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As a busy therapist, website design understandably may not be your first priority. However, one could argue that your therapy website is the hardest working element of your marketing plan. It must simultaneously catch the viewer’s immediate attention, educate them about you and your services, and convince them to take the next step. Your website design, search-engine optimization, and copy are key to not only engaging users, but converting the right potential clients. A small detail on your website could go overlooked by you, but mean everything to the user experience of someone considering booking a session.
Beyond that, when individuals search for therapy online, they compare many different practices. This means that among other therapists with your specialty and in your area, your website must remain competitive. While we have covered how to create a great therapy website, this post will dive into some of the latest website trends that we’ve been seeing and helping our clients with. These “trends” have gotten more popular recently, but are all evergreen elements that can remain on your website and stand the test of time.
While your therapy website needs to provide the basics such as information about your specialties, how to book a consultation, and ways to contact you, it should also help your potential clients begin to create a real connection with you. It should convey your brand values and the essence of what makes your practice unique.
The copy on your therapy website includes your headlines and subheadlines, paragraphs of text, and all of the words in between. Your website headers should be clear, concise action statements that speak to your ideal client.
In recent years, it’s become more common for therapy websites to contain paragraphs of additional copy on each page. The reason for this is twofold: one, pages with a higher word count and keywords rank higher in search results, and two, these words are used to weave a relatable story. These longer blocks of text can be more difficult to write, but they can really help to guide the client's journey. If you are trying to come up with the words to say to do this, here are some prompts.
On the Homepage:
On your About page:
On your Service page(s):
Throughout your website:
Embedding content into your website allows you to bridge the gap between your website and other digital channels. If you have a resource page, for example, you can embed Youtube or Vimeo videos of you speaking on a mental health topic. To encourage users to follow you on your Instagram, embed your Instagram feed on your contact page or at the bottom of your home page. This way, they will see some of your posts and click to see more, taking them to your profile. To streamline your consultation booking process, embed your Calendly or Google Calendar so that users can easily make their appointment. If you have multiple locations where you serve clients, consider embedding a map with those locations marked.
If you have embarked on creating your own therapy website design, it can be tempting to select one of a few stock templates available and call it done. However, putting in the time or hiring a professional to add custom elements to your website or building an entirely custom site is worth it. Reflecting your authentic brand personality, custom websites simply create an experience that stock websites cannot. A unique website will create a stronger brand presence and be cohesive with your presence on other platforms, inspiring familiarity and trust in the individual seeking therapy services.
With it becoming best practice to include more text on your website pages, this solution can help you organize that text in a more visually appealing way. Rather than have users scroll and scroll searching for the content that applies to them, adding a collapsible section can help them find exactly what they are looking for more quickly.
Some common areas where therapist websites use this type of layout are Frequently Asked Questions, Service pages if they have many different types of offerings, or About sections with multiple team members.
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Interactive elements increase user engagement as they navigate through your site. They can not only improve the functionality of your website, but hold users’ attention and encourage clicks. Interactive elements can be simple, such as slideshows, buttons or clickable blocks that change color when hovered on, or social sharing buttons on your blog. Or, they can be more complex features such as quizzes, animated elements, or interactive infographics.
In any space, but especially in mental health, it is vital to be inclusive of individuals of all walks of life. Website accessibility refers to making websites user-friendly for people with disabilities. Following the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 does this, AND makes your website more search-engine friendly. In short, here are a few things you can do to boost accessibility:
As a therapist, you are most likely aware of how to use inclusive language to discuss your services and your brand. Here are some quick tips to make sure your website is as inclusive as possible:
In 2022, internet users are used to lighting fast loading speeds and are likely to exit your site if it doesn’t load in a couple of seconds. Furthermore, search engines may rank your website lower due to poor loading speed. To analyze loading speed and general performance, check out Google PageSpeed Insights. It will tell you how quickly your site is loading and offer suggestions on how to improve it.
The popularity of minimalist design is here to stay, with clean lines, neutral colors, and simplistic layouts. For therapists that strive to create a calm and soothing environment for clients, it could be a fitting representation for your brand’s website. They don’t overwhelm the user or take away from the intended messages. There’s another benefit to clean, simple website designs - they can tend to load more quickly.
Illustrations can convey your point more quickly than words and add a sleek, professional point of interest for the eye to gravitate towards. Simple illustrations like those seen here can be used as icons to represent the types of individuals you serve, and the types of therapy you offer. More complex illustrations can serve as the main banner image or “hero image” on your home page. Custom-designed illustrations can be a strong component of your brand and be used repeatedly throughout your website and other marketing materials.
Creating a new therapy website or making improvements to your existing website is no small task! The marketing experts as Theory About That have put together some more resources to help you through the process.
With so many factors at play, we understand that it can be difficult to create and maintain your dream therapy website. Whether you have questions or would like the Theory About That team to step in and help, we invite you to contact us or schedule a call.
