Websites for Therapists Checklist: DIY or Outsource a Client-Generating Website
For most therapists, a website is absolutely integral to the health of their business and their quality of life. While you may only think of a website in terms of advertising, marketing, or generating clients, a great website does SO much more.
Websites for Therapists Your Ultimate Checklist to DIY or Outsource a Client Generating Website
That said, not all websites are created equal. Simply outsourcing to a web designer won’t necessarily get you the outcome you’re looking for, at least not without some knowledge and direction coming from you. Consider this your definitive guide to ensure your therapist website experience is empowering, effective, and maybe even a little bit fun!
This guide will cover the following:
What to Know Before Building Your Private Practice Website
Here’s what you need to know (no matter if you DIY or hire someone) to ensure you don’t waste time, money, or energy.
First and foremost, your website is more than a yellow page ad, or a pretty picture of you on the internet. Your website is a reflection of how you want to change the world, who you want to reach, and the foundation of your business. If you aren’t clear on who you are as a therapist, your business plan, or your marketing plan, you’re going to end up with a website that doesn’t reflect you, doesn’t help clients, and doesn’t support your business.
Imagine your website as a bathroom. The site’s design is how the bathroom looks - the subway tiles, the color on the walls, and the number of sinks. The plumbing pipes, hidden from view, is your marketing plan that includes search engine optimization (SEO), building relationships, and being seen. Lastly, YOU are the well that supplies the water. Many therapists have beautiful websites they’ve spent thousands of dollars on, but there’s no water or plumbing to connect the water to that beautiful bathroom. So, they sit there looking pretty, not really adding any value and frustrating anyone who attempts to use them!
Before you hire ANYONE, you need understand where your well of water is located and how to bring it through the plumbing system to ensure you have a beautiful, functional website that meets your needs AND your clients’ needs.
Here are some things to explore before you start building your website:
What kind of clients do you really do exemplary work with?
What kind of clients do you enjoy working with, even if it’s hard work?
What’s the last straw that led to your ideal clients looking for a therapist?
Why did they choose you?
How do your clients describe that work and those outcomes in their own words?
Who are you as a therapist — what makes you unique?
How do your clients describe you, and what you do as a therapist? (Side note: There’s a reason that personal referrals tend to convert so well for most therapists — other people often describe who you are and what you do better than you do!)
We’ve collectively got over 25 years of experience helping therapists create life- and business-changing websites. We’ve talked to thousands of therapists over the years and MOST therapists can’t answer these questions. If you feel a little stuck, that’s normal. And if you want some more support in this area — plus all the other areas of building and sustaining a thriving practice — click here to learn more about LIFETIME ACCESS to Business School for Therapists!
Why a Website Designer Can’t Do it All For You
But why does it matter if you know these things before you start building or hire someone to build for you? Won’t the person you hire figure it out for you?
The only person who can figure this out is YOU! The answers to the questions above will impact how the website looks (colors, pictures, how many pages, etc.), what you write on the website (expect to pay $3-10k to have someone write your entire website for you), and what kind of pipes it has (marketing keywords or plans so your website gets found). It’ll also impact whether the final product of your website is actually functional and successful at meeting your needs.
In this guide, we’ll give you the go-ahead to start a DIY website even if you aren’t sure of all the answers yet. But… DO NOT pay a website designer for therapists until you’ve got clarity. You’ll just end up in a puddle of frustration, shame, and confusion when you miss your deadlines for content, or the website doesn’t work.
Website Vocabulary for Therapists
Okay, for some of you this is going to be easy-peasy to scan through and make sure you’re on track. And for others, you’re going to find yourself glazing over. Feel free to take breaks. We pinky-promise — all of the vocabulary we’re giving you here will help when building your ideal therapist website, whether that involves a professional designer or DIY project start to finish.
Website
A website is simply a page you access through the Internet that allows anyone, anywhere to be able to read the same material in the same format. Have you ever had a Word document for PC that your friend couldn't open because they had a MAC? Or not been able to open an old WordPerfect document? Webpages are meant to resolve this issue and provide a universal language all computers can read. The primary purpose of a website is to allow anyone, anywhere to easily access the same material and see the same thing.
