The Rise of Online Therapy Searches During Coronavirus

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Google searches for Online Therapy, Teletherapy, Virtual Therapy, and Video Therapy have been on the rise since the early days of COVID-19.

Part of the reason for this uptick in intakes is the fact that you can promote online therapy services to your entire state, not just your local geographical area. This opens up scores of opportunities for finding new clients who need you now, more than ever.

Therapists who made an early transition to telehealth and quickly adjusted their marketing plans are now seeing big results during COVID-19.

Before jumping into search engine statistics for promoting online therapy during Coronavirus, here are five higher-level trends I’ve noticed in my work as a marketing consultant for therapy practices.

1. When a “shelter in place” (or similar) ordinance begins, there seems to be a universal 2-3 week dip in intakes and new clients. The theory is that people need a little time to understand how their life is being affected – and what that means for their finances.
2. Website visits for pages related to Online Therapy and Teletherapy are skyrocketing. Increases of more than 200% are the norm – and those leads are converting quickly once the “new normal” sets in.
3. Facebook ad campaigns for online therapy are working extremely well right now with high conversion rates and low CPLs (cost per lead).
4. People understand the need for a good therapist right now.
5. Teletherapy regulations are being eased across the country to make teletherapy more accessible – even for new clients.

Analyzing 4 key Coronavirus therapy searches

Using the Google Search Trends tool and Google’s Keyword Planner, I examined four of the most popular search terms for online therapy during coronavirus. Here they are, ranked from most to least popular:

1. Teletherapy
2. Online Therapy
3. Video Therapy
4. Virtual Therapy

For the sake of this article, the results studied are based on nationwide searches across America. I encourage you to visit the Google Search Trends and Keyword Planner pages and customize the results for your own city and state.

Google Keyword Planner — search results for online therapy-related keywords during COVID-19

Google Keyword Planner gives us a large range of data for search results. This makes it a bit difficult to dive into actual increases and decreases due to Coronavirus. However, we can see the big picture – and that has remained mostly unchanged during the Age of COVID-19.

Online Therapy

• “Online Therapy” gets between 10k – 100k searches each month.
• If you’re using Google Ads, you will pay between $7 – $18 to get your result on Page 1.
• There is high competition for this keyword.

Teletherapy

• “Teletherapy” gets between 10k – 100k searches each month.
• If you’re using Google Ads, you will pay between $2 – $11 to get your result on Page 1.
• There is medium competition for this keyword.

Video Therapy

• “Video Therapy” gets between 1k – 10k searches each month.
• If you’re using Google Ads, you will pay between $4 – $11 to get your result on Page 1.
• There is medium competition for this keyword.

Virtual Therapy

• “Virtual Therapy” gets between 1k – 10k searches each month.
• If you’re using Google Ads, you will pay between $5 – $9 to get your result on Page 1.
• There is high competition for this keyword.

Google Search Trends for online therapy-related Coronavirus keywords

“Google Trends” is a website by Google that analyzes the popularity of top search queries in Google Search across various regions and languages. The website uses graphs to compare the search volume of different queries over time.¹

Each number is a percentage that represents search interest relative to the highest point on the chart for the given region and time.

• A value of 100 is the peak popularity for the term.
• A value of 50 means that the term is half as popular.
• A score of 0 means that there was not enough data for this term.

How to read a Google Trends chart

When you plug in a single keyword, you get a different picture than when you compare it to related keywords.

For example, in the chart below, you will find that virtual therapy and video therapy get relatively low scores when compared to online therapy and teletherapy. However, when we look at the data for each one individually, the story changes.

“Online Therapy” searches

Even before the Coronavirus pandemic forced all therapy to become a virtual offering, most people used the search phrase “online therapy” to find what they were looking for.

On average, “Online Therapy” searches hovered around 60% popularity. Since mid-March, searches for online therapy are regularly topping 75% – with peaks close to 100% interest.

Across the board, searches seem to dip on weekends.

“Teletherapy” searches

Historically, “Teletherapy” as a search phrase has had very little interest. For most of 2020, it was getting between a 0-10% score. Since March 15, the keyword search phrase has exploded – it’s now regularly getting scores of 80-100%.

Much like online therapy search results, the numbers dip every weekend and pick back up on Monday.

“Video Therapy” searches

Video Therapy seems to be the most volatile search trend in 2020. Even before Coronavirus came on the scene, it was a consistently popular search phrase that spiked down on weekends (as do all the searches). It also seems to be the phrase that spends the most time above 75% popularity.

“Virtual Therapy” searches

The data in the chart below tells me that virtual therapy has never gained the popularity of other keywords. And, it also has enough high points that it becomes an interesting keyword to focus on when it comes to SEO and Google Ads.

Has “Coronavirus Anxiety” peaked?

I’m honestly not sure what to make of this one. Searches for “Coronavirus Anxiety” skyrocketed in mid-March, as is to be expected. However, by the second week of April, the searches were way down. This is a trend worth monitoring, as you try to optimize your Coronavirus marketing funnel.

Recommendation: “Virtual Therapy” and “Video Therapy” are great opportunities

On their own, “virtual therapy” and “video therapy” are still trending upwards. However, when compared to “teletherapy” and “online therapy, these therapist keywords and search phrases are barely denting the 25% mark.

This tells us that if you’re going the SEO or Google Ads route, “virtual therapy” and “video therapy” are low-hanging fruit keywords.

Ranking on Google for virtual therapy and video therapy searches during the Coronavirus era is easier than ranking for online therapy or teletherapy.

First, you need to create pages on your site that focus on those keywords. These new pages should engage the reader, offer a clear CTA (call to action), and inspire them to reach out … while also providing instant value to your dream client.

As a reminder, creating SEO-optimized content is about more than just plugging in the words “virtual therapy” every few sentences. You need the supplementary keywords as well. When you type in “video therapy” into Google, what related searches come up at the bottom? What are your competitors ranking for?

Conclusion

When we look at the data as a whole, it becomes clear that whatever keywords you focus on, this is the time to promote your therapy practice’s online offerings. People need your help now more than ever – so let’s chat about how we can fill your caseload!

RESOURCE:
How to get more therapy clients during Coronavirus

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