Portrait of digital strategist, Lex Lancaster, in a black t-shirt, with the text, Episode #70 of the Acupuncture Marketing School Podcast: Improve Your Local Search Engine Optimization to Get More Acupuncture Patients with Lex Lancaster

This week I’m talking with Lex Lancaster, physical therapist turned digital strategy expert for health and wellness entrepreneurs. 

We talk in detail about search engine optimization for local wellness businesses. 

I love SEO and I learned so much in this conversation. I even made some updates to my website based on advice that Lex shares. 🙌 Hope you find it equally useful!

In this episode, we discuss: 

  • How to decide on keywords for your local business, including long-tail keywords
  • Does local businesses need a blog for great SEO?
  • What is a “queen” page on your website and why is it good for SEO?
  • Why Google is like a brain sitting in the dark until we take certain actions… 🤯
  • How long does SEO take before it starts working?
  • What to add to your website to help reduce the doubts and fear of potential patients
  • And much, much more

Hope you enjoy this jam-packed episode!

🎙️ Episode #70: Improve Your Website’s Local SEO to Get More Acupuncture Patients with Lex Lancaster:

Show Notes:

Subscribe to the Acupuncture Marketing School podcast on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

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Transcript:

[MICHELLE GRASEK] (00:05):

Welcome to the Acupuncture Marketing School Podcast. I’m your host, Michelle Grasek, and I’m here to help you get visible in your community, take marketing action with confidence and get more patients in your practice and more money in your pocket every week. We both know you’re a talented, passionate acupuncturist and that acupuncture has the power to change lives. So let’s dive right into this episode and talk about how you can reach more patients.

(00:33):

Welcome back, my friend. This week I’m talking with Lex Lancaster, a former physical therapist turned digital strategy expert for health and wellness entrepreneurs. One of Lex’s areas of expertise is Search Engine Optimization, and in this episode, we talk in detail about this topic specifically for local wellness businesses. I love SEO and I learned so much in this conversation. I even made some updates to my website based on advice that Lex shares, so I hope that you find it equally useful. In this episode, we discuss how to decide on keywords for your local business, whether local businesses need a blog for great SEO, what is a queen page on your website, and why is it good for SEO, why Google is like a brain sitting in the dark until we take certain actions, how long does SEO take before it starts working, what to add to your website to help reduce the doubts and fears of potential patients and much, much more. I really hope you enjoy this episode with Lex. Let’s get started. Hello, Lex, welcome.

[LEX LANCASTER] (01:44):

Hi, I’m so excited to be here. Thank you so much for having me.

[MICHELLE] (01:48):

My pleasure. I cannot wait to talk to you about Search Engine Optimization. Do you want to introduce yourself really quick?

[LEX] (01:54):

Sure, let’s do it. I am Lex Lancaster. I am actually from a small town that is right next to where Michelle practices, which is so funny and just to throw it in here, when I was home for Christmas, my parents got a Christmas card from your practice.

[MICHELLE] (02:09):

What?

[LEX] (02:09):

And I was, yeah, and I was like, so, it was sitting on the counter. My mom was like going through all the mail and I saw it and I was like, funny story. So I told her about the Jane webinar that we were on together anyway, so yes, I am from, my parents are still there, and one of them, HIPAA, I know, but one of them obviously is part of your practice and I was like, this is amazing.

[MICHELLE] (02:32):

I love it.

[LEX] (02:33):

It was so good. So amazing marketing also. But I am Lex. I own and operate Lex Lancaster Creative Co. I’m a physical therapist by trade. I stopped practicing in late 2021, so I haven’t been practicing actively. I owned a private practice clinic in New Hampshire for two and a half years, yeah, two and a half years, opened in the middle of 2020, but I switched to the mostly admin role in 2021, which was great because my partner, business partner was able to do all the treating, and then I did all of the backend stuff. So if you obviously are familiar, if you’re listening and you’re familiar with owning a practice, it’s nice to have the two split roles where someone treats and someone does the admin, because we all know the admin part can be really tough for a lot of us.

(03:19):

In my business I do, I like to say I do everything except for Facebook and Google Ads. So anything tech related I do. And honestly, I love it so much because, I did PT because I’m like, I want to make a difference in a life. I want to be able to follow them through the progression of getting hurt, getting back to what they want to do, and now I feel like I’m able to do that on a really large scale because I can help the practitioners who are helping the people. So I genuinely love it, and I am, I thrive with tech, I always have and I’m like, this is where I’m supposed to be. That’s just a quick little background on me.

[MICHELLE] (03:55):

I love it. So, I mean, it’s like, Jane always says, helping the helpers, which means a lot to me as well.

[LEX] (04:00):

Yes, clearly. Yes.

[MICHELLE] (04:02):

And you teach, first of all, everyone should follow you on Instagram. What’s your Instagram?

[LEX] (04:09):

It’s @Lex Lancaster_.