Blog
"A blog is a website, but a website isn't necessarily a blog." A blog is a way to create a collection of articles. It’s a pre-made format or template that allows you to create articles or posts over time within your website. Blogs allow you to easily organize posts by date, topic, keyword, or category. Most blogs are a specific format that can easily be read by search engines and shared, accessed, and curated through something called an RSS feed (more on that later).
Many therapists assume a blog is separate from your website, but in most cases, a blog integrated into it is the best solution. In fact, we recommend every therapist website to have great blog capabilities — even if you don't think you’ll ever need them. Getting a site without a blog would be like paying to "upgrade" your car to take out power steering... it’s silly!
Mobile Websites
As people started carrying computers in their pockets in the form of smartphones and tablets, the language of the internet has needed to catch up. Many sites that haven't been updated in a few years aren't accessible on mobile phones. And yet, around 60% of views of the site you’re on right now are from mobile phones, and this is a pretty common percentage that’s increased from 30% just a few years ago.
Many website builders now integrate the mobile website language — but not all of them. If you don't choose the right place (or way) to build your site, you could end up losing 60% of potential clients. You used to have to pay someone an additional fee to build a separate mobile site, but that’s mostly been eliminated due to responsive design.
Responsive Design
This is related to the same concept as mobile websites. Responsive design is a process built in by computer programmers that allows the design to adjust no matter what size of a screen someone is using to view your site. If you want a visual of what that might look like and are familiar with the process, change the size of this browser window. Drag the width of the browser window slowly and see how things shift around until you can see the same thing someone would see if they were looking at this site on a mobile phone.
Responsive design eliminates the need to design, build, or purchase a mobile site as an add-on. A great responsive design is one that allows you to easily view the content without squinting!
Website Platforms and Content Management Systems
There are many different ways to build your website. Choosing a place to build your website is kind of like choosing between Microsoft Word and WordPerfect or whether you want an iPhone or Android. Many of them may have similar features, but they’re NOT all created equally!
Modern content management systems can easily incorporate a navigation menu into your site and keep everything perfectly spaced as you add more pages. They make updating, tweaking, or expanding your site as simple as creating a PowerPoint presentation or Word document.
Content management system (CMS) examples include Squarespace and WordPress.org. WordPress.com is a self-publishing website builder platform and not a CMS.
But before any platform or CMS existed, websites had to be hardcoded with HTML.
Hardcoded HTML Sites
When websites were first developed, each one was written using a special language. In order to build a site, you had to learn HyperText Markup Language (HTML) or hire someone who was already familiar with it. And updates could be time-consuming and expensive! Now, websites can be built and updated similar to how you might use PowerPoint or Word.
Hardcoded websites are the most expensive to build, maintain, and update. There are still designers out in the world who prefer to create them, and when choosing one, be sure to clarify what platform they’ll be building on and determine if it meets your needs.
WYSIWYG
This is a funny little term that stands for "what you see is what you get." It’s a feature of certain content management systems that means what you see as you’re working on your site is what your visitors will see.
WordPress.org, for example, is NOT a WYSIWYG platform. Unless you have some extra plugins (standalone pieces of free or paid software that integrate with WordPress), you’ll be editing text and have to switch between two screens to see what visitors will see. Some other platforms like Squarespace allow you to make edits and access the view of visitors as you’re making changes.
Website Hosting
Websites are really just a visual representation of code being accessed that’s housed and stored on computers. Site hosting is the service that keeps that code running 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and ensures your website doesn't "crash" (turn off) if you get a lot of people trying to access it at the same time.
Some platforms include hosting as part of their service, and other platforms require you to get hosting separately. Some hosts keep your information really secure and can handle a lot of traffic, and some don’t. One recurring issue with certain WordPress.org site hosts is those security vulnerabilities (that we’ll discuss later), which can lead to your website being hacked.
You want to choose a web host that takes security seriously and has extra precautions in place to make sure that someone else's oversight doesn't lead to your site being hacked.
