A website can serve as a double-edged sword when it comes to enhancing the image of your Therapy or Counseling business. In many cases your website is the first thing that your potential clients see and in some cases it is the only representation of your business they will ever see – so quality is important. The image that your site presents and the perception it creates is critical. A website should serve three very important functions for your business.



1. Source of Credibility: In today's Therapy market a website has become an important representation of credibility. In the past many people would ask ‘if you have a website' and in today's market it is often just assumed and the first question asked is ‘what is your website address?'. This means that there is an expectation that professional therapists and counselors should have a website and any therapist without one risks being perceived as unprofessional. There is a saying that you only have one chance to make a first impression and in today's market your website is often the first point of contact a potential student has with your business. Opinions of your business based on your website are being formed instantly once a someone visits the site.

When it comes to a website, remember that ‘More is not better'. A simple, clean, informative website is very important. In order for a Therapy practice to grow, a therapist needs to invest time, money and resources into it - and a professional website is a good place to start. Invest a little bit into your business by developing a professional website. Keep it simple, and not too flashy- make sure that it is updated regularly because as your business evolves your website and the content on it should evolve as well.

2. Educational resource: Your website can be a great tool to keep your clients updated on the changes in your business. A website can replace hand-out materials, and with video and audio you can provide even more sophisticated educational elements. You can link to articles on the Internet, add your monthly newsletter, and incorporate pages on your site that are specifically dedicated to education. A good educational website becomes a marketing tool in itself because it shows clients that you have their best interests in mind.

3. Marketing Channel: Having a website and making sure your prospects can find it are completely different processes. Once a potential client arrives at your site the website needs to be designed well enough to do the job. If your site is not set up properly or if you don't have the right message you could find those prospects fading away before they ever give you a chance to address any misconceptions or impressions they may have. Spending some time in the design-phase to do things right will help to ensure that you don't waste the effort involved in attracting a prospect to your site. The first and most important concept is that your site is not designed to sell your service. Many website owners make the mistake of trying to convince their prospects that they can serve their needs with the content on the site. From a sales perspective, convincing a prospect of anything is the last step in the process and if the earlier steps of ‘getting their attention' and ‘developing interest' are not attended to, then prospects will rarely commit to your service.

A website is designed to get attention and in some cases begin the process of developing interest. You have approximately 15-30 seconds on average of someone's attention once they hit the home page of your website. If you don't say something that prompts them to do something or take action, in most cases you will loose them. It's especially important on the home page that there is minimal text as to not overwhelm your prospective clients with information and it should include an obvious call-to-action such as a prominent link to ‘Contact Us for more information'. Even more so than education the main job of a website for a growing business is to get prospects to contact you for more information, then it is your job to sell your service.

If you are looking to develop a professional web presence, WebFlexor Counseling specializes in helping Therapists and Counselors succeed on the Web.