[MICHELLE] (04:12):

Perfect. Because you gave some of the easiest to follow most actionable tips on Instagram posts. And just the other day I followed some of your instructions for how to update my Google waiting room, sorry, my zoom waiting room so that I could change the text and put my logo up there and just made it look so much more friendly. So that was super, and I feel like you really have a knack for breaking down the scary tech stuff behind-the-scenes that we all realize we need, but is pretty intimidating.

[LEX] (04:44):

Thank you. I appreciate that

[MICHELLE] (04:45):

And I know that you have some wonderful masterminds as well, and you work with not just PTs, but all health and wellness entrepreneurs, right?

[LEX] (04:54):

Yes, I do. So I specialize in health and wellness entrepreneurs across the board. I have worked with naturopaths, I have worked with a few acupuncturists actually, and then massage therapists, OTs, PTs, chiropractors. So yeah, anyone, health and wellness is really where I have my niche, if you will.

[MICHELLE] (05:11):

Very cool. And I do feel like all of the health and wellness people, all the solopreneurs and entrepreneurs have so many of the same concerns in the marketing stuff that is really good in one industry or sector is good across the board. Good marketing advice for acupuncture is also still really good for chiropractors and PTs who are by themselves and nutritionists. It’s about that authenticity and showing up consistently.

[LEX] (05:39):

Absolutely. And I feel like that’s where, when I first started, that was where I was struggling. So my business came about, I was doing stuff online for years, but then when I opened a PT clinic, I was like, there’s nothing here for me. I don’t know how to do this stuff. I don’t know what, where to start, where to go next, and then yes, figure, I figured it out, along with getting some advice from people who are already doing it. But you’re right, I feel like the marketing advice that is out there for other niches don’t, it doesn’t necessarily translate to health and wellness and the same type of stuff that you’re doing to my business. So yes, I’m showing up on Instagram, I’m showing up doing the things, giving the tutorials and whatnot. So that’s marketing for me and my digital business, but for a PT clinic, it’s going to look different. And I feel like the stuff that’s out there, especially in the web design world and SEO, it’s very difficult. If you just Google how to do SEO, typically health and wellness professionals are like, what the heck is this? Like this is insane. And that’s why I started SEO school because I was like, I can’t, yes, I’m going to teach that information, but we’re going to break it down for actual implementation for health and wellness practitioners, not someone who has an entire marketing team.

[MICHELLE] (06:53):

Yes, exactly.

[LEX] (06:54):

Which is totally different.

[MICHELLE] (06:56):

Yeah, I Do feel like a lot of the marketing advice you find online or any content creation or digital creation, it assumes that you have all of these people helping you. Pass this to your branding department. Okay, well, I’m also cleaning the bathroom and vacuuming the rugs and doing all the paperwork. Like there’s only one person on the backend.

[LEX] (07:17):

Yes, it’s insane. And sometimes I’m mind blown and I feel for people. I went through that problem solving. I made sure that I had the website, I had the thing, and then I take a step back because I’m like, I do this stuff. So if someone didn’t do this, what would that feel like? And that’s where I was like, this has to be different. I have to make this easier for people.

[MICHELLE] (07:40):

So I feel like the number one question that people ask me about SEO is, it’s like a beginner question, which is fair, like if you were brand new to SEO, the first question is always, how do I decide on my keywords? And I always feel like maybe, and you can totally correct me, I always feel like maybe people are overthinking this. What are people putting into Google? What are they looking for that you want to show up for that in the search? And like, and that’s, those are your keywords. And it might not be that many things. Where I live, it’s acupuncture in Seneca Falls or cosmetic acupuncture. Or could say like, what if people aren’t familiar with acupuncture and they don’t know that’s what they need? Maybe they’re looking for natural pain relief for running or something. They don’t want to take medication. What would they Google instead? What do you usually tell people?

[LEX] (08:34):

So the easiest way to start breaking this down is to do what you’re talking about. The keywords that we use that will never change are the services that we provide. As a physical therapist, I do physical therapy. So that is something that won’t change. I know that’s going to be a keyword if I do acupuncture, that’s not going to change. those are always going to stay the same. If I do any sort of manual therapy, that word won’t change regardless of what’s going on online. So I’m always going to be using those words. The difference is when we start to look at how can we beat our competition? SEO, like I am not a competitive person. I’m competitive in a different way. I’m not, I don’t seek out to beat other people. But when we’re talking about SEO, we really do have to think about, okay, what’s our competition doing?

(09:19):

So when we talk about actually showing up in search above someone else, or starting to show up in search in general, that’s where we start to bring in other terms to rank for something like physical therapy versus ranking for something like shoulder pain after CrossFit. That’s going to be more easy. It’s going to be easier to rank for shoulder pain after CrossFit than it is for physical therapy because there’s so much competition. So I think about it like supply and demand. If there’s a demand for physical therapy, there’s a ton of supply, it’s going to be really hard to show up for that when you’re competing with in your area Thompson Health, or you’re competing with University of Rochester. So it’s just very difficult to show up. I say very difficult, yes, it’s easy when we’re an in-person business or easier, but it’s still not, like people will tell me all the time, they’re like, I’ve had a business for five years and I still don’t show up on Google. I’m like, what? What’s going on ? So like, again —

[MICHELLE] (10:12):

That’s scary.

