Interesting Annual Trend in Counseling Searches

So the baby is *still* sleeping, and thus I am wandering around the Internet looking for new information to use (and to share, too).

Found an interesting trend I hadn't realized was there. If you look at each year, you see a huge crater in searches for "counseling" in November and December. This makes intuitive sense - people are too busy with holidays, vacations, shopping & family to delve into their own psyches. I don't think I expected it to be so sharp and so regular though.

The lesson from this is, of course, don't be counting on big additions to your client ranks during November and December. One oddity in the stats is that in 2008, and only in 2008, there was a large spike in marriage counseling searches in late December. The economy? That would be my guess.

More on trends later! Best, Peter

When Bad Adwords Strike!

OK, folks, I just sometimes see web marketing done badly and it ticks me off. And I want to save you from it. Of course I'd love you to use my services, but even more, I'd love you to use me or someone else good, not crappy services. Too many therapists pay too much money for bad web marketing services!

Today, it is DexKnows that has my goat. I've seen their ads up before - horribly written, crazy long and ugly domain names. I saw one of these the other night, while Googling "seattle counseling" (I do my own competitive analysis quite often).

I found it again today (actually when I first saw it, the headline just said "counseling". For those not familiar with my area, Seattle is a good hour plus drive from Olympia and Lacey. The URL just looked weird, so I did my usual (I visited it, but didn't click on the ad and cost them $, that would just be rude). Where did I end up? Take a look for yourself.

Ah yes, a DexKnows page. The silly thing about these DexKnows pages is that most of the people have good websites already. This Marston center has a very nicely done website. I think they really get who they are across in it, in a quick manner. But for some dumb reason, their Adwords $ gets you to a yellow pages ad. Ugh.

OK, my spleen is vented. Time for some coffee.

Best to you, Your Google Guy

What? (Part 3 of 5 W's and 1 H)

I brainstormed several different ways of starting this post. Here's the winner:

Q: What?
A: Counseling. For human problems. That gives your client some benefit.

OK, that might be too succinct, but if you just get that question and answer, you'll improve your site.

The What of our sites (whether you call yourself counselor, social worker, therapist, analyst, or psychologist) is our paid services. To me, the goal of our sites is to get clients to come in, let us provide counseling services, and then pay us for it.

I know there are people who want to have other streams of income - sell e-books, tapes, etc. That's fine, but for a vast majority of you therapists out there, that income is going to vastly overshadowed by your fee-for-service income. I bring up this point because I think in developing your content for your website you should make it crystal clear that you...

1) provide counseling services - and be direct about whether your services are geared to the individual, family, marriage, pre-marital, child, adolescent and/or teen.

2) you do services for with certain complaints. Depression, anxiety, relationships (these 3 words cover the vast majority of client complaints - it is the 80/20 rule in effect) are the clearest examples.

3) if you have a niche or specialty, that you do these services for those issues too.

4) and that the counseling is given to provide benefits to your clients. There's a saying in advertising - "Features tell, benefits sell". People don't come for the DBT or the CBT or the EFT, they come for the peace of mind, or the returning of hope and energy, or the end of fighting in their marriage.

OK, I'm getting off my soapbox now.

Best, Peter
Market Your Private Practice With Adwords!