WP202 | The Free Google Tool Most Practice Owners Aren't Using with Mary Walker
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If you’re investing in SEO, how do you actually know if it’s working?
In this episode, I’m joined by Mary Walker of Simplified SEO Consulting to break down Google Search Console and show practice owners how to use it to understand what’s happening with their website. We look at real data from my own counseling practice, including impressions, clicks, search queries, average position, and which pages are gaining or losing traction.
Mary also explains how to identify the keywords bringing people to your website, determine whether those searches are actually attracting your ideal clients, and find opportunities to strengthen services you want to grow. We also talk about what to look for if you’ve been paying an SEO company and want to know whether your investment is actually improving your visibility over time.
The best part? Google Search Console is free, and the information inside it can give you actionable ideas for your website, blogs, and overall marketing strategy.
Mary is also offering Wise Practice listeners a waived onboarding fee for foundational SEO programs—a $350 value—as well as 10% off an SEO consulting package.
If you’ve ever wondered, “Is my SEO actually working?” this episode will help you figure out exactly where to look.
Why SEO Can Feel So Hard to Measure
One of the biggest challenges with SEO is that you can’t simply Google your own practice and assume what you see represents how everyone else sees your website.
Search results are affected by location, search history, keywords, and many other factors. That means you need actual data to understand what is happening.
Mary recommends using Google Search Console as a source of truth because it allows you to see how Google is interacting with your website, including the searches that lead people to your pages.
Even better, it’s completely free.
Free Tools Practice Owners Can Use
Mary shared several tools that can help you understand how your website is performing.
Google PageSpeed Insights allows you to enter your website URL and see how quickly your site loads on desktop and mobile. It can also identify issues such as oversized images or other things slowing down your website.
Google Search Console goes even deeper. It allows you to see how individual pages and keywords are performing, where people are searching from, what devices they are using, and how often your website appears in search results.
For practice owners who have spent years staring at Google Analytics wondering what everything means, Search Console may feel much more practical.
What Should You Look at in Google Search Console?
When we pulled up my own website, Mary had me start with the Insights section.
This gives you an overview of what is happening across your website. You can see which pages are trending up, which are trending down, and what searches are leading people to your site.
For example, if your couples counseling page has been getting fewer clicks than it did 30 days ago, that could be a signal that it needs some attention.
Maybe you update the page. Maybe you publish a new blog about couples counseling. Maybe you create content that links back to that service.
On the other hand, if one of your pages suddenly starts performing really well, you can look for opportunities to build on that momentum.
The data helps you make marketing decisions based on what is actually happening instead of guessing.
Understanding Clicks, Impressions, and Search Position
There are a few terms you’ll see repeatedly inside Google Search Console.
Impressions tell you how often your website appeared in search results.
Clicks tell you how many people actually clicked through to your website.
And average position gives you an idea of where you are appearing within Google search results.
For example, if your average position for a keyword is around six, you’re typically appearing somewhere on the first page.
If your average position is around 30, you may be appearing closer to the third page.
That doesn’t necessarily mean the keyword is performing badly. In fact, Mary showed me an example where my practice was already receiving impressions and clicks for a counseling service, but the average position showed there was still a big opportunity to improve.
Traffic Is Great—But Is It the Right Traffic?
This was one of my favorite parts of the conversation.
We found a blog on my counseling practice website that was getting a lot of attention. It had thousands of impressions and was performing really well.
Great, right?
Not necessarily.
When we looked more closely, much of the traffic was connected to searches about Mercury retrograde, and some of the visitors were coming from outside the United States.
My practice can only serve clients in Georgia.
That means a page can technically be performing incredibly well from an SEO standpoint without necessarily bringing in the people who can become clients.
This is why looking deeper than website traffic matters.
The goal isn’t simply to attract more people. It’s to attract the right people.
Use Your Existing Data to Find Content Ideas
Google Search Console can also help you decide what to write about.
During the episode, we looked at grief counseling as an example. My website was already appearing for grief-related searches, but there was room to improve our position.
Mary showed how you can filter Search Console to see the specific phrases people are searching for around a topic.
Those searches can become ideas for future blogs.
Instead of sitting down and wondering, “What should I write about this month?” you can look at what people are already asking Google.
That gives you content ideas based on actual search behavior.
How Do You Know If Your SEO Company Is Doing a Good Job?
If you’ve been paying an SEO company for several months, Google Search Console can also help you evaluate whether that work is making a difference.
SEO takes time. Mary explained that the first few months can be slow, so you shouldn’t expect dramatic results immediately.
But over time, you want to see a general upward trend.
Your graph will never be perfectly smooth. Some days you’ll get more impressions and clicks than others.
What matters is the overall direction.
If you’re intentionally optimizing for something like EMDR therapy, grief counseling, or couples therapy, compare your current data to where you started.
Are impressions increasing?
Are your pages moving higher in search results?
Are the blogs you’ve published actually getting noticed by Google?
Those numbers give you a much clearer picture of whether your SEO strategy is working.
There Is Almost Always Room to Grow
Even if your website is already performing well, Mary says there is usually room for improvement.