[LEX] (10:13):

Like it happens. So when we’re talking about that long tail keyword, is what it’s called, shoulder pain after CrossFit, what our goal is to start showing up for those keywords and then Google starts to trust us, and then it will show us for other keywords. And that’s why it’s important to know who you’re treating, what you’re helping them with, where do you do it, do you do it in person or online, and then honestly, just knowing at the bottom of everything, it’s just who is your ideal client? Because that’s the person you’re going to talk to. And I always tell people, yes, start with the services that you do, but then also I know anybody who works in a clinic is answering questions all day long. So if you answer a question about, is acupuncture going to puncture my lung? Oh, okay, amazing. I get asked that question three times a week. I’m going to now write a blog post on it. Because if they’re asking you in the clinic, they’re Googling it. That’s why I tell people, I’m like, take the questions that you’re being asked in the clinic, make content out of that, however feels fit for you. And like we can go into how long should the blog be, what have you. But I just tell people, I don’t care how long it is, when you first start, just go write something.

[MICHELLE] (11:21):

I’m so happy to hear you say that. I love that you said at the bottom of everything is knowing your ideal client. Because I feel like people can spend a lot of time creating beautiful marketing before really digging into who is the specific person they want to be speaking to And then they’ve got this gorgeous brand that doesn’t quite hit the mark for the people they’re trying to reach. And then they just, and I mean, it’s not the end of the world. You can always go back and tweak things, but your marketing is so much more effective and efficient if you begin with trying to talk to those people. And so, you have to dig in and know who they are.

[LEX] (11:59):

And that’s the thing, I find people miss that. Then they’re, they will come to me and they ask about SEO and their website will be very generic and it will just speak to the masses. My first thing is, “Hey, where are we starting? We need to start back further. You don’t think about SEO yet. Who is your ideal client? Who do you actually want to target? Because you can’t chase everything at once either.” So it’s like if you’re going for acupuncture in a local area, that’s one thing, but if you’re trying to go for a certain age group with only shoulder pain, so we got to know exactly who we’re talking to. What age are we talking to? Who do we want to actually treat? And like that goes right down to your website photos. That marketing piece, it really doesn’t make sense to start until you know exactly who you want to treat.

[MICHELLE] (12:44):

Do you feel like a person’s location is an important keyword?

[LEX] (12:48):

Yes.

[MICHELLE] (12:49):

Okay, good. I tell people all the time, I’m like, one of your keywords is the place where you’re located, and then you can also have other keywords that are like surrounding towns where you feel like it’s reasonable to pull people from. Okay, good. I’m glad to hear you say that. I feel like I really enjoy SEO. I also like the mildly competitive nature of outsmarting the clever things other people are also doing, that we’re all behind the scenes trying to outsmart each other even though we have no idea what the others do. So fun. So how important do you feel blogging is for building SEO?

[LEX] (13:25):

That’s such a good question. So this is my general rule of thumb. I’ll just tell the whole story. So I didn’t experiment with my physical therapy clinic when I first started this, and I was like, every single online source says, I shouldn’t say every single, but everything that was out there that I had found says that you need to blog in order to rank. I don’t like long-form writing, I’m just not the person. From my Instagram, you can get a very good feel of how I like to write. It’s very quick. It’s to the point. I don’t like to tell a story too often. I did not want to write long-form content. So in my mind I said, okay, let’s see. The good news is that when you’re a local business, you can rank locally because you have a location very easily without a block. So with the practice, what I did was I had just experimented with a lot of location-based backend pages on the website, so hidden pages that were based on a specific location, a specific treatment that I’m doing, AKA pelvic health, physical therapy was a big one, and I just said, I’m going to create these backend pages that are very specific to this location, put a map on there, put who I treat, what I treat, symptoms, yada, yada, and then I’m just going to let Google do its thing and see what happens.

[MICHELLE] (14:40):

Awesome.

[LEX] (14:41):

So yes, you can rank, I believe the clinic was ranking for between, it was like five or seven keywords that were related to pelvic health locally. So if anybody was in, I want to say it was within two different towns, which were the two towns that we would pull from. So between those two towns, we were ranking in the top five for at least five to seven keywords and top of the map pack. So when you’re in that map pack, it’s very good. It’s hard to say that fast. It’s very good to be at the top of that. So we were also ranking in the map pack for at least three, and it would go in between four and five. With that being said, then my next phase of the experiment was, what happens if I add a blog? So I said, okay, cool, we’re ranking for these keywords. What happens if I add a blog that is just about that specific keyword?

