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Do you really need AI to improve your SEO? What if your greatest SEO asset is your own voice? How can you stop letting AI replace and block the human connection in your content?
In this podcast episode, Joe Sanok discusses why you CAN ignore AI for SEO with Stephan Bajaio.
Podcast Sponsor: Valant
Something I hear over and over again from practice owners in this community: “The one class I was never taught in graduate school was how to run my business.”
And honestly? That’s not a personal failing; that’s a gap in how we train clinicians. You built something real. But nobody handed you the playbook for intake, billing, team management, or what it actually takes to scale past a handful of clinicians.
That’s what Valant is built for.
Valant is the EHR designed exclusively for behavioral health group practices. With two decades of experience, 13 million patients engaging in their EMR and 28,000 providers using their platform, Valant offers the tools that close the gaps in your documentation, billing, and operations — including AI that handles the admin work so your team can stay focused on patients.
Valant created a free interactive resource specifically for group practice owners like you. It’s called the Breaking Through the Growth Ceiling and in literally five minutes, it pinpoints your biggest bottleneck right now, with a 90-day playbook to fix it.
Meet Stephan Bajaio
Stephan Bajaio is an SEO and digital marketing expert, entrepreneur, speaker, and co-founder of VibeLogic. With more than 18 years of experience in search, content strategy, digital marketing, and SaaS, he has helped businesses better understand their audiences and grow through organic search. Today, Stephan focuses on the intersection of SEO, AI, and human-centered marketing, helping businesses turn their unique expertise and customer knowledge into meaningful content.
Visit Stephen’s website and connect on Instagram and LinkedIn. See also, VibeLogic.
In This Podcast
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Where SEO is in 2026
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“No one lies to the search bar”
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How you can use AI – but not for content
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Your greatest asset in an AI world
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Stephan’s advice to private practitioners
Where SEO is in 2026
There is no “easy” button when it comes to SEO, and if someone is selling you an easy ticket to success concerning your SEO and using AI, Stephan says don’t bother. If you want to do the basics of SEO well, you will need to:
1 – Speak with a professional person who understands the tool
2 – Create authentic content from the vision and mission you have for your business
It comes down to content … I notice frequently that we shortcut things. It’s just nature, and AI is helping us do that … The reality is that it’s not that simple. (Stephan Bajaio)
3 – Create a website page for each of the service offerings within your practice
Your content is the centrepiece of your website, and the stronger, more genuine it is, the better. You don’t need AI to make it better, because Google flags and often drops AI-laden content to the bottom rung.
Now that we have the ability for any [person] to show up and say what they want on the internet quickly, what’s called EEAT in Google – experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness – is a metric by which they judge your site. (Stephan Bajaio)
“No one lies to the search bar”
Often, because clients don’t yet know the solution, they begin their therapy search by looking for their problem. Clients want to recognize their issue or problem in your content to know that you understand what they are dealing with.
Only then, once you have mirrored their problem back to them and they know you understand what they are dealing with, can you offer the solution.
All of this is only possible when you are talking human to human. AI cannot and should not replace that connection, precisely because it is unhelpful to people and to your business, because Google flags the generated content and ranks your site lower.
Often, [clients] are looking for their own problem; “I’m having anxiety, I’m feeling this way …” They don’t describe it in clinical language. That is still missing on the average [therapy] website. People are not speaking the language that’s being typed into the search bar, and no one lies to the search bar. It is a very honest place. (Stephan Bajaio)
When people put their fears, intentions, and concerns into the search bar and you use that language in your content, it becomes the most powerful and effective magnet to draw them to you.
How you can use AI – but not for content
Here’s what you can do to build your content using AI as it was meant to be used: a tool. You remain the source for the human connection.
1 – Set up a recording and transcribing device to capture and write down your words while you speak.
2 – Plug in some great questions or ask your AI to ask you specific questions that you then answer in your own words while talking.
3 – Edit the transcript down into chunks that you can then use in a blog post, in Instagram posts, or on your website.
That’s where AI can come in and help you. It can help you turn things that might have been harder to do [and make them] easier, but don’t let it replace you. You don’t go, “Write me a blog about postpartum depression.” You don’t do that. Have it empower you. (Stephan Bajaio)
Your greatest asset in an AI world
What is your greatest asset in an AI world? Unique data. Your wisdom and lived experience.
Unique data. That is something that AI does not have. Everyone has ChatGPT, everyone has Claude, everyone has access to the same product that can spit out the same stuff. The difference is the nuance of what you have in your organization: that data. (Stephan Bajaio)
Consider the following:
- What are the causes of why couples need counseling? That can easily become a great blog post.
- Grief counseling, and all the parts of grief that a person can feel throughout their lives, such as the death of a parent or an early death of a child, or the ending of a marriage, etc.
- Parts of counseling that might still have a stigma, such as pet loss. You could connect with local vets to network and set your practice up as a referral source if you deal with grieving clients.
Stephan’s advice to private practitioners
Stop treating the online space like an afterthought.
Are you in the business of helping people? If you want to be successful, that will include building a seamless connection and overlap between the online and in-person experiences that clients have of your practice.
Sponsors Mentioned in this Episode:
Valant created a free interactive resource specifically for group practice owners like you. It’s called the Breaking Through the Growth Ceiling and in literally five minutes, it pinpoints your biggest bottleneck right now, with a 90-day playbook to fix it.
Register by August 31st to secure your discount for the Illinois Counseling Association Conference!
Resources mentioned in this episode:
Visit Stephen’s website and connect on Instagram and LinkedIn. See also, VibeLogic.
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- Building Great Lakes Online Counseling: Google Ad Setup and SEO | POP 1405
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- PoP Group Practice Owners Facebook Group
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Meet Joe Sanok
Joe Sanok helps counselors to create thriving practices that are the envy of other counselors. He has helped counselors to grow their businesses by 50-500% and is proud of all the private practice owners who are growing their income, influence, and impact on the world. Click here to explore consulting with Joe.
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