one clear H1.
Your H2s are the smaller section headings underneath. They break the page up and help explain what each section is about.
You can usually change these directly on the page when you edit your website text. Look for the text style options in your website editor, often called Heading 1, H1, Heading 2, or H2. Your homepage, therapy pages, about page and blog posts are all worth checking.
Instead of using a vague heading like:
How I Can Help
You could use something clearer, such as:
CBT Therapy for Anxiety in Wilmslow
Or:
Online EMDR for Trauma
This doesn’t mean every heading has to be full of keywords. Please don’t turn your website into something that sounds robotic.
But where it feels natural, your headings should quietly say what you offer, who you help, and where you work.
Three
Tell people where you are. Genuinely, where you are.
This was Sophie’s big one: make sure your location is actually on your website.
Therapists often write beautifully about their approach, their values and the people they help, then forget to mention they’re based in Leeds, Manchester, Wilmslow or wherever they actually work.
But if someone types “EMDR therapist in Manchester” into Google, your website needs to contain those words somewhere for Google to make the connection.
Your location should show up in a few key places:
Your meta title
A heading, where it fits naturally
The main body of the page
Your footer
This doesn’t mean stuffing your town or city into every other sentence. It just means making it clear where you offer therapy, especially if you see clients in person.
It sounds obvious when you say it out loud, but it’s one of the most common things missing from therapist websites.
That’s three quick changes you can make before your coffee goes cold. The final two are below, plus the one thing I’d put above all five.