From Rankings to Recognition — Why Modern SEO Requires Brand Amplification

SEO isn’t dead, but the way people search, discover, and decide who to trust has changed.

In this episode of From Keywords to Connections, Mary and Winnie explore the shift from rankings to recognition and what modern visibility looks like for therapists, private practices, and other helping professionals. Ranking on the first page still matters, but today, potential clients may encounter your practice through AI results, social media, Google Business Profiles, featured snippets, reviews, and other touchpoints before they ever click your website.

We talk about why foundational SEO is still essential, how brand amplification supports visibility and trust, and why consistency across your website and other platforms matters more than ever. We also dig into niching down, creating a recognizable brand, using Google Search Console to uncover opportunities, and expanding the way we measure SEO success beyond rankings and clicks.

Most importantly, we look at the psychology behind it all. Familiarity builds trust, and for helping professionals, that sense of familiarity and safety can influence a potential client’s decision long before they reach your contact page.

If your SEO feels different than it did a few years ago, it probably is. The goal isn’t to abandon what works. It’s to understand how search has evolved and build a strategy that combines strong SEO, intentional visibility, and genuine human connection.

Transcript

Mary (00:49)
welcome back to From Keywords to Connections, the podcast where we explore the intersection of thoughtful SEO strategy and meaningful human connection. If you've been running a practice for a while, you've probably felt it. Something in search feels different. Maybe your rankings are steady, maybe impressions are up, maybe technically things are working, and yet it doesn't feel the way it used to. It doesn't feel as predictable, it doesn't feel as linear, and it doesn't feel as simple as rank higher and get more clicks.

Winnie (01:17)
And that's because SEO didn't stop working, but the way success shows up has changed. Clients don't discover you in one straight line anymore. They move through multiple touch points. They see your name more than once. They research, they compare, they build trust slowly. So today we're unpacking the shift from rankings to recognitions. We're talking about why position one is no longer the full goal. How decisions are made before someone clicks your website.

Why consistency across platforms matters more than ever and how foundational SEO and brand amplification actually work together. This isn't about trends. It's about understanding how people choose care today.

Mary (02:14)
So something that's really important for people to keep in mind is we're not saying that SEO has failed. It hasn't failed,

Winnie (02:20)
I know.

Mary (02:21)
it hasn't stopped working, but it has matured and changed over the last couple of years with the advent of AI. So SEO used to basically be a straight line. You optimize, you climb the rankings, you track the rankings, you watch traffic, and you measure conversions. And for years, that model worked beautifully. I mean, that's what we adhered to for years. But search engines have evolved.

Winnie (02:42)
And AI is now being used to answer questions.

directly. A lot of that research phase people are not going to your website to find the answer they're using AI to find that answer. Google business profiles are dominating local visibility. People search your practice names instead of just anxiety therapists because while AI has been answering those questions during research phase they've seen your practice show up repeatedly.

directories, videos, social profiles, snippets, they all occupy space. Things like Instagram and comments

and posts on Facebook are all being pulled into Google searches. Those search results are not, like you said, linear anymore. They're an ecosystem comprised of all of these different components.

Mary (03:31)
So ranking first

in the number one slot, while it's important, isn't necessarily gonna guarantee that you have dominance. The conversation is shifting from am I number one to how much of the search landscape do I occupy? How much do I show up? How many times am I visible when somebody searches anxiety therapist or EMDR or a specific problem that they're having?

It's not a downgrade of SEO, but it's an expansion of what SEO now influences.

Winnie (03:59)
I hear lately a common phrase I've been using. It's not about just being in that top three. It's about dominating the whole page, the featured snippets, being the answer to the question, being in the AI summary. Like you said, how much of the landscape of AI and Google are you taking up?

Mary (04:17)
Yeah. Because if you think

about it, if you show up in the AI snippet, you're in the people also ask section, you're a snippet, you're number one, you're on the page four times. So people are really going to be like, this person must know what they're talking about. I see their name popping up all over the place. And they're going to remember that for future reference.

Winnie (04:36)
So let's dive in a little bit deeper about that digital real estate because that's what it is. want to take up as much as that real estate digitally as possible. So when someone searches things like anxiety therapists near me or trauma counseling in, and insert your city, EMDR therapist, couples therapy, where does your name appear? So with organic results, we want, and it is still very important that you're listed

in those organic sources? Your service page related to it, your about page, your blog post, because you can also take up multiple spots in the search results. Someone searches EMDR therapist, okay, and about page pops up. A blog about EMDR therapist and maybe your EMDR page pop up. That's more real estate. But are you also in the local map pack?

reviews, Google business profile, images, social profiles, blog snippets, the people also ask section where we're gathering a lot of great information. Are you listed? Right there. And the AI summary is your website and your name listed over on the side as a resource.

