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Let's talk about how to put your website to work for your private therapy practice. I'm Greg Mount, and this is Inside the Armoury. If you're a mental health professional in private practice, you probably already have a website. But is your website doing all it can to advance your practice? I've had countless conversations with practice owners over the years.But one conversation stands out from the rest. It was a call that came out of the blue from someone we'll call Bob. A mutual friend told Bob he should update his website and recommended he contact me. So Bob calls me up and kicks off the conversation with a great question. He said, “Look, every month I pay for this websitethat's never done a damn thing for my practice. Why would I waste more money to build a new website?” Well, it turns out that Bob hired someone about eight years ago to build a website for his new practice. It was, in essence, a digital business card made by an amateur using a design that's now outdated. Now, to Bob's credit, there was nothing technically wrong with his website.It covered all the basics. You know, it had an about page, a list of services, contact info, a typical brochure site. So I asked Bob, what do you want from your website? And the answer was very telling. He said, “I have no idea. Everyone said I needed a website, so I built a website.” Bob knew he needed a website for his practice, but he didn't have a clear idea of how this website would serve his goals.As a result, he ended up paying a lot for a website that did very little to advance his practice. And this realization led to a conversation I like to have with every new client I call the “Waddaya want? Waddaya got?” talk. You know, your practice and your objectives. And a good web developer knows her tools. Togetheryou can choose the most effective tools to help achieve those objectives. The “Waddaya want? Waddaya got?” conversation combines two essential but different skill sets. It's the first and most crucial step in creating an effective presence for your practice. So with Bob in mind, let's look at a few ways your website can do more for your practice.Now, for some people, these suggestions will come across as very basic. I chose these features for two reasons. First, because it's easy to understand their value to your practice. And second, because they're often poorly implemented in the wild. Okay, so let's get into it. If you're like many practitioners, you offer a free consultation for prospective clients. But how do new clients book that consultation session?The common practice is to put a contact form on your website and encourage prospective clients to send you a message. Then you reply with your availability and go back and forth until you finally land on a mutually agreeable time to meet. Next, you have to send out an invitation in Zoom or Google Meet or any of the other many telehealth or online meeting platforms currently available.The whole process is time-consuming and can take days to organize. Instead, enable your prospective clients to schedule their free consultation sessions right on your website. Services like Calendly make it easy to embed a booking form on your site, and most appointment booking systems integrate with popular calendar meeting apps like Google, Calendar and Zoom. So with a little code embedded on your website, you can enable prospective clients to check your calendar,choose a mutually convenient time and book an online video meeting that automatically shows up in both your calendars. Now, that's a huge convenience for both you and your clients. But the best part is that it all happens right on your website. Now, the easiest way to scare people off of your site is to have them click on a button that opens an entirely different website in a new tab or window.If you're trying to attract new clients, make it easy to book that first consultation session on your website. They'll appreciate the simplicity, and you'll save a lot of back-and-forth scheduling.Next up is online scheduling and payment. Now, how much time do you spend scheduling sessions and collecting payments from your clients? Why not let your clients book and pay for therapy sessions right on your website? Booking and payment are a big time sink if you run a solo practice and don't have admin support. Manual and off-line booking systems are also inconvenient for your clients.But online booking and payment systems introduce new security and privacy challenges to your practice. Most systems aren't built with your compliance requirements in mind. And those systems that are often don't integrate well with your website. Don't get me wrong; I'm a big fan of client portals. They're a secure way to provide advanced online services to your clients. Without all of the technical overhead of building them into your website.But everyday tasks like booking and paying for therapy sessions can be easily embedded onto your website. Check out PracticeQ for an example of a solid practice management system that enables you to embed a booking widget right on your website. Okay, now let's get into content marketing. Most practitioners view their website as a digital marketing tool, but building a website is a bit like opening a restaurant at the end of a dead-end street.Nobody can find you if they don't know you exist. In other words, your website is useless if nobody visits it. So it would help if you had some solid content marketing strategy to attract people to your website. And the easiest way to get started with content marketing is by adding a blog to your website. Publish articles that resonate with your audience.Answer the most common questions you get from your clients. Then post links to your articles on social media. To drive inbound traffic to your website, Google and other search engines will also index your blog articles and drive traffic to your site through organic search results. But the key to effective content marketing is to stick with it for the long haul.Now, most people launch their blogs with the best of intentions, but they get distracted by other commitments. Content marketing is a long-term play that gets proven results if you commit to it. If blogging isn't your thing, consider launching a podcast or posting YouTube videos. Then use the transcript as the body of your blog article. This show, Inside the Armoury, is a perfect example.Each episode combines video, podcasting and blogging. This approach enables me to drive traffic to my website through multiple sources. Okay, so you implement your content strategy and start attracting visitors to your website. What would you like them to do when they get there? Give your site visitors a solid call to action to help you connect with your ideal clients.Okay, so we covered three ways to level up your practice website: consultation booking, online scheduling and payment and content marketing. Those are three very broad areas that we'll drill down on for sure in future episodes. But for now, let me leave you with one last thought. Don't forget that your website exists to serve your clients. Now, this may seem obvious, but you'd be surprised how often the fact gets overlooked. When implementing any new features on your website,be sure to consider the client experience first, then check with your clients to get their feedback. By including your clients in the process, you ensure that you're making things better and not just different. Your website is a powerful tool to grow your practice and reduce administrative overhead. But the most crucial objective is to provide your clients with a delightful experience.Building an effective website that your clients love is a fantastic way to stand out from your crowd. Okay, that's it for today. But if you haven't already done so, please sign up, and I'll let you know when we post new episodes. Until then, take care and have fun.