5 Key Things for a Therapist website
Our Squarespace templates for therapy websites Have these five key things in mind.
The best therapist websites have these five key things in place, and we want to help you get there.
Read on to find out what you need to create a therapist website!
01. Clear Storytelling.
Okay, we are just going to say it. Let go of the narrative that you learned in graduate school that your personality doesn’t matter in the therapeutic relationship. You matter. And clients want to know about you. Trust us, it’s true and is essential for calling in your ideal clients.
One of the keys to content writing is telling a clear story throughout your site. To start, answer these questions:
Who are you? Give background to your story.
How did you decide to become a therapist?
What do you love about being a therapist?
What diverse experiences and perspectives do you bring to the table?
Why would Someone want to work with you?
What makes therapy with you fun and unique?
What will they take away from sessions with you?
What makes you the ideal therapist for them?
Talk about your pain points, AND how you worked through them. The more you can connect with your ideal client through storytelling the more they will relate to you and want to work with you.
Vulnerability builds connection.
02. Talk to your ideal client.
Before you write your website copy and create your site, become more familiar with your client’s journey.
Questions to ask yourself about your ideal client:
How did they decide to start therapy?
What issues in their past have they struggled with?
What’s worked in therapy before and what hasn’t?
What makes them who they are today?
And then, answer what makes you unique in that process.
Why are they seeking your expertise now?
What makes you the perfect fit for them?
How can you work with their specific issues?
A caveat about ideal clients: Sometimes your ideal client changes. And that’s okay. When Julie started out, her ideal clients were teenage girls. She branded her website and Instagram for teenage girls, she wrote SEO for teenage girls, and she networked with other teen providers. But over time, she realized teens weren’t actually the best fit for her therapy practice. And that’s the beautiful thing about owning your own therapy business, you can pivot and shift whenever you want. You get to be in tune with what works for you.
So, start somewhere. Pick your ideal client for now. Start writing your website copy for them, and then whenever (and if necessary) make a shift. Refine your target clientele and continue to hone your skill set. Your website and your therapy business aren’t meant to be stagnant.
03. Have Clear Calls to Action (CTA).
A call to action (CTA) is a prompt on a website that tells the user to take some specified action. It’s typically written as a command or action phrase, such as 'Sign Up' or 'Buy Now' and generally takes the form of a button or hyperlink.
One of the biggest challenges when it comes to starting a private practice in counseling is getting everything organized.
HAVING CLEAR CTAs MAKES ORGANIZATION EASIER.
It’s not just the one-on-one session time. You are also coordinating consult calls, networking, parent check-ins if you work with kids or teens, and much more!
Make it as easy as possible for people to know how to contact you throughout your site. If you’d like to do scheduling via email, have multiple call-to-action buttons that say “email me today to set up a consult call.” If you want people to call, same thing. Have your CTAs say “call me to set up a free consult call and start your healing journey right away.” Don’t make people work to figure out how to get in touch with you. You want it to be seamless, straightforward, and helpful - just like your therapy sessions :).
Simple Practice and Calendly are both great options for online calendar systems that help with scheduling. You block off available times, people sign up directly through there, and the Zoom link or phone number is on the invite. Julie uses Calendly for consult calls and networking, and Simple Practice for scheduling clients (Simple Practice is HIPPA compliant, Calendly is not).
Make whatever system works best for you apparent throughout your website with clear call-to-action’s throughout the site.
See what we did here?? 😎
04. Make it as easy as possible to find you.
Make your office location clear
Think of your website as a living, breathing, interactive business card. You want to make it as easy as possible for people to connect with you. Make sure you include what locations you do therapy in.
If you offer virtual therapy for all of New York AND see clients Monday and Tuesdays in your office in Manhatten, name both explicitly. Plus, this helps a ton with SEO. The more you repeat your keywords and location on your website, the more google (and then potential clients) know where to find you.
Advertise telehealth services on your website
If you offer Telehealth services, make it explicit that this is available for people across the state. A lot of remote areas lack mental health providers and clients, therefore, seek someone outside of their community. They don’t want to run into their therapists at pilates and at the grocery store and then on a date.
Offer your expertise, your uniqueness, and your wow factor to potential clients across the whole state you are licensed in.
Name your expertise
Next, explicitly name what type of therapy you are licensed in (and which states). Julie is a Licensed Addiction Counselor AND a Licensed Professional Counselor in Colorado, and only a Licensed Professional Counselor in Pennsylvania. You can see how she lists her licenses on her website here.
Some clients want someone that is fully licensed and a true expert in their mental health issues, some don’t care at all. Regardless, it’s important to name your expertise prior to someone reaching out and asking you about it. Make it easy for your ideal client to find your private practice online.
SEO for Therapists in Private Practice
We’ll go into SEO in more detail in future posts, but in general, it’s good to keep in mind some basic SEO principles for therapists.
Complete SEO page titles and descriptions on all pages on your Squarespace website
Use Google keywords to come up with a few keywords that meet your niche and repeat those words throughout the site.
Make sure each page of your website has at least 300 words in order for google to read the page properly
All of our templates are designed with SEO in mind, so if you end up purchasing a Squarespace template from us, we’ve done a lot of this work for you!
05. Stand out amongst the trees.
Having a clear point of view and style will set you apart from the other therapists out there. Your style, your voice, your input, it all matters! You want to stand out amongst the other therapy websites. What makes your website the best therapist website possible is YOU.
Our templates offer you an easy way to stand out. They are unique. They are tailored to YOU and made with YOU in mind. We want you to stand out, so we designed our templates with that in mind.
Next Steps
Stand out with our PREMADE templates launching in October 2022! Sign Up for our Newsletter and receive our FREE guide, “10 THINGS TO LAUNCH A PRIVATE PRACTICE WITHOUT LOSING YOUR MIND 🤯” to set yourself up for success and stay in the loop about our launch.
LINDSEY FREEMAN is the Founder and Creative Director of PLAY & PUBLIC, a digital design studio specializing in Branding & SQUARESPACE DEVELOPMENT. Play & Public is a brand where ‘Play’ is how we exist in every moment as we strive to serve the ‘Public’ in making the world a better place through turning kickass brand stories into killer visuals.