(15:32):

So I just made an entire blog about pelvic health, physical therapy, wrote the thing, what it is, who it’s for, how to get treated, where’s the provider, what is a pelvic health PT, what is the pelvis, yada, yada, yada, ao an entire guide about pelvic health, physical therapy. And what I saw was that that accelerated the growth. So what I tell people now is, if you’re a local business, you don’t have to have a blog, but there are reasons to have a blog. One, it’s to accelerate your growth, it will happen faster, and two, it’s to gain trust. I mean, I don’t go to a hairdresser until I see that they have a ton of blonde hair on their Instagram. Like, it’s just how I work. It’s just how I operate. And I want to get trust from someone before I invest in them. Whether you want to look at their past work or look at things that they’re already talking about, you can get a really good feel for who people are when they’re writing. So people know that they’re not going to log onto my Zoom calls, and I’m not going to go into a big deep story with them. I’m going to get right to the point, because that’s how my Instagram is

[MICHELLE] (16:33):

Right

[LEX] (16:34):

So I always tell people, if you can build your content library, that’s better for you. One, because it allows you to gain that trust when someone does come to your website. Two, it accelerates your growth with SEO, if you’re going to dive into SEO and realistically three, you can point people somewhere. I love that. I can just be like, hey, I have a post on that. Here you go. Or I have a blog post on that. I have a podcast on that, here you go.

[MICHELLE] (17:01):

You mentioned the map pack, is that what you called it? So that’s when someone searches and you have the little Google map come up and people are ranked, and then below that it’s doing other rankings, of other websites. Okay, gotcha.

[LEX] (17:14):

That map pack is really, really valuable for in-person businesses for sure.

[MICHELLE] (17:18):

Absolutely. Because it’s based on where the searcher is located, right?

[LEX] (17:23):

Exactly. That’s why for online business it’s very hard to rank. So even like the most, the biggest people, I will say, like Amy Porterfield is really big with course creation. She’s not, I don’t think, last I checked, it’s not if I search course creation or course building, it’s not like she pops up unless you type her name in directly. So online businesses are very hard to rank, and that’s why when you’re a location-based business and you have an in-person business, it’s very, very, you have a leg up, that just is what you have a leg up because you have a location because Google is based on location.

[MICHELLE] (17:58):

I hope that makes everyone feel really inspired, and hopeful. Like there is hope. There is hope for ranking on your website. When you decided to write that blog, you said you don’t like long-form content, did you end up writing shorter blog posts and that was still effective?

[LEX] (18:16):

So I just wrote what I like to call a queen post, and that’s just in everything you could possibly need to know about one topic post. And it was still very tactical. When I write it or when I wrote it, it is very much so focused to the point. So for instance, a title of a section within that blog post would be, what is Pelvic Health Physical Therapy? Literally, I would say pelvic health physical therapy is yada yada, yada, yada. So I’m not telling the person, like, I always think about a recipe blog. I’m not giving someone my kitchen story and how, what my grandfather used to make bread. I’m like, that’s not what I’m doing. That’s not who I am. That’s not a strength of mine. So I get, I go right to the point, and that’s exactly what that blog post did.

(18:57):

So it literally just did, what is it? Who is it for? What is, what do you do in it? How do you use it? What are the results? What type of exercises do I need to do, so basically broke down every single portion of pelvic health. And then ideally what happens next is you take all of those sections, because even if we just think what diagnoses does pelvic health physical therapy treat, you’re going to have a list of 10 to 12 diagnoses. I’m not writing everything I need to know about that diagnosis, so now I write another blog post about diastasis, another blog post about birth prep. So it all feeds into each other.

[MICHELLE] (19:32):

Yes. Okay, so that was one giant blog post then. Okay, I don’t know why I imagined you were like answering each question separately in a blog post.

[LEX] (19:44):

No, that was a big giant one.

[MICHELLE] (19:45):

Okay, so you just wrote that one big blog post, which sounds like it must have been sort of repetitive to the secret pages that you had published in the background and that really improved it. And these secret pages, because I’m sure some of the people in the audience are like, what is that? Or how do I do it? It’s basically like publishing a page, but not putting it in like your menu navigation. So it’s live on your website, but if someone lands on your homepage, there’s no way for them to find it.

[LEX] (20:13):

Exactly. But then Google can pull it up for people. So it might show up and it should show up in Google, but it won’t be on your navigation page.

[MICHELLE] (20:20):

Gotcha. And so is the reason that adding a blog post that’s very similar to that hidden page, is the reason that works because it increases the density of those keywords you are looking for?

[LEX] (20:33):

Yes, you’re also showing Google a couple different things. So expertise, authority, and trust are things that Google looks for. It’s the eat, is what people call. They actually added another one. It’s personal experience essentially, so experience. So realistically now it’s eeat, eat with two E’s. But what you’re showing Google is that you’re an authority on a topic. So for instance, if you write, I always tell people, if you’re going to write a blog, you need to write a lot about a little. People are like, I wrote about diastasis yesterday. I’m like, I know you did not put everything you know about diastasis in one blog post. So what else can you write? And I think that we all feel like we’re repeating ourselves a million times, but honestly, for anybody, and my partner Shantel has said this, once is never, and if we’re able to say it —

[MICHELLE] (21:24):

I love that.

