How to Brainstorm Seed Keywords for Private Practice Websites

In this post you will get to know how to come up with seed keywords for your private practice therapist website.

When you start your local therapist website, the first question that might come to your mind is what are the keywords that I should start my keyword research for my therapist website?

That’s a very valid and genuine question. If you don’t have seed keywords how will you start with keyword research for your counseling website.

By the end of this post, you will have a complete idea on how you can come up with initial base terms which you can use to begin your keyword research.

Understanding Seed Keywords

Before diving into the strategies to find seed keywords, let’s first see what seed keywords actually are? Seed keywords are the foundation of your keyword research process. Using these keywords you start your keyword research process and find other terms and phrases. Seed keywords are also called as base keywords.

Think of these seed terms as the starting point from which all your other keywords will branch out. These terms will then expand into more variations. Seed keyword can be short-tail or sometimes long-tail.

You can consider a seed keyword as a seed of a tree from which the plant and other branches grow later. These seed phrased help build therapy keyword cluster.

Now we have got the basic information about the definition of seed keywords, it’s time to actually see how to find these terms and phrases.

Start with Your Core Therapy Niche

The first way to find your seed keyword is to start with your core therapy niche. For example your core practice niche is helping people cope with depression. And you have your clinic in a local city, for example – Houston, TX.

You can use this core niche as your seed keyword. So in this example, the seed term will be depression therapy Houston, TX.

Using this term you can start your keyword research to find other related keywords to depression therapy in Houston, TX.

The best part about this approach is that you start with your core services that you offer. You’re combining what you do best with where you’re located. This combination creates highly targeted seed keywords that your potential clients are searching for in your area and helps find variations of the term.

For example when you Type that keyword in the Google search bar of the Google AutoComplete feature will give you variations of the main seed term.

After you have a list of core services seed keywords it’s time to expand the list. The main objective is to not limit yourself to just one variation of the seed keyword.

You can create multiple seed keywords from the same base keyword. Depression therapy could also be recreated as counseling for depression, depression treatment, or therapy for depressive disorders. Each phrase variation opens up new keyword opportunities like more long-tail keywords for therapy practice.

Use Modalities That Solve Core Niche Problems

Now you have your seed keyword and its possible variations with you. The next step is to expand the list of additional keywords which you can use to create dedicated service pages.

For this you can think of all the modalities that are used to cure the niche problem that you solve. For our example seed keyword depression therapy these can be CBT, EMDR, EFT, IPT, etc.

Using these modalities you can create additional list of keywords which will be helpful in creation of service pages.

For example, for solving depression, you can create service page for CBT depression therapy Houston, EMDR depression therapy Houston, TX, and so on.

This will help you expand your website’s topical map and improve its search presence by bringing in targeted clients to the page.

Many potential clients research specific treatment approaches before booking a consultation. They want to know if you offer the particular modality they’ve heard about or that was recommended to them. By creating keywords around these modalities, you’re meeting clients where they are in their search journey.

Additionally, there can be cases when some clients have already tried one approach, but it didn’t worked for them, and are looking for alternatives. Having SEO optimized service pages that target modality-specific keywords helps you capture this audience as well.

Questions Clients Ask

There are various problems and questions that your clients discuss with you. Out of these discussions you can identify what type of question is asked again and again by the patients. You can convert these questions into dedicated keywords and convert them into service or blog posts.

You might not be thinking like in this way but your consultation room is actually a goldmine for keyword ideas. The questions clients ask you repeatedly are likely the same questions they’re typing into Google before they even contact you.

To list down these keywords, start keeping a simple notebook or digital file where you jot down common questions. For example, your clients might be asking things like “How long does therapy for depression take?” or “Does insurance cover EMDR therapy?” or “What’s the difference between a therapist and a psychiatrist?”

Each of these questions can become a blog post or FAQ page that targets a specific long-tail keyword. Not only does this help with SEO, but it also positions you as a helpful resource, building trust with potential clients before they even reach out.

Competitor Analysis for Keyword Ideas

Another powerful way to find seed keywords is by looking at what your competitors are doing. You can take help of your core niche practice keyword to do this. Do a manual Google search using your main practice query and take a look at their websites.

Identify what services do they offer? What blog topics do they cover? What terms do they use in their page titles and headings?

This will help you find identifying gaps or new keyword opportunities. Maybe you notice they’re all targeting anxiety therapy but nobody is specifically addressing postpartum anxiety. That’s a potential niche keyword opportunity for you which you can target as a separate service page.

You can also look at their service pages to see how they structure their modality-based keywords. This gives you ideas for how to organize your own keyword strategy.

Location-Based Keyword Variations

Since you’re running a local practice, location is a critical component of your seed keywords. When doing brainstorming for seed keywords don’t just stop at your city name. Think about all the ways people might search for services in your area.

The best way to do it is to think about adding suburbs or neighborhoods in the keywords. For example, if you’re in Houston, TX, consider variations like Houston Texas therapist, therapist near me (when searched from Houston), West Houston counseling, Houston metro area therapy, and even specific neighborhood names like “therapist in Montrose Houston.”

Some clients search by their specific suburb or neighborhood rather than the main city. Others might search by zip code. Including these location variations in your seed keyword list helps you capture a wider local audience.

Insurance and Payment-Related Keywords

This method is one which many therapists ignore while finding keywords but this can bring highly targeted clients. Many people searching for therapy services are concerned about affordability and insurance coverage. This makes insurance-related terms valuable seed keywords.

Consider terms like “therapist that accepts Blue Cross Houston,” “affordable therapy Houston,” “sliding scale counseling Houston,” or “insurance-based depression therapy Houston TX.”

These keywords might have lower search volumes than general therapy terms, but they attract highly qualified leads who are seriously considering booking an appointment and want to know if they can afford your services.

Age and Demographic-Specific Keywords

Age and Demographic-specific users are an another angle to find seed keywords for your private practice therapy website. You might be serving specific age groups or demographics, which creates another category of seed keywords. For example, if you specialize in teen therapy, adult therapy, couples counseling, or therapy for the LGBTQ+ community, these demographics should be part of your seed keyword strategy.

Examples include “teen depression therapy Houston,” “couples counseling Houston TX,” “therapy for young adults Houston,” or “LGBTQ-affirming therapist Houston.”

You should add keyword modifiers like for, with, etc. to make seed keywords.

These demographic qualifiers help you reach exactly the right audience and reduce unqualified inquiries from people who aren’t a good fit for your practice.

Final words

Seed keywords pave way for a powerful implementation of On-page SEO and are the most important ones to start with. For a successful therapists SEO campaign working on right keywords is the very first step. Seed keywords comes first in the line.

Now that you have multiple strategies for generating seed keywords for therapist website, it’s time to compile them into a core keywords list. To list these keywords create a simple spreadsheet with columns for your core niche, location, modalities, client questions, and any other categories that apply to your practice.

The main key to do this process is to start with seed keywords that accurately represent your practice and the clients you want to attract. From there, your keyword research will naturally expand into a detailed keyword research strategy that covers all areas of your therapeutic services.

If you do it right, then your seed keyword list might include 10 to 20 core terms in the beginning. That’s a good number of keywords to start. If you find less don’t worry either. Once you plug these into keyword research tools, you’ll discover hundreds or even thousands of related keywords to target.

With these seed keywords in hand, you’re now ready to move into the next phase of keyword research: analyzing search volume, competition, and keyword difficulty to determine which terms can be made into dedicated pages on your counseling website and which ones to include into your existing content.

You can plug these base keywords on keyword research tool like AnswerThePublic to identify more question based and long-tail queries.