Domain Name
A domain name is like a phone number. It’s what people type in to access your site. Like your home or mobile phone number, domains can be pointed to any website. Your domain name is a piece of your branding and determines how easy (or difficult) it is to reach your site. zynnyme.com, for example, is easier to type in than the fictional we-are-zynnyme .com.
Some platforms may also register a domain name for you. Others may require you to buy your domain name elsewhere. And some platforms actually purchase the domain name you want in their own name and sell it back to you if you decide to leave. Having a domain name that’s easy to spell, type, and remember is quite useful.
Hover.com is our FAVORITE place to buy domain names because they answer the phone and resolve issues quickly. Some domain registrars (that’s the fancy name for anyone who can sell you a domain name) charge you for silly things like keeping your home address private — but Hover doesn't do that.
Your domain shouldn't cost you more than $15 a year.
Squarespace
Squarespace.com is a website and blogging platform. It includes hosting, blogging, WYSIWYG editing, customizable themes, integrated plugins, customer service, and domain registration (for annual service purchases). You’re looking at a Squarespace site right now.
We like the drag-and-drop functionality and our beautiful, modern, responsive website that can easily be tweaked and changed as our needs evolve. Squarespace ensures our site is backed up in different places, and its templates allow us to change site colors, fonts, and images with the ease of the drag-and-drop builder.
WordPress.org
This is a TOUGH one for therapists to conceptualize. "WordPress" in the vernacular often refers to WordPress.org, which is a free piece of open-source software you can download and install for your website hosting system. Some web hosting centers even have 1-click installs of this CMS. And since WordPress.org is open-source software, anyone can see what’s under the hood, so developers are constantly working against hackers to keep the software safe and secure.
WordPress.org requires ongoing security updates to keep your site working and minimize the risk of hacking. You must research, choose, install, and update standalone pieces of software (plugins) to allow for auto-updates and backups of your site. You’ll need to pay for a website theme that will have limitations in terms of design, choose plugins, do security updates, and consistently ensure all of these things are securely and effectively working together.
Are your eyes glazing over? If so, we get it. Most therapists who choose this route will need to get outside training and/or pay for ongoing support to keep their website up to date. This is also why you might consider getting a web designer to set things up properly for WordPress.org.
WordPress.com
This platform is something completely different. WordPress.com is a website builder that starts as a free service and is essentially a stripped-down version of the WordPress.org CMS.
We've consistently found our clients get frustrated with the limitations as they attempt to expand the effectiveness of their site. Some of the coolest free tools we use on the zynnyme site can't be used on this platform. We also think it’s interesting that as you start to turn on different features, many therapists spend more annually than they would on other platforms.
Flash Design Websites
Flash is a programming language like HTML. While Flash is, well, flashy, it has some major disadvantages. Most notably, you can't access Flash directly on iPhones. Many therapists who initially built a beautiful website using Flash found their sites were blank.
Wix, one of the most popular Flash website designers for therapists, has moved away from it due to the ongoing limitations. And although it’s well-established, because it started with a different focus, Wix is lightyears away from being a great blogging platform or having good SEO functionality built in.
Export and Import
This is when you take your website and attempt to suck everything out so you can "import" it elsewhere. Some blog platforms need to be exported in a manual backup and then uploaded to the new location manually. And some systems allow you to simply login to your old account for a 1-step export/import.
You can import a WordPress site into Squarespace and vice versa. However, the "look" of the site and any custom coding won't transfer back and forth. Both WordPress and Squarespace allow you to import many blogs on standalone sites like WordPress.com, Blogger.com, and others.
If you have an established blog, definitely check to see if you can import it easily into your new website. It can save a lot of time and energy!
SEO
Search engine optimization, or SEO, ensures your website is set up (optimized) so that the little internet gremlins — that might not be the official name — understand what you do so they can show your website to people who will really benefit from it.
Some website platforms have major limitations when it comes to SEO. WordPress and Squarespace both have extensive options for setting up your site in a way that ensures it’s findable online… but the real questions are: What do you want to be findable for? Who do you want to find you? What are those people typing into Google?
A few technical things your platform needs tp include are a blog integrated into the system, the ability to write descriptions for each page on your site, and proper backend details. For WordPress, this involves getting a free plugin like Yoast SEO that helps you ensure your site is properly set up.