[LEX] (21:25):

Literally, like once is never, we say it once and people don’t intake it. We say it again, maybe it still doesn’t happen. So there’s plenty of ways we can talk about one topic. So I always tell people, write a lot about a little, but that expertise, authority, and trust, you’re showing Google that you are an authoritative source and that you are someone that can be speaking on this. Because anybody can write one post about something, but can you write more than one? Are you the person that can create a library of content that someone can land on and binge? So I tell people two things. Write a lot about a little and become a binge worthy source.

[MICHELLE] (21:58):

Ooh, I love that. I’m trying to think of, whenever I write a blog post, I try to pick like a symptom and say does, and think about like, what might people put into Google? Does acupuncture help with tennis elbow, something like that, and then find a couple research articles that support the use of acupuncture. I can refer back to them. I try to summarize them really briefly because people are not into the technical jargon. I think more than anything they just like to know there’s research out there. So this is legit. And then I often answer the same questions. How many treatments do I need for tennis elbow? What are the symptoms? What might I expect? Kind of very repetitive, like you’re saying, because for a lot of acupuncturists, when people ask us how many treatments do I need for X, Y, Z symptom or condition, we’re going to give them the standardized answer that we were taught in school, which is maybe weekly for six to eight weeks. And it’s like, it doesn’t matter what the symptom is unless it’s something very specific or you have an expertise and you want them to do something slightly different, but it’s like you just keep giving them that same answer. But then it’s associated with this particular symptom on the page and if people are searching, it’s really helpful.

[LEX] (23:13):

Exactly. And then you say, if you want to know all about acupuncture, go read this blog. And that could be a blog that’s literally everything someone could know before they come to acupuncture. So it’s like, what does it look like? What does it feel like? Does it hurt? Am I going to have symptoms afterward? Will I be tired? Like, just all of that type of stuff can be another post. And then this is where I always picture, I call it a queen post, that’s our big post, everything you need to know about a certain topic, which could be acupuncture, everything I need to know about acupuncture, what diagnoses do I treat, all that stuff. Then I do helper bees. So we know that the helper bees are just there to feed to the queen bee and essentially work for her. So when we talk about the helper bee posts, that would be the breakdown of tennis elbow, so acupuncture for tennis elbow, acupuncture for rotator cuff, et cetera. So that’s where we talk about the different things and we make those helper posts. And then every time we post one of the helper posts, we say, if you want to know everything you need to know about acupuncture head here, and then it goes to your acupuncture blog. So if you think about a wheel, we have the acupuncture one in the middle, and then we have all the other ones in the wheel on the outside.

[MICHELLE] (24:24):

Gotcha. So then the acupuncture queen post is what they might call, what do they call it, pillar content, or something, evergreen content maybe? Something like that.

[LEX] (24:36):

Yeah, because essentially what I like to tell people is just like the nervous system, so the nervous system, your brain is living in the dark, so it only knows the inputs that you give it. So just like that we look at, Google only knows the inputs that you give it. So if you write a blog post and it just is standalone, there’s no links, you’re not linking to it anywhere, no one else on the internet is linking to anywhere, it’s essentially what we call an island. There’s not, I don’t want to say there’s no point in writing it because that’s not true, but we’re just not optimizing it to a standard of let it be found. Or also Google, literally, I always get so bent apart about this because I’m like, Google won’t just recognize content without you sharing it too. If you create a piece of content we need to share in two ways, link to it from something else, but then also put it on your Facebook, put it in your Instagram, put it in your newsletter. Like, don’t let it be an island.

[MICHELLE] (25:35):

I love that perspective of Google is just a brain sitting in the dark and it needs you. Literally needs you to do the thing, share the content, bring it, bring the content to Google, and let it know that it exists.

[LEX] (25:48):

Literally.

[MICHELLE] (25:50):

I guess I’ve always wondered how much impact social media has on someone’s SEO and their Google rank. Like how does that work? How does Google know that my Instagram’s associated with it, how does it know?

[LEX] (26:06):

Pretty much zero. The only social media that Google is friends with is Twitter. So Twitter and Google are friends, so if you start posting on Twitter, you can get found on Google. It will help. It’s still not your website, though. It’s still not your domain, but if it’s your name, or if you’re typing, if you are the person to go to about financial advice or acupuncture, what have you, if someone’s searching it, you have the potential to come up if you’re posting on Twitter. Now, I always tell people, and I post this all the time on Instagram, two things. The first thing is when we have a link in our bio, we need to make sure that page is hosted on our website. So I have a blog on my website all about how to make that for yourself if you are someone who is listening and wants to do that. But when someone says link in bio, make sure that link in bio page is actually hosted on your website and not on like link tree, because now anybody who’s on our Instagram who wants to go check us out further is going to our website first, and then they’re going to our freebie or to our schedule button, or to our homepage next. That’s my first thing.

(27:09):

Then secondarily, I always, always, always ask a question to the groups that I present to and typically I get the same answer. So the first question I’ll ask is, who here is constantly creating content for their website? And most people will say no. My next question, and by content I just mean new pages, a blog post, a podcast, what have you. The next question I’ll ask is, who was creating content consistently for Instagram? And everyone, most people will say yes, and I’m like, okay, your first homework assignment, even though your Instagram posts are not necessarily long enough, your first homework assignment is to just take an Instagram post and publish it as a blog.

