Think back—why did you want to become a therapist? Probably because you want to help people. And more than that, you’re pretty good at it! Now that you have decided to go into private practice, finding new clients is harder than you may have thought. Your website is an essential part of your practice, so spending time developing a therapy website needs to be a priority. Read on to learn the best practices of therapy website design and how to give your online presence some TLC!

Why Your Therapy Website Matters

A website is a reflection of who you are as a therapist. It’s the first impression clients will ever have of you! You want them to be able to learn more about you to see if they want to work with you. Here are some reasons why website design matters for your therapy practice:

• Clients are visual—they want to see something that’s attractive and appealing that draws them in to book with you. This includes the colours, fonts, or images you choose on your website. 

• Clients want convenience—your website needs to make it easy to understand your services, book appointments, contact you, or answer common questions such as fees.

• Clients want to know who you are—to build trust and decide if you are someone they will feel comfortable working with. Your therapist website needs to establish your background, credentials, therapy approach, and experience.

The website you make for your private practice is a representation of you. It’s a way to put your best foot forward and is the best way to attract clients to your practice.

Best Practices to Design a Website for Therapists

Here is a list of best practices therapist websites should follow. If you get these basics right, it will help attract and retain clients. 

1. Define your value proposition 

Start by asking yourself: why did you become a therapist? What is unique about how you practice? What differentiates you from other therapists?

The answer to these questions will help you to identify your value proposition. It’s what sets you apart from other therapists and what you are uniquely able to offer clients. Some examples of a value proposition are:

• Heal Your Grief

• Helping You Raise Happy Children

• Supporting Parents From Pregnancy to Postpartum & Beyond

When you know your value proposition, you can incorporate it into your website content. This helps clients know more about you and why you’d be a good fit for them.

2. Identify the goal of your website

Goal setting has many well-researched benefits such as increased motivation, strategic direction, and lower frustration. And since a website is such a vital marketing tool for your private practice, understanding what you want your website to do for you is very important. Examples of goals for your website could be:

• Attract new clients and get them to book an appointment.

• Provide resources for existing clients through a blog. 

• Sign up for an online workshop or course to make some incremental revenue 

Once you have identified the goal of your website, you can carefully craft your content to achieve that desired goal.

3. Determine the clients you want to attract

Whether you work with a wide variety of clients or specialize in a specific niche, it’s important to determine the clients you want to attract through your therapy website.  

For example, if you are a grief counsellor and have a website with pictures of happy children, your site won’t connect with a client who has suffered a trauma. By understanding the needs of your clients, you will be able to properly create a website from their point of view.

4. Keep your branding consistent

People have short attention spans and make judgments quickly about what they see online. That’s why it’s so important to keep your branding consistent throughout your website. This can be done by:

• Choosing a colour palette that creates the tone you want clients to associate with your practice and use it across your site.

• Selecting one or two fonts throughout the site. Any more will make your website start to look messy and become distracting.

• Designing a logo for your therapy website that is clearly placed and easy to see.

Consistent branding on your therapy website shows care and effort, which inspires trust with a client. 75% of consumers admit to making judgements about the credibility of a company because of the website design. So, brand consistency and overall web design matter!

5. Keep the design clean with an easy-to-navigate layout 

Data shows that 38% of people will stop engaging with a website if it has an unattractive layout or content. The last thing you want is for someone to click away if they can’t find what they’re looking for!

Here are a few things to keep in mind:

• Use obvious headings like “About Me,” “Services,” or “Contact.” If you try to get too creative with them, people might not know what you mean. 

• There shouldn’t be more than six menu names in your top navigation bar so it’s not cluttered. This includes the button usually found in the top right corner.

• Focus on making your content concise on every page. Don’t add words just to meet a word count. Clear headers and bullet points help make your content skimmable.

6. Include client-focused content

Your website is not about you. It’s about your client and what you can do for them. Your content should be written from a client-focused mindset, using clear and simple language they will understand. Avoid using therapist jargon that can confuse clients.

Even in your “About Me” section, you should be discussing your client. For example, your education, skills, and experience are not just bragging rights, but show a client that you have the knowledge and expertise to help them with their unique struggles.

7. Have a clear call to action 

A “call to action” (CTA) answers the question: now what? Say a client has been browsing your site for a while and think you might have the services and expertise they are looking for. The next question they may be asking is what do I do next? You need to define that next step with a CTA on your website. This usually appears as a button. Some examples are:

• Schedule a consultation.

• Let’s talk!  

• Join our waiting list.

CTAs have been shown to increase click-through rates significantly, so including a well-crafted CTA is a great way to prompt clients to take the next step.

8. Incorporate images 

Images make all the difference to give clients a sense of your personality and how you work. 

Images evoke emotions, so using photos of people who are smiling and happy can boost positive feelings in the client. 

Be sure your images are a representation of the clients you want to attract and are as diverse as the community your practice resides in.

9. Optimize your SEO to improve search rankings

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the practice of using keywords that make your website more visible in Google search results. For example, people often search for a therapist in their region or area—i.e., “Therapist in Calgary.” If you are, indeed, a therapist in Calgary, you will want to make sure your website appears on Google in that city!

SEO optimization is simply including the desired keyword into your website content so that Google “knows” what to search for. SEO is important to get right because search engines drive 300% more traffic than social media. So, if you only have time to invest in one marketing channel —make it SEO!

10. Continually analyze and improve

These best practices should help you get an impressive therapy website up and running. But it’s not going to be perfect right away! Make sure to continually analyze and improve your site to make it better and better. When you sign up for Google Analytics you can start collecting information like:

• How many people visit your site?

• Which pages are they visiting?

• Did a visitor fill out your booking form?  

By understanding what works and what doesn’t, you can keep making changes to your site until it starts working for you to achieve the goals you identified.

Final Thoughts

In summary, here is a quick recap of the best practices to follow when designing a website for your therapy or counselling practice:

1. Define your value proposition 

2. Identify the goal of your website

3. Determine the clients you want to attract

4. Keep your branding consistent

5. Keep the design clean with an easy-to-navigate layout 

6. Include client-focused content

7. Have a clear call to action 

8. Incorporate images 

9. Optimize your SEO to improve search rankings

10. Continually analyze and improve

Designing a website for therapists is about more than just creating a new website and hoping clients can find you. It’s about carefully planning how to attract the right clients to your counselling practice and building the kind of business you have always wanted. These best website design practices should get you started on the right path!

Whether you’re looking to start a brand-new site or take yours to the next level, we’re here to help! Book a consultation today to get started.