However, no platform will make you magically appear on the first page of Google for every search term on the planet. You need to clarify what you want to be found for, what people are typing in, and how many times they’re typing it per month (is there enough demand?). You need to write relevant, compelling content that people want to read once they find your site.
Website Designer
A website designer is a professional who designs the look of your site. They’ll ask you questions about how many pages you want, the colors, your brand, and your clients. In most cases, they require you to choose a look for the website, provide inspiration websites, and send over all the images, headshots, and copy you want included.
Website designers might offer services like developing the website (making it functional and establishing the design) and choosing stock images for you — they may or may not have you purchase those directly for an additional cost. These professionals don’t often integrate anything related to SEO and making your website findable on search engines.
Website Developer
If you have a traditional designer, the developer is the person who will translate the pretty design into your website platform to make it all work the way it was envisioned.
Copywriter
This is the person who writes your website for you, but it’s seldom written with SEO in mind. And, with 25 years of combined experience, we’ve seen that most copywriters have NO idea how to write for therapy websites. What we do is different and specialized and hard to outsource.
SEO Specialist for Therapists
An SEO specialist is someone who can help you study what’s being searched for in your area and where you’re currently showing up on those searches and make a plan to get you to Page 1 for particular search keywords.
Notice we were specific in saying SEO specialist for therapists. That’s because this is one of the biggest areas where we’ve seen therapists taken advantage of in paying really high monthly fees, getting reports they don’t understand, and being misled by professionals. With a SEO specialist for therapists you are getting a person who understands the market for mental health services and is well versed in what is important to you the therapist and the client, when it comes to searchability.
A great SEO specialist shouldn’t just focus on you showing up on Page 1 for as many keywords as possible. Of course, you’re likely to get on the first page for your name, but you want to be there for people who’ve never heard of you and who need the services you offer, too!
We have some resources to find trusted SEO providers for therapists in the resource list below.
Why Do Therapists DIY Websites?
Okay, we got some definitions out of the way! It’s alright if not everything is 100% clear yet. Progress, not perfection! For now, let’s talk about why thriving therapists always start with a do-it-yourself (DIY) website before hiring a designer.
Let’s bring up a different example this time. Imagine you were going to create a speech with a PowerPoint design and you wanted it to look amazing! Would you hire a slide designer to design your slides when you hadn’t written the speech? No! That wouldn’t be helpful at all! You’d likely start with writing up an outline of your speech or a basic script. You might also pull up Google Slides or PowerPoint and put together a basic outline of the slides you wanted and the content to include, and THEN you’d send it to the designer to freshen it up. That’s exactly what we encourage you to do with your website!
You don’t have to learn a new language or download anything to your computer to get started. The basics of a website aren’t really much different than using Google Slides or PowerPoint today. Yes, there’s a lot under the hood, but you don’t have to look under there to start. You can simply focus on getting some words on paper and seeing what they look like in a basic format.
It’s also important to note that the design process can often take 2-6 months depending on you and your designer’s pacing and process. Your clients likely need the information on your website NOW! We’d rather you have amazing content out there now that maybe could look a little prettier in the future, and then you can work toward that ideal design over time.
Roadblocks Therapists Hit Before Launching Their Website
You may not really think about it, but having a website is a vulnerable experience. It means being seen. Being seen can also mean opening yourself up to rejection and being misunderstood. Ack! Who wants that? You can stop and try to make it perfect, doing all you can to avoid upsetting someone, being judged, or making a mistake. Not a reasonable answer though but this is often where people get stuck in the website process for their therapy practices.
We believe in progress, not perfection. Your website today will not be the same website you’ll have 5 years from now. Why? Just as you evolve in your practice, your website will reflect those changes. Sometimes waiting for the perfect words and for things to look a certain way is just another form of us self-sabotaging from being seen, as imperfect as we are in this moment.
There are some real issues too for different niches, such as sex therapy or for therapists from marginalized groups fearing further abuse, discrimination and marginalization. We want your website to be a place where you’re reflected so the people who would benefit from working with you, resonate and call you.