[MICHELLE] (27:47):

Yay. Oh my God, I’m so happy to hear you say that. I feel like the best way to say stay sane and succeed in the digital world is to repurpose content. Take something that you already put time and energy into and copy and paste it. Everywhere you can.

[LEX] (28:04):

And like the easiest thing, and I, you always hear from people posting on Instagram, like, I didn’t have enough characters. Great, go to your blog post and add what you want to add. Like, you already talked about this content, you already paired it down enough, now let’s beef it back up. And that’s why I’ll tell people, you could literally write one blog post and have five different Instagram posts from it.

[MICHELLE] (28:25):

Yes.

[LEX] (28:25):

Like, make it easy. And I don’t think there’s, like you said, there’s no reason to reinvent the wheel every single time that we go do something.

[MICHELLE] (28:33):

How much do you feel like the Google Business profile, and its like completeness affects someone’s Google rank?

[LEX] (28:43):

I say you need to have one. So if you are a local business, absolutely have one. I find that the best way to utilize that, two things, one is to have your address. So we have an address in our Google My Business profile. And in SEO land, it’s called the NAP, so name, address, phone. And when we have our name, address, and phone listed on our Google profile, we have to make sure that that’s the same across all of our platforms. So if you’re suite one and you spell it out, suites like S-U-I-T-E in one address, but then on your website it says STE, that’s different. Google gets confused. The big reason I like Google My Business is it gives us a standard way to list our name, address, and phone, so I love that part about it. The second thing that I love is that on Google, you can actually post updates. What I like to use those updates for oftentimes is for blog posts. One reason that you can, one way to advocate for sharing content is that Google makes it super easy to just reshare on the platform. So if we publish a blog post, we then go take that blog post and say, hey, X, Y, and Z business fans, I just recently posted a new blog post on X, Y, and Z. Check it out here. And I put a photo with it, and then I link to the blog post, and that’s one link. So we’re looking to link to that content.

[MICHELLE] (30:03):

Gotcha. So how often do you think people should post updates on their Google business profile?

[LEX] (30:09):

I will tell people just because I come from the camp of like, whatever you see that you can manage and be consistent with. So I’ll tell people whatever feels good, but ideally if you’re posting once a month that’s great. Google just wants to make sure you’re not dead, essentially, like, literally. And I always tell people that too, I’m like, you can hire, so I will tell people, you can hire me to start your SEO and like, get it off the ground, but if you don’t ever touch anything ever again, Google’s going to put you in their little graveyard.

[MICHELLE] (30:37):

So you have to make sure you’re publishing stuff and adding stuff. So it’s not just, it’s not a passive process. We have to actively do stuff. So for me, I’m always like you know what, throw data at it. Tell Google that you’re alive and then we’re golden. So once a month is great. And if you don’t do once a month, we do once every three months. That’s fine. It’s more or less those websites that you haven’t touched since 2016, 2020. It’s like, we need to do something.

[MICHELLE] (31:02):

This is how I always think about blogging as well, because as far as I know, Google appreciates updates on your website and every time you publish a blog post, it’s a new page. And a new page on your website literally indicates that you’re not dead, that your business is still functioning and it’s just incredibly practical. And I think it’s, sometimes it’s hard to convince people that blogging is worth their time because it is time consuming to write content. Although we talked about how they could repurpose things they’ve already written. That’s a great option. And I’ve always found that it takes time to build good SEO, but do you find that that’s true? Like if people start blogging and implementing things, how long should they give it before they throw in the towel, more or less.

[LEX] (31:50):

So here’s the thing,

[MICHELLE] (31:52):

Many we’ll never throw the towel, maybe.

[LEX] (31:54):

Yeah, there’s so many things that I want, because you just mentioned so many good stuff or so many good things. First off, SEO, people will always ask me, how long does it take? Actually, if anybody tells you it takes an X amount of time, you should not hire them. It’s just like a brick and mortar business. You don’t know. I will tell people, aim for six plus months and understand that if you’re not ranking high after six months, it’s not a problem. This is the internet.

[MICHELLE] (32:23):

It’s not over.

[LEX] (32:24):

Yeah, It’s not over. You need to just keep going and understand. Stay committed to the process.

[MICHELLE] (32:29):

Yes.

[LEX] (32:30):

What else did you just say in there? So, no, don’t throw in the towel. I also will say, it’s like playing the lottery. I don’t play the lottery, but I’m going to use the analogy anyway. If you don’t do it, tomorrow’s still going to happen. So if you don’t ever put content out and you don’t ever start the process, you are, it’s, I should say investing, it’s just like investing, if you don’t start now, tomorrow is still going to happen. And guess what, you still will not be able to go back in time to publish things. So start today, stay committed to the process. I would say people are always like, well, how many blogs should I post? Once a month? I don’t care. Just make sure you put some type of, because we all do better with deadlines, so put a deadline on yourself and say, okay, once a month I’m going to post a blog post and that’s what we’re going to do, and if you don’t start, it’s just going to take longer in the end. So starting today is always better than starting next month.

