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Where to Start With a Website for Your Practice
Most of the time, your potential client's first interaction with you will be through your website. You need to make a good first impression, especially since your website plays so many roles: introducing your business, acting as your digital storefront, and being your "receptionist" at once. Nailing that good first impression is going to rely on doing a few things right, namely:
- Establishing your professionalism
- Demonstrating your brand and the services you offer
- Building trust
That being said, you're a massage therapist, and website work may seem pretty overwhelming at first. If this is you, don't worry! In this blog we're going to walk you through everything you need to know about making your professional website, including the essential components, how to get started, and when to hire a professional.
Crafting a quality website doesn't have to be overwhelming, but before we get into the more technical side of things, let's talk about your WHY.
Step 1: Know Why You Need a Massage Business Website (Even If You're Fully Booked)
This may seem like a question with an obvious answer. Why make a website?
You have to know what you're seeking to accomplish here. Making a website because you're supposed to or because everybody else is doing it...that's not enough.
Start by knowing your goals and then creating your website around those goals. What do you personally hope to accomplish with your site?
For example, if you're building your website through MassageBook, you can offer your clients an easy way to book appointments with you at their convenience, 24/7.
To name a few other possible goals, you also might want to:
- Educate potential prospects
- Provide answers to frequently asked questions
- Show a list of services you offer
- Post client testimonials and success stories
These are only a few reasons to start and run a website. You could probably think of many more.
Action Step: Note Your Reasons
In fact, this section's action step will be exactly that. Go ahead and note every reason that's important to you. Feel free to highlight the ones that take priority over the rest.
Keep in mind that your website isn't just one thing. It may be important for getting you clients, but it's also important for long-term visibility.
With your website goals in mind, let's figure out the essential components of your site.
Step 2: Deciding What You Need On Your Website
This is a great place to start overthinking things, but let’s remember your goals and try to keep this simple.
Websites can be creative outlets where you can design away to your heart's desire. However, we don't want to make this an art project. No, we want to create a focused, goal-oriented website that suits your professional needs.
As such, we don't want to make anything too elaborate. All you really need are four must-have pages, specifically:
- Home
- About
- Services
- Contact
You might also want to include a Staff page if you have multiple staff members and a Reviews (or Client Testimonials/Praise) if you have those.
We're going to go over each of these pages in detail later, but there's something you should know before we go deeper.
Easily Create Your Website with MassageBook (You Can Even Use Your Existing Website Address)
As a professional, you want your business-class website to reflect your expertise with a strong first impression.
MassageBook gives you the tools you need to build a complete, professional website in just a few easy clicks. You can create a full-featured, income-generating website in a matter of minutes, allowing you more time to focus on what matters most—your clients.
Plus, setting up your website includes simplified online booking, adds you to MassageBook's business directory, and allows you to capture reviews, sell gift certificates, and integrate additional website integrations. Thousands of people look for massage therapists and bodyworkers per day through MassageBook's directory.
All of that being said, you get an easy, templatized website that only requires you to pick a template and fill in some blanks.
For more information on building your MassageBook website, click here - https://pro.massagebook.com/website.
The Pages You Should Have On Your Website (In Detail)
Your whole website should be simple and clean but this is especially true of your Home page. This is where clients will most likely land first, so nailing your first impression here is everything.
It's also important that your Home page is easy to navigate and includes a clear way to book an appointment with you or to reach out for more information.
Your About page offers you a place to share more about your practice and background. Keep your audience in mind when framing this information and do your best to focus on how they benefit from working with you.
Your Services page should offer a clear explanation of what services you offer and who might best benefit from them. This could be as simple as a list or you can walk them through each service including why it's important and who needs it.
Your Contact page should include at least one or two ways people can contact you. If you can offer more options, it allows for multiple ways for prospects to contact you via the method that's comfortable for them.
If you have additional staff, feel free to include a staff page that outlines your staff members and their experience.
And, if you have client reviews and testimonials, you can also create a page called "reviews" or "success stories" to dedicate to stories from happy clients.
These are the essential pages for your website. Though you could have more, this is a great place to start.
Action Step: Plan Out Your Pages
Go ahead and decide which pages are best for your business and what information you'd like to include. Don't worry about how it will look, yet. Just focus on including the right information to appeal to your target audience through your website.
Remember to keep the goal of your website in mind and not overthink these pages. It can be easy to get stuck in this step because you want to refine and change things, but it's more important to get your site up and running.
Having a website is more important than getting every single word perfect. If it helps, just remember that things change over time, anyway, and you can always update it later. That's why it's important to keep your pages simple!