Don’t wait for the first session for a client to get to know you. Allowing them to get to know you and your therapy style from the beginning of your marketing will reduce stress and strengthen the level of attunement in the first session. Your website is part of the therapeutic process in connecting with the client before the first session.
Yes, you may have 10 niches, but it’s better to have a single-page website published than to wait for the day when you get every single page published. Start small and simple. It can build and grow from there. You don’t need a logo. You need a clear message with a call to action (CTA) and a simple way for potential clients to contact you. That’s it.
If you want your website to be visually appealing and it seems too bland without a logo, add some pictures of you and your office! That’s what will build trust and connection — not a fancy logo that doesn’t represent who you are! If you’re near a big city, you can even use a resource like Shoott to grab your first professional photo for just $15!
Sometimes doing something for ourselves isn’t enough, no matter how much we pay. If that’s you, then consider all the future clients facing issues right now. They need you. But you’re hiding, and they aren’t going to find someone like you to help them. If you can’t hit the publish button for you and your business, do it for the people who need you.
Best Website Builder for Therapists
We have some pretty strong feelings when it comes to website options for therapists based on over 25 years of coaching experience. We know therapists VERY well (heck, we are therapists). We coach them in groups and 1:1, and we’ve worked with thousands of therapists from around the world from rural areas, big cities, solo and group practices, and Beyond the Couch practices (businesses that have multiple streams of income like online courses and books).
What therapists need in a website is the following:
Simple to design and maintain over time.
Customizable so they can make it their own.
Expandable to meet their changing needs.
Integrated with SEO so it’s easy to find online.
Features a blogging function that’s simple to use.
Safe from potential hacking threats and other attacks.
Quickly editable without extensive technical knowledge.
Easy to reference important stats for making decisions.
Accessible for their ideal client.
Hands down, in 2022, we believe the best website for therapists is Squarespace. They make it easy to build beautiful sites without any coding abilities. You don’t have to do anything special on the backend to maintain the website or worry about the size of your server or how many hits your site might get. You don’t have to worry about setting up an SSL certificate or any of the technical aspects that WordPress.org sites require. And you can easily move images around.
The Squarespace platform is truly built for business owners.
We (zynnyme) rank #1 internationally for hundreds of keywords and keyphrases, have an extensive blog, and run a successful business — all for just $20 a month. Plus, we’ve helped hundreds of therapists from around the world do the same. And no, we aren’t affiliates for Squarespace. We just like to stick with what works!
Website Builders for Therapists: Alternatives to Squarespace
WordPress.org (usually referred to as WordPress) requires significant maintenance and is incredibly prone to hacking. It requires quarterly updates at minimum and a pretty deep understanding of plugins, themes, and compliance to make it work.
A website designer will tell you they can do ANYTHING with it… but what they won’t tell you is that the cost to design and maintain these sites is incredibly high. And, if you want to make a small change, it could sometimes mean major coding ($$) or a complete redesign ($$). Not to mention that, with WordPress, you purchase hosting separately.
Then there’s the stripped-down version of WordPress known as WordPress.com, which is much more secure. But the problem is that it has a lot more limitations. It starts off free, but as you start purchasing add-on features you need as a therapist, you start paying a LOT of money.
Wix.com tries to make the design and launching of your website as easy as possible, keeps the maintenance down, and isn’t prone to hacking. But the work you need to get a Wix website showing up on Google makes it almost impossible. Wix has been improving their SEO options but not at a fast enough pace for us to recommend trusting your business and livelihood on it. Check out this article about Wix and SEO.
What to Know About Hiring a Website Designer
Website designers tend to be technically savvy people. And they often learn on a particular platform. Making a change to something new can be hard. WordPress also has historically made it easy for web designers to clone websites so they can easily reuse designs, which is super handy in their work. So, yes, WordPress may work better for them. They may even truly believe it’s better for you if they haven’t thoroughly researched the alternatives. But that doesn’t actually make it better for you. This is YOUR business. This is your online office in a way.