Maybe you’re ranking on page two for a service you really want to grow. With focused content, stronger service pages, and continued SEO work, you may be able to move that service onto page one.
The key is knowing where you want to grow and then using the data to guide your strategy.
You don’t have to optimize everything at once.
Pick the areas of your practice that matter most, look at how they’re currently performing, and make intentional changes from there.
Start Looking at Your Own Data
One of my biggest takeaways from this conversation is that you don’t have to be an SEO expert to start understanding your website.
Google Search Console gives you access to an incredible amount of information for free.
You can see what people are searching for, which services Google associates with your practice, where you’re already doing well, and where there may be opportunities for growth.
And if you’re paying someone else to manage your SEO, you can use that same information to better understand the return you’re getting on that investment.
Mary and the team at Simplified SEO Consulting are also offering Wise Practice listeners a waived onboarding fee for their foundational SEO programs—a $350 value—plus 10% off an SEO consulting package.
If you want to understand whether your SEO is actually working, start with your Google Search Console.
You might be surprised by what you find.
Meet Mary Walker
Mary Walker is the owner of Simplified SEO Consulting, where she helps private practice owners grow their businesses through ethical, strategic SEO. With dual Master’s degrees in Psychology and Digital Marketing, she brings a unique blend of human insight and technical expertise to her work. Mary is passionate about helping therapists and helping professionals feel confident in their online presence without losing the heart of what they do. She is also a mom of five and a strong advocate for building a business that supports both professional success and personal fulfillment.
Mary’s Resources
Website https://simplifiedseoconsulting.com/
(I’d love to offer listeners a waived onboarding fee for our foundational SEO programs, which is a $350 value, as well as 10% off our SEO consulting package).
Show Sponsor Wise Practice Summit
If you're enjoying today's episode, I want to personally invite you to one of my favorite events of the year—the Wise Practice Summit, happening October 8th through 10th in Nashville, Tennessee.
If you're a practice owner who wants practical strategies to grow your business, become a stronger leader, and connect with other faith-based practice owners who truly understand the unique challenges of this work, this event is for you.
Over three days, you'll hear from incredible speakers, gain actionable tools you can implement right away, and connect with trusted partners like GreenOak Accounting and other experts who are dedicated to helping private practice owners thrive. More importantly, you'll be surrounded by a community of people who share your heart for serving others while building healthy, sustainable businesses.
We're just a few weeks away, so if you've been thinking about joining us, now is the time to grab your ticket. I'd love to meet you in Nashville and spend those three days learning and growing together.
Learn More Here: https://www.wisepracticeconsulting.com/summit-2026-1
Links and Resources
Learn More about Wise Practice Consulting
Connect with Wise Practice on Instagram
Connect with Whitney Owens on Facebook
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[00:00:00] Whitney Owens: If you've enjoyed this podcast, I wanna personally invite you to one of my favorite events of the year, the Wise Practice Summit, happening October 8th through the 10th in Nashville, Tennessee. If you're a practice owner who wants practical strategies to grow your business, become a stronger leader, connect with other faith-based practice owners, I truly believe you will benefit from this event.
Over three days, you will hear incredible speakers, gain actionable tools to implement right away, and connect with our trusted sponsors, from accounting experts, to SEO experts, to virtual assistance experts, and more. Most importantly, you will be surrounded by a community of faith-based practice owners who share your heart for serving others, building healthy, sustainable practices.
We are just a few weeks away, so if you've been thinking about joining us, now's the time to grab your ticket. I'd love to meet you in Nashville, spend three days learning together and having a good time. Visit the link in the show notes or head to wisepracticeconsulting.com to grab your ticket. I cannot wait to see you there.
Building a thriving faith-based private practice isn't easy. It takes courage, wisdom, and commitment to lead your business without compromising your faith and values. I'm Whitney Owens, the owner of a seven-figure multi-location group practice and founder of Wise Practice Consulting. Every week on the podcast, I share real strategies, lessons, and conversations that come from actively leading my own practice, helping practice owners across the country do the same.
Whether you're building a solo practice or growing a team, this podcast is here to equip you, empower you, and remind you, I believe in what God's called you to. You don't have to do it alone. Welcome
[00:01:40] Mary Walker: to the Wise Practice Podcast. Let's get started
[00:01:43] Whitney Owens: Welcome back to the Wise Practice Podcast. So glad to have you here.
We are at episode 202, and I'm looking forward to sharing with you about a resource that you can use in your practice, and guess what? Totally free. We're always looking for r- free resources. And so if you've ever been wondering, like, "Is my marketing working? Is my company doing what they're supposed to do?
Is my website bringing in the inquiries that I need?" This episode is for you. We're gonna talk about SEO, blogs. Are they working? What to do, but really, what to look at to know if it's working. So today's episode, I've got Mary Walker, who's the owner of Simplified SEO Consulting. This is a company that specifically helps private practice owners with their search engine optimization and more.
I learned so much in this conversation. When she told me about the different topics she was thinking about discussing, when she said Google Search Console, I was like, "I've heard of that. I kinda know about that, but let's dive into it." So while we were on the episode, she had so much to say, I was just trying to rack- wrap my brain around it, and I was like, "Hey, Mary, can I just, like, pull up my website and let's look at it?"
