8 Mistakes That Affect Private Practice Website Conversions

Is your private practice website driving away potential clients?

For anyone who has a private practice, be it a psychology practitioner, a dental practice or an accounting firm, a highly converting website is critical for generating leads and conversions.  Since something as simple as site speed or poor navigation can make or break a private practice lead, let's go over and fix the most common issues:

1. You don't communicate the value proposition of your private practice

Your potential client came to your website, saw your logo, your headline, tagline, and read the first paragraph. They still don’t know what service your private practice website is providing. The most basic website design recommendation for a highly converting private practice website is to ensure that your readers know exactly how you'll help them - in less than 5 seconds - and nudge them to explore in more detail. If the most visible area of your homepage doesn’t explicitly explain that, then your site visitors will likely leave to a competitor. So make sure your private practice website clearly communicates its value proposition at the onset.

2. You don't provide a clear path to conversion

A highly-converting private practice website guides visitors from the most important element to the 2nd most important element, and so on, while always having a call to action or contact form nearby. A low-converting website, on the other hand, leaves visitors to fend for themselves and try to pick out the most important parts of the value proposition among distractions. It does not use calls to action and the contact information is buried.

3. Your private practice website is not mobile-friendly

You've surely experienced this pain with websites that force you to zoom, pinch, and scroll to hunt for content on your phone or tablet. If your private practice website doesn't display correctly on a mobile device, there’s a good possibility that your potential client will never see the value you can offer, or worse, they will become frustrated and leave. Your SEO ranking is also going to suffer, as mobile-friendliness is one of the factors considered by Google. If you're not sure if your site is mobile-friendly, use a tool like Screenfly to test how your private practice website looks across different devices.

4. Your website has errors or broken links

This is another big one for conversions and SEO. If your private practice website has links that don't work or an important element like a contact form is not broken, then it should be caught and fixed asap. If your private practice website appears poorly maintained, you also sacrifice your first impressions and professional credibility, making it that much more unlikely you'll get that lead or conversion.

5. Your private practice website is cluttered and hard to navigate

Less is more. Too much clutter will only distract your potential clients from your goal: them contacting you. Many private practice websites have text and pictures all over the place. White space provides balance and breaks up the design elements, making content easier to scan. When too many things are competing for the visitor's attention, it will make it that much harder to determine if you offer what they need. The same goes for text that's too small or light to read, paragraphs that are too long, or too much or too little spacing between paragraphs.

6. Your important content is missing

If you have a private practice, here are some elements that you should consider to create a highly converting website:

• Clear contact information on each page
• Services listed on separate pages
• Contact form integration on each service page and on the contact page
• A profile for each team member
• Content that helps educate your patients and build your credibility as a professional service provider (eg: a blog section that's regularly updated with fresh articles)

7. You don't update your content often enough

If your private practice website has a blog, a news section, groups or events, or similar content that changes frequently, then letting these elements go stale gives an impression that the company is not in business anymore.  It also sends negative signals to Google, which will cause your search engine rank to drop. Remember, Google wants only the freshest, most relevant content, so this is not only a website usability issue.

8. You don't have professional staff portraits

Even if your private practices consist of independent practitioners who provide their own profile photos, you will all greatly benefit from professional headshots. You only get one first impression, and sadly it’s human nature to make a subconscious decision based on appearance. Do your best so that this impression is positive. Portraits that are done in the same style will also look cohesive and give your website a more polished and professional look.

Conversion optimization in summary

Website conversion optimization is an ongoing process that requires dedication and testing to get better and better results. We hope that what we identified above gives you a head start in setting up a highly converting private practice website and prevents wasted resources in your marketing campaigns.

Questions?  Feel free to reach out to us to chat about your website conversions, and see the full list of our private practice marketing services for businesses just like yours.  We are based in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, and work nationally and in the U.S.