You need to have the keys to your website and be able to make big or small updates without spending hours trying to figure everything out on your own. You don’t want to be in a position where you’re waiting weeks to get a response from a web designer who charges you for the smallest of changes or straight-up stops responding and ghosts you. But if you decide to use a web designer anyway, make sure you like the platform they’re building on and that it works for YOUR needs!
Here Are the Best Therapist Websites of 2020 and 2021!
We love to share therapist websites that aren’t just pretty but also effective! So, what does that actually mean? It means they’re…
Showing up on Google searches for high-value keywords.
Resulting in ideal clients scheduling free consultations.
Making things EASY for clients, staff, and the owner (you!).
Turning the flow of private practice clients on/off with ease.
Providing a responsive and accessible experience for everyone.
Leading to a business that’s profitable, sustainable, and enjoyable.
No matter how beautiful your website is, if it isn’t doing those things, what’s the point?
Harper Therapy: This is an example of a website that was originally built on WordPress and then transferred to Squarespace. A website designer was enlisted to spruce up the branding of this site, but this website was written by the private practice owner, keywords were researched by them as well and the SEO was done by them. Yes it looks nice, but the copy is connecting and transformational. The website ranks and converts so the practice is able to fill their employed clinicians for regular sessions, included intensives and groups.
Inside Wellness: This is an example of a website designed by the group practice owner after they decided to leave a company that was managing their WordPress site. They redid all of their copy and their design. They didn’t have a logo so they created a simple text logo. This group practice is highly niched with anxiety and body issues in Utah and is having to hire more clinicians to fill the demand. You can DIY a website that is effective and relevant, without a website designer.
Crown Counseling and Consulting: This solo practice owner chose to DIY their private practice website through Squarespace. Sure, they have a logo, but their headshot is front and center because they are truly the brand of their practice. This website also represents a multi-state practice and offers services beyond counseling with speaking, consulting and trainings offered.
This is proof of how your private practice can grow and adapt as your business grows!
Mindful Living Counseling: An example of the best website of 2020 and 2021 that isn’t particularly pretty but is SO effective. This website is on Squarespace and was created by the owner rather than a web designer. This website filled up the solo practice and allowed the owner to expand into group practice, continuing to fill clinicians caseloads with ideal clients.
Better Family Therapy: An example of outsourcing the building and initial design of the website but with knowledge so that the private practice owner could continue to adjust and make changes on their own.
With one shift of the PROCESS of their website in regard to creating newsletters when their practice was full, they were able to fill 14 out of 20 slots for a new clinician within 2 hours!
Free Websites for Therapists!
Let’s talk about free websites for therapists. When you’re starting a counseling private practice from scratch, you want to cut costs any way that you can — we totally get that!
Check out this list of the costs for starting a counseling practice. When compared to other startup ventures, counseling practices are among the lowest. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t any costs.
In the current day, your website is often the first way your client will experience you. In the same way you might not choose to do counseling sessions out of the local Starbucks — even though it’s free — you might not create a free website either. Many of them aren’t going to be findable or bring you new clients, and they may actively dissuade some clients from coming to see you.
Remember when we talked about the best websites for therapists above? It’s more than just whether your site looks good; it’s about how it functions! And your site is worth the investment. You can easily get started with a professional website for just $10 a month that can grow into a 6- or 7-figure practice in the future. And yes, there are group practice owners and Beyond the Couch therapists who are lovely, ethical, and gross more than 7 figures.
Do You Feel More Inspired to Create a Therapist Website?
What you do is important. It deserves to be seen. And your clients need to be able to find you without struggling. They need websites that are accessible, responsive, and that give them confidence in your ability to help. Our world needs more amazing therapist websites out there!
Ready for step-by-step guidance in creating a private practice website that brings in the ideal clients and income you need to thrive? We’d love to help you.
We have a website design template we created to grow alongside private practice owners, whether you’re starting from scratch or in a solo or group practice. And in addition to the web design template, you’ll get our expert help and coaching for every step of creating a private practice website that makes life easier, reaches the right clients, and results in a waiting list!
Join our Business School for Therapists today and we’ll not only give you a website template with step-by-step instructions, but we’ll help you in every other area of your private practice to build a sustainable, profitable business that provides you with time for life balance and joy!
