When someone tells me they want a website, the first question I ask is “why?” If you are a therapist, small business owner, or non-profit having a beautiful, easy to navigate website is a must. But before you start making a website, it’s important to know what your specific goals are and how you envision your website helping you achieve those goals. Are you looking to grow your private practice? Do you need more donors or volunteers? There’s this idea that you just throw a website out there and it will magically solve all of your problems. But websites aren’t magic. It takes planning, time, and nurturing to have an effective website that will help you reach your goals.
What’s the first step in creating a website?
The first step in creating an effective website is to think and plan. You have to have purpose and clarity before you start designing and developing anything. Here are some questions that can help give you direction. When you answer them, be brief and specific.
- What is the purpose of your business or organization?
- Who are your clients or whom do you serve?
- Whom do you want to visit your website?
- What do you want them to do when they get to your website?
- If you are a psychotherapist or counselor, the answer might be “contact me for a therapy appointment” or “schedule a consultation.”
- If you are a non-profit, the answer could be “donate,” “volunteer,” or “attend an event.”
- How does this help your private practice or organization meet its goals?
When I discuss the process of building websites with clients, I often use the human body as an analogy. You can’t start building a body with the skin. You have to work from the inside-out.
Start with the bones, or the structure of the website. When people arrive at your website, what will they do? What route do they take? How will they navigate through your site? What are the main pages of your site? This will give you the basic framework for the structure.
Once you decide on the pages and navigation (or the bones), you can move on to the organs and meat (sorry if this is gross!). What is the content that will go on each page? First think about text, “call-to-actions” (this is where you tell people what you want them to do with links or buttons), and accompanying images and videos that support the text. What information do you want to convey? Is it absolutely necessary to include on your website? Whatever you include on your website, make sure it serves a purpose and helps you achieve your business goals. All of your content should be informative, educational, and relevant to your business.
Finally we can move on to the skin or look of the website. This goes hand-in-hand with the branding of your private practice or organization. Now you can think about colors, fonts, logos, and additional imagery that adds the flourishes to your website. Do you have a design concept or logo? What’s your brand?
If you are new to creating websites (or even thinking about web design), I highly recommend looking at other websites of therapists or organizations in your field. Take some time to peruse the site and make notes about what you do and don’t like in terms of ease of use, navigation, design, and feel. Did you enjoy using that website? Were you able to find what you were looking for? Did you know what you were supposed to do when you arrived to the website? This will help you figure out what you want (and just as importantly, don’t want) for your website. Take your time with this process and be specific.
When you do this preliminary work and planning, it will make the rest of the process of creating the website go much smoother and quicker. HYHO Marketing & Design offers an array of services to help you market your private practice or organization, including web design, branding, and blogging. Ready to put your business online? Contact me today and get a beautiful, effective website.