Mary (05:45)
because it's

really all about psychology. It's really about understanding how the human brain works, how human behavior works, and the brain reads repetition as authority. It's like you're obviously, you know what you're talking about because Google has put you on this page four times. So if your name appears once,

you're an option. But if your name appears five times, you feel like you're an established business, you're an established professional, you are an expert in the field. Even if you're not in position one, though we do want you to be on that first page,

have to be number one, like top three is great. Repetition really builds that familiarity and familiarity builds perceived safety and that safety is what really leads people to action because they want to feel like they're going to be talking to somebody who gets them, who understands them, who they're safe with and because you know mental health is something that is a very personal journey so they want to know that whoever they're talking to is really going to be a safe person to share all of these inner feelings and thoughts with. So for therapists this is especially critical.

.

Winnie (06:46)
I kind of see it as the potential client facing version of building an each score with Google. We do all these things to build trust with Google. And a lot of that is aligned with building trust with potential viewers. But a huge piece of that now is how often your name is seen. Where is that repetition building of for recognition?

Mary (07:09)
Yeah, I kind

of like to say it's like your digital handshake. Like if you were to go meet somebody face

Winnie (07:13)
good way to say it.

Mary (07:15)
to face, you would shake their hand, introduce yourself. So being on the page more is kind of like a really strong digital handshake. You're introducing yourself, you're shaking their hand, you're saying, I'm a safe place to come. I get you, I know what you're talking about.

Winnie (07:29)
That is absolutely true. And like you said, the psychology of it is a big piece of it. And the psychology of pre-decision is something I think we should dive even deeper into because That is where having an emotional layer matters.

These clients do not land on your website undecided and neutral. They've already, like we've mentioned, seen your name, read your reviews if you have any, scanned your tone. We talk a lot about having a conversational personal tone. They've seen that and how you're cited and your meta descriptions, all of that. They've looked at your headshots, the photos of your office, the photos of you and the therapists in your practice.

They've noticed the consistency, maybe even seen a post, especially on Instagram with those being pulled. And they might be at a place now where they're searching your name directly because you've stuck with them.

Mary (08:23)
That's right. I think that, I mean, again, you can't stress enough how important it is to...

have that conversational tone in this AI landscape. Make sure your photos are consistent across platforms. Make sure you don't have to have perfect headshots. People want someone who is relatable because by the time they fill out your contact form, they're

often confirming a decision that they've already made. They've seen all of this stuff on Google's search engine results page. They like what you look like. They feel like your office is a comfortable space. They feel like you're an expert. So they've already kind of made the decision.

click to your website and they're ready to fill out that contact form. They're ready to fill out that scheduling piece. So the click is not the beginning of the journey like we said. It's really the end of that consideration phase. It's that the end result of all of this stuff that they're seeing on the search engine result page. And that consideration phase now happens across you know multiple platforms and touch points like when he said Instagram, Facebook, social media, Google business profile. I mean all of the places that you can be found you know and that's why

success metrics and how we view success really has to expand.

Winnie (09:33)
Absolutely. you know, the content you have on your website is still incredibly important because where the click is the end of the consideration phase,

Mary (09:42)
Mm-hmm.

Winnie (09:43)
what they see on your website helps further their action to the contact page. All of that is still so important. AI has added so many layers to success metrics.

how people are making decisions just like fundamentally is it's

Mary (10:00)
Right.

Winnie (10:00)
crazy when you stop and take a step back and think about.

what that has done to how we take in information, how we process information. And it's been almost like a slowly creep up thing, slowly

Mary (10:12)
Mm-hmm.

Winnie (10:14)
changing it. But now like when you think back, you know, think back over the past 10 years, how that's changed, how we handle things as humans is wild to me.

Mary (10:25)
Right, and it's like,

you know, it's really changed our behavior, you know, on

Winnie (10:28)
Mm-hmm.

Mary (10:29)
how we look up things, how we...

People are using talk to text more and instead of just typing in three words in the search, people are having conversations and talk to text and being much more specific. Google is getting better at coming up with answers to those complicated queries and AI really helps a lot with that.

you know, putting it all together, you know, we can ground this still in the foundational SEO. Foundational SEO, the meat and bones and the meat and potatoes of what we do is still, you know, you can't have brand application, you can't have AI success, AEO, GEO, whatever you want to call it without that foundational SEO piece first, because

Winnie (11:12)
Okay.

