As a clinician, creating strong client relationships helps you to build trust with people who may want to work with you. To make your therapist website design effective in bringing clients, it’s important for it to not feel sterile. Most private practice websites feel overly clinical and boring. At Studio Adagio, we utilize a combination of therapist branding with website design to communicate a message that you can connect personally as a clinician, too.
Why Therapist Website Design Matters for Client Relationships
Many therapists come to us without a website and instead focusing their presence on Psychology Today. If you are less than a year into practice, I think this is a valid option to leverage. However, as you grow your private practice, a therapist website design is key to connecting to humans personally.
Platforms like Psychology Today are to showcase your clinical experience. Even though it’s an amazing platform for credentialed individuals, it misses the bar on personal connection and client relationships. It’s like reading a resume online – which is it’s purpose!
We are firm believers that private practice websites should influence trust, safety and emotional resonance. Not only are they there to be your marketing friend, but they should also tell your story of becoming a clinician. When this happens, clients often feel more aligned with you as a person, making it more likely to choose you over others.
Throughout your therapist website design, we here at Studio Adagio combine branding and user experience to create design choices that make sense to your ideal client. Let’s dive into most of those choices below!
Use Branding and Voice to Create Connection
The first choice to crafting a more personalized, client relationship through your website is to review your own therapist branding.
Ask yourself: are you communicating your values and personal story or simply stating your credentials and specialities and hoping for the best? Many therapists that come to our studio are looking to bridge the gap between these things and our branding process helps so much!
To nail branding for private practice clinicians, it starts with our intake questionnaire. Inside this questionnaire, you’ll find questions about your coffee order, favorite things, strengths/weaknesses or revisiting why you jumped into private practice. Your answers help us to identify with you personally, and therefore craft a brand that visually connects with people, too.
If you’re someone who struggles with crafting your brand voice, this is where our copywriting guide for website clients helps. Inside this guide, we provide you with a guided walkthrough of how to structure your website messaging to tell a story. In the end, most of our clients feel more aligned with how to speak to their ideal client clearly. Remember: your copy should be authentic to you but also speaks to your ideal clients concerns and reasons for reaching out to you!
Tip: Include a warm “About” page to build connection.
Your about page is the perfect spot to create connection on your website. We’d recommend using this area to showcase your credentials but also your story and your “why”. Most private practice clinicians have a backstory of how they came about in their specialty, and clients love to hear it!
Therapist Website Design That Feels Safe and Supportive
As a therapist – you want your clients to feel safe and supportive in sessions with you. The same goes for your therapist website design. Your online presence is there to create client connection while also informing them of your services.
To better create an online safe and supportive space, we’d recommend utilizing the following:
A very simple user experience. People shouldn’t have to guess where they need to go to find more information about your services. It needs to be clear and expected to avoid decision fatigue.
High contrast colors and easy to read fonts. At Studio Adagio, we ensure all of our websites are accessible to those who may have visual disabilities. We only use colors with high contract and fonts that are easy to read for any audience.
Tip: Use personalized imagery and clear calls-to-action throughout.
Lastly – we recommend using personalized imagery to show that you are a real person! Often we see private practice websites with stock image overload. This causes a disconnection between user and clinician, because those photos aren’t personal. There are ways to use stock imagery without feeling sterile – we help with that during your therapist website design.
Use Educational Content to Build Trust Over Time
Educational content not only positions you as a trusted individual, but also grows your online search presence! Blogging for private practice should be a part of your growth plan.
When blogging, we’d recommend talking about topics that address common questions from your audience or provide solutions to their pain points. Google is a search engine after all – and most people type their questions. The goal here is for your therapist website design to show up!
If you need help – we provide seo services for therapists. Read all about them and then apply to be a client if you feel it’s the right move for you!
Ready for a Therapist Website Design That Connects and Converts?
At Studio Adagio, we specialize in therapist website design that is both beautiful and functional. To do this, we combine branding, copywriting and SEO. These services can help you:
- Stand out in a crowded field
- Build trust with potential clients
- Grow your private practice with purpose
When you’re ready to take the leap, apply to be a client! Or – if you’re still not sold, read more information on our blog.
