SEO: Friend or Foe

I recently updated my website to SquareSpace 7. While I am fairly proficient in the wonderful world of web design, where I lacked understanding was on the unknown universe of SEO (search engine optimization).  If you can relate, then this blog post is for you my friend!

The Yellow Brick Road of SEO

For a long time SEO felt like a vast and mysterious land where only the most uber tech savvy people had secret maps to the pot of gold. I felt like SEO was a yellow brick road filled with flying monkeys and bubbling cauldrons of confusion. And, all of my wonderful colleagues seemed to be in the same predicament! My questions were often met with a glazed over look, a shrug, and a muttered, “I dunno', I don’t get it either.”

Even the top coaches and web designers seemed stumped on how to answer my questions on how best to optimize my website. I sent them article upon article, and the usual answer was a cryptic, “Huh? Interesting.” The entire subject remained an unsolved mystery not only to me, but apparently the public at large.

Until recently.

The Journey Begins

If you know my story then you know I am one determined woman. After months of question marks and haunted forests, I’d had enough! So I slammed on my ruby slippers (well actually my turquoise Nikes), said “screw it” to the confusion and mysterious half answers, and made a decision to educate myself.

To really once and for all, honest to God, no holds bar, not fooling around here, understand this complex topic.

Because my counseling website www.growthcounselingservices.com has been on the front page of Google for many years, I never gave SEO a second thought. However, when Becky (my online business manager and super girl) and I decided it was time to move all of my coaching and consulting information off of my clinical site and onto The Counselor’s Coach website, we knew it was time to roll up our sleeves and dive into SEO everything headfirst!

We are kind of the dynamic duo after all and if anyone could figure it out, we decided that a couple of smart, savvy Thelma and Louise businesswomen like us would do just that. So, with minds made up, Starbucks in hand, heads held high, and laptops charged up, we marched straight into the middle of the SEO maze.

And, boy, what an adventure it has been! 

The Flying Monkeys and The Fairy Godmothers (and fathers)

Along the journey we met angels who help educate and guide us, and (ahem) assholes that either wanted to charge us hundreds of dollars an hour, convince us to join some expensive group, or attempted to sell us their pricey SEO blah blah blah. And we met those who were just plain condescending, the fearless and the tearless SEO “Gurus.” It was a confusing puzzle, and a whole new language to learn.

Yet in spite of the hurdles, there was hilarity, ingenuity, fortitude, and slowly but surely more and more aha moments began to build like a stairway to SEO heaven. We met some awesome peeps along the way that were incredibly generous, and cheered us on pointing out helpful clues and information. Step-by-step, we kept going.

The Emerald City

What we discovered was a tremendous amount of excellent resources, blogs, free webinars and Facebook groups. I also paid for 3 hours of SEO time split between 2 consultants (one was meh, the other outstanding) that helped fill in the gaps of what we had already learned and added to our newfound SEO confidence.

This information not only helped chart our way through the formerly unknown, but within a few weeks we began to really understand the language, and apply the tips and strategies to my website.

And truth be told, it was kind of fun!

SEO is nothing to be scared of

While I will not claim to an “expert” in SEO, I have learned quite a bit about this formerly unknown land over the last half year of intense study and implementation. And though I am not yet fluent, I can speak the language well enough to hold my own with some pretty tech-y nerds.

(Side note to Becky: Does spending several months learning to speak and learn SEO now qualify us as techy nerds? Uh oh…I think it might!) 

Friends and colleagues, if you can relate to parts of our yellow brick road journey, and SEO feels like a bunch of flying monkeys (or Google spiders) just waiting to tear your website apart, fear not! With some determination and elbow grease, and affordable guidance and support along the way, you too can learn the basics of SEO so that you can feel confident in navigating this unknown land.

There is no Place like Home

Disclosure: This website has been live for only 8 days as of this post. We are finishing up the final SEO tweaks and touches. We are not on the home page quite yet, but, as we continue to refine and apply what we have learned, I have no doubt that within a very short time, it will join it’s sister website Growth Counseling Services on page #1 of Google. Home at last!

If you are feeling inspired to learn more about SEO, stay tuned as my next blog will be focused on three specific ways you can begin to optimize your website content so that the Google “gods” will find you too.

After all, if you can’t be found, how are you supposed to do the work you love to do in helping others? And honestly, we therapists deserve to make a good living for the good work we do.

We would love to hear your successes and challenges on SEO. If you have a question we can answer, once I get enough on the topic, Becky and I will record our Ten Minute Tips and Tools on SEO for all of you.

If you need some support on business direction and goals, then I’d like to be a helpful support on your own yellow brick road journey. You can reach me here.

Either way, so happy you found us - keep your chin up buttercup, you got this!

Kindly and in support,