7 Reasons Potential Clients Are Leaving Your Therapy Website
You may have heard that having a therapist website would help you build your private practice. While this is true, there are plenty of reasons your website might repel your ideal clients rather than encouraging them to work with you.
Visitors may leave a therapy website without engaging due to unappealing design, slow loading speeds, and many other reasons. So, it’s crucial that your website design does everything it can to invite those perfect-fit clients to explore your services and reach out to work with you.
Keep reading to discover some of the reasons potential therapy clients might be leaving your website. We’ll offer examples and tips to ensure your site works as hard as possible to grow your practice.
1. Your design could use a refresh
In today's world, people prefer websites with a clean, modern design. In fact, nearly 40 percent of people will leave a website if the design is challenging to navigate or takes too long to load.
Unfortunately, this means if your therapy web design is dated or clunky, potential clients will likely click away before they learn about your practice. Here are a few ways to ensure your design encourages more visitor engagement.
Make sure fonts are an appropriate size, so it’s easy to read your content.
Keep colours clean and neutral. You can incorporate a few colourful elements if it feels appropriate for your practice—just make sure they contribute to user experience rather than distracting the reader.
Break up the content on your pages into shorter sentences and paragraphs rather than writing in big blocks of text.
Prioritize accessibility for groups that may experience challenges navigating websites. A few ways to do this are to use high-contrast colours so content stands out against the background, avoid media with flashing lights, use a dyslexia-friendly font, and make sure your website works with keyboard navigation alone.
2. Visitors aren’t sure how to find what they need
Your site should also be well-organized, with clear navigation from one page to the next. As many as 94 percent of consumers say it’s important that the websites they visit are easy to navigate, and it’s likely your ideal clients feel the same.
So, visitors may get frustrated and leave if you don't make it easy to find things on your site. Here are a few key elements to ensure easy navigation.
A clear navigation menu with working links to each page of your website
A search bar to make finding specific parts of your website easier
Buttons in bold colours, so people notice when you prompt them to take action
3. Loading time is too slow
To say today’s internet users expect fast loading times is an understatement. One in four people says they would leave a web page that took longer than four seconds to load.
So, optimizing your counselling website for speed increases the chance that your ideal clients stick around long enough to read about your services. Here are some ways to boost loading speed to keep visitors on your website.
Use fast-loading images, videos, and other media
Choose high-performing web hosting, like a Squarespace website for therapists
4. Your site isn’t optimized for mobile devices
More than 4 billion people use a phone or mobile device to access the internet. So, it’s more important than ever that your website is optimized for those devices.
Essentially, this means your website should be as easy to navigate on a small screen as it is on a desktop. Hosting your site through mobile-responsive platforms like Squarespace are designed to help with this. Here are some things to look out for to ensure clients can navigate your site on their phones.
Fonts are still readable on a mobile device.
Pop-ups are minimal.
Pages fit a small screen, so visitors don’t have to zoom out or scroll excessively.
5. Your website copy isn’t as engaging as it could be
Attracting new clients isn’t just about great website design. The words, or copywritig, on your website should communicate what you do, who you help, and why your practice is different as soon as a visitor lands on the page.
Additionally, you may be worried about coming off as pushy, so you aren’t telling potential clients what you want them to do on your website. However, visitors need calls to action, like a button that says "Schedule a Free Consultation,” to guide them to take the next step for their health.
Here are some ways to improve your website copy and increase the number of visitors reaching out to work with you.
Ensure your message is clear, engaging, and focused on how you can help the reader.
Include sections that allow clients to get to know you so they can develop trust.
Avoid listing too many specialties or trying to speak to a broad audience. Instead, have one clear target client in mind when writing your copy.
6. You aren’t telling visitors what to do next
One of the biggest reasons a visitor might leave your website without taking action? They simply don’t know what action they’re supposed to take.
When creating a private practice website, it’s normal to want to avoid coming off as pushy. However, clear calls-to-action (CTAs) act like traffic conductors on your website. They eliminate any confusion and help users understand what to do next if they want to work with you.
Making it easy to take the next step sounds simple, but it’s a crucial step that many website owners overlook. And it could make the difference between a visitor bouncing away from your website, or becoming a new client. Here are some steps to ensure your CTAs inspire more visitors to take action.
Turn CTAs into clickable buttons that stand out on your website. Make sure these buttons reflect the action a prospective client should take next, like “Reach out now!” Or “Book a free introductory call!”
Place CTAs strategically on your website. For example, a CTA button should be immediately visible upon landing on any page of your site. That way, visitors can see the action to take without having to scroll to find it.
Avoid clutter around your CTAs. Clean, clutter-free space around your buttons helps them stand out.
Link your CTAs to a working page with a clear next step. If you want visitors to book a call, your CTA can link to a form or calendar to schedule an appointment with you.
7. Or maybe… people aren’t finding you in the first place
It could be that your ideal clients aren’t finding you online. One of the biggest reasons for this is that your website isn’t optimized to show up in search engines.
Search engine optimization (SEO) involves including keywords your target client might search for in Google, like ‘therapist in (your city).’ There are many techniques and best practices that go into optimizing your site for search engines, but here are a few to get you started:
Include keywords and phrases on your web pages where they fit naturally.
Get high-authority websites to link to you. These links are called backlinks.
Use social media to direct people to your website.
Create a Google Business profile so your site pops up when people in your area search for services like yours.
Final thoughts
Here’s a quick summary of the reasons potential clients might be leaving your website.
Your design could use a refresh.
Visitors aren’t sure how to find what they need.
Loading time is too slow.
Your site isn’t optimized for mobile devices.
Your website copy isn’t as engaging as it could be.
You aren’t telling visitors what to do next.
Or people aren’t finding you in the first place.
If people are leaving your website without taking action, it’s time to seek support from a specialist in web design for therapists. Designed by Thrive offers the expertise you need to ensure your site works hard to fill your practice.
Book a free consultation today to increase the number of website visitors who become new clients. We can help you figure out where people are getting lost on your website and the best ways to optimize your online presence.
