How to overcome the 3 major hurdles you’ll face when implementing SEO
Believe it or not, the “S” in SEO does not stand for scary.
SEO, or search engine optimization, is a marketing technique that should be as common as list building or posting on social media.
But the somewhat mysterious and minorly technical (emphasis on minor) nature of SEO keeps many clinicians from even attempting this highly lucrative strategy.
Keep reading to learn how to overcome the 3 hurdles you’ll face when you decide it’s time to incorporate SEO into your online practice.
#1: Tech
“Do I need to learn how to code or use a lot of new tech?”
Deep breath…no.
Thankfully, learning to code is no longer necessary for the average person to incorporate and maintain SEO on their website.
While some technical skills will improve your ability to get found on Google (like ensuring your site is fast and offers a good user experience), they are generally easy to learn and don’t include coding.
Building findability and credibility online is primarily about consistency and client relevance, two key strategies outlined in our 6-step SEO Marketing Guide.
Keeping these two objectives in mind as you weave SEO into your marketing strategy will allow you to streamline and grow your audience over time. No empire was built in a day, so relying upon virality on the internet to boost your business is like buying weekly lotto tickets as your early retirement plan!
When you think of SEO, remember: It’s a long game.
Search engine optimization is most successful when it’s sustainably intertwined into your overall marketing plan with the expectation that your site will begin to receive more visitors (and more action from those visitors) in 6 to 12 months.
These days, SEO tactics are accessible to even the most tech-phobic business owner and can be managed without learning how to become a programmer or optimization expert. There are now many tools available to help small businesses implement, manage, monitor, and assess SEO efforts without hiring a large team.
Later in the blog, we’ll cover several of these free to inexpensive resources you can begin mastering immediately.
#2: Return on Investment
“Is it worth the time it takes away from doing what I love?”
Based on the data reported from full-time SEOs and the major wins we’ve tracked through our agency…yes, SEO is worth your time.
SEO is not an all-or-nothing strategy. You can do a lot or a little, so long as you do it consistently!
Some simple steps, such as listing your business in a Google Business Profile so it shows up in Google Maps, will give you more visibility in your neighborhood for very little time investment.
Other strategies require more thoughtfulness and attention, like any aspect of your business.
Publishing blogs that truly help your patients and show off your clinical expertise while using specific keywords you want to rank for is one of the best ways to demonstrate to the search engines (and your future patients!) that you are here, you are credible, and you are worth their attention.
Remember, keywords are simply the words your potential patients use to search Google for answers to their questions and solutions to their problems.
While the lingo feels a little overwhelming at first, it gets easier over time. Like any language, what we learn best is what we often use, which we have all experienced transitioning from new student to practicing clinician.
Thankfully, we don’t need that level of education to be adept at SEO.
As you start to dig into some of our SEO resources, you may need a dictionary the first few times, but understanding what is meant by ‘keyword’ and ‘crawling’ will quickly become second nature.
We love Moz’s SEO Dictionary; it’s our go-to whenever we stumble across a term we’re unfamiliar with.
“Is SEO expensive to learn and maintain?”
It certainly can be, but there are also great ways to bootstrap your SEO with little to no overhead cost.
If you’re going the DIY route, Ubersuggest and Moz’s tools are our favorites for accessing and assessing keywords and other data to gain more Google visibility.
Ubersuggest has the capability to access the keywords that are performing best on your site, compare your site to a competitor, and track your web traffic and performance over time through Google Analytics. Like Moz, they also have support tools such as articles, webinars, and Q&A calls for those of us leaping into the SEO sea for the first time.
Some practitioners who have taken our DIY SEO course rank on page 1 of Google (the dream) by utilizing only Ubersuggest and blogging.
If you’re more time-strapped than cash-strapped, there are several ways you can use professionals to either create your SEO strategy or content for you (or both!).
The LaFont Agency provides all the resources you need to DIY your marketing strategy from the ground up via our DIY SEO course and our Marketing Membership. We can even take the reins and work with you to create a plan we implement by providing customized keyword-rich content for your site. Our buddy, Matt, provides lots of great tips on his Instagram page @HeyTony and can provide support with your website and social media, as well.
“How will I know what my return is? Are my SEO efforts working?”
Ultimately, the more people who find your site via a Google search (technically called “organic traffic”), the more money you’ll have in the bank.
But setting a goal for optimization is key: Using SEO w/out a goal is like recommending supplements without a health history.
Is your goal increased visibility overall on the internet?
Additional subscribers to your newsletter list?
New students in your free course?
Inquiries about your services?
The desired outcome you want from SEO will determine not only how you utilize your website content and design your site’s user experience but will also guide the metrics you use for success.
Two somewhat more technical but highly useful (and free!) software programs that provide many website data points are Google Analytics and Google Search Console.
Google Analytics helps you understand your site visitors—how they found your site, how many visit your site per month, what they do when they get there, etc.
Google Search Console provides more in-depth SEO data, such as the average position of your site in search results or why some pages aren’t showing up on Google.
In DIY SEO, we teach you how to easily access these tools, get them working with your website, and the best resources on the internet for mastering all the data they provide.
#3: Relevance
“Will I constantly have to learn new strategies to maintain visibility on Google?”
Every time Google releases an update (or suffers a data leak), the internet goes all aflutter.
This slight panic can be disruptive, but the fact remains that consistently publishing content that is super relevant and helpful to your patients beats chasing Google’s latest micro-adjustments.

The newest rollout, AI-generated search results, is a perfect example.
As of May 2024, many of your Google searches will now be answered by an AI amalgamation drawn from different sources on the web.
Could this be problematic, as it tends to keep people stuck on the search result page versus clicking into your website, the deep fear of online practices who rely on web traffic to fuel sales?
Yep, it could.
But AI-generated results actually have the potential to put you a step ahead and above others.
How so?
Many (MANY) businesses have begun to heavily rely on AI for content creation. When creators rely too heavily on AI-generated blogs, articles, and web pages, your more personalized, patient-specific, experience-driven writing will stand out like a lighthouse in a storm.
Additionally, Google is quickly learning how to recognize lackluster AI content, so the effort you put into using your original voice, speak directly to your avatar (Don’t know who that is yet? Check this out.), and write your blogs to answer patients’ biggest questions and solve their biggest problems, the better your chances of being seen!
At the end of the day, it boils down to…consistency and relevance! The more consistent you are, the greater the content library you build, offering more value to those looking for someone just like you and a greater likelihood of sharing a life-changing pearl that keeps them coming back to your site and working with you for years to come.
Once your visibility increases, it’s the ongoing consistency and usefulness of your content that lets Google know you are a valid expert, and you rank higher and higher in the list of search results.

Bottom line: The hurdles are worth it
While SEO used to require hiring a specialist, much has changed that favors the solopreneur in being able to take control of this important aspect of marketing.
Keeping connected to your audience and offering them relevant information about their concerns has been, and likely always will be, the best way to be known and trusted in person and online.
If you’re ready to take advantage of all the tools that make getting seen online easier and implement a system that will work wonders for your long-term marketing strategy, be sure to register for our free SEO masterclass.
Sooner than you expect, you’ll feel like an SEO wunderkind and be sharing pro tips with your colleagues!