Welcome to another edition of the 5-minute(ish) private practice website review. Each month I choose one of my readers and review their therapy website and provide whatever quick tips, encouragements and improvements I can.
To view some more website reviews, click here.
Our latest private practice website review comes to us from Deidre A. Prewitt, MSMFC, LPC at reconnectingcolumbus.com.
First Impressions of Her Therapy Website
Deidre has done an excellent job creating a clean website that’s easy to navigate and pleasant to look at.
I love the images that span the width of each page. This looks great and it gives your eye a starting place on each page. When I click a menu link, I see the pretty photo then I move down into the information on that page.
I think she’s done an amazing job with her copy too.
On the homepage, she’s included a series of questions that speak directly to the frame-of-mind her potential clients may find themselves. She comes off as someone who is warm and empathetic to their situation.
After that, she moves into the solution to her clients’ problem: her therapy services.
She provides them with hope, encouragement as well as some information about her passion to “break the cycle of conflict” in people’s relationships.
I also love how she’s branded herself.
Deidre has excelled at branding herself as a couples and family counselor in Columbus, OH.
She’s got a great domain name, reconnectingcolumbus.com, which is a mission statement in itself.
You quickly get a sense of what her counseling practice is about when you look at that domain and it’s reinforced even more when you land her website.
I love that she’s got a few great photos of Columbus, OH sprinkled throughout her website. You know exactly what population she serves geographically by seeing the photos, her domain name and her copy.
Recommendations for her Private Practice Website
Making the Homepage More Legible
While Deidre has done a great job with her copy and messaging on her homepage, I think a couple small tweaks – to organize the information and present it a little cleaner – would go a long way.
There is some bold text, some italic text and some text of slightly varying sizes. This makes the main block of information on her homepage a little hard for the eye to digest.
I suggest segmenting the info into two areas.
The first one contains the challenges and problems that her clients face. She could even give it a larger header so her readers know where they’re at. This will help jump from the “Couple and Family Counseling” section into the main information she wants to convey on her homepage.
So, maybe a header like “Does This Sound Familiar?”, followed by her questions.
Losing the italics on the four questions and giving them more space between them may help it not to look like so much text.
The next segment is the solution area, starting from “Let us work together to tackle the challenges that prevent you from getting the love you want and need.” I think she could lose the italics and make that font larger, to appear more as a header (same size as “Does This Sound Familiar” header above) and signify a transition on the content.
Replace The Logo With a Call To Action Area
I suggest moving the contact button from the top area of her homepage down to the bottom.
The reason being is that the viewer hasn’t had a chance to understand why they should contact her yet. They haven’t read what she’s about.
And if they are a return visitor, she’s got a Contact link up in her main navigation, plus her phone number. It’s clear how to get in touch with her.
Because logos typically appear at the top of the page, here bold title “Reconnecting Columbus” above her navigation feels like a logo to me.
The logo at the bottom has a different style than the rest of the website and I only see it at the bottom of the homepage, so I think it can be removed.
So, if possible, I recommend creating a new call to action area at the bottom of the homepage with a title about getting in touch with her. In there is where she can place her contact button.
Updates to The Footer If Possible
If her template allows it, I recommend putting some information into the footer.
I love the color and the anchor her footer gives to her website. My eye is drawn to it, so it would be great to make some more use of it.
I recommend putting her main navigation down there, along with some contact info.
This way, when a user gets to the bottom of the page and they’re thinking about what to do next, they’ll have some options to click on.
Consistent Headers on Each Page
Blame it on my designer’s eye… I sometimes have a nit-picky attention to detail.
But the headers on each page vary in size and sometimes color. I’d attempt to go through and make them uniform to keep things consistent.
Expand Content for Topics Covered
Deidre has a great opportunity to really expand on her content.
On her Counseling For Couples page, she lists a few topics that she often covers in her therapy work.
I recommend spending some time creating devoted web pages for each of these topics, and maybe more.
Each page can have a title that includes “Columbus”. She could also include “Columbus, OH” within her copy as well.
Doing this would not only have SEO (search engine optimization) benefits for her, it would provide even more information about how she helps her clients through each of those topics and help those potential clients get a better feel for her and her expertise before taking the plunge of therapy.
For some tips on optimizing specific pages for SEO, check out this post here.
Conclusion
All in all, I think Deidre has done an amazing job with www.reconnectingcolumbus.com.
With just a couple minor design tweaks and some expanded content, she can really improve her private practice website and hopefully attract even more of the clients she loves to help.
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