So if you are finding this episode interesting, which I know you will, I would encourage you to go to our YouTube channel for Wise Practice Consulting and actually watch this podcast. So if you're listening to this while you're driving, just take a minute later and watch us on YouTube, because you're gonna actually see the things that she's looking at my website, and then you'll be able to take those things and understand your website better so you can see the way your numbers are moving, knowing if what you're doing on your website is actually working.
Y'all, Mary is the best. She is also going to be at this year's Wise Practice Summit. So the cool thing about the summit is these great sponsors are at their tables. So these experts, like Mary, who can tell you so much about SEO, you can walk up to them at no charge and ask them questions. And we're gonna have tons of different sponsors.
It's not just marketing, but we have financial people, we have insurance-based people, we have VA companies. Lots of different people to help you with your practice. So if you've been thinking about coming to the Wise Practice Summit, maybe you've been on the fence and you haven't taken the leap, I encourage you to do that now.
We are gonna close registration on Friday, September 11th. This will give us time to prepare for your arrival, talk with the hotel. Your spot is saved. So if you're thinking about buying a ticket and you haven't, please don't miss out. And if you're a Wise Practice community member, make sure you go into the community and look at the deals and discounts so that you can get a discount on your ticket I am thrilled about the Wise Practice Summit.
It's when we come together, we learn together, and you can get up to 12 CEs. So it's all about business and strategy and faith-based components, and you've listened to my show for a while. You know me. If you like the podcast, you are gonna love the summit. It's all the stuff I'm teaching and more. It's not just someone up there saying, "Hey, you can do this," but I actually have run a practice.
I actually have grown my group practice, and I help practice owners all the time in growing their practice, and I would love the opportunity to meet you in person. So purchase your ticket to the Wise Practice Summit. If you've been thinking about it and haven't done it, just stop the podcast now, pull over, buy your ticket.
I look forward to seeing you there. Till then, we're gonna dive into this conversation with Mary Walker on the free Google tool that most practices aren't using.
Hello and welcome to the show. I'm really excited to have Mary Walker with me today, and she's a repeat guest on the show. She's got great content to bring to us. The owner of Simplified SEO Consulting where she helps practice owners grow their business through ethical, strategic SEO. With the dual master's degrees in psychology and digital marketing, she brings a unique blend of human insight and technical experience to her work.
Mary is passionate about helping therapists and helping professionals feel confident in their online presence without losing the heart of what they do. She's also a mom of five and a strong advocate for building a business that supports both professional success and personal fulfillment. Mary, thanks for coming on the show today.
[00:06:08] Mary Walker: No problem, thank you for having me. I always like talking to you about stuff.
[00:06:13] Whitney Owens: Wonderful, wonderful. Well, there is so much that we could talk about with SEO and I feel like marketing is the hot topic right now for therapists. Yeah. Okay. Are you seeing more people reach out than they used to?
[00:06:25] Mary Walker: Yeah, I mean, I think there's just so much change with AI and how you track things and how you, you know, measure success and what's going on that people are really looking for guidance about how to understand all these changes and how they're happening so quickly, especially as, as, you know, a business owner 'cause you really need to understand, like, what return on investment you're getting for the work you're putting in.
So we do get a lot of people just asking for us to explain how all of this works.
[00:06:54] Whitney Owens: Yeah. I find myself often with marketing specialists or, uh, I just had a loan for a building recently and I was like- Mm-hmm ... I have to say to my banker, "I want you to break that down for me. Stop all that terminology," you know?
Yeah. I feel like people in your role, um, which I, like, love, it's like you're techy, you get it, and I know that I'm working with a smart person when they say words I don't know. But I'm like, "Break that down for me." Um- Yeah ... we're gonna break it down right now for therapists, so I, I really appreciate you doing that.
So let's kinda, I guess what I kinda wanna start with here, and I wonder what you're kinda hearing from therapists is therapists are telling me they don't know if their SEO is working. That you hear pretty often?
[00:07:37] Mary Walker: Oh, it is. And, and unfortunately, you know, SEO is one of those things that's a little more difficult to, um, measure because you really have to dig into the data.
You really have to dig into the information that's available. It's not something where you can just Google yourself and see where you're ranking. There's a lot more pieces to the puzzle. Mm-hmm. So at Simplified we always, that's part of the process is we like to educate people on how to read that information, how to access that information because we want you to be able to understand moving forward when you're done working with us, if you don't work with us.
We just want people to have the understanding of how to utilize the information that's out there for free to understand what's happening.
[00:08:16] Whitney Owens: I just heard you say the word free.
[00:08:17] Mary Walker: Yeah. I mean, all of the stuff that we use, the tools that we use are free, so anybody can access this information. Um, it's just about understanding how to interpret it effectively.
[00:08:28] Whitney Owens: Yeah. Um, I know we're gonna jump more in depth in Google Search Console- Right ... and I think that's, that's a big one, but could you kinda lay out what are those tools so that people know?
[00:08:37] Mary Walker: Yeah. Well, one aspect of things, we always look at, like, website performance because you want a website that's user-friendly.
