7 Easy Steps to Write a Killer Blog for Your Therapist Website Today (part 2)

Dec 29

In part 1 of how to write a killer blog for your therapist website, we covered the beginning steps of creating a blog that brings clients to your therapy practice. We covered understanding your ideal clients and what they're searching for, finding the right keywords so your blog can be found, and writing a title that makes them want to click and read more.

Now that you have these parts in place, let’s dive into the actual body of your blog. This is where many of us get stuck. But this process get’s rid of the blank page and overwhelm.

We’re not writing an academic paper we’re creating helpful content that lets potential clients get to know you. In this second part, we’ll cover everything from organizing your thoughts to hitting publish on a blog that feels genuine to who you are.

Let's start with how to create an outline that makes the writing process almost effortless...

4. Creating Your Outline- Making your thoughts organized and easy to read

Both you as the writer and your reader need some direction and navigation that tells you where you are going. That is your outline where you organize your thoughts, come up with your headers, and make your blog easier to read.

Your outline (or headers) help Google understand what your blog is about.

I start by brainstorming all of the things I want to say. I then organize these thoughts into topics and these topics become my main points. Which then become my H2 headers.

You want to be able to write an interesting section about each main point. The main points also need to be interesting to your ideal client.

So not only does the topic need to be interesting you want your Header to be interesting. So something along the lines of “Is this depression” instead of “Symptoms”. You also want to make sure that your keywords are in your H2 headers some of the time.

If you have any sub-points make these your H3 headers or bold text. These break up your blog and make it easier to read and scan. Sometime I will have these subpoints in my outline or sometimes I find them later.

The long tail keywords you found later can often be great Headers either H2 or H3. Use those to guide your writien as long as they fit into the larger blog.

This was my outline for the current blog you are reading;

The 7 steps to writing a blog fast

Introduction

Step 1- Audience/Topic/Purpose

Be helpful outloud
Don’t give away too much
Not trying to prove expertise but connect with client and help

Step 2- Keywords

Ubersuggest or other keyword research tool
High volume, Low difficulty- possible “How to write a blog”, “blogging for therapists”
Check with google for intent

Step 3- Title- sometimes here sometimes after the outline

Include keywords
Coschedule
Lists, How to, educational posts

Step 4- Outline

Make myself
Then check with AI

Step 5- Writing

Avoid clinical jargon, casually, How you talk examples
Let them get to know your personality
AI- Change to your language because if you don’t it defeats the purpose
Remember your confidentiality if you are using client examples. Remember if a client can recognize themselves you’ve gone too far

Step 6- CTA

Clear and concise
Start by agitating the next pain point
What is the logical next step in their journey
Make sure they can short circuit the journey if they want to contact you

Step 7- Editing

Grammarly
AI
Hemmingway-6th grade reading level

Conclusion

With this blog I came up with the header titles after the outline. Feel free to compare the headers in the outline with the headers in the actual blog.

Your outline helps keep you focused while you are writing and helps your reader know what comes next.

Because often our readers are scanners we want them to be able to read through the headers, bold and italicized areas and know what the blog is about. Help them decide do I want to work with this person or read further?

The last think I do is check my outline with an AI program. It will often give me an idea of something important I missed. But there is no substitute for human generated content so I always start with my ideas first.

5. Writing Your Therapist Blog- Easily Following your Outline and Engaging your Ideal Clients

Here’s the part you have been looking forward to or maybe dreading. But because you’ve done all your prep work it should be much easier.

You aren’t starting with a blank page and you know where your writing is heading.

Even better you don’t have to come up with the stuffy academic jargon from grad school. You can write the way you talk.

Pretend that you are having a conversation about the topic with your favorite client. How would you talk about it? What words would you use?

Clinical academic writing has its place but it isn’t in your blog. Remember you’re writing for people who are looking for help. Not your colleagues. You are proving your expertise through content academic writing can often turn our clients off because it can feel elitist and un approachable.

Your goal is to be yourself if you are warm and approachable be that, if you are a little sarcastic and wry show that in your writing. I want your clients to walk into the consult feeling like they already know you.

Perfectionism is the enemy of creativity.

Start your writing with a rough draft. First go through and just get everything down on paper. Then come back and edit it to where you feel like it is good enough.

Remember we are human and it’s okay for our clients to see that. Mistakes happen. It’s way more important for your clients to see your personality than to see that you are perfect.

