The following guide's aim is to help private practice therapists improve their website to achieve maximal referrals from your online mental health website.

Not all websites are created equally.  Think Bing.com today vs AOL.com ten years ago.

Have you taken a look at your website analytics recently, only to discover that despite the 50 new visitors you had last week, only one inquired about your services?

Bummer.

There are plenty of minute tricks and changes to employ when optimizing your private practice website to increase the flow of new client inquiries into your door but today we will focus on five essential “must-do” tweaks.

Ready to make some website changes, filling up that inbox?  Great, let’s begin.

1) The “Above the Fold” Concept & Optimal Contact Information Placement

Imagine a lengthy website page, perhaps an essay.  You load the page in your web browser and only the top 5% of the content appears within the browser, the remaining 95% requires the user to scroll down.

That 5% section of the website is what web-nerds like us at TheraThink call content that is “Above The Fold”.

You must have your contact information above the fold of your website — meaning when a user first loads your site without scrolling or interacting in anyway, they see your contact information.

Have you taken a look at your website on your mobile phone?  Same rules apply!  Make sure your contact information is wildly accessible and completely immediate.  Plenty of web visitors simply Google you for your contact information and having it plain and obvious will naturally increase the rate of people inquiring about your practice.

We call this rate your “Conversion Rate” and the practice of improving your conversion rate is “Conversion Rate Optimization” (CRO).  Talk about some techy sounding stuff, right?  No bother, just make sure you have your contact information above the fold to improve your CRO.

Want to improve your CRO even more?  Wonderful, let’s take a cue from Google and learn how humans (and Google’s super-computers) read information first…

Left to right, top to bottom!  Okay okay, duh.  But .. is your contact information at the top left or your website?

No?  Throw that on your To Do.

2) Call to Action + Contact Instruction

Just posting your contact information isn’t enough.  You need to and should instruct your prospective clients and new website visitors to contact you 1) at a specific time 2) on a specific channel (phone, email, text) with 3) an expected response time of XYZ.

Doing so not only improves CRO but is simply a polite gesture to your prospective clients.  Let them know that they should contact you.  In the web-business we call this a Call to Action.

It helps to make it big, bright, and attention grabbing.  If the end result of their inquiry (action taking) is a better, happier therapy client, then you should feel obligated to do your best to ensure they do reach out.

Do not shy away from BABs –> big ass buttons.  Google loves them and so should you!

And again, after you’ve encouraged them to take action, make sure to instruction them about how, when, and when to expect a response.

A simple example:

“Call Me Monday-Friday 10am-11am to Schedule Your First Intake Session.  I respond to inquiries within 30 minutes.”

3) Write For Your Audience, Not For Your Resume — Copywriting Tips

People do not care about your product, service, or resume.  They care about their problems.

Write for your audience, not to reiterate your resume.  You will be shocked that people really do not care about your degree as much as they care about solving their problems.

This is true of any business.

So speak to the story of the average new client you see.  What are they going through and suffering from?  What problems are they dealing with in their daily life?  What emotions are they feeling?

Then, where they want to end up, what life is like when their problems are solved (or improving).  How are they better grappling with XY and Z?  How has their daily life changed?  What new emotions are they feeling, and what emotions have they left behind?

Speak to their story and how your service helps them go from A to Z through that story, not through listing your resume.

Your audience is engaged by a story relevant to them!  So write it for them!  (Can you spot where I do this in this article?  Read the first section again..)

4) Add Testimonials, Anoymous or Not

People trust other people who vouch for you far more than you vouching for you!  Anyone can toot their own horn but what are other people saying about your services?

Incorporate anonymous testimonials into your website, ideally, you guessed it, above the fold of your site.

When conducting your final wrap-up session, ask your client’s for a testimonial.  If you’re uncomfortable with doing so verbally, email them an exit survey and make that text field optional, reassuring the client that it will be anonymous.

Like asking for your full fee, this will take some mojo and confidence.  We strongly encourage you to give it a go.  It’s optional for them and, if they are a happy customer, an absolutely wonderful thing to incorporate into your website.

5) Add a “Call Me Now” Widget via Google Voice

Our final tweak might feel pretty high tech but I’m convinced you can hack it!

It involves creating a Google Voice Forwarding Number and setting up a “Call Me Now Widget” for your website.

Here’s what it looks like:

To learn how to setup a free Google Voice Forwarding Number for your private practice — enabling you to stop handing out your personal cell phone number — and how to create a “Call Me Now” widget for your website.. well, you’re going to have to join our newsletter below!

Our free newsletter is delivered weekly.  We send our subscribers the wisdom of successful private practice therapists along with guides on billing, insurance credentialing, negotiating a raise, and increasing your full-fee client load.

Type your first name and email address below and click “Join Our Newsletter”.  You’ll receive an email in your inbox requiring you to confirm your subscription and when you do, you’ll be forwarded to the aforemetioned video teaching you how to go from 0 to Google Voice Forwarding Number in minutes.

Talk about a call to action and some instructions!

Thanks for reading and excited to see you in our private free group.