You want people to be able to quickly find things. You want it to load quickly, um, things like that. So there's a, there's a website from Google called PageSpeed Insights which you can put your URL in there, and it tells you how your website is performing on a desktop, and then it will tell you how you're performing on a mobile aspect, so you get both, both things.
It'll tell you if it's loading too slow, if your pictures are too big, if they need to be compressed, things like that, and that's completely free. It takes like five minutes for it to run the report and gives you some actionable steps that you can take. S- and Google comes in really handy if you don't understand what the report says.
It can explain some of those things to you f- you know, so you can just put your report in there, and it can help you decipher things. Um, and then we, we utilize... We don't utilize Google Analytics because we don't feel like it's very... For us it's very- We adhere to the social workers ethic, ethical practices, the NASW.
Um, so for us, we like to make sure that the data we're collecting, you know, protects HIPAA, protects all of those aspects of potential clients. So we steer away from Google Analytics now. We prefer... Because it's very complicated to set up. You can set it up so it's gathering anonymous information, but that takes a lot of technical expertise.
So we have switched to using Google Search Console, which is another free tool. It's provided by Google. You just put in the email address that you associated with your website, and it gives you a plethora of information about how you're ranking and all of those things. And so those are the two biggest ones that we use probably.
I know that things like Screaming Frog has, like, a free website audit you can do. There's a lot of little tools out there that you can utilize to kinda understand how your website's working, run a website audit, things like that.
[00:10:30] Whitney Owens: Well, you've already told me something I didn't know.
[00:10:32] Mary Walker: Yeah. Oh.
[00:10:34] Whitney Owens: I have always used Goose- Google Analytics to know what's going on, and I look at it every week.
So what I hear you saying is I might need to be spending my time on my Search Console instead, huh?
[00:10:45] Mary Walker: Yeah, um, and I... We've really found that using Google Search Console as our, what we call our source of truth, it gives you a lot more granular information, specifically about specific page performance, about specific keyword performance, you know, about location performance.
So it's, it's a lot more specific, and unless you go into Google Analytics and really set up, like, events so every time somebody clicks on this page, Google's gonna report it, it doesn't give you as in-depth information as Google Search Console really can.
[00:11:14] Whitney Owens: Okay. This is great. All right. So let's start with the very most basic thing.
How does somebody find their Google Search Console?
[00:11:23] Mary Walker: Okay, so usually when you create, you know, your website, you utilize a email to associate with that website, right? So what you do is you just go to Google, you type in Google Search Console. It's gonna bring up the website for Google Search Console, and you just say Get Started, and then what you do is you enter the information for your website in there, and then it's gonna tell you whether or not you have ownership or not.
So this is where it gets a l- a little tricky because you have to have a s- a specific wording on your website to attach Google Search Console, right? What we do, we have a couple of articles that we share with people that explain if you have a Squarespace website, what you need to do specifically to add Google Search Console to your website, like, to connect them so they're actually talking to each other.
So we share those articles, and there's two different ways you can do it. Squarespace is pretty straightforward. You go into your settings and there's a, a, a s- a space where Google Search Console will give you just, like, a copy/paste information about how to connect a website. Let me see if I can find it real quick and I can show you.
So then you just copy paste that and you go to Squarespace into your settings and it's gonna have a little area where you just paste that, you hit apply, and then you're connected. WordPress is pretty much the same thing. Um, in fact, WordPress can be a little easier because a lot of times it's more straightforward.
Squarespace, not every Squarespace website is designed the same, so sometimes the settings are in different places
[00:12:55] Whitney Owens: All right. Now, I've never done this on the show before, but I just pulled mine up. Can I just show it to you, and let's talk about what we're looking at? Yeah. Okay.
[00:13:02] Mary Walker: Absolutely.
[00:13:03] Whitney Owens: And we're on YouTube, so people can watch what we're doing.
All right. Uh, this is cool. Okay, now- Yeah ... I mean, well, I mean, I am your average therapist. I have- Right ... no idea what to be looking at. What's the first thing I should do?
[00:13:17] Mary Walker: Um, so the first thing you wanna do is you wanna go down to insights on the left-hand side, and then this one, kind of look at that. That's just gonna give you, like, overall insights, like how many impressions you're getting, clicks, all of that.
And then you wanna go down to get a more in-depth picture. So that's just an overview. That's gonna tell you, like, what pages are trending the most, um, what pages are going up, what pages are trending down. Um, so that's just gonna give you an overarching view of where you're performing best, where you're performing least.
Mm-hmm. Top queries are the things that people are actually typing into the Google Search Console, uh, the Google search bar, and what those queries are then associated with your website. So that tells you- Mm-hmm ... what's being associated with your website. Does that make sense?
[00:14:06] Whitney Owens: Uh, yes. Yeah. That's so cool. S- so the queries are what people put in to find me, and this is- Yeah
always known kind of that. Okay. Yeah. So curious here, when you say trending up and trending down- Yeah ... what something trend up and down?
[00:14:19] Mary Walker: So say that you, um, maybe you have, like, an old... Scroll down a little bit, and let's see something that's tr- like Christian counseling, so that one's trending down. So what that means is it's not getting as many clicks as it was previously, like maybe a month ago, 30 days ago.