Mary (11:12)
it's been proven and even Google says the AI still relies on that foundational SEO to, you know,

you know, start its answer, just start its search. So you still want, you know,

those clear service pages, those strong on-page optimization, that helpful experience-based content. You really want to have a good technical structure. You want your website to be user-friendly. You want to add that site schema. You want those authority signals that really say to AI,

whenever they're scanning the internet for something, for an answer to a query, you really want all of those things on the page that gets its attention, that says, this person is an expert. This person knows what they're doing, and they're going to be a great fit for the

question you just asked me.

Winnie (11:56)
Absolutely and feel free to tell me if a different opinion than I do but I almost see it as once upon a time Google was you know you went to Google to do do the research piece before you get to your kind of decision point where

Mary (12:08)
Right.

Winnie (12:09)
AI now is taking away that we're still doing it but it's taking away some of the intensity of the research piece it's taking

Mary (12:14)
Yeah, because you.

Winnie (12:15)
away a step of it but it's

Mary (12:17)
Yeah.

Winnie (12:18)
That step isn't gone, it's just being simplified for us through AI.

Mary (12:21)
Right, now, I mean, used to be we would type in the question, you would go to Google,

you would click on multiple links, go to multiple websites, know, have to scan all the website, look at the about page. But now Google has, you know, solidified that and chat GPT and perplexity and all of those models have solidified that into like one very quick step. You type in your query, and the answer is on the page for you. You don't have to click through to all of these different websites and links, because you're getting your answer right there on this.

search engine result page. And that's really important to keep in mind that that's where we start talking about things like the zero-click strategy that we sometimes talk

Winnie (13:00)
Yes.

Mary (13:00)
about with our clients. So that's where we talk about you need to have stuff to amplify. You need to have that foundational SEO to start.

Winnie (13:10)
Yeah,

because while that part is might not be something that we're doing as much of that research part anymore, that information still has to be there. So Google AI can pull from it to

Mary (13:19)
Right.

Winnie (13:20)
give you that end result lead to it. Having that SEO builds clarity for.

Mary (13:25)
Mm-hmm.

Winnie (13:27)
Searchers for AI all of that and ensures that search engines understand you what you're offering who makes sense to make it to your website that client understands you they understand what kind of service they're going to get from you and build that connection have that first digital handshake that you talked about that your specialties are defined because people are at a stage where they're looking for specifics

And we want to make sure that they're aligning with you and that your services are structured. You can't amplify vagueness, which is hard. It can be so hard to niche down and really formulate what that ideal client looks like or who exactly you're trying to talk to. But without it, it's so hard to really amplify your message. And you can't reinforce confusion if someone lands on your website.

and they're confused on what they can gain from you, your being cited by AI, all of that is not going to be there because you can't reinforce that confusion.

Mary (14:34)
And we get a lot of

clients that have a really hard time with this part. They have a really hard time

Winnie (14:38)
Yeah.

Mary (14:39)
with niching down, with saying that this is my ideal client, because they feel like they're going to exclude people. They're going to cut people out of the equation. But in reality, if you say that you offer everything to everyone, Google's going to be less likely to pull your results, because they're not going to see you as an expert in any one field. You're going to be like a jack of all trades, master of none. So Google's going to be like, well, this person does everything, but do they do

everything

well. What are they specialized in? That's why we're so adamant with our clients that you really need to figure out what that ideal client looks like, who you really want to walk through your door, what areas of specialties you want to work with so you can really focus on that and tell Google, hey, this is what I excel at. This is what I am great at. AI will see that because that's why, and I know this is harder for group practices too because you have multiple clinics.

clinicians who focus on multiple things. But we still, mean, even when we get group practices, we still tell them we still have to focus somewhere first,

Winnie (15:42)
Yeah,

and that's I can't tell you how many times I said, I know there's a lot there's a lot to choose from. It's hard to narrow it down.

what do we need to prioritize? You

Mary (15:51)
Right.

Winnie (15:51)
gotta at least, if nothing else, pick one to prioritize first. And then because you don't have to, it doesn't have to be exclusionary.

Mary (16:00)
Right.

Winnie (16:00)
A lot of things. If your main focus is you really want more individuals from the LGBTQIA plus community. And something else you really like is,

EMDR or social anxiety that can be tied in you don't have

Mary (16:13)
Right.

Winnie (16:13)
but you have to have what your main focus is your and then build from it. Yeah.

