Step 15 - Let's talk about your website

Let’s talk about your website-you do have one don’t you??

(Part 1)

Any therapist worth their salt will have a website, not only to generate new customers but also to endorse them as a truly professional therapist.

Imagine a potential client calling you up, and you are not there. However, your phone message is very professional, mentioning the therapies you offer and the times of your clinic and suggesting that:

• In your absence the caller takes a quick look at your website where they will be able to read about what you offer, and your fees see some case studies, read testimonials and possibly even book a treatment online
• They can also leave a message indicating when they would liked to be called back and what their needs are

On the other hand, imagine the following message “thank you for calling Sarah Green therapies, I’m not here right now, but leave your message, and I’ll get back to you.”

Which therapist would you be more inclined to pursue?

Once you have a website you can become listed on referring sites. These could be:

• Your professional association
• Your therapy school
• Your local town information site
• Complementary Therapy information sites 

A successful website needs to become what is known as search engine optimised which then ensures that the site will come high up on the first page of google. This is no mean feat and takes a lot of juggling with amongst other things:

1. What is known as key word density (key words are the words or phrases that the public will type into the search engine for example one of ours is massage courses).
2. Being listed on quality sites with inbound links from those sites, such as those listed above.

There will be millions and millions of pages of therapy out there, so for you to become top of the page one of google you really need to think about your site and how it is written, very carefully.

Thinking carefully about your domain name –your ‘www.’ will really help your business and search engine optimisation. When you look at the site the very first words you read are “practising acupuncture in the heart of Oxford”.

The search engines have what are known as spiders that read your site like a book from top left to bottom right. Having your key words appearing straight away is very clever. It also pays to have them dotted around throughout the text, ensuring that you don’t exceed the key word density of 25%. In other words don’t have your site saying ‘Acupuncture in Oxford’ repeatedly as it will get you blacklisted!

We will revisit websites as it is quite a meaty subject.

Your homework however is to decide your keys words!

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