Eleanor Roosevelt once said, “Learn from the mistakes of others. You can’t live long enough to make them all yourself. ”
Nothing could be closer to the truth with your private practice website.
Between seeing clients and tackling billing, who has time to figure out what works on your private practice website and what doesn't?
Fortunately (or unfortunately), I’ve made a lot of mistakes in the process of creating the Selling the Couch website.
This articles contains 10 lessons I’ve learned that, over time, will help increase the number of visitors to your private practice website and create more referrals.
Lesson X: Start running Analytics
Software like Google Analytics run behind the scenes of a website and provides vital information like:
- How many people visited your website in the last day/week/month/year?
- How did they get there?
- How long did they stay once they got there?
- What webpage do readers stay the longest on?
You can figure out what's working on your website and what's not by simply studying this data,.
For example, let’s say you have a therapist profile on both Psychology Today and Good Therapy, mentioning your website on both. Analytics software tells you how many visitors come from each directory to your website and, more importantly, whether you're getting better results with one or the other.
Check out this video to grasp the full power of Google Analytics:
Lesson X: Start using Social Share Buttons
See that toolbar that's floating on the left side of this page?
Turns out, those buttons are becoming very important in building your reputation online.
In fact, over 120 of the top search engine experts agreed that Social Media shares (e.g., Likes on Facebook, Retweets on Twitter, Shares on Google Plus or LinkedIn) were the single biggest factor in helping a website to rank higher in search engines like Google.
The more shares there are, the more eyes are coming to your website. The more eyes that comes to your website, the more potential clients there are.
But here's the key. Simply having a website with information about your and your practice is not good enough for search engines. Search engines want new content that will entice people to visit your private practice website AND share it with others (Retweet this).
I personally like Digg Digg or Share Bar (http://wordpress.org/plugins/sharebar/), which you can install by going to the “Plugins” section of your WordPress toolbar.
Our eyes tend to focus on the left side of a webpage so start by placing your Sharing Tool there on the left side of your page. These tools allow you pick which social media (e.g., Facebook or Twitter) you want on your toolbar. I would start out with Google +, Facebook, and Twitter (and possibly LinkedIn if you work with a working population).
For more information on how to set up your private practice website using WordPress, check out LINK TO YOUTUBE VIDEO.
Start a Getting Started Page
A Getting Started section is a highlight of your best content. It includes links to
articles, videos, infographics graphics, etc. that helps potential clients get an idea of what your website is about.
It gives clients or visitors to your private practice website an anchor. It also helps build your reputation and credibility because you are giving content to your clients. notes that it takes something like 20 times of XXXXXX
Start a Resource Page
A Resource Page contains books and other resources to help your visitors coming to your website.
Done correctly, it’s also a great way to make income from your website though Affiliate Links.
I'll write another article about affiliate marketing but, for now, just know that affiliate marketing is where a company pays you to promote an item they sell on your website. In exchange, they give you a portion for every item that is sold. The awesome thing
Do you consider yourself a expert on couples? If so, create a Resource page that includes Amazon Affilaite links to books or videos you recommend. When someone purchases a book through the link on your Resource page, Amazon pays you a portion (it's a few dollars here and there but every little bit can add up). The best part is that it's completely passive, meaning that you set it up one time and you're done!
I recommend starting with Amazon Affiliates because it's been around since 1996 and has a solid reputation.
I’ve learned that the key is to recommend products that you have used AND can give an honest opinion about. Also, U.S. law requires that you let others know that you will earn a commission so please don't forget to include that.
If you'd like, please use my Resource page as a template to help you get started.
Start Building Your Email List from Day 1
At first, I didn’t see a point in getting the emails of people who visited the STC website.
It sounded too personal and too intrusive.
But I kept coming across some big time bloggers like Pat Flynn (over 75k email subscribers) who often write that his single biggest regret was not creating an email list sooner.
Something clicked when I read this. Email is a great way of staying in touch with potential clients or those who could refer clients to you.
The key to a successful email campaign is to give out truly helpful information at calculated times.
The more useful content you offer, the more your reputation builds.
I use AWeber (Affiliate Link) for this website and have had a very positive experience with them (they even gave me a call when I first .
For more tips on building your, check out XXXX (LINK) .
Some great places to put forms for emails include the end of articles and at the end of any section
Start using words your audience can understand
I struggle with this like no other. Maybe it’s getting used to writing academically in graduate school or writing up assessment reports. Whatever the case, writing using big words on your website can actually turn readers off (LINK TO RESEARCH THAT DERRICK HALPERN CITES).
The average reader in the . and blogging experts like Bryan Clark and Darren Rowse suggest that we write at a 5th or 6th grade level.
Lesson X: Start putting your best stuff “above the fold.”
“Above the fold” simply the top half of your website.
People are more likely to read something . The average person stays on a website for The further someone has to scroll down a page, the more likely they are to stop reading or leave your website.
However, this does not mean that you should load the top part of webpage. Research has also found that readers prefer some white space (CITE)
I would say
Lesson X: Start doing keyword research
Keyword research simply means learning what other people are searching for.
By learning this information, you can produce content based on what people are actually searching for instead of what you think will get ranked higher on search engines.
Google KeyWord, MOZ’s Search Bar Tools. I personally use a program called LongTail Pro (Affiliate Link) because it saves time by combining the information from all the tools I just mentioned from onto one page.
Lesson X: Start Using Testimonials
Your About Page will likely be one of your most visited parts of your website, and is a great place to put testimonials from former clients (be sure to ask for permission and de-identify any names).
Testimonials give
Lesson X: Start going visual
Our brains process visual information 65,000x faster than written information. Spend time thinking about what kind of visual aspects. Visual stimuli are also more likely to be shared by others. Some ideas include about a nicely done video introducing yourself on your About Page or
Conclusion
In this day and age, your private practice website is a critical part of the success of your private practice. The 10 tips above will put you ahead of the game. The hard work you put on your website will lead to more people visiting your website, your website ranking higher in search engines, and more referrals.
Which of these lessons will you take to heart and start doing on your website?