Mary (16:17)
So it's kind of like an umbrella maybe, like you have the overarching

umbrella and then everything kind of falls underneath

Winnie (16:23)
Thank

Mary (16:23)
it and we tie that all together, right?

Winnie (16:25)
Absolutely.

And that is why building a foundation first is so important. So that way your messaging, your messaging across your website is solid. And then you can build on that amplification second and make sure that messaging is in solid across all of your platforms, Google business profile, Instagram, Facebook. I'm sure I'm missing other platforms, but all of all of the platforms

Mary (16:48)
Yeah.

Winnie (16:49)
are messaging is across the same, but at all. I'm building that foundation

Mary (16:53)
Great.

Winnie (16:54)
and I am a strong believer that.

That foundation starts with the question, what does your ideal client look like?

Mary (16:59)
you

even with a group practice, sometimes we'll say, do you have clinicians that maybe have lighter caseloads that need filled up first? And that's a good way to decide, okay, so maybe I need to prioritize this particular service first. I have a couple clinicians who work on this field, but they're not full. So let's highlight this and

let's get people through the door for this. And I mean, there are really sensible ways to go about, you know, niching down. And like you said, it's not like you're saying, I'm only going to talk about EMDR. We're going to talk about how EMDR helps with anxiety, how EMDR helps with the

depression, how it helps with trauma. We're going to tie all those things together, but that one golden thread that goes through everything is going to continuously be EMDR.

Winnie (17:36)
Yeah. And for private practice, you know, that, that can also be hard to pick an ideal client because you have a lot of things you're interested in.

Mary (17:42)
Right.

Winnie (17:44)
so think about what, you know, just like we say, who, who do you need to fill up the most for, you know, private practices? Question is what do you need or want to see more of that? You're not right now. If you're getting a lot of referrals from another source for a certain topic or niche, that's great. Maybe then we focus on something along

With that, that complements

Mary (18:04)
Right.

Winnie (18:05)
it, but will help you get something so you don't get burnt out on a super narrow focus, if that makes sense.

Mary (18:09)
one single thing, yeah. Yeah. And I like something you

always say that always sticks in my head is look for what fills your cup. know, like

Winnie (18:16)
Yes.

Mary (18:17)
focus on what fills your cup. You know, what's gonna leave you feeling not drained and dreading work, but what's gonna lift you up and be like, okay, I accomplished some things today, right?

as opposed to like social media. And so, you know, we want to clarify what do we mean by brand amplification? And it's, you know, it's like social media, but there are some nuances to it that are a little bit different. You know, brand amplification is really, again, about that reinforcement. You know, you're reinforcing what you're an expert in, who you see, who you work with. So it takes what exists on your website and it really distributes it consistently across multiple platforms, across the Instagram, the Facebook. You know, if you have

a brick and mortar store or practice that Google business profile and all of that. And it's not random. We're really intentional about how we approach it. We'll mention blogs that you've written about this subject that we're focusing on and in Instagram and Facebook. And one thing that I've really found is that you want to be consistent across platforms. So it's okay to post the same picture on three different platforms, the same headshot,

Winnie (19:19)
Yeah.

Mary (19:20)
because people want that consistency. They don't want to see one person who's

dressed up and buttoned down in one photo on your website but then see a completely different side of you on your Google business profile or Facebook because they're going to be like okay who is this person really so that's you know what we're talking about intentional you know being intentional being consistent so it really looks like you know repurposing that blog content into short form styles you're reinforcing those specialties across all your platforms so if you're talking about EMDR talk about EMDR on all your platforms don't just do different things on every platform because

because again, that's going to confuse people. you in consistency, we always say is really key. You don't have to post five

Winnie (19:59)
Yeah.

Mary (20:00)
times a week, but maybe post every Wednesday, you know, do things like that where it's consistent, you know, align your tone and messaging on all platforms. So again, you know, that consistency and maintain that intentional cadence, make a decision, sit down and make a plan beforehand, you know, set up your calendar, say, okay, I don't have the energy or the, the

Freaking brain power to pose three times a week, but I can do every Wednesday I can do every Tuesday and be intentional and set that time aside for you, you know and support that engagement,

Winnie (20:32)
Absolutely.

You know, we, the whole part of the brand implication is it's not just posting for the sake of posting. you're talking

Mary (20:38)
Right.

Winnie (20:38)
about, it's the message across the board. It's the intentional. and it can be a lot. know Liv who does, is leading the charge with our brand amplification. She builds out a social media calendar the month

Mary (20:54)
Mm-hmm.

