How to Refresh Your Therapy Website for 2023
The new year is quickly approaching, which means it’s the perfect time to refresh your therapy website for 2023.
For many therapy providers, updating and maintaining a website can be overwhelming. But with a sea of practitioners out there, you need to find a way to stand out, and your branding and website is the way to do it. You need a website that reflects your personal brand, clarifies your message, and showcases exactly how you can help them achieve the results they’re after.
In this post we’ll talk about the reasons why you need to update your website, how often, and types of updates you should be making.
Why You Need to Update Your Website
What’s the first thing you should do if you want to stand out from all the other therapists on Psychology Today? Have a well-designed, well-maintained website that’s a testament to your practice. That means not only having rock-solid branding and visuals but also keeping your website regularly updated.
Keeping your website up-to-date improves your SEO, keeps your content relevant to your audience, and keeps your site secure and safe from vulnerabilities. Not only that, but it also improves the overall experience for prospective clients when they land on your homepage and first start learning about what you do.
How Often Should You Update Your Website?
So you know keeping your website up-to-date is important, but how often does it actually need refreshing? Ideally, you should aim to revisit your website monthly, quarterly, and yearly to make any necessary changes. Here’s a general schedule you can follow:
Monthly: Minor updates like updating your footer copyright notice to the current year, checking your website links, and simple design tweaks
Quarterly: Content updates like refreshing blog posts, creating new opt-ins, and reviewing your content buckets
Yearly: User experience updates like redesigning your website and improving mobile responsiveness
4 Types of Updates to Make to Your Therapy Website in 2023
1. Page Speed
With teletherapy, you’re competing with a sea of other providers out there. If your website takes forever to load, you’ll lose potential clients before they even get a chance to see what you’re all about. So you need to make sure it loads lightning fast — ideally, within three seconds.
If your website is slow, a good place to start is your media folder. Compress your images into smaller file sizes that take up less room. Then, if you’re still having trouble achieving that three-second load time, use a tool like Google’s PageSpeed Insights to get more suggestions to boost your page speed.
2. Accessibility
If you haven’t already, you’ll want to make sure your website is ADA compliant and meets accessible design and functionality standards. Not only is it the kind thing to do, but it also creates a more warm and inviting feeling around your brand.
You likely got into this industry because you want to help as many people as you can, no matter their limitations. Don’t let the reason you lose a potential client be because your website wasn’t accessible to them.
3. Content
Things in the online space shift and change rapidly, so old content on your site might not be relevant anymore. And as you grow and evolve as a business owner, you’ll find that some of it just doesn’t align with your current goals anymore. Updating your website content can mean just about anything, but here are some places to start:
Update old blog posts
Update broken links
Update staff pages
Refresh your content strategy
Revisit your SEO strategy
Update SEO on pages, meta descriptions, image alt text, etc.
Take new brand photos
Redirect deleted URLs
4. Security Updates
You’ve probably spent tons of time making sure your website reflects your branding and appeals to your target customers. But don’t forget the legal stuff! These things are absolutely essential to keep your business safe from unexpected lawsuits and other legal action:
GDPR
Privacy pages and dates
Terms & Conditions updates
Opt-out pages
Ideas to Consider for Your Therapy Website in 2023
Short-form video: Introduce yourself to potential clients and tell them what you’re all about and how you can help them.
Long-form video: Include a longer video on your about page to introduce your practice and mission
Opt-in: Create a freebie that gives prospective clients a taste of your services and what you have to offer.
GIFs and animation: Including moving elements, like the Dawn & Delight About page adds visual interest to your website and leads the viewer’s eye around the page.
Text styles, hover effects, and image shapes: Don’t overlook the small details because they have the power to completely change the feel of your website. Adding in little dashes of your personality and brand goes a long way!
Branded portraits: Shoot some new photos for your website and make sure you have some where you’re looking directly into the camera to simulate eye contact and build a connection with prospective clients.
Unique layouts: Use overlays and positioning to your advantage on your website’s main pages. Creating a unique and stunning layout is made simple with Squarespace’s new Fluid Engine editor.
Website Updates vs. Website Refresh
Website updates should be done regularly to keep your website functioning. It’s regular maintenance for the health and security of your site. Without regular updates, your website is left vulnerable to hacks and other breaches, which is bad news for business — especially as a therapist where all client information should be kept strictly confidential.
A website refresh, on the other hand, is a larger update that includes both the design and functionality of your site as a whole. It should be done every few years when your branding starts to feel stale or no longer represents your mission or vision in business.
Ready for a Website Refresh?
Does your website design feel old and outdated? Maybe you don’t really feel excited at all about sending people to your homebase. You cringe when you hand out your business card because you feel like your website doesn’t accurately represent YOU any longer, and you know you’re in need of a major refresh.
The Dawn & Delight design approach focuses on discovering your identity as a business owner first, so that the website we create feels aligned, authentic, and true to your mission. If you’re in need of a designer to refresh your website and take your business to the next level, get in touch to see if I’m the right fit for you!
