Good Internet Presence

Hi, this Dave Kats with Therapist Consultants, and I have a tip for you.

You know right now the best way to get new patients is by having a good Internet presence. Now, what does it mean to have a good Internet presence? Well, most therapists don't have a real good idea or have a real good handle on this, and so I say to them, "Do you have a good Internet presence?" They say, "Well, I have a website, and I think I might be on Google," but here's what you really have to do to have a good Internet presence.

First of all, you have to be listed on the professional referral directories. I'm sure almost everybody has done this, but if you aren't listed on Psychology Today, you're really missing out on a big load of new patients. The second thing you have to do is you have to be listed on every search engine, so you have to be listed on Google, Bing, Yelp, and Yahoo.

Now, when I say listed on them, you have to go there. Just type in Google for business, and it'll say, "Can we advertise your business?" Then you just fill it out. It's free, it doesn't cost you anything. As you fill it out, you give them information so they can rate you higher on their search engines.

Now, 70% of the searches are done by Google on a desktop computer, but 83% of searches on handheld devices are through Google. The first place you want to go is you want to fill out Google, but you also have to do Bing, Yelp, and Yahoo. That's the next thing you have to do. First get on professional referral directories. Second, get on all the search engines. Third, make sure that you're on all the social media sites.

You want to be on a Google Plus, you want to be on Facebook for Business, you want to be on Pinterest, you'll want to be on all the other, LinkedIn, all the other ones that you want, Twitter, all the other ones that you want to do.

You say, "Well, I don't know if I'm ever going to get any new patients on Pinterest." That's okay. I agree with you. You probably won't. But the Internet, when they search engines to rate you high, they have to see you listed all over. The more places you're listed, the higher they're going to rank you. Right now, if you're going to do something to get involved in the Internet marketing, make sure that you're on all the professional referral directories you need to be on. Make sure you're listed with all the search engines, and make sure that you're on all the social media sites that you can get on, and you'll have taken a giant step forward to having better visibility on the Internet.

Thanks for listening.