Winnie (20:55)
before to have it all planned out. She's very methodical. She's thinking through different things like.

Is it like an awareness month? All that sort of thing.

Mary (21:03)
Right.

Winnie (21:04)
And I do think she's found that makes then making sure it gets posted. gets everything gets done very intentionally a little

Mary (21:11)
Mm-hmm.

Winnie (21:12)
bit easier because really what the brand amplification is meant to do is strengthen recognition, strengthen branded search growth.

Mary (21:19)
Right.

Winnie (21:20)
And we've seen an increase in that branded search growth, we want to make sure you're when your brand is searched, you're coming up across the board.

Mary (21:29)
And it used

to be with the branded

search that we didn't want to optimize for branded keywords like your name of your practice. But now we encourage that in the call to action section, making sure

Winnie (21:38)
Absolutely.

Mary (21:39)
the name of your practice or your name is on the page because that brand amplification has become something that Google really looks at, AI really looks like. that's one of the ways you can see where we've shifted our perspective on things.

Winnie (21:52)
And I

would say that's probably one of the most recent large shifts is

Mary (21:56)
Mm-hmm.

Winnie (21:57)
in our optimization piece specifically is from

Mary (21:59)
Right.

Winnie (22:00)
it is not worth ever to put the brand into it to now. Okay, we need to start incorporating that in there.

Mary (22:05)
Right. Yeah.

Winnie (22:08)
because it can also help reduce friction when someone lands on your site. That brand amplification piece, because they've got a taste

of who you are from all the little touch points. And it feels cohesive once they land on your website. Now they get to your website and they're like, wait a minute, this doesn't feel the same as that Instagram really I watched or that Facebook post.

Mary (22:29)
Right.

Winnie (22:30)
alignment is so important and it can be so hard when there's so many moving targets it feels like.

Mary (22:40)
So like, you know.

You don't want your website to say one thing, your social media to say one thing. You want it, like you said, aligned into one cohesive piece. that's one of the reasons why having a social media person help you with things, why that is helpful. Because like does the SEO research, she does the keyword research. She figures out what keywords are ranking based on your niche. And know Winnie would love to talk about Google Search Console and how we use Google

Winnie (23:10)
I love...

Mary (23:11)
console to make those decisions

Winnie (23:11)
always.

Mary (23:12)
too. know, so I mean we take all of these moving parts and we make a plan that's very intentional and very specific to what you're trying to accomplish and that alignment reduces the doubt and you know doubt or questioning is what's going to slow down somebody and keep them hovering over the contact button instead of actually clicking on it.

Winnie (23:31)
kind of talking of we want to not slow down the conversion part we want to

Mary (23:35)
Right.

Winnie (23:36)
get rid of the doubt for that a big part of making sure that doubt is not a part of the equation is making sure we are watching updated system

Mary (23:45)
right.

Winnie (23:46)
up big success metrics

Because that's important, especially with SEO where it is out long game. There's a lot of different things to be watching. It's and once upon a time it was just where you're ranking. Where are you ranking? Are you on the first page? Are you in the top three? And again, that is still very important, but all primary metrics, one position, rankings, traffic spikes, immediate conversions. Now we have a layered approach. We're still very much shout out to Google search console looking at search

search

impressions. That's still important. What searches are you showing up for? What keywords? It is still very important to have those what I call the golden nugget keywords to show up for. But now we're also looking at branded search growth. And Google Search Console even has added a new feature to show branded impressions and non branded impressions. Like that is a fairly new update from Google Search Console relatively. And that is right on track with what we've been

learning of the branded search is important. Direct traffic increases is important because now we have all these people seeing your name and typing directly into your name that direct traffic is more important and that's sometimes tied now to your SEO where once upon a time that wasn't necessarily tied to your SEO. Google business profile views are an important metric. Profile interactions, cross

platform visibility and recognition patterns are all part of that layered metrics that are that we're monitoring now with this kind of new foundational SEO with a with brand amplification.

Mary (25:21)
and I don't.

I mean, we're mentioning Google Business Profile a lot. I don't want you to think, because we have a lot of clients who are virtual only and don't have Google Business

Winnie (25:28)
Yes.

Mary (25:28)
Profiles. So don't think that you can't be successful if you don't have a Google Business Profile, because you can be. It's just being consistent on other platforms to pick up that slack where you would have a Google Business Profile, but you're virtual only. So that's where some of that Instagram, Facebook, wherever you want to post on social media,

really lifts you up if you're virtual only. I think brand amplification becomes even more important if you're virtual only because you're back a little bit without that Google business profile. that's one of the things to consider when you're talking about do I need brand amplification or do I just need foundational SEO to be found.