[MICHELLE] (33:23):

Yes. I did have a marketing client today who was like, how often are you publishing blog posts a I was like you know what, at this point, and I practice this almost five years old in this location, I’m not that regular with it anymore. I will have months where I will publish three because maybe I’ll have a class that’s upcoming that I want to announce, and I will think of something to say about acupuncture and knee pain and then I don’t know, like something else will come up and then the following month I might not post anything. And then the next month it’ll just be one. But I think it helps that I was very consistent in the beginning for the first year or two. And overall, it’s, I guess like how much does it matter as long as you are consistently publishing some updates on your website so that Google continues to know you’re alive but Like at the end of five years now, I have, I don’t even know like 40 or 50 blog posts, whereas exactly like you’re saying, if I never did it, obviously I would have zero.

(34:22):

And I think the thing that lights a fire under a lot of people that I hope they find helpful is think about your competitors and how they are also not writing a blog. So I think the average acupuncture website is like five to seven pages, about us, questions, FAQs. If you start writing a blog once a month, two years, you’ll have 24 more pages on your website than the person down the street who continued to not write a blog. I’m a huge fan of the long game.

[LEX] (34:57):

And it is. And that’s the thing, and I tell people, just be prepared. I think it’s incredibly frustrating. It’s incredibly frustrating to be like, I am doing all this work and I’m not, either people aren’t booking with me or I’m not being found yet, or it’s just really slow and it’s one of those things where you, once you get to where you’re going, and I say that in quotes, this is the process and this is just part of the journey. And realistically, if you want to succeed long-term with any sort of SEO or podcast, you just have to commit to the, to what you need to do in order to get there. And I do think that the biggest barrier is what do I write and how do I write it and get it? chatGPT is very much so a useful tool. I will not tell people, please hear me, everyone when I say this, don’t have it write your blogs, because that’s not what we want. What we do though, and you can copy these words, you can say, write an article brief and content outline for a blog titled X, Y, and Z, or a blog about knee pain. And then it will tell you, here’s the sections that you should do, and then you fill in the content. So for my people who are like, I don’t know what to write, there you go.

[MICHELLE] (36:06):

Perfect.

[LEX] (36:06):

Like, that’s how you can start.

[MICHELLE] (36:06):

I love that

[LEX] (36:11):

Because I don’t love, I’m a big advocate, like, don’t have it write your content because then you’re not human. It doesn’t sound like you. Branding wise, it just looks, it’s a bad look. So just make sure you’re writing your own content, but to have it write an outline for you, absolutely. Lower the barrier to entry.

[MICHELLE] (36:27):

And I definitely agree with you. You mentioned this earlier, that people get a feel for who you are, like your personality as well as your approach to your medicine, whatever your specialty is through the words that you write. And so even if chatGPT writes something for you, edit it, massage it. Like make sure it’s, it is your words that are shining through. Because I think you’re right, people can tell if it’s straight chatGPT. It really falls a little flat. Or it’s like exquisitely fancy and you’re like, okay, I would never use those words in writing or in real life. But if I had a top hat. Maybe you could be able to publish this.

[LEX] (37:13):

Yes, absolutely, yes. And I also, I just, this thought just came to my mind as you were saying that. I think, and it’s part of branding, we always want to decrease the fear that someone has when they’re seeking out help. Because realistically the healthcare system is pretty broken. So to have someone who I can go relate to in a blog, I’m probably going to book with you before I book into some a website that looks just like every other website. And no shade against that, but we are humans. Like we also, like, we have to feel comfortable where we’re going to get treated, and also as a clinician, if you’re not comfortable with me, I don’t want to treat you.

[MICHELLE] (37:54):

It’s a little uncomfortable all around

[LEX] (37:56):

Yes, it’s an energy exchange. So if I am, especially with any sort of needle insertion and using acupuncture needles, like you are, it’s an actual energy transfer. So we have to be careful with all of that stuff. And to have a business where someone is seeking out our services and coming in person to see us, we want them to be comfortable with us. We want them to know who we are. And I truly think that if we can take any sort of written content or our photos on our website or a video on our website, what have you, and make people feel safe, then I don’t feel like it’s any sort of, I want to call it a time suck, if you will. People consider blogging like a time suck and I’m like, but no, it’s so valuable to increase that trust and to just make sure, yes, you’re seeking out the right people and getting the right people. And when they trust you trust them. It’s just a good therapeutic relationship. So we can’t really say anything bad about that.

[MICHELLE] (38:53):

Absolutely. How important do you feel sharing your photo is, so that people can see the person who would be treating them, and that’s either on the website or sharing it on Instagram or social in general?

