8 SEO Tips Every Solo Massage Therapist should know
Help your website help you.
Welcome back to another Monday with the Mavens. We created the Massage Mavens blog to connect with and educate self-employed massage therapists working to grow as business owners.
It can be lonely working for yourself – and we’re here to remind you that while you’re in business for yourself, you don’t have to be in business by yourself.
While we cater our content to independent MTs, all massage therapists are welcome here; whether you run your own independent massage therapy studio, you contract in a clinic, work in spa, or you are still in school.
8 SEO Tips Every Solo Massage Therapist should know.
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization.
It is the process of optimizing a website’s configuration, appearance, content, and links so it is easier for search engines to find and understand. When a website has excellent SEO, search engines like Google rank them higher.
While there is an entire industry of SEO professionals - who are phenomenal resources when you need an extra boost - there are also many ways you can improve your own SEO in-house for free.
1. Secure Your Site.
Google (and others) want their users to have a safe online experience. They will prioritize showing secure sites over unsecured sites. Whether your site is automatically secured or you need to do it yourself will depend on who hosts your domain. GoDaddy, for example, sells SSL certificates separate from their domains. Squarespace on the other hand includes Security in your yearly subscription fee.
2. Utilize Keywords.
Most SEO consultants currently agree each page should have about 600 words on it, with 3 uses of a given keyword sprinkled throughout. This is your invitation to beef up each page with more (scannable) content, and plug in a few more keywords on each page.
3. Utilize Alt Text.
Google rewards websites that use Alt Text in their photos. It’s an accessibility feature that helps visually impaired users understand what the photo is depicting. With most website companies, if you log into the back end of your site and click on a photo to edit it, there will be a field labeled “Alt Text” where you can enter a brief description.
4. Optimize Your Tab Titles.
Also known as meta titles and title tags.
A page tab titled “About Us” tells Google very little about how to catalog your page.
A page tab titled titled “Craniosacral Therapy in Grand Junction, CO” is much more helpful.
5. Fix Those Broken Links.
Broken links will not only frustrate users, they will damage your SEO ratings.
6. Site Size.
Size isn’t everything 😉
But…it is recommended to have between 5-10 pages (of useful content) as a small business. A good framework to start with would include pages like:
A Home page,
About/Bio,
What We Do/Service Menu,
Book Now with link to portal,
Testimonials,
A Blog,
FAQ Page
7. Build Out Your Internal Links.
Consider doubling down on internal buttons to make your pages interconnect to each other. It helps Google map and understand the layout and flow of your site. Have a button to take users from your home page to your bio, from your home page to your booking portal, from your menu to your booking portal, from your bio to your menu, etc etc.
8. Beef Up Your Backlinks
A Backlink is a link from someone else’s website to yours. These help your SEO because they are seen as a vote of confidence in your site. While really scoring well on Backlinks is hard for a small studio – as backlinks are a game that larger, more active sites play really well and pay a lot of money for - you can still at least score a non-zero in this category by doing the following: Post photos to your FB business page and drop your URL in the caption of each photo so it links back to your website. A short caption like “Book your next massage at www.xyz.com” is plenty.
And if you’re starting to get overwhelmed remember 3 things:
Rome wasn’t built in a day. Your website doesn’t need to be, either.
We as solo providers don’t have the bandwidth to accommodate every single person in our city. So we don’t need the best SEO in our zip code…we couldn’t handle the client load! So small improvements that make it easier for your ideal clients to find you is plenty.
If you feel frozen by the idea of making these changes yourself but know you need them done, I can do them for you. Schedule a call and let’s get your site moving!
Thanks for stopping by!
As always, we’d love to hear how our content has helped you improve either your studio, your mindset, or your revenue as a self-employed massage therapist.
Rachel Martin, LMT, is an independent massage therapist living in Denver Colorado. Having built her solo massage studio to capacity, she now spends her free time helping other massage therapists do the same. Check out The Bodyworkers Business Collective, Queen Street Marketplace, and The Techy MT to learn more.
