Mental health writing as website copy
Mental health writing can be a sensitive subject. Balancing the needs of Google in terms of SEO copywriting as well as what the audience needs can be tough to manage. You want to be able to balance the needs of people potentially in crisis while being technically proficient in a ranking sense.
When Unashamedly Creative was charged with writing the website copy for Victorian rehabilitation centre, Retreat South, it was exactly this challenge that needed to be addressed.
Objectives for mental health writing project, the revamp of Retreat South’s website:
Unashamedly Creative worked with Cathy from Two Ten Solutions to create a proper website presence. The original brief was to conduct the mental health writing only. But over the course of the project, it was realised that Retreat South was a distinct disadvantage with their existing website platform. Cathy came in during the finishing stages of the copywriting and took the brief of finding the right website design to fit the mental health writing that had already begun.
- Taking the website that had been originally grown as services did without a plan and designing a user experience flow that allowed for people to find out about their treatment options, the kinds of services offered and addressing the needs of a wide yet interconnected set of customer issues
- Creating strong SEO to attract mental health patients from Australia and throughout the world
- Balancing the centre’s needs for anonymity in terms of location while also providing the required amount of information to create decent SEO signals
- Utilising the language of mental health writing for an audience that is facing difficulties. Including language to appeal to both family members requiring extra support and leads as well as the individuals looking for treatment
- Creating copy for the website that highlighted the premium nature of the service
- Create easy to read, approachable content that dealt with the subjects of addiction, trauma, mental health issues and work related burn out with dignity, compassion and respect
Execution:
This was not only a mental health writing project. It involved:
- Identifying appropriate SEO copywriting terms to include in the copy
- Auditing the list of competitors supplied as well as using Google and associated tools to identify the best keyword strategy
- Studying the current user experience so that key pages were not lost while looking at ways to slim down a very convoluted and overgrown bunch of menus
- Translating the new user experience into a workable framework to educate the client as well as provide a solid framework for the web developer so they could then do their own magic with visuals and design
- Researching and investigating subjects such as addiction, trauma and mental health to ensure that the appropriate language was used to normalise the issues and offer help
- Creating a strength based approach to the mental health writing and UX so that information was easy to understand, find and share with others
- Developing an FAQ that helps potential patients and their family understand the services of Retreat South while overcoming any objections (emotional and financial) they may have to seeking treatment
- Writing to specified Web Guidelines and with due respect for backlinks and SEO
Results:
Client testimonial:
Rebekah worked with our organisation to write content for a much improved website. During the process she was calm and using her extensive knowledge bought both the website and the operations team up to date. I can recommend her highly for her work her patience and her knowledge.
Ruth Magnusson, founder and psychologist, Retreat South.
Retreat South was launched to specification for all mental health writing, SEO copywriting and user experience elements.