[LEX] (39:08):

A hundred percent. I think that when they’re, I’m approaching this carefully only because I don’t want it to feel like people won’t seek you out because of the way you look. That’s not what my goal is. But I also, and that’s not my intention. But we just want to pull the shade down. Who am I going to see when I walk in the door? Even if it’s just the front desk person, the person who is an administrator at your clinic booking the appointments, who are you? I want to know who I’m going to see when I get there. And I just think that oftentimes it’s really tough to be a patient. If we think about ourselves as a patient, and I always approach most clinic marketing stuff with this, is how can I be the patient here and what can I do to alleviate any sort of question or fear that someone would have? And if that means that I share my photo, absolutely. I want them to know exactly what I look like because in this world, I do think it’s important. I think it’s important to make sure people know who they’re going to be seeing, and if they’re not comfortable with that, cool. Awesome. There’s probably someone else out there for you and I can help you find someone if that’s, if that’s what you’re wondering about and if not, I’d love to treat you. I’m a big proponent.

[MICHELLE] (40:22):

Yeah, I think it’s pretty powerful. I always think about humans as very social mammals. And our natural response to seeing someone’s photo is, it’s like making eye contact without being in person with someone. But you are deciding is it a yes or is it a no? I think it’s unconscious. And I think for most people it’s like, it’s like you said, they’re not going to look at your photo and be like, well, I’m not working with that person. It’s more just making that connection beforehand, knowing what to anticipate and then feeling more comfortable, like part of the process of arriving at your office has been clarified before they even arrive. And as you said, that’s a, that can be a big barrier and just want to remove that. Do you know what’s so funny? You say that I think people should put on their websites and their Instagram, like, what is the parking stich? Because, I hate parallel parking and I want to know before I arrive.

[LEX] (41:24):

Yes. I tell people to put a video, like how to actually get to your clinic on the website.

[MICHELLE] (41:30):

Honestly, I should do that because the Google Maps instructions for my practice are confusing. There’s two routes you could enter and people will just drive around and around the block. It’s like they can see the building. It’s huge. I’m like one little office in this, it used to be an elementary school, so it’s like they know they’re close, so they’re circling like a bird. I’m like, I really need a video. You can enter here or you can enter here. Both are fine.

[LEX] (41:56):

Yeah, I Literally tell people to put their phone outside their vehicle.

[MICHELLE] (42:00):

Ah, smart.

[LEX] (42:00):

Obviously, let’s not be the driver, but —

[MICHELLE] (42:04):

You need a sidekick for this exercise.

[LEX] (42:07):

Yes. I mean, if you have a phone holder in the front, you could potentially just turn it around. But I’m like, just do a video. Make it low barrier. Give some directions because your face and the parking situation, just alleviating that can make someone feel like this experience is better.

[MICHELLE] (42:22):

Yes. It’s easier. I love that. Well, I have one more question for you and it is, what is your definition of success?

[LEX] (42:33):

I was thinking about this, I, for the longest time, for me, it’s about how I spend my time. So for me, I want to be happy. Honestly, like that’s, that’s my, I feel successful because I am able to say that I’m genuinely happy. And if we break that down further, my partner actually says it really well, it’s like doing what I want with who I want when I want. And I’m like, yes, that’s exactly what, how I would define being happy and being able to do that thing. And I think that if you break down, why do you work, why do you play, what does life feel like, I feel like success for me is just, am I happy? Am I not happy? And that’s how I would define it.

[MICHELLE] (43:19):

Wonderful. Well thank you so much for being here and sharing so, so much information and knowledge. And so, I mean, everything that we talked about regarding SEO is like a small portion of what you teach inside your flagship course, right? Is it SEO school, is that what it’s called?

[LEX] (43:36):

Yes. It’s six months long, which is fun, but also all the things.

[MICHELLE] (43:40):

Yes, a deep education. And I’m sure it, just can’t even imagine how that would clear up people’s fear and worries because they just will understand what they’re doing.

[LEX] (43:51):

Yeah, I tell people even if you end up going through SEO school and not wanting to do it yourself and you hire someone, at least you know what can be done and what should be done so you feel more empowered, informed, whatever word you want to use. Because now you actually understand the things instead of someone being like, I’m going to pull the wool over your eyes, because this business, people take advantage of people because they don’t know the difference. They don’t know what, website design, SEO. So I always say if the only thing that you take out of the course is what SEO is and how you can do it and you know the task list and then you go hire someone to do it, cool.

[MICHELLE] (44:23):

Huge win.

[LEX] (44:24):

That makes me happy. Yes, huge win. Like you know you understand

[MICHELLE] (44:29):

So how can people find you and connect with you online?

[LEX] (44:32):

So definitely Instagram @Lex Lancaster_, and then all of my information is on my website, lexlancaster.com. You can see all the things I do there as well as submit any sort of inquiry form, schedule discovery, call, all the things. But like I said, everything except for Facebook and Google ads. And I always approach things as far as if you have a question, book a discovery call and we’ll figure out if I’m a good fit. If I’m not a good fit, I have very trusted people who I can refer you to. So I am open to anything. And I also, silly me, I’m looking at us on this podcast. I also have a podcast that has a ton of free content on it. It is titled Up in My Business and you can find it on any of the podcast platforms that you love.

[MICHELLE] (45:12):

Awesome. I will link everything in the show notes. Thank you again so much for being here.

[LEX] (45:17):

Thank you so much for having me. This was great.

[MICHELLE] (45:26):

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