You agonized.
You stressed.
And, finally, you got your website done.
It’s live.
It’s out there ready for prospective clients to find it.
But now comes the reckoning:
You’re not sure whether or not your website is actually working to bring you new clients.
A growing sense of website-related dread is starting to gnaw at you.
Is your practice website a disaster?
Five Clear Signs Your Practice Website Needs a Major Overhaul
If you look at your website and see that you’ve committed any of the following errors, then your website isn’t working for you as well as it could.
If your site has three or more of these issues, then you need to seriously consider a total overhaul.
Here’s how you can tell whether your website is working for you or against you in your quest to help more clients:
The first major headline on your Home Page is “Welcome.”
Any time I arrive on a practice website and immediately see a headline that says “Welcome,” I know for sure this website is riddled with errors.
When someone arrives at your site, you have seconds to make an impression. Otherwise, your site visitor is hitting the back button in their browser and getting out of there.
“Welcome” does not grab your visitor. It doesn’t given them a reason to keep reading.
In fact, just the opposite – “Welcome” tells your reader that you haven’t taken even five minutes to consider THEM and THEIR experience.
If you’ve begun your Home Page with anything like “Welcome” or “Welcome to my website,” your site is in huge trouble.
It isn’t clear what you offer and who it’s for.
Let’s say I’m someone searching for couples counseling.
I arrive on your website.
In my mind, I’m thinking: “Does this person even see couples for counseling?”
If I can’t figure that out quickly, then I head back to my search and continue on to another therapist’s website.
Your practice website is entirely about a) who you’re able to help through b) the services you offer.
If those things aren’t radically clear, then you have a serious problem with your website.
Finding more detailed information on your website is confusing.
When someone arrives on your Home Page, they’re first off just trying to figure out whether you offer what they’re looking for.
But once they confirm whether or not you even offer what they need, they then will want to dive in deeper and learn more.
That’s what your service-focused pages are for. If I’m interested in couples counseling and you offer couples counseling, then you’d better have an easily findable entire page on your work with couples. Because that page will have the information I’ll want to read in order to decide whether I give you a call for counseling.
If your site makes it hard to find the information I’m interested in, I’m not hanging around to deal with your confusing navigation or complicated page structure.
Clarity is power. How you structure your website and how you guide visitors through your site structure will make or break your website’s ability to convert visitors into leads reaching out to you for what you do.
Your site is totally You-obsessed.
This one really beggars belief.
When I arrive on a practice website and the entire thing is focused on you, your degrees, your philosophies, your background, your experience…well, as a prospective client I’m left out in the cold.
Believe it or not, your visitors don’t actually care about you at all.
I know this runs contrary to everything you’ve been told and believe to be true about presenting your work to the world.
However, laypeople don’t know what your degrees mean. They don’t know what your certifications signify. They can’t parse your experience to determine whether or not it’s valid or puffed up.
Instead, laypeople are looking for signs that you understand THEM and can help THEM.
The more your website focuses on YOU, the less by definition it focuses on your prospective clients.
Be very, very, very careful when how much you talk about you in any form on your website. A little discussion of your qualifications and experience can go a long way.
But if you devote entire pages to the ins and outs of your work, be very afraid. You’re probably driving away visitors who easily could have become great clients.
Your site invites visitors to take multiple different actions.
Practice websites have one simple goal: to convert visitors into good-fit leads who reach out to you to learn more about the services you offer.
Any time you drift away from the simplicity of that focus, you’re in danger of confusing your visitors and reducing your website’s effectiveness.
Note: if you want people to call you to discuss how you can help them, your site should focus almost entirely on that as the next step you encourage visitors to take.
Yet I’ve seen countless practice websites that confuse visitors by offering a smorgasbord of various next steps:
- Reach out by phone.
- Fill out a contact form.
- Sign up for a newsletter.
- Download an ebook.
- Purchase something in an online store.
- Send an email.
- Etc.
If you’ve arranged your website in such a way that it isn’t abundantly clear what the single next step is for someone to reach out to you to begin therapy, then your site is costing you clients.
What Do You Do If Your Site Needs an Overhaul?
If you recognize that you’ve made some major mistakes with your website based on the five points above, how do you get those fixed ASAP?
My suggestion is: work with someone who truly understands how to craft an effective, profitable practice website.
Stop trying to get this fixed by asking your nephew or a friend of a friend.
Instead, find the best solution available and invest the time and energy (and money) into getting the best practice website you can. Because the return on investment will be so far beyond anything you could figure out on your own.
Now, it just so happens that we at Therapy Practice Accelerator have more experience than anyone anywhere with helping practice owners develop websites that work, that generate clients, and that showcase your uniqueness to the clients you most love helping.
If that sounds like exactly what you need, then the next step is simple.
Book a call with one of our practice growth experts and let’s talk.