Find New Clients as an Online Therapist

It can be pretty frustrating, trying to get clients as an online therapist. You’ve got a lot of competition, as hundreds of licensed experts are also offering their services over the Internet. For every private live online chat, telephone counseling session, and email session you offer, there are others that entice your prospective clients with the same thing. If you’re going to put your education in psychology to good use online, you’ll need to find a way to stand out from the competition and get new clients. Here are a few tips on how to do it:

Soup Up Your Website

It’s no secret – web users like well-made websites. Excellent web design can boost your credibility and make your psychotherapy practice more attractive than others. Try to get your website to meet current web design standards. Consult a professional web designer on how to do that. There are many good freelance web developers who will help your website pull in more visitors and keep them there. From the aesthetics to the features of your website, everything matters when it comes to online clients.

Optimize

Search engine optimization (SEO) is a web design technique that helps websites appear more prominently on search engines. Ever wonder why some websites consistently appear at the top of the list whenever you search for a certain term on Google? That’s because the site’s content, relevance to users, and number of visitors all contribute to its placement on search engine results. Do some research on the many techniques used for search engine optimization, such as the use of specific keywords, and see how you can apply these principles to your website. If you’ve got the money to spare, you can even hire an SEO specialist to work on your site. You’ll be surprised at how effective this is in bringing new users to your online therapy website.

Get Listed

There are numerous online directories you can submit your website and contact information to. Sites like Yahoo can help bring you new clients. There are also several online directories that cater to a specific niche, which in your case is online therapy. Two good examples are Online Therapy Direct and Find-a-Therapist. Just take note that some sites, like the former of the two just mentioned, belong to certain associations. As such, if you want to get listed on Online Therapy Direct, you’ll have to sign up to be a member of the Online Therapy Institute first.

Share the Wealth

There’s no doubt that as a licensed therapist, you’ve got a wealth of information in your head. Why not share some of that information with the rest of the world? Writing an article on certain topics relevant to your practice – say, how to deal with insomnia, for example – and submitting it to websites like eZine Articles and Helium, can have a profound effect on the number of new clients you can get. People are always looking for help, and if your article can provide some much-needed assistance, you’ll gain the trust of a potential new client. Just be sure that you plug your online therapy website at the end of the article; after all, you’ve got to advertise.