So that means that the activity going to that page is going down. Mm-hmm. So what these insights tell you is what's really popular right now, what's not so popular right now. So if you wanted to help stimulate the growth on that Christian counseling page, this kind of insight tells you maybe, okay, that's trending down, so maybe a good blog post about this topic would be great to- Uh-huh
help get stuff going in the right direction. Or maybe, um, you know, doing a quick video post on Facebook or just getting some information out there about this particular page and linking back to it can increase those signals to get it trending in the right direction. So that's where these insights really come in handy.
You can see, like, how to save your relationship when the stars seem against you- Mm-hmm ... is up 2500%. So there's one that says, hey, this is doing great. Do I wanna build on this momentum? Do I wanna keep increasing that visibility? So this tells you where your strengths lie right now and where your weaknesses lie, so you can really adjust your strategy to match what Google Search Console is telling you.
Huh.
[00:15:39] Whitney Owens: I didn't even know that blog was on my website.
[00:15:43] Mary Walker: I think that... And, and it's weird because you can go in here and look, and it really gives... opens your eyes about what people are really interested in. You know what I mean? So... And this, this is specifically, um, telling you about perform... This is the more in-depth.
So this is where we go after that first page. So this starts telling you exactly what the... how this page is performing, right? You've got... In the last 28 days, you've got 52 clicks, which means that, um... Is this for the... Yeah, this is for the- This is the
[00:16:14] Whitney Owens: one that was so high,
[00:16:15] Mary Walker: yeah ... this is the specific page that you've clicked.
So in the last 28 days, this page has gotten 52 click-throughs. You've gotten over... almost 10,000 impressions for this page, which is a lot for 28 days. So that means this, this particular page has been pulled 10,000 times when somebody has searched for this topic in G- in Google. And then, you know, your average click-through rate is .5.
Those are always gonna be low just because click-through rates have gone down a lot over the last year and a half with AI because of those AI summaries and things. So people will get their information before actually clicking through. But-
[00:16:49] Whitney Owens: Ah.
[00:16:49] Mary Walker: But still, you have a good click-through rate. We consider that good.
And then your average position for this page is six, so you're on the first page of Google search results page. Um, one through 10 is gonna tell you that you're on that first page. So that kind of gives you information about how this page is performing, and then it gives you overarching data on the graph that shows, like, it started on 6/15 at zero, and then it's in- it's just increased exponentially over the past 28 days.
And so these are the top queries associated with this particular page. So this tells you that when people type in these specific things, Google is associating that page with your blog. And you can arrange this by clicking on clicks or impressions to arrange it from h- highest amount of impressions to lowest or highest amount of clicks to lowest.
And sometimes the things don't make sense, like what's being associated with the blog. I'm gonna tell you, sometimes Google doesn't get it right. But, so go over there and click on maybe impressions over there on the right side. And it'll, it'll arrange it in top. So this is what... It's Mercury retrograde meaning in rel- Yes
in relationships. So that's the top thing that it's getting pulled for. But then it just goes down and tells you, like, s- so Mercury retrograde is... I don't know if that's a big part of this blog, but that-
[00:18:08] Whitney Owens: Evidently. Evidently it was because if you go back- Yeah ... uh, that's the-
[00:18:14] Mary Walker: Yeah, when it starts against you.
So that's what it's being pulled for, is those specific things that it found in the blog, that it found to be associated with the terms that people are actually searching for. So that's where it starts breaking down that information. So go back to that page and I'll kind of tell you, um... So if you scroll down you can look at queries, you can look at pages, you can look at countries where things are coming from.
So of course it's associated with this one page. It tells you where most of the clicks are coming from. South Africa. I mean, you're all over the place. So that's interesting to see. Um, and then it'll tell you, like, devices. Is it mostly desktop? Is it mostly mobile? And that just gives you an idea of making sure that, hey, does my mobile performance, does my mobile website look good?
Because most of my people are coming from mobile. So that just gives you an idea of kind of where to look at those things to make sure, like, your mobile website looks good. Is my desktop functioning well? Things like that. Um- All right. I
[00:19:10] Whitney Owens: have a really important question I wanna dive into here.
[00:19:12] Mary Walker: Yeah, absolutely.
So
[00:19:13] Whitney Owens: for... So then I think about, okay, well great, so I'm getting all this traction for this M- Mercury retrograde page- Right ... that's about relationships.
[00:19:22] Mary Walker: Yeah. But
[00:19:22] Whitney Owens: are the people that are clicking on that the kind of- Right ... people who schedule therapy? Like-
[00:19:27] Mary Walker: Right ...
[00:19:28] Whitney Owens: I'm thinking probably not, especially- Probably not
'cause a lot of people, when we went to countries, I mean, we can't serve people in all these places. Right. I can only serve people in the state of Georgia.
[00:19:37] Mary Walker: So this is where you start diving into that information. So this is one instance where maybe the blog has gone, uh, has gotten popular for maybe the wrong reasons or not for your ideal client.
So this gives you information, like let me look at this blog real quick. Let me see w- what the focus is. Let me understand. And so then you can start narrowing your focus down to m- switching the, changing the language. You know, making sure that you're targeting that ideal client. So let's go to... Let me see.
