I was recently asked for my input on optimizing the website of a fellow Self-Pay Physical Therapist, Christine Vlahos MS, PT of Women’s Wellness PT and Pilates.
Editor’s Note 1-10-17: Christine has changed the name of her practice and changed the website, but since the recommendations I’ve given below are likely good suggestions for many websites out there, I’ve decided to keep this post up.
Christine, all in all the site looks great! I have a few suggestions to get started on making it even better and optimizing it for the search engines.
Home page
The landing/welcome page needs to immediately grab the visitor and compel them to read further, browse other pages on the site, or hopefully just call for an appointment. The text of the page is good but I would move the questions you ask in the bottom half of the page up near the top (and maybe add a couple similar questions). Getting them to immediately answer “yes” to those types of questions is a great way to achieve the above-mentioned goals. Since much of the text on the landing/welcome page is repeated in other parts of the site, I would shorten it and focus on using those questions to hook them, then suggest they “read more about our philosophy” “see what types of issues we excel at treating” etc which link to those other pages. Also make sure you say something along the lines of “don’t hesitate to call if you have any questions or would like to schedule an appointment” and give your phone number very clearly in the body of the text (not just in the footer).
Social Media
I don’t see any Facebook icons, so if you do have a Facebook Business page you would obviously want your website visitors to be able to ‘like’ your FB page from the website. My cash-practice guidebook has a fairly large section devoted entirely to Facebook business pages and how to use them most effectively.
Blogging
I also don’t see a blog page. I’m not sure what platform you are using for your website, but if you can add a blog page on physical therapy I would highly suggest it. Doing regular posts about the issues/pain/injuries that your prospective patients are searching for will help ensure they find you before the other clinics in your area. After you have an adequate blog library covering all the main topics you want to target, you’ll be able to do new posts less consistently but still have a large amount of people finding you online because you put in the time and effort to optimize your site with great content. (see the SEO section of my eBook that you received when you joined the mailing list – it will give you much more details on blogging and other SEO tactics not mentioned in this email)
Include your location
The Title Tag (the uppermost bar across the top of any webpage) is very important for SEO purposes. Your website currently targets the terms “Women’s Wellness, Physical Therapy, and Pilates” but you want to target those terms specifically in your area. Therefore, I would consider making the Title Tags say “Women’s Wellness, Physical Therapy, and Pilates in [your city, state / or the greater area]”
Add video
People Love Video. Consider adding a page where you upload video of treatments and before-after results as well as personal testimonials. If done right, adding great physical therapy video can really get the prospective patient who is “on the fence” to go ahead and call for an appointment.
Change things as you have time
This is obviously a lot of stuff, but adding it over time should make a huge difference in the amount of patients you have finding you online and calling for appointments.
The suggestions above are certainly not exhaustive. If you take a look at her website now, would you have any other suggestions? Let us know in the comments below …
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