Introduction

Marketing has changed in the past ten years ? so much and so rapidly that former experts have no use of their vast experience any longer. It used to be the company reaching out to prospective clients, trying to get its information, logo, and an attractive offer in front of as many people as possible, hoping that some might follow the ?call-toaction? and pick up the phone or visit the location. Now the prospect is reaching out, trying to find information. Marketing now is about making sure that when somebody is looking for us, we?re being found. The biggest mistake that I see Rolfers make in their marketing is that their ads talk only about Rolfing® Structural Integration (SI) . . . as do their websites and their profiles on social media. Most people don?t even know they need a Rolfer, so part of being found is discovering what somebody might be looking for in their search. [I do get the occasional client who found me on rolf.org, and those are my favorites: they already know they want Rolfing SI, so I don?t need to explain much. But those are too rare. They don?t pay the rent.] This article shows you how you can be found online easily by spending time on your website and general online presence.

Like all therapeutic professionals, Rolfers have a hard time marketing themselves. When faced with difficulties, we make excuses: ?It?s all word-of-mouth anyway? or ?In my area people don?t know about Rolfing SI, so it?s been slow building a business.? We do our best to educate people about Rolfing SI, perhaps by giving demonstrations. It?s important to get the word out, and meeting people face-to-face is a necessity, but it?s a frustratingly slow way to build a clientele, and it only works with people who have heard about Rolfing SI and are already curious. If you saw in the newspaper that somebody was giving a talk about ?Kauling,? and it seemed to be health-related, and supposedly good for you, good for everybody, would you go? Probably not, unless you?d heard the term before. Investing in your website is a better approach than paying for newspaper ads. People who read the paper want the news, not bodywork, but people who search for ?deep bodywork in X-Town? want you. They just don?t know it yet. This is where search engine optimization (SEO) ? the most important marketing today ? comes in.

Understanding SEO

SEO means creating and improving your website so it can be easily found by Google?, Yahoo!®, Bing?, and other search engines. (Below, I will stick to writing ?Google? when I mean search engines in general; 70% of all internet searches in the U.S. are done on Google, and in the U.K. it?s around 90%.) All search engines use a ranking system to determine what tops the list of search results, and they primarily use keywords (what you type into the search window) to retrieve the information. The SEO process optimizes your website for keyword searches.

The idea is to use SEO to move your site up in the rankings of search results. You?ve seen endless spam emails that promise to get you on page one on Google, and you know from your own searches that you hardly ever go to the second page of search results. So you have to make sure your site shows up on page one for keywords that can get people interested in Rolfing SI.

In essence, a high rank in search results is given to pages that explain the keyword, and focus on the keyword. There is a lot more that influences ranking, and that?s what SEO experts work with (or claim to). Fortunately Google gets smarter all the time, and cheap SEO tricks and scams get penalized with low ranks. That?s good news for us, since we?re no experts ? all we have to do is write good content, which I?ll detail later.

Now you?ll probably say what I said three years ago: ?My website is optimized! If I search for Rolfing SI, I?m right there, on page one!? That?s great, and that will get you found by people who know about Rolfing SI. But what about the people who want bodywork who don?t type ?Rolfing X-Town? in the search bar? If you?re not optimized, you?ll miss out on the majority of people who have never heard of Rolfing SI ? and they miss out on the work that could change their lives.

Now my new clients ? 60% of them find me online ? come in after typing search keywords like assisted stretching, neuromuscular therapy, and acupuncture for back pain. The first time they ever hear about Rolfing SI is on my website. Potential clients don?t know quite what they want, so don?t hesitate to use the keyword massage. Because so many people are familiar with the massage industry in general, you should be able to rank well for massage x-town or at least for your ZIP Code?.

Getting It Done

Ready to take the first step toward allowing your future clients to find you online? The next section will guide you through the key aspects of an optimized web presence.

<i>Set Up a Website and/or Blog</i>

You need a place that you can control on the Internet, where you can add the content that will allow Google to help people find you. Make sure that you can make changes to your website and add new pages easily. If you don?t have a website, or it?s one that you can?t change without paying your webmaster, make a blog (wordpress.org makes that easy) or ask your webmaster to add a blog to your site. Just make sure that you can set up new pages and make changes to them as you please. It?s important to update your site or blog often because search engines want to have recent information. At least once per week make some little changes, post a picture, change the words, or add information. If you don?t like technology, learn it anyway ? there are many free tutorials, videos, and podcasts available. As a business owner today, you have to know how to update your website. If you really don?t want to, hire somebody.