Go to, um- Uh, get rid of that filter for the page at the top that says Search the Web, and then over to the right it says Page. So down in the, like right there. Get rid of this. Get rid of that. And this is gonna tell you your whole website, okay? So this is where you start using this information to get away from the Merc- Mercury retrograde aspect of things, and start understanding, what do I actually need to focus on to get my ideal client through the door?
What keywords are working well right now? What keywords are not performing well right now? Does that make sense? Mm-hmm. So then you kinda know, where do I need to shore up my strategy? Where do I need to grow things? So go over to Queries And then go over to impressions again, and you wanna click so we see what's performing the best.
So right now, your branded keywords are getting the most impressions. That means people are typing in Water's Edge Counseling, going directly to your website, so that's performing well. There's that mercury retrograde again. But then if we look at, like, therapist near me, that's performing really well, so that means that Google in your area in Savannah is pulling you up when people search for a therapist near me.
So that's great. That tells you that your local SEO is performing really well. Google recognizes you as an expert in the Savannah area and is pulling you for search results for those people. And then if we scroll down a little bit, like you see what your best performing like therapy-related keyword would be is that, is that couples therapy in Savannah, Georgia.
So you're getting pulled quite a bit for that, 356 impressions. So again, that's one of those keywords that's performing really well. Uh, you're getting pulled a lot for search results. People are clicking through to your website for those keywords. Uh, marriage counseling. So this kind of gives you an idea of where your strengths lie right now.
So it looks like for Water's Edge that, you know, marriage counseling, couples therapy, those keywords seem to be performing the best. So you've got a real good strategy in place for that particular service. So if we maybe scroll down and start looking at the keywords that aren't performing so well. So s- yeah.
So then we start getting into keywords that maybe we want to strengthen a little bit, like grief counseling. You know, say that you wanted to expand that service. You see that it's getting 142 impressions, which is pretty good, but we're not sure. So c- I think... Can you click on grief counseling? I'm not
[00:22:31] Whitney Owens: s- And when you...
Can we t- specify- Yeah ... when you say impressions- Yeah ... that means popping up somehow or-
[00:22:38] Mary Walker: Yeah ... I mean- So impressions means that whenever you, whenever somebody searches for grief counseling, you're getting... Your information is being pulled to the page that many times for people to see, right? So that means that every time somebody searches grief counseling, you've gotten pulled 142 times in the last 10 days for that particular topic related to that search query, and it's always gonna be a lot more higher than clicks because you get pulled a lot more in th- in visible results than you do with people clicking through.
But the click-through rate for that is really, actually really good. So 1.54% of the time when people see your search result come up on the, on that page when you do the search on Google, people are actually clicking through to your website. But here's where we see where there's room for improvement. Your average position is only 30, so that means you're on the third page, and most of the time people aren't gonna click through to that third page, right?
They're gonna stop on the first page. So this is where Google Search Console really gives you that actionable information. Do you... Is grief therapy something that you want to grow? Is that something that you want to expand on? So this tells you that you're already getting impressions. It's already performing pretty well, but there's room for growth.
So you can start utilizing y- um- Like grief keywords, writing blogs about grief, writing blogs about that topic. This tells you what pages are being associated with that search query, right? And then you can also type in, you can specifically- Real quick question here on this part. Yeah. So this would mean, even though
[00:24:11] Whitney Owens: it's doing really well-
[00:24:12] Mary Walker: Right
[00:24:13] Whitney Owens: its average position's on third page, it means other businesses in the- Are
[00:24:16] Mary Walker: ahead of you ... area
[00:24:17] Whitney Owens: are ranking higher- Yep ... because they're doing that SEO and all that work on their sites too.
[00:24:22] Mary Walker: Yeah. So maybe their focus is more specifically on grief counseling. They've done a lot of blogs about it recently, they've revamped their grief page or, you know, things like that, that they're working on a little bit more intently maybe.
And then you can also search for specific keywords. So if we wanted to dive into this a little deeper, we could even maybe search for grief specifically. So come up with all the words related to grief that you have on your Google search console right now. So I gotta remember. So click on add fil- Filter over at the very far- Okay
yeah.
[00:24:59] Whitney Owens: Mm-hmm.
[00:25:00] Mary Walker: Um, so app query right there, and then by keyword. So you want to just put in maybe just grief by itself- Okay ... and then hit apply. So what that's gonna do is scroll down to queries, yeah, and then see if anyth- So nothing comes up. Oh, I'm sorry. Go back into that filter. I apologize. Uh, that grief, yeah.
We don't want exact queries, so s- do queries containing. That'll do any query containing the word grief, so that's gonna give you, uh, more results. Okay, so scroll down, and so this tells you what queries have grief in it that are related to your website. So this also gives you some ideas of what type of keywords to put in that blog or what type of keyword groupings to utilize.
So it looks like you're pulling up for all different kinds of areas for, uh, Georgia, and, like, where can I find grief counseling near me? Right there, that would be a great title for a blog. How do I... Where can I find grief counseling near me, or how do I find a grief counselor near me? You know what I mean?
