We often get the question "Which search engines does TherapySites use?" As it turns out, we don't pick them--they pick us. All of the search engines download the entire internet using web crawlers that continually cruise around the internet, cataloging websites and determining the search engine ranking of each as democratically as possible according to a number of different factors. Some of these factors include: number and popularity of sites that link to the site in question, number of visits to the site, how long it has been up, and the amount and quality of the content.
Another thing the web crawlers keep track of is the meta-tag keywords associated with that site. It used to be that when you typed words into a search engine, the meta-tag keywords were what it looked for. Your TherapySites website has built-in meta-tag keywords which include your name, city, and other pertinent descriptors such as "therapy, counseling, psychotherapy, etc."
The more sophisticated, major search engines increasingly rely on words gleaned from the content of the website itself. Therefore it is important that your content reflects your specialties and geographic location in order for people to be able to search and find you.
It takes somewhere between one and eight weeks for the crawlers to get around to new sites. Until they do you will not come up on that search engine—it simply won't know you're there yet. However, once the crawlers have found you, you will come up in searches. In fact, if someone types in a word or combination of words that's very specific to your site - such as your name - you'll likely come up at or near the top. If they type in more generic terms, such as "therapy" and [name of your city], you'll still come up in the results, but you may be in the company of many other sites that also contain those words! Give it try and see what happens.
Keep in mind that nearly everyone with a website would like to be at the top of the search engine listings. Where you - or they - come up in that listing will be determined by some of the factors listed in the first paragraph above. Once your site has been recorded by the web crawlers you will be in there, but you’re not likely to be high on the list.
You may be wondering what you can do to generate traffic to your new site? You have several options. First of all, I would strongly advise you to take advantage of our partnership with Psychology Today's Therapy Directory listing. It's free to TherapySites clients who are not already in that directory for a full six months. That's enough time to see if it's bringing you traffic. That directory has been in existence for a long time. It is associated with a well-known name and meets all the criteria for coming up high in a generic Google search. Be sure to include your website address in your TD profile (this will make you stand out from others in the informative website!)
If you've tried that and still want more traffic, you might consider signing up for Google Adwords. (Yahoo! offers a similar service, as well.) This is a form of internet advertising that will bring you up very high in the "Sponsored Links" that Google returns. Do a search now, and you'll see the sponsored links over on the right-hand side of the page. How this works is you only pay when someone clicks on your ad and you can tell Google how much you want to spend each month. Once that limit's been reached, they stop putting your ad up. For pricing structure and other information about Adwords, visit Google AdWords.
There is another, more comprehensive option, but it's not practical or cost-effective for most single-practitioner businesses. You can to hire someone for $200-300/month (or up to thousands per month for a real hotshot) to do "Search Engine Optimization” (SEO). If they're good at it, you may find your individual website near the top of the rankings within a year or two.
There is one Search Engine Optimization strategy you can employ yourself that can significantly boost your natural rankings over a considerable span of time. That strategy is to have as many other high-traffic sites as possible link to yours. (Note: You may have to contact the owner of a given site for them to add a link into their website's content.) Good examples of this are on-line directories, professional organizations and forums, or the websites of friends and associates. Having numerous high-traffic links is the factor that currently holds the most weight in search engine rankings. The search engines want rankings to reflect real popularity and value, not the machinations of paid SEO specialists. Because this linking strategy is pretty labor-intensive and requires the cooperation of other website owners, it's less likely to be abused than some of the other criteria. (Meta-tags are being phased out--they were too easy to manipulate in a way that didn't reflect the actual contents of the site, resulting in artificially high rankings for some sites that didn't really "deserve" the honor.)
Finally, make sure to get your website address out there by every non-cyber means at your disposal: include it in advertising, Yellow Pages listings, letterhead, business cards, etc. Also, make sure your current patients know your website address (perhaps by including it on appointment cards). A well tuned website makes an excellent referral tool.
If you have additional questions, please don't hesitate to contact us – we are here to help!
TherapySites Customer Support
support@therapysites.com
(866) 597-2674