As an example of a web presence that was inexpensive to produce that still gives good results in searches, look at my blog ? www.balanceorlando.com/ Lu. My website www.balanceorlando. com is an example of a more expensive design. If you?re looking for decently priced professional help, I recommend www.CT-Social.com, they?ve been extremely helpful for my site. Our colleague Matt Hsu can also build you a beautiful design; see www.websites4rolfers.com.

As you build your site you?ll need the usual pages that explain who you are, what your business is about, what Rolfing SI is and how it can help people, and how you price your sessions. Look up other Rolfers and see what they have, but don?t copy and paste ? not only is it unethical, it can hurt your search ranking. Please don?t think that posting your rates will discourage readers from calling ? it?s the opposite. Your prospective clients want to know what to expect.

<i>Make a List of Keywords</i>

Now get more specific, identifying keywords that your prospects might type in a search window. You want to make sure you get found when somebody uses them. Ask your friends and family what they would type into a search 1) if they had chronic muscle pain; 2) if they wanted to improve their performance as athletes; and 3) if they were concerned about posture and aging gracefully. Here?s some ideas: back pain, therapy for chronic pain, posture stretching, neuromuscular massage, trigger point massage, help for stiff back, posture therapy, myofascial massage, myofascial release. You can also use terms like acupuncture and chiropractic (see next section). You can find more keywords through online tools like Google AdWords? Keyword Planner. Just start by typing in something simple, like massage therapy and it will bring up related terms that are often used in searches.

<i>Write Good Content</i>

Content is the most important factor in search-engine ranking, and it is what I focus on, even though other factors also improve search results. Good content is achieved primarily by writing relevant content to match the keywords. The title of the web page or blog post should include the keyword, and they should show up again in the first few sentences. You can still write about Rolfing SI ? just include your other keyword. For example, your titles could be ?Is Rolfing SI the Same As Myofascial Release??, ?Rolfing SI and Acupuncture?, and ?How Rolfing SI Improved my Yoga Practice? for keywords myofascial release, acupuncture, and yoga.

Also mention your location often! For example, with the content below you get search results if people type in deep tissue massage x-town, or deep tissue x-town.

Are you looking for a deep form of massage in x-town? Have you heard about Rolfing Structural Integration? It is an alignmentcentered form of bodywork that utilizes movement education in combination with deep-tissue strokes.

You can still point out later in the entry that Rolfing SI is not a massage technique, but a holistic system. Remember, first you need to get people?s attention ? people who don?t know to look for ?Rolfing SI? in their searches. Many prospects have had a great experience with a well-educated massage therapist, and now they?re trying to find another. If you don?t use the word ?massage,? they may never find you!

In your search for content, do not copy and paste verbatim ? it will be penalized. Search engines are looking for original content, so if the same paragraph shows up on different sites, the ranking goes down. Feel free to look around my site www.balanceorlando.com and use what you like for inspiration ? just make sure that you reword it, and please mention my site as a source (see the section on links below). If you are uncomfortable with writing your own blog or website copy, you can hire a copywriter (feel free to contact me for a referral to one who has experience with Rolfing SI-related topics).

<i>Links</i>

Search engines love links ? they are the ?word-of-mouth? of the internet. If another bodywork-themed site is linking to yours, Google adds points for your site, and considers you influential on the topic of bodywork. A link to your site on a page that sells jewelry is still better than nothing, but not as helpful as a link from Massage Today, for example. SEO experts (and many who call themselves experts to deceive you) also try to get other sites to link to your site. Have you ever gotten emails that ask you to put links to their sites on your site? That?s somebody working on SEO. On your own site, you can toot your horn all day long, but if someone else recommends you, it has a lot more value for ranking.

A good way to get links to your pages is social-media engagement. By posting on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Google+ and other sites, you get your links in front of people. And by being supportive of their posts ? by seeing the ?social? in social media ? you?ll get those people to use your links, which will improve your ranking on Google. And of course, you should keep your listing on rolf.org. The Rolf Institute® site is very well ranked by Google, and the link from rolf.org to your website or blog is good for your own ranking. And as you understand now, if you are using my content as a source, your link to my site is good for both of us, and a nice ?thank you? for me.

Conclusion

These four steps will give you a good start in SEO. If you search for blogs and articles about SEO online, you?ll find a lot more information about what you can do yourself ? or about the experts you might want to hire. Let me and the Journal?s Editor-in- Chief know if you?re interested in follow-up articles on social media, especially Twitter and Google+. I can be reached for questions at [email protected]. Please let me know how you?re doing; I love getting feedback!

In Memoriam

Structural Integration: The Journal of the Rolf Institute® notes the passing of the following member of our community:

Gerry Allard, Certified Advanced Rolfer?How to Be Found Online[:]