I- So it's giving you actionable information about keywords you can use in a blog if you wanna grow this particular topic, where you're being found for this particular topic, if you wanna focus on a specific area. It just gives you a lot of really in-depth information in how to a- adjust your strategy to fit what you're wanting to accomplish at any given moment, and it's real-time data.
So this is accurate up-to-date data that's updated every day.
[00:26:35] Whitney Owens: Oh, man. This is great. Okay. I'm gonna, like, pull us back a little even though that was- Yeah ... really fun.
[00:26:40] Mary Walker: Absolutely.
[00:26:40] Whitney Owens: Um,
[00:26:42] Mary Walker: so- I know. It's a, it's a lot to process. It's a
[00:26:44] Whitney Owens: lot of information.
[00:26:45] Mary Walker: Yeah,
[00:26:45] Whitney Owens: but that's why you're the expert, and that's why you help practice owners.
Okay, so let's say a practice owner gets on their Search Console- Right ... and they're thinking, "Hey, I hired this SEO company," say, six months ago. Mm-hmm. "I wanna know, are they actually improving my website, and is it actually-" Right "... helping me get clients?" What would they do?
[00:27:04] Mary Walker: Okay. So for us, what we do at Simplify is we generally pick one kind of niche area to focus on at a time, right?
So what we do is we specifically would go into Search Console and look at the keywords related to that niche specifically. So say we were working on grief counseling. We would look at all the queries related to grief. We would look at that over the past. If it was your first month, we would look at your baseline data from 30 days ago.
So that 28 days is gonna give you that information. But say you've been working on it for six months, and you're not, just not sure where you're at. So you can go back to that, that page that you were on just a second ago- And you can change it to three months up at the top. A- And so what that'll do is that'll tell you, okay, I started here three months ago.
Has my data improved over that three-month period? You know, has my... So that's pretty steady baseline, right? So when you're working on SEO after the three-month mark, you know, the first three months are kind of slow. SEO does take time, right? So but after that three-month mark, you should really start seeing increases in this data.
You should see a general upward incline. You should see from 4/13, you should see an improvement, you know, by 7/26 or 8/26. You should see that line going up. You should see your impressions increasing. You should see your total impressions increasing. You know, that average click-through rate should be going up.
So you wanna see the, the graph trending in an upward motion. It's gonna be spiky, it's gonna be up and down, but the general overall movement should be going up, right? Mm-hmm. Because that tells me that what they're optimizing for, in this case it would be EMDR, what they're optimizing for is actually seeing growth, is actually seeing that improvement.
S- Another thing we do is we'll take the blogs that we write related to that topic, and we will put them in Google Search Console and look at those blog performances. Hmm. Are these blogs getting noticed? Are these blogs getting clicks? Are they getting impressions? Are they... You know, is Google pulling them for the information that we want them to pull for?
So that's another way. You can see if the blogs that you're putting on your website are even, you know, working, doing what they need- Yeah ... to do, pulling that information. So it tells you all of those things. Um, and what we do specifically is we will go back and pull data from, like, a specific date. Say you started with us in March of 2026.
We pull a baseline from March 1st of 2026 to see where you were at. And then what we'll do is we'll pull a specific date, like, six months later and compare those two so we can see growth. Maybe you were average 30 in March, but now you're average position of 10 in, you know, now in July. So you see, that shows you that what you're doing is actually working.
It shows you that you're getting that connection with Google. You're building that trust. You're getting the clicks and impressions that you want.
[00:30:08] Whitney Owens: Yeah, this is great. So this, I mean, when I look at this performance, it is really up and down. I mean, it really- But maybe it's not ...
[00:30:15] Mary Walker: it really is, and it's, it's gonna be like that because this is really live, this is really measuring how many people are viewing it, how many people are clicking on it, right?
Mm-hmm. So it's ver- it's gonna be like day to day. It's gonna go up and down. Like, one day somebody clicked on it, you know, s- people clicked on it five times. The next day people don't click on it. So it is gonna be up and down, but what you wanna see is a general trend. You wanna see it generally increasing if you're working on that specific topic.
Like right now what this data tells me is that you're performing pretty strongly overall. It's staying pretty consistent, right? It's not dropping off horribly. It's not ... You don't have any ... In June it dropped off, but that's probably because it's not complete data for the month of July, so it drops off a little bit.
But, you know, those are trends that you wanna keep an eye on. If it continues dropping off in June, July, like where it just kinda dipped off there right underneath June, you wanna keep an eye on that. Does it continue to drop off? Is it something that I need to maybe shore up my strategy with this particular topic?
Is it trending down? Again, you see where all those things come into play to kinda decide, do I need to write some EMDR blogs? Do I need to look at my EMDR page and make sure it's performing well? Mm-hmm. Is there anything that I need to do on the back end to, you know, improve- Hmm ... improve user experience?
So top queries are teenagers, counselors near me, therapy near me. So again, this gives you an idea of what queries are associated with those particular things.
[00:31:51] Whitney Owens: Wow. That's really great. That's great. Is there a point where you kinda max out? Like, is there a chance that I'm at my best and it's probably always gonna be about like this in my area, or can it keep getting better?
