Many massage therapists ask if a website is really necessary. I once was a small business owner and I know how important a website can be for a massage therapist.
With over 200 thousand licensed massage therapists in the United States, you will need a website to stand out from the competition. With a website, you can direct internet traffic to your business. This is done with ads on Google that target people that are actively searching for your services.
There are over 209,000 active licensed massage therapists in the United States. How many of those therapists have websites? It is hard to say but having a website that is google optimized could only help you stand out from 209,000 active licensed massage therapists.
In this industry competition is fierce and only the ones willing to go the extra mile and put in the extra effort will come out victorious.
Many feel that having a Facebook business page is sufficient marketing for their brand and business. While Facebook is good, it does not beat the all-mighty Google monster.
The words massage therapist is approximately typed and searched on Google 60,500 times a month according to ubersuggest Google keyword results. The words back pain is searched another 110,000 times a month according to ubersuggest. Finally, the word massage is typed and searched on Google 1,500,000 times a month in the United States according to ubersuggest.
That is tons of potential clients, and how can you get in on this action you may be asking yourself.
The only way these millions of potential clients can see and be aware of your business and services is by having a website.
When someone types in a keyword that you have selected. Your ad will appear on their screen and with the power of a persuasive ad copy, you should have a good amount of people clicking g on your ad. They will be directed to your website that will have a video of you demonstrating how and why your services will help them.
That is why having a website as a massage therapist is important. How else will you be able to reach a potential client that needs your services today? When someone has back pain they are not going on Facebook to lookup local massage therapists. Google is still king when it comes to looking up for local services.
How to get a website done today for your massage therapy services?
There are many different ways to get a website done today. The days of having to pay thousands of dollars for a website are over. You can go to wix.com and set up an account in minutes. It will take some technical skills and time on your part but you can have a website up and running in a few hours. You do have to pay a monthly fee of around $20.
If you have merchandise that you sell I recommend using Shopify as your website software of choice. You can sell creams, stretch bands or any other merchandise on your Shopify website with ease. You build your site similarly to the way you build it on Wix but Shopify makes it easy to sell merchandise on your site.
Once you have built your site on Shopify you will need to click on your account settings and find where you set up your billing information at. You can link your pay pal business account there or use another third party payment provider.
WordPress over all is the best option for your website building needs. It does take some time to learn how to use it but it is all around the best option if you are not selling any merchandise. CLICK HERE for a direct link to WordPress.
If you do not have the time to learn how to build a website there is a much easier option for you. Contact LGM Marketing and we will be more than happy to help with designing and building your website. Building a Google optimized website can be very time consuming especially if you have never done it before.
LGM Marketing will build a Google optimized website for your business and or brand for a reasonable fee. At times the build will be free and all you have to invest in a monthly hosting fee. That monthly hosting fee is under $50 a month. We offer a free website design when we have a surplus of website design hours from our team.
How to optimize my website for Google as a massage therapist
Having your website Google optimized will make or break your website. If Google does not know that your website exists you will not show up on searches. And if Google crawls your site and does not understand what the website is about or if it does not trust the content found on your website it will not show up in the search results.
It starts with your website name, also known as your domain name. It is important that you choose a good name but please do not overthink this step. Put some careful thought in your domain name but do not take a week picking a name. Something short and sweet would be perfect. A domain name that can be easily remembered is preferable. Once you have picked out a good name for your new website you need to purchase it.
You have a few options when it comes to buying your new domain name. You can either go through your website building software, Wix or Shopify as mentioned earlier. Or you can get it through GoDaddy.com. There are pros and cons to either one you choose.
If you buy it through Shopify, you will have everything on one platform and the process is streamlined and easy. But then if you decide to change to a different website building software you will have to go into your domain setting and make changes to your DNS servers, this is needed to be done because the servers need to be pointed into the right servers.
We recommend keeping all together if you are a beginner and are not comfortable with computers. You can also build your website on Godaddy if you like and their monthly hosting fee is $20 a month but they will charge you to add security to your website. Go Daddy will blindside you with charges for any little feature or change to a setting that usually is included for free on other platforms.
We mentioned this security feature for your website because it is extremely important. Without your website having this security feature, you will tell Google that your website is trustworthy and people are safe to go there. It is called an SSL certificate for your website and without it, your website is dead in the water. You can tell that you have it if you see the letter S at the end of your HTTP in front of your domain name.
The next step will be to make sure that you have your business name, address and phone number on the footer of your website. That will show up on every single page you create on the website and it will make sure that Google knows you are a real legitimate business and that you provide a service in that particular area.
Making an about us page on your website is also important. Google will crawl your site and look for an about us page and anything you can say on your about us page to prove that you are qualified to provide clients of your services is highly recommended. Google has people on staff that will also read your about us page so this step should not be overlooked.
Make a contact us page will be another page that you should create. A contact us page with an automatic email to you is convenient for the potential client, so we always add one. The client just has to click on the contact us page button on the navigation bar and there will be a big box that they can type you a direct email to you without having to open up their email or leaving your website.
Any social media platforms that you may have should be directly linked to your website. It creates what is called a backlink and backlinks build your website credibility. It also shows whoever may be on your website that it is a credible business.
One of the last steps that you need to take with your website is also important. Creating a Google My Business account will be the cherry on top for your website to start ranking. It works just like any other social media platform except this is just for businesses. You can add your business address and once you go through the process of verifying your business address, Google will add you to their map. Your business will now show up on Google’s map when people search for massage Therapist in “blank town” or if they type “ massage therapist near me”. Add your website address to your Google My Business.
How to market your website as a massage therapist
You have taken out the time to carefully create a Google optimized website. What is the next step to get my website seen by more people? How can you market your website?
There are two ways you can market your website.
- Pay Google for ad space
- Put helpful content on your website and have Google show your content organically
The good thing about paying Google for ad space is that the results are immediate. As soon as you set up your campaign in your Google ad accounts manager your ad will start to be seen. The bad part about this is that the second you stop paying Google for ad space you go back to being unnoticed. You are relying on Google keeping their rates the same and you are putting all your eggs in one basket.
Putting helpful content on your site to rank organically also has its pros and cons. The pro is that it is free (if you do the work yourself). The bad thing is that it will take time before your content ranks and that is if you know what you’re doing. You need to put out at least 30 pieces of articles within 3 months when you start. Each blog post should be at least 1,200 words. Other key factors need to be considered. A big one is keyword research, you do not want to write content on a high competition keyword when your website has no authority.
Putting helpful content on your website is a marathon. It will be a long drawn out process but in 1 year you will start to notice an uptick in traffic. All for free and no one can ever take away that organic traffic
What topics can I write about on My website as a massage therapist?
There are many but just to point you in a direction you can go to askthepublic.com for ideas. I will list 3 topics that may work out well:
- What is a quick stretching exercise I can do at my desk while I am working?
- How Can I get my back pain to go away?
- What stretches can I do to help my golf swing?
Checking keywords popularity and competition will be key to this process. But in the long run, this will be quality traffic.
If you have any questions or would like a personalized marketing plan for your business feel free to email us at lgmmarketinggroup1@gmail.com
Best website for massage therapist
A website for a massage therapist should convey the same experience they would get if they were to get when getting a massage from you. Light neutral colors with pictures of clients relaxing as they are getting a massage.
What should a massage therapist have on their website?
As a local small business a massage therapist needs to have their business name, address, and phone number on the footer of the website. It should be on the foorter because it will show up on every page of the website and Google likes to rank local businesses that do this.