Winnie (26:10)
Absolutely.

some deeper questions that can be really good to ask as you're assessing your SEO, assessing your just search visibility in general, or, or more people searching your practice name or more people arriving already familiar. Are you occupying more search real estate? Are clients referencing things they saw elsewhere? a good place to kind of collect some of this data and make sure you're understanding.

it is asking like those questions on intake of how did you hear about us? What led you to reach out to us? Things like that, which sometimes for some people can feel really weird to ask. But I think most people in this day and age get why you're asking and get

And it just asking that simple question and gathering that data, keeping an eye on it can really help show you where you're at with things.

Mary (27:05)
It can help you decide, you know.

Where do I need to go from here? What page is working? What's hanging people up on my website? Where are they

seeing me the most? And I do want to also mention, we've kind of stepped away from Google Analytics, GA4. And our source of truth now is Google Search Console. And maybe, Winnie, you can explain why we made that switch or why Google Search Console

Winnie (27:28)
much. Yeah.

Mary (27:30)
is such a valuable tool.

Winnie (27:32)
Yeah, absolutely, because Google Analytics does give a lot of information, but especially with...

You know, things not being as linear with Google anymore.

Mary (27:42)
Mm-hmm.

Winnie (27:42)
It's not just, you know, we used to use Google Analytics to dive into, okay, how much of searches is organic searches, but now some of that direct searches, some of the referral sources are also tied to your SEO. Where the nice thing with Google Search Console is we can lay that all out a bit more clearly.

a lot more what I consider granular data into what is happening with your search visibility. So for example,

what impressions are showing up and we can see the branded search like how many times people are searching your practice name, how many where you're showing up. And it shows us more than just impressions which is incredibly important.

Mary (28:28)
Right.

Winnie (28:29)
And impressions can cover from you know short tail keywords to long tail keywords to whole questions that people are searching in Google. And if you're showing up because all of that information is incredibly important. It also shows us what you're getting clicks for and what you're

getting clicks for to assess why as well as average position. It is also a platform that can be used that is well within HIPAA, National Association of Social Workers, Code of Conduct, all that sort of thing and that is something we very hot we

take very seriously and that we want to make sure we're always respecting that and that's something we know with Google Search Console it's not doing any kind of intrusive tracking it's just tracking your clicks your impressions for your your website which is really important

Mary (29:20)
And I know that when you do your onboarding or we get new clients and we're laying out a plan of action, lot of Google Search Console is really helpful, I think, for you, right? Because it tells

Winnie (29:29)
Yeah.

Mary (29:30)
you maybe where you're already getting some traction or maybe you're getting a lot of impressions but you're not quite getting the follow through with it. So we have a good place to start. It gives us a lot of that information. And I know we use it for blog ideas as well, things that maybe we can have you write about, things like that, right?

Winnie (29:48)
Yes, absolutely. So especially with Google search console, it's normally my first line of defense for keyword research. Even before we have an onboarding meeting before your SEO strategy, because I want to look at what's going to give you the best results quickest

that also align with your ideal client. But we'll look through

Mary (30:06)
Right.

Winnie (30:06)
and try to find what we like to call the low hanging fruit, which is things that you're getting impressions for, you're getting some support for, but there is definitely room for growth and improvement.

For example, if you'll you come to us and you're like I either want to really work with grief or I really want to work with couples

My and you're like, I don't I don't care either way the the two avenues I want to take and I Before I say we should do xyz. The first thing i'm looking at is your google search console How many impressions are you getting for grief? What is your average position for those impressions? How many impressions are you getting for couples? What is your average position? If you've got barely any ranking for anything related to couples, but grief, you know, you're decently up there there

Mary (30:50)
Okay.

Winnie (30:51)
and some

but you already have some traction there, then I'm gonna say, okay, then let's focus on grief first because we're gonna be able to get you that higher ranking, get that message out across the board, get you cited as a source quicker than if we go on the other one. And so it's a huge part of the keyword research, finding blog topics, things to write about, sub niches within niches.

Mary (31:14)
Mm-hmm.

Winnie (31:15)
I was looking through someone's data the other day and that one of their focuses was EMDR. And there was one, you know, there were some sub niches about EMDR four and it wasn't like the standard trauma anxiety depression. There was some like really unique sub niches.

Mary (31:28)
Mm-hmm.

