How To Increase Traffic To Your Website

by Juliet Austin, Business and Marketing Coach

Make sure that your site is well designed, easy to navigate, has compelling copy (promotional text), and has the information that your target market wants or needs.  Unless you are a designer, designing your site by yourself is going to look amateurish, which will in turn leave the impression that you don't know, or don't care, about what you are doing. No one wants to buy something from a person who doesn't seem professional.

2. Optimize Your Site for The Search Engines

Ensure that your site is focused on a narrow enough target market so that it has some chance of coming up in the major search results (i.e. Google, MSN, Yahoo). Do some research to determine the best keywords and title tags for your website. There are many tools that can help you do this (e.g. overture.com, yahoo.com, wordtracker.com). If you don't want to learn how to do this yourself, make sure you find a web designer or other web specialist to help you. 

3.  Submit Your Website to Internet Directories 

While it's no longer necessary to submit your site to the major search engines as their search spiders or robots will eventually find your site on the web and index it, you can, and should submit your site to directories such as DMOZ and the Yahoo Directory. They are highly respected by the search engines and if you get listed in them you will have links leading back to your site.

4.  Get Links from other Websites

In order for your site to show up as high as possible in search engine rankings, you will have to have links coming from other sites leading back to your website. The more useful your site is, the more likely that others will link to it naturally. You can also acquire links through listing your services in online directories for therapists or healing professionals. You might also try to write short, informative articles for article directories (e.g. EzineArticles) that exist on the web. These directories allow you to have a link back to your site. 

5. Write an Informative Ezine

A well written ezine will be forwarded to others and will gradually increase traffic to your website as your number of subscribers increases. You can also list your newsletter in one of the numerous ezine directories on the Internet that will also send visitors to your site.

Ó Juliet Austin, 2007

(Editor's note: Zoilita will speak on this topic in Denver April 13.  Find out more here.)

By December of 2006, I had allowed my more than thirty-year private practice to almost completely disappear. When we returned from our family vacation on 12/11/06 I had two clients scheduled in the next ten days. I felt recharged and ready to go to work again. I put together a Referral Marketing system based on three points.

1. The Law of Attraction,

3. Developing a Network of Referring Professionals. This network was built on relationships, and created a foundation of rapport, trust and confidence. Using this approach helps you get better referrals and results in better clients. By mid March of 2007, I was seeing sixteen to eighteen clients a week. This new system uses inner intention, focus and concrete outer skills. I am excited to share it all with you. I will teach this new program from 7 to 8:15 pm at the Networking Party 4/13/07. I hope to see you all there! Email questions to president@coloradopsychotherapists.com

When I stepped on the dual relationship clause and broke the law in Colorado, I had no idea that I was doing anything illegal. In 2001, I allowed a 30-year-old client, enrolled in a Mental Health graduate degree program, to enter my Hypnotherapy training school. Over the course of the next 2 years, I did private sessions with her and in 2003 supervised her doing a Hypnotherapy Internship at my school. At the time I did not know that this was against the law. On a National level, Hypnotherapy is considered to experiential learning, i.e. you learn through the experience! It is quite common for successful clients to become highly motivated students and sometimes they become nationally known teachers in the field of hypnosis. That is what happened to me. While learning different styles of hypnosis, I always did private sessions with the teachers. I believed that this was essential to the development of my skills. It proved very beneficial on many levels. It is too bad that can't happen in Colorado. While I question the impact of the dual relationship clause on the development of Experiential Psychology education, I will of course obey the law.

The Grievance Board Office of Expedited Settlement has determined the following:

I will be on probation for two years with a practice monitor.

I will meet with the practice monitor for two years weekly at my expense.  The practice monitor will evaluate my cases and I will need to discuss each case with them each month. I am to make sure that the practice monitor sends the Grievance Board a monthly report on my practice. I have to send each of my clients a written notice that I am under disciplinary action and inform them of the practice monitor's name, phone number and address. I have to give that statement to each new client as part of my Disclosure Statement.

During the time of probation I must complete each year, twenty hours of (pre-approved by the Grievance Board) of continuing education courses in the area of dual relationships/boundaries pertaining to mentoring and therapy at the same time, and legal and ethical issues in the practice of psychotherapy.

I question the motivation, purpose, intent and fairness of these consequences for my actions. While I question the consequences, I will of course obey them. It is the law. These requirements will create a significant investment of time money and energy. They will create hardship in my very busy life. I support my family with my private practice, I run a school and I am passionate about my part time volunteer job as your president.

I question the impact of the Colorado definition of dual relationships on Experiential Psychology education. I question the intention, motivation and fairness of the Disciplinary process. Most of all, I question whether the current Mental Health code provides support and protection for those who practice under it, after all this is the Healing Arts! If you have questions or comments email me directly president@coloradopsychotherapists.com or my direct phone line is 303-776-6103.