The five places people check before they enquire, and what to fix on each

Someone who might book you rarely starts with an email. They look you up first. A website, a map, a directory, then a quick look at your photos, to check you are the same person in each place.

You do not need a new place to show up this week. Fix the five you already have. On each one: the photo, the first line, the link that actually books, and the words you want to be found for. The job of each place is different. The facts should not be.

This is the page the other four should send people to. If the first line is the name of your approach, and the only next step is an email address, the rest of your profiles are sending people somewhere that does not answer them.

Use a real photo of your face near the top. Write the first line in the client's words. Help with sleep. Stop smoking. Feel calmer before a presentation. Example: someone searching for help with sleep should see sleep before they see your training.

One button. Book a time, or send a short enquiry, and say what happens after they click. Name the town, or say that you work online, in that first screen. The words you want to be found for are the problem and the place, not a list of every approach you trained in.

This is the map, and the reviews under it. Someone searching for a hypnotherapist in their town often decides here, before they open your website at all.

Use the same face photo. The first line of the description should match the site: who you help, and the town. The link Google shows should go to the page that books, not to a long homepage they have to hunt through. If you can choose a category, choose hypnotherapist.

The reviews are the part the website cannot do. When it is fair to ask, invite a recent client to mention the problem and the town in their own words. “Helped me with sleep in Leeds” is an example of a useful line. “Lovely person” does not help the next person choose. Do not write the review yourself.

This is where a nervous person compares you with other practitioners, in a list. They read a short blurb, look at a small photo, and click the one that sounds like their problem.

The photo will be cropped small, so use the same face, eyes visible, quiet background. The first lines are all most people read. Same offer, same town, same words as the website.

Point the link at the booking page. Directory profiles often still send people to an old form or a page that no longer exists. For the categories, pick the problems you want to be compared on, in the words the directory already uses. A profile that ticks every box looks like the rest of the list.

People come here for a similar comparison, with one difference. They want a practitioner attached to a professional body. They are weighing that up alongside what you help with.

Photo, first line, and booking link still have to match the others. Let the membership show. Do not hide it under a slogan. The first line should still be the problem and the town, because membership on its own does not tell them whether you work with the thing they came for.

Check the phone number and the web address while you are there. An old number on a professional listing is more damaging than a short one, because it looks official. If the finder asks for specialisms, use the same three you used on the Hypnotherapy Directory, in the same words.

This is the glance that tells them you are a real person. Very few people book from the grid itself. They look, decide you seem human, and then use the link.

Put a face they will recognise in the profile photo, the same one as the website, and keep a recent picture of you near the top of the grid. The first line of the bio is short. Who you help, and the town, or that you work online.

The link should be the booking link, and only that. A list of six choices is another pause, and a pause is where the enquiry stops. You do not need a post every day for this. A clear bio, the right photo, and a link that books will do more than a month of posts that never say how to start.

Open all five this week. Read the first line on each, out loud. If one of them still leads with the name of your approach, or names a town the others do not use, change that one.

Then tap the link on each, on your phone. They should all arrive at the same booking step. Fix the one that does not, before you add anything new.