Winnie (31:29)
Like, Hey, these are going to be great blog posts because

Mary (31:31)
Yeah.

Winnie (31:31)
Google is telling us this is what people are searching.

Mary (31:35)
specific

you can be and the more drilled down you can be on those unique things, that's what's going to set you apart. You're going to be answering those unique questions, those specific questions that people have. just run of the mill, okay, anxiety. Well, anxiety is great, but that's pretty generalized. If we can really niche down based on your Google Search Console data and say, social anxiety, maybe you're getting impressions for that. We have a better idea of how to break down those really large, heavy

hitters like anxiety and depression into more palatable things that Google is really going to see, okay, this is what you really focus on specifically.

Winnie (32:13)
Absolutely. If you were considering learning any type of program to help you understand what's happening with your website, I've set it before. I

will continue saying it probably until my dying breath. Google Search Console, you should

Mary (32:27)
Yep.

Winnie (32:28)
have one. Even if you're just learning one little bit at a time, there's a ton of really valuable information on

Mary (32:36)
Yeah,

and so why is this so important for helping professionals? And I know a lot of helping

Winnie (32:43)
Good question.

Mary (32:43)
professionals, therapists, they may feel like social media is too salesy, social media is too in your face, but yeah.

Winnie (32:50)
I like it.

Mary (32:52)
it's really, really important because

Winnie (32:55)
Mm-mm.

Mary (32:55)
therapy, mental health, helping professionals, those things are all relational. Those are things that are impacting people's personal lives. So people are going to choose a therapist or a doctor or a holistic healer that they see as safe. They feel as familiar and they build that familiarity, but like we said, before they even get to your website, because they've seen you on four different spaces on the page.

want

that consistency and that grounded understanding of what they're going through. know, so brand amplification really supports that emotional safety that people are looking for before they even get to your website because they come and they're like, I already know you.

Winnie (33:33)
Yeah.

Mary (33:37)
I already know what you do. Let's get to it. They understand and they feel like you're going to be somebody who's going to take good care of them, who's going to be a safe place to talk about all the problems that they're having.

is I think even more important for helping professionals because you may not

Winnie (33:57)
Great.

Mary (33:57)
want to do ads, you may not want to do things like that that are really marketing centric, but social media you can be really relational. can post stories about your daily life. What does a day at the office look like? What makes me passionate about what I'm doing? Why did I pick this particular thing? You can be more down to earth and get to know people before they even come to your website.

Winnie (34:20)
That sparks something from when you said earlier about like the photos and that sort of thing.

Mary (34:27)
Mm-hmm.

Winnie (34:31)
Just make sure the photos you're putting out on your social media, you're putting on your Facebook.

resonate with who you are as

Mary (34:37)
Right.

Winnie (34:38)
a because and that's something I've had some conversations with some of our clients even recently of they had the very traditional you know very good headshots very professional looking headshots but I was like is is this capturing who you are as

Mary (34:53)
Right.

Winnie (34:53)
a therapist and they were like no and I was like okay is this in line with who

your ideal client is looking to sit down and chat with and

Mary (35:04)
Right.

Winnie (35:06)
they were talking about how, you know, the kind of vibe and I was like, okay, then that's the kind of images you want to put out. Not saying that they shouldn't be professional or

Mary (35:14)
Right.

Winnie (35:15)
anything like that, but make...

Making sure you resonate with the images you put out there, I think is just as important as resonating with the type of blog content you're putting out. Just like we want to make them conversational and like they're having their first conversation with you in a way. The photos that really people are visual. I'm visual. A photo tells me a lot.

Sorry, I I went on a tangent. just, think is really

Mary (35:40)
I think that's great.

Winnie (35:41)
important, especially when we, you know, for so long, professional, you know, stiff color photo, like that was, that was kind of just the standard across the board. I think we're in a day and age now though, where you want the photos to be professional, but it's gotta

Mary (35:52)
everything's more laid back. Yeah.

Winnie (35:55)
be realistic to who you are.

Mary (35:57)
Great, and I think that another thing about photos is that if you work with moms of small children maybe or people who might be dealing with...

depression after having a child, things like that. You don't want all your pictures on the website to be of men or something that's

Winnie (36:14)
Yeah.

Mary (36:14)
completely unrelated. They wanna see themselves reflected in the photographs that you have on your page.

Winnie (36:19)
Absolutely.

