Prep ‘Yo Website
Deciding to launch a website is a boss move!
Whether you purchased a template from PREMADE, or are working with a website designer on your own, it makes sense to get organized before you dive in.
In this blog post, we’ll cover everything you need to prep for a website launch.
Here’s what you need to know before building your private practice website.
Step 01: Know Your Brand
Getting clear on your brand is key for a solid website. If you want to learn more about brand identity, check out our blog post on that here.
For help with getting, use our brand therapy guide. This process will help you to be able to know exactly who your ideal client is, what your brand values are, and how to speak to all of that in a beautiful website. When you get solid on your messaging to attract your ideal client from the get-go, your marketing efforts will feel nurturing, rather than depleting.
Invest in solid branding from the beginning you’ll seamlessly attract your ideal client.
Step 02: Create A Brand Guide
A brand guide is a document that details your company’s visual identity. If you don't have a brand guide, create one on Canva or Google docs with your brand fonts and brand colors.
You’ll then access this as you're making your website and marketing material.
Creating a brand guide helps you stay consistent across all of your channels, so we highly recommend going through this process. We highly recommend it!
Items that go into a Brand Guide:
Strategy - Include the following statements from your brand therapy guide so you can easily access them in one place.
Vision
Mission
Values
Value Proposition
Look & Feel - Make sure all your visual assets are in one place. Assess how they look together and ensure there’s a cohesive feeling to your brand.
Logos
Colors
Fonts (INVEST IN GOOD FONTS!)
Supporting Graphics: Patterns, stickers & photography
Then, use this brand guide as a way to Put it all together. You can share your brand guide with a website developer, social media manager, logo designer, etc. As you create more marketing material for your brand, you can continue to add to your brand guide.
Step 03: Determine a business name and domain name
Some private practice therapists want their domain name and business name to be their legal name. Others want a business name that separates them from their birth name. There’s no right decision, only informed choices!
SEO TIP - If you have “therapy” in your business name, this helps with SEO!
Think about it, if someone is googling for “therapy” you are more likely to show up rather than just your name.
Below are pros and cons of using your legal name as a your business name.
Pros of using your name as your business name:
Easy to Google.
Easy to remember.
Efficient, no need to waste time coming up with a name!
Cons of using your name as your business name:
You might need to rename your business if you bring on additional employees.
Your personal name is connected to your business. If you do other projects (e.g. sell your art) it will be challenging to separate the two.
Business documents and personal documents all use the same name.
If your last name changes at any point, you might need to rename your business.
Step 04: Gather Your Assets
Once you have a clear brand identity. You’ll want to put all of your website assets in one place. This includes website copy and images.
Website Images
Professional Headshots
We recommend getting professional headshots done before the launch of your website. Headshots are an affordable way to uplevel your professionalism and showcase your personality.
In many areas, it’s pretty easy to find an affordable photographer. Here’s what we recommend:
Search local photographers using Instagram hashtags (i.e. #denverphotographer).
Look at their Instagram and see if you like their style.
Reach out and share that you are looking for 5-7 shots of you, a few that capture the visual vibe of your business (i.e. office space, Zoom background, general aesthetics).
If you are trying to save money on this, try reaching out to someone that’s trying to build their portfolio. It can be a mutual exchange and end up not costing much!
Ways to find a photographer:
Post on therapist Facebook groups asking for local recommendations.
Message other therapists with photos you like and ask who they worked with.
Search on Instagram using hastags.
We also recommend bookmarking other therapist sites you like for inspiration. The photographer will probably ask you for examples of websites and poses that you like, and this is a great place to start.
DIY Your Website Images
Nowadays, many iPhones can shoot quality images that you can use for your website. If you want to DIY your photos, here’s what we recommend:
Purchase a tripod so you can set a timer and be hands free and/or get a handheld clicker to snap the shots.
Get a ring light for optimal lighting.
Find an area with great natural lighting, the ideal time of day is early morning or late afternoon.
Make sure the background of your shots is either neutral or aesthetically pleasing and matches your brand.
Ideal Images For Your Website
For a private practice therapist website, you will need between 2-4 images per page.
A good practice is to have a variety of images of yourself, your office space, how you work with people, and any modalities you use in practice. Get shots of you “working” with a client, taking notes post-session, researching a case, and speaking with other colleagues. Whatever you do in your day-to-day that makes you YOU!
Your ideal client wants to feel how it would be to work with you. You can do that through your website images. You need them to understand and envision the transformation they will feel working with you. Aesthetics are key for communicating that experience.
Optimize Images
Once you have your website images, it’s important that they are optimized for SEO. Optimize images by doing the following:
Compress Images - You can compress images on a free image compressor site (Imagecompressor.com or tinypng.com) or directly on Canva with a paid subscription. This helps with site speed and, thus, SEO.
Upload your image to the site and download the compressed version. Try to aim for images under 300kb!
Name files correctly - Name your photos with the correct naming conventions. Write your business name first and then describe the photo. Separate out each of the words with hyphens. For example, "templates-by-premade-lindsey-freeman.jpg," Don’t use generic image filenames like IMG_875939.png or Screenshot-2021-06-01 (yuck!).
Organize Images
The easiest way to organize images is by creating a folder with the name of the website page on it. Then, add all of the images for that page directly into the folder.
We recommend using Google Drive or Dropbox for this, but you can also create folders directly on your desktop.
Step 05: Create a Favicon
A favicon is a small icon to the left of your site title on the browser tab. Its main purpose is to help visitors locate your page easier when they have multiple tabs open.
If you are making your own Favicon, we recommend using Canva and saving the image to 50x50 pixels. And remember to save the file name so it's optimized for your site, i.e. third-nature-therapy-icon.
If you already have a brand logo, use it as your Favicon.
Step 06: Gather passwords and logins
Once you are ready to build your website, you’ll connect multiple accounts directly to your site. You don’t want to delay the process by not having all your account access handy.
SEO TIP! Connecting your social accounts to your website helps prove you are legit on the internet and helps with SEO!
Create a Google Doc with all of your passwords to social accounts, emails, and online schedulers so you can easily add these accounts to your site.
Passwords to have handy:
Step 07: Create a privacy policy
A privacy policy is a document that explains how an organization handles any customer, client, or employee information gathered in its operations. Thus, a privacy policy shows the people interacting with your business that you take their privacy seriously.
If you are wondering if website privacy policies are required, the answer is yes. Our websites come with a page for your privacy policy, but you’ll still need to create your own.
There are a lot of free resources on the internet. A simple Google search of “free privacy policy” will generate lots of good options. Once your policy is ready, copy and paste it into a Google doc and it to your website prep folder.
Next Steps
Now that you know what’s needed to prep for the best therapist website possible, it’s time to create your site. You can start with a website template that is predesigned and saves lots of money (literally thousands of dollars!) or work directly with a web designer.
The choice is all yours, because, you’re in charge!
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.