[00:32:03] Mary Walker: I, I think it depends on ... I mean, if, if you're just wanting to keep an even keel, like, and you're just, like, posting content, you know, you've established yourself with Google in this particular instance, and you're not really- Adding anything to the mix, like you're not doing EMDR blogs, you're not doing...
It's gonna hold pretty steady, right? But there's always room for growth. We always say that there is room for growth. If you're only on page two, you can definitely improve that to page one if you really wanna make that your focus. It's just gonna take some concentrated effort, right? It's just gonna take some EMDR blogs, you know, making sure again that your EMDR page flows well, has all the right, ticks all the boxes for AI, has all the things that people are looking for.
But we always say there's room for improvement, you know? Yeah. If you really wanna make that your focus.
[00:32:55] Whitney Owens: Yeah. Well, Mary, you've given so much of your expertise and time and, and I'm glad to showcase it because this is important stuff for therapists- Yeah ... to see and understand. And I think, I mean, I'm, I'm huge on some of the best money you can spend is on SEA- Yeah
and consulting. Um. So anyway, I, this was really helpful and it'll be really great for those that are watching it on YouTube to be able to actually see a site and how to navigate it even. Yeah. That was actually very simple, so.
[00:33:22] Mary Walker: Yeah, it's not, it's not that complicated. It's really just about, I mean, and they even have free courses on Google that kind of walk you through how to interpret the data and how to do things on Google Search Console.
Super easy and so that is, and they don't take maybe a, an hour, maybe less, you know, to kind of go through it. So there's a lot of tools and what we, what I really love about this is that it's free. It's information that exists right now, you know? You can access this any time. You can access it every day if you want to, but it's free, and I l- absolutely love that.
[00:33:54] Whitney Owens: That's great. Now, you are offering some great stuff for listeners today. Yeah. And I'm gonna read it 'cause there's so much good value here Okay. I want to make sure that they correctly. Offering listeners a waived onboarding fee for foundational SEO programs, $350 value, as well as 10% off an SEO consulting package.
So tho- that is very generous of you, and of course the W- Wise Practice community loves working with you. Yeah. Um, and so- At the, you'll be at the summit.
[00:34:23] Mary Walker: Yep.
[00:34:23] Whitney Owens: Really looking forward to it. We're looking
[00:34:24] Mary Walker: forward to it. We're really excited.
[00:34:26] Whitney Owens: Yeah, we really enjoyed it last year. Yes. And so for those that are coming to the Wise Practice Summit, you'll be able to connect with Mary.
Are, you're bringing a couple of team members? I'm
[00:34:33] Mary Walker: bringing myself, Winnie, and then we try to get a new person with us every year. So we're, this year we're- Yeah ... gonna bring Brianna, our SEO lead. Perfect. So you'll have a ton of expertise to, to talk to you at the pr- at the summit.
[00:34:45] Whitney Owens: Oh, wonderful. And so again, it's just, like, really great to attend an event, and then just be able to walk up to people and actually have those conversations, and you can actually look at their search console and tell them things- Yeah
and have them understand their website. So that's really awesome. Um, well, Mary, for people to get in touch with you, what's the best thing for them to do?
[00:35:04] Mary Walker: Um, usually, I mean, you can either go to our website, y- um, you can click on, like, schedule a consult. Our consults are free if you wanna just talk to somebody, walk through some things.
We always like to give you actionable steps whenever we have a consult, like things you can do yourself to get things moving in the right direction. You can email our admin@simplifiedseoconsulting.com. And I always give my own email address because I love answering questions. So feel free to email me at mary@simplifiedseoconsulting.com.
Um, we love to educate. That's one of the most favorite things that we do is just, you know, helping people understand the process and make the most out of their business.
[00:35:41] Whitney Owens: Yeah. Well, people always ask me who do I recommend for SEO services? And so the thing that I always say about Simplified is y'all understand the clinical part- Mm-hmm
because people have a clinical degree that work at Simplified. Yeah. And so I think makes it... 'Cause so much of the way we write is really important- Right ... clinically, so I always really appreciate that. And y'all have such a good variety of services. It's not like, "Here's the thing that we sell, and you do this," it's, "Hey, here's done for you, and here's how you can do it yourself, and here's a course on this," so that you can really meet the financial needs and place of different practice owners, so-
[00:36:15] Mary Walker: Right
[00:36:15] Whitney Owens: I really appreciate that.
[00:36:16] Mary Walker: Thank you so much, Whitney. I really appreciate it.
[00:36:19] Whitney Owens: Yeah. Well, thank you again for coming on the show and for all this that you offered, and I look forward to seeing you in a few months in Nashville.
[00:36:26] Mary Walker: Yes. Thank you. We're excited.
[00:36:29] Whitney Owens: The Wise Practice Podcast is part of the Site Craft Podcast Network, a collaboration of independent podcasters focused on helping people live more meaningful and productive lives.
To learn more about the other amazing podcasts in the network, head on over to sitecraftnetwork.com. The Wise Practice Podcast represents the opinions of Whitney Owens and her guests. This podcast is for educational purposes only, and the content should not be taken as legal advice. If you have legal questions, please consult an attorney.