Mary (36:20)
They wanna see other moms, maybe a mom who's looking exasperated or a mom who's got little kids running around her feet. They wanna be able to look at your website and see themselves reflected in the photographs so that they can make that visceral connection with

this is who I talk to, this is who I work with, and they feel like they're represented in some way. So that's another good thing about photographs, is make sure they're aligned

Winnie (36:45)
Yeah.

Mary (36:46)
with the population, with your audience, you know?

Winnie (36:49)
Yeah,

absolutely. All of this helps build recognition. It

Mary (36:52)
Right.

Winnie (36:53)
helps build trust, authority, and it's all so important. It's also a lot to think about. It's

a lot to try to take all of that into consideration. But it all, it's not just another task to do. It's not just another thing to think about. It's all stuff

Mary (37:08)
Right.

Winnie (37:09)
that makes an impact.

Mary (37:10)
So.

You know, just as we leave, know, let's just line out some common misconceptions. So to leave you with some nuggets of truth. So a myth is, you know, if clicks aren't increasing dramatically, know, SEO isn't working. That's used to be true. I mean, that used to be what we looked at. But now the reality is influence now builds visibility before measurable action. So that's where that brand amplification piece comes in, you know, with being visible on multiple

platforms and sometimes your clicks aren't going to improve you know we are totally upfront about that sometimes you know you're not getting any clicks but your impressions will be improving dramatically you know that means you're being pulled in more search results people are seeing you more so those are things that we take into consideration right

Winnie (38:00)
And the type of clicks can also be

a measurement. Not just the volume, making sure it's the right. Sometimes there might even be less clicks, but the type of clicks you're getting, what you're getting clicks for changes and that

Mary (38:12)
Right.

Winnie (38:13)
can make a big difference. Another myth, social media is separate from SEO.

Yes, once upon a time, my answer would have been like, I don't care what you're doing with your social media. don't have a social media. I'm not a huge fan of it either. Don't blame you. Now, unfortunately, my answer is.

Social media is important to a part of your SEO. Social platforms reinforce recognition and they support that branded search growth across the board. So it is one of those things now that I do strongly suggest having it intentionally. You gotta be able to do it intentionally though.

Mary (38:50)
Yeah, and

you do have to put some thought behind it. That's why we say, you you don't have to post every day silly fluff that serves no purpose. If you can do one intentional post a week, that's gonna make a huge difference, you know, rather than spamming, you know, five links or five random things that you found that you just, just to get something on the page. Another

Winnie (39:10)
I'm sitting.

Mary (39:11)
myth is that ranking is the number one end goal. I mean, and this hurts to say, because for years you were like, we're number.

Winnie (39:17)
painful

Mary (39:17)
We win the internet, yay! But that

Winnie (39:19)
yeah

Mary (39:20)
is not how it is anymore. You still wanna be on that first page because people do not click through to the second page generally to find something. They wanna see you on that

Winnie (39:28)
Thank you.

Mary (39:29)
first page. But sustainable growth really requires that reinforcement and presence beyond just being number one on the page. Great, you're number one on the page, okay.

what else supports that? You're in the AI summary, you're in the people

Winnie (39:42)
Yeah.

Mary (39:43)
also ask section. All those things come together to support that positioning and really say, okay, this is someone that I want to work

Winnie (39:52)
and you know next time you're searching something whether it has to do with mental health or not and an AI summary comes out look at who it cites and if you'll notice it doesn't 100 % match what pops up in the first three or first five spots

Mary (40:06)
Right.

Winnie (40:06)
on Google sometimes it's pulling if it sees something that clicks with your question it's pulling from somewhere else as well

Mary (40:14)
Mm-hmm.

Winnie (40:14)
which

part of why just being in the top three isn't the only factor anymore. pay attention when you're searching, even just in your normal day-to-day not work life, and you'll notice those trends.

Well, before we close out today, do think we've had a great conversation and listeners, we want to leave you with this. If your SEO feels different right now, that doesn't mean it's broken. It means the landscape has matured. Visibility today

is layered. Trust is built well before the click happens and recognition often matters as much as ranking. So instead of asking, is this working? Maybe start asking, where am I showing up? How consistently?

and what experience am I creating before someone reaches out? Strong foundation, intentional reinforcement, consistent presence.

Mary (41:06)
I mean,

and that's really what modern visibility is all about. It's that, you know.

having the good SEO foundation, but also showing that you're a person. You're a human being, you're relatable, and you're an expert. So thanks for being here with us today. If this episode resonated, share it with another helping professional who might need to hear that visibility today is relational, strategic, and still very much worth investing in. We'll see you next time on From Keywords to Connections.

Winnie (41:32)
See you next time.