Seen by plenty of searchers, chosen by very few. 160% more monthly clicks.

Working from the client's own brief

My record for this practice is what the client wrote down at the outset, not a dated log of tasks. So here is that brief, and how I held the numbers against it.

1. 01

   Map the services to the people

   Four kinds of counselling, three ways to attend, and an audience running from adults and young adults to parents worried about a child, partners and whole households. Each of those groups searches in its own words, so the brief named all of them, and search had to speak to each rather than to counselling in general.

2. 02

   Benchmark against nearby practices

   The client listed eight other counselling practices in the same area to compare against. That gave a concrete local yardstick for how the site stood, rather than an abstract target, and kept attention on the practices a prospective client would actually weigh up before booking a first session.

3. 03

   Match the tone to the reader

   For articles, the client asked for writing that was friendly, educational and warm, with no clinical jargon. Someone deciding whether to see a therapist at all is often reading at a hard moment, so tone mattered as much as topic and was part of the brief from the very first conversation.

4. 04

   Flag drops and read the calendar

   The client wanted a partner who would suggest changes as standards moved and raise the alarm on any big fall in traffic. They also warned that July and August run quiet, with demand returning in September. So I compared slow month with slow month.