Write what you would say to a client in a consultation who asked about this particular topic.

A note about confidentiality

Sometimes it feels like using client examples might help illustrate your points. Be really careful with this. Try to use conglomerations of multiple clients with fake names. If a client can recognize themselves specifically it’s a good. Even if you can’t get in trouble it can leave a client feeling like they can’t trust you and that is the last thing you want.

Also make sure that you have a note explaining that these aren’t real people so your potential clients trust you.

Stories can help people feel understood but as a therapist you have to tread lightly.

If you decide to use AI tool to help with writing be careful. Sometimes they give you inaccurate information or steal word for word off other’s sites. Make sure you change the wording so it sounds like you.

The whole point of your blog is to help clients get to know you and your approach. If the writing doesn’t sound like you it isnt’ going to help.

If you're using AI tools like ChatGPT to help with your writing, that's fine - but make sure you edit it to sound like you. The whole point of your blog is to help clients get to know you and your approach. If the writing sounds like a textbook or generic advice, it's not doing its job.

You aren’t solving all their problems. You are showing them your understand and can help.

6. Your Call To Action- Guiding Clients to the Next Step

Okay so you’ve written your blog post that is helpful to the people that are looking for your help. Now we need to tell them what to do next.

This is one of the hardest parts for most therapists. I often hear shouldn’t they know to work with me after this?

The short answer is no. If you don’t tell the person what to do next they will just move on to the next blog. Often they might not realize that the blog they landed on was a therapists. So you need to tell them what their next step is and how to get help from you.

Your call to action is letting them know how you help outloud instead of making them guess at 2 am.

Start by acknowledging where they are after reading your blog. Something like “You might feel like you need more support to apply the steps I’ve outlined to getting better sleep.” Then point to the next step.

You want to match where your client is in the journey. If they are not quite at the point of seeking therapy get them on an email list or send them to a blog about how therapy can help them where they are.

Give them one option of what to do next but let them know where to find other options.

Make the next steps easy. If you know most people are searching for help outside of business hours having them call you is going to get in their way. But sending an email will alow them to reach out to you when they are searching.

Also make sure your contact information is easy to find so if they don’t want to take the nex step but they do want to contact you they can.

7. Editing Yout Therapist Blog- Cleaning Up Your Writing and Making it Pretty

This is my favorite step. Up until this point it is just writing on a google doc or whatever it is that you use. Now you fine tune.

Remember you don’t want to put too much pressure on these articles being perfect. Good enough really is enough.

Some of the tools I use to make editing easier;

Grammarly- this catches all the basic proofreading errors ( I only use the free version the paid version is more professional sounding)
Hemingway- This helps me make my writing more clear and helps me to aim it at a easy reading level so people can process it easily.
Sometimes I will use AI to see if it has any suggestions I like for changes

After that I read through and make sure that I checking all of the boxes from above. Do I have an engaging title? Are my keywords in headers and are there some bolded keypoints? Do my headers stand out and are there transitions.

Make sure your paragraphs are smaller and won’t take up the whole page on a phone. You don’t want it to be an overwhelming wall of text.

Read through and make sure that it sounds like you. And there you go! You have a blog.

When you post it on your website don’t forget to add at least 3 pictures. This also adds to interest in engagement.

Putting the 7 Blogging Steps to Work

My hope is that this process makes writing a blog as easy for you as it is for me. Remember this is a letter to your favorite clients when they are looking for a therapist. What do they need when they come in to see you?

By following the 7 steps;

Getting clear on your audience and purpose
Finding the right keywords
Creating an engaging title
Making a clear outline
Writing like you talk
Adding clear next steps
Cleaning it up with editing

You'll create blog posts that not only help potential clients find you but also help them feel understood and hopeful about getting support. The more you write the easier it will become.

The most important thing with blogging is to just get started. Your first blog won’t be perfect- and that’s okay. We’re modeling being human for our clients. What matters most is that you’re putting helpful information out there for people who need it.

If you still feel stuck or like you would prefer someone else would just do it for you. I help therapists create blogs that bring in consistent traffic and connects with their clients. Schedule a consultation here to learn about my done-for-you and done-with-you services.

One last tip: Save these posts to refer back to when you’re writing your next blog. They work like a checklist to make sure you’ve covered all the important parts of creating an effective therapy blog.

Danielle Peters