One absolutely essential element of building a private practice is to have a good website. During this post, I will be explaining why your website is so important, why this is only half the battle and my number one recommendation to create the best online therapy website.
Why you need a Website
It is quite clear that these days, most of our time is spent online in one way or another. The most popular place that a client is going to find out about your private practice is either through word of mouth or online. Whilst we can’t do too much to control word of mouth (other than provide a good service), we can do a lot to create an online presence and make sure that clients are seeing our website when they are looking for a Counsellor.
I would estimate that at least 50% of my clients come through online searches and when I was first setting up a private practice, I relied 100% on Google to build my practice from scratch. In under a month, I had a full private practice in a new city as a brand new practitioner.
Whilst this may sound like a brag, my reason for mentioning this is that it has proven to me that just through creating a good website and making it visible to potential clients, you can realistically expect to have a full private practice in a short amount of time.
The importance of being found
As well as the importance of having a good website, which represents you well and accurately, the next most important thing is to make sure that you also spend a fair bit of time thinking about how people will find your website.
Whilst I think websites can exist in their own right as a kind of digital business card – a place for people to find out more information, get in touch and get a better sense of you are your practice – there also needs to be some focus on your website showing up in search results, how discoverable it is and how it performs against other local counselling services.
I have seen the opposite happen so often – someone builds a fantastic website and has put so much time and effort into it and then they click “GO LIVE” and hope for the clients to start ringing and emailing! Creating the website is only half the process, if no-one finds it when they are searching for counsellors, then it may as well not exist.
Whilst this isn’t the place to get into the complex world of SEO (Search Engine Optimisation), I would like to share a few tips to try and help you on your way of being found more often when people are searching for services like yours.
Search as if you were a client
The first advice I give to most people wanting to make sure they can be found more often is to search for a counsellor in your area as if you were a client.
This could include searching terms like ‘Find a counsellor near me’, ‘Find a counsellor in [insert your location here]’ e.g. ‘Find a counsellor in Preston.’ What this will do is give you a good sense of what type of websites are coming up first in search results for your area and this will give you 3 bits of important information:
- Have an idea of the type of websites that are performing well and why, so that you can try and use some of the same tricks to improve your own discoverability.
- Find websites that you can add your listing to that are already performing well. This could be counselling directories like Psychology Today or BACP find a therapist and then you will see which are the best to add yourself to. But maybe more important (and often overlooked) are free directory websites that you can add a profile to for free like Yellow Pages or Thomson Local.
- You will be able to see where your own website is currently placed (don’t be disheartened if it is many pages deep at the start, this is normal and what we are trying to improve here) and also be able to track the impact of changes that you make to improve your discoverability.
Make sure the information is helpful, relevant and accurate
As I was saying earlier, your website is like the new version of a business card. That means it is important that information that you include on your website it helpful, relevant and accurate.
You want to make sure that the information that potential clients would want to know is visible early on or easy to find. This could be things like location, cost, areas of speciality, a recent picture or FAQs. This ensures that clients don’t have to go searching for what they are looking for, stay on your page longer, and have a good experience with your website.
Google (and other search engines) also use these statistics (like how long someone stays on your page before they leave) to rank your website in its search results. And as we’ve already seen, this is one of the most beneficial ways to get new clients.
Use your websites tools to focus on keywords, SEO and analytics
Most website builders will have tools to choose certain keywords to focus on and ensure that they are used in your website adequately. Keywords are what search engines use to decide where to put you in their search results. This is likely to be things like what services you offer, your location, specialities, modality etc. Have a look through your website builder for these tools and be sure to use them well within your content to help your search performance.
These tools are likely to be under something like SEO (Search Engine Optimisation). Keywords is a main area of this, but there are many other things that will optimise your search engine performance like when you last updated the website, how users experience it, ease of use etc.
Another helpful tool for your website is Analytics. This could be a page within your website builder, or you can use tools like Google Analytics. This will show you a detailed breakdown of how many visitors you are getting, where they are coming from, what pages they are visiting, how long they stay on the site etc. Not only does this give you a good overview of how your site is performing, but also areas that you can improve or helpful data about user performance.
For example, if users most often come from a certain source, or land on a specific page, you can optimise this page to share certain information that you want (or they are looking for). Equally, if certain pages are performing poorly, or people exit them quickly, you can review this page to see why that might be and make some changes before tracking if this is improving the users experience and time on the site.
Your online shop window
Your website is going to be the most important and most used asset for people to find out about you and hopefully gain all the information they need to make that first step to getting in touch.
It will also be the place that you send any potential clients or connections in a very short and easy way to share.
Having a online therapy website is like your very own shop window where people can easily see all the information they would need to know about you. If you want to pass on your details or give someone a better picture of what you offer, rather than having to explain every detail there and then, you just need to give them your website and they have everything they need in their hands.
The great benefit for you is that you will only have to write everything out once and you can get it just how you want it. Then potential clients can visit it at any hour they like, spend as much time as they wish and it is there for everyone as a great resource and shop window for your counselling services.
My Number One Recommendation – Webhealer
I have been using the same website company for my private practice since the day I started (nearly twenty years ago!) because they offer everything you need in an online therapy website, in a very simple and clear way. (You can see my website here if you are interested.)
The company that I am talking about is Webhealer and I have managed to organise a special offer with them for readers of Chris The Counsellor.
Part of the simplicity of Webhealer, is that they have set designs which make your website look professional and modern without having to have any design, computer or artistic skills.
However, if you use the Chris The Counsellor referral code CM7414 when you sign up for Webhealer, then you will get £60 off and a custom design that they are involved in every step of the way.
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These designs are one-off designs that cannot be used by other Therapists (Unlike the standard templates) and so will help your website stand out and is an exclusive offer with the code above.
Straight forward and supportive
As well as professional, catchy designs, Webhealer makes designing websites very easy, as you just need to write the text in the right section and Webhealer will do the rest. If for some reason you are struggling, then their support is fantastic (I have used it many times) and they have many guides explaining the process in simple steps.
With any issue that I faced along the way, or the natural experience of getting overwhelmed or confused by websites and technology, I would simply email or ring Webhealer and they would respond almost immediately (and seem to have endless amounts of patience!)
As well as this, you can try out building a website completely free for 2 weeks by signing up on their website – webhealer.net
If you do decide to sign up to Webhealer past the 2 weeks trial, then quote the unique Chris The Counsellor referral code CM7414 in your sign up form and you will get £60 off and a free custom design to make the deal even sweeter!
Although this does sound like a cheesy sales pitch, I don’t have any affiliation with Webhealer, other than using them for my own website. I thought if I am genuinely going to be recommending this company, why not try and get a lovely deal for you in the process – it doesn’t hurt to ask right?! So apologies for sales pitch mode, but it really is all genuine and my recommendation came before the offer I managed to sort out for you all!!
And if you would like to explore more in-depth about what to include on your website – click here to read more