Step 3: Design Tips for a Professional, Client-Friendly Website
Keep your website simple, clean, and professional. For style cues, feel free to draw inspiration from other sites, as long as they blend with your brand. Here are some practical design tips to keep in mind:
- As we discussed in the professional design post before this one, stick to only a few fonts, ideally one for your headers and one for your body copy.
- Lean towards calming colors that match your brand, logo, and practice (is your tone more luxurious or relaxing? Choose themes and colors that reflect that).
- Use professional photography where possible, rather than stock photos, ideally of your space and you. Yes, you will have to invest a little extra, but it's worth it to help you stand out.
- Ensure your website is mobile-friendly. Most include this function nowadays (including your MassageBook free website), but just make sure.
- Don't leave room for any grammar or spelling mistakes! Some people may flag these errors as signs of unprofessionalism, even though they were probably just caused by a lack of caffeine that morning.
Action Step: Decide on Colors, Fonts, and Theme
Choose your colors and fonts that match your brand and convey the professional, clean experience your clients deserve. You already know that atmosphere is everything. Your website is no different.
Get decisive on your aesthetics and get ready to move to the next steps so we can get your site up and running.
Step 4: Make It Easy to Book and Pay with MassageBook
Once again, if you create your free website through MassageBook, your clients will be able to book with you 24/7. This website includes (to name a few):
- Built-in online booking
- Automated appointment reminders
- Secure, integrated payments
This service is designed specifically for massage therapists, so consider creating your website through MassageBook today.
If you don't want to take this route, you can incorporate a calendar function (like Calendly) on your website. Just make sure you make it easy for clients to find this page and that your service is up and running. We've seen some cases where the person's Calendly link was disconnected, preventing them from being able to book any calls.
Step 5: Quick SEO for Massage Therapists
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is probably something you've heard of, but let's break it down in a way that's simple and easy to apply to your website.
Once your site is live, you want to optimize it so that people can actually find you. One way they tend to do that is by using search engines to search for your services. If you decide to build your site through MassageBook, your site will be built to boost your online ranking and get your reviews displayed on Google.
If you decide to take a different route, no problem! Here is what you need to know about SEO.
SEO Basics
First of all, if you want to be featured on, say, Google, make sure you complete your Google Business Profile and that it links to your website successfully.
If you know your target audience and what they tend to search for (maybe your specific niche or "chronic neck pain"), go ahead and use those keywords or key phrases prominently across your website. They'll go a little bit further if featured in your headlines. Just don't overuse or spam keywords, as this can negatively affect your ranking.
Client reviews on Google play a big role in both establishing your credibility and helping you rank better, so encourage your happy clients to leave you a Google review.
A Few More Ways to Optimize Your Site (All Included with MassageBook)
With so many people browsing the web on mobile devices these days, it's important to make sure your site is optimized for mobile. Likewise, if your site simply takes too long to load, you are going to lose people, unfortunately. Keep your site simple and use optimized images (they load faster) and a clean, uncluttered design.
If you want people to reach out or start booking with you, ask them using a Call to Action (CTA). Every one of your website pages should encourage the visitor to reach out or book a call. Sure, you could just create a contact form with a few fields for them to fill out. The problem is, you're not going to get as many conversions unless you tell them what to do. Make it obvious and make it easy for them, and you'll get a lot more leads or bookings!
Step 6: Keep Your Website Current
You need to keep your website current, both in terms of modern, clean design and keeping it up-to-date with your hours, rates (if you include them), and links.
If the last time you updated your site was when you were running a St. Patrick's Day 2019 promotion, you're probably losing a lot of potential clients. They might not be inclined to track you down elsewhere or bother finding out if your business is still open.
To prevent this, set yourself a reminder to update your website at least every three months. During this review time, you should:
- Make any relevant updates to your charges, services, or policies
- Add all of your recent client testimonials (if you haven't already)
- Check that your links are working properly (especially your booking link!)
If you're wondering whether or not to hire a professional to either update, rework, or maintain your website, feel free to shop around, get some prices, and see if they fit into your budget. Check out sites like Fiverr and Upwork to explore some options. If they make sense to you and this decision helps drive your goals, go for it.
Your Website Is a Powerful Marketing Tool
A professional site isn't a nice-to-have but a must-have for today's massage therapists.
Take advantage of MassageBook's free website builder, hire a professional, or handle the website building process yourself, but just make sure your website works for you 24/7 and helps drive your goals.
Start simple, get the basics right, and continually improve. As long as your website is clean, compelling, and current, it can lead to a lot more people finding you and booking with you!
For more key insights and tips on marketing read our blog on marketing for your massage business: "Identifying your massage business market position."
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