Websites for Physical Therapists – 5 Examples of What Not to Do
Have you taken a look at your competition’s sites lately? No seriously – put this down and go do it. We’ll wait.
When it comes to looking at websites for physical therapists, we’ve become accustomed to a expecting a few things:
Stock images, images that are all focused on the provider, and images that don’t match each other
Everything is a different shade of blue as if each PT got the same “hot to choose a color for your website” guide when they graduated
The language is all about the PT #egosarentsexy
And we feel the need to take a long nap after clicking on the million and one pages that exist for every small thing you treat or do – yikes.
There are 5 things every cash pay, private, or insurance based PT practice should avoid when it comes to building a website that will create a sustainable and predictable business for you. And we would know, because at Fan Club Brands, we’ve been building websites and supporting businesses for more years than we have fingers and toes combined.
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1. Make it all about you
There are three main parts to a website – copy, design, and structure. The copy is what gives the design meaning. It’s what communicates with your audience and helps them understand what they need to do. It’s story and direction. And it’s really damn important.
Don’t fall into the doctor complex. It’s easy for physical therapists to fall into the trap of thinking that the main thing that differentiates themselves from the rest of the other PT clinics out there is the fact that they’re the best – more credentials, years of experience, specialties, etc. But we’re here to tell you that it doesn’t matter how many letters you have in your credential soup, your clients only want to know if you understand them.
99% of all websites for physical therapists out there focus on talking about themselves and forget their audience. And with that, all 99% of those clinics are all fighting the wrong fight.
Focus on telling stories that let your clients know that you understand them, that you know how being in pain affects their life’s, and reflect their words back to them.
Be a good first date and be curious about the other person. Don’t be the person who just talks about themselves.
2. Write blindly
Searchability is one thing that you need to focus on when it comes to creating and maintaining your website. It doesn’t matter if you are a telehealth first practice or you’re slinging dry needling in the clinic, your website is the first place your clients will go to meet you.
The ways that your clients will find you are either:
Direct to your site because they already know you
Direct to your site because someone referred them
Through a Google or AI powered search query
The first two are easy to do but tend to be a slow burn. The last one is hard to do but will grow your business faster than a wildfire in August.
Being searchable relies on optimizing SEO, content marketing, and intentionally crafted copy. Find some more physical therapy marketing ideas around this topic in a previous blog we created here.
3. Think you can be your own designer
This is one of the ones that a lot of physical therapists feel they can skip because “they have website templates built into Wordpress and Squarespace!” – we’re here to tell you it’s not worth it.
Design is the Romeo to your Juliette of copy. It completes the love story and drives people to lust over your business like it’s Jamie Fraser without his shirt on.
We’ve seen too many websites for physical therapists that build out everything on their own. The impact of not working with a designer is that:
You’ll not be memorable because you’ll look like everyone else
You run the risk of people missing important information and CTAs which decreases client inquiries
Your clients will hesitate working with you because your cash pay or out-of-pocket costs will seem too high for what they “visually” assume they’ll get
Designers also know what platforms to use, how to increase the user experience (through things like load times and building to each device – phone, tablet, desktop), and how to leverage your visual brand identity in other aspects of your business.
4. Create a page for every little thing
No one likes a hoarder and no one has the patience to click through a million pages to find an answer. Surprisingly, this is one of the easiest traps for clinicians to fall in. They feel like they need a separate page for every ailment, treatment type, and clinician that they have working at the clinic – and they don’t.
When it comes to websites for physical therapists, you have to think about the intended use for each piece of information you put on your site. By talking about Pulley injuries, do your clients need to know as much technical information as the doctors do? Or do they just need to know that you treat it and what it potentially feels like?
Be intentional with your site architecture. Think through the pages you need to have and how the sections of them flow underneath. Get a firm understanding of what each section and page’s purpose is and where you want your audience to move to next.
The more clicks they take, the more likely they will bounce.
5. Try and fit in
Differentiation is not the art of fitting in – it’s the art of standing out.
In an over commoditized industry, businesses that fit in are forced to compete on price and features alone. A game that is always a race to the bottom.
We know you’re not a bargain bin type of clinic. Creating a brand (positioning, messaging, design) that stands out from the rest allows you to create your own rules.
It seems like a simple thing to say but it’s a hard thing to do, because most physical therapists are hypnotized to believe that they have to be “professional” in order to be taken seriously. And professionalism is important, but you have to define what professionalism means to you.
Here is an example of a private PT clinic, our client, that worked with us to redefine what professionalism means to them – Send Again Rehab.
When it comes to being a owner of a private PT practice – cash pay or insurance based – you have to focus your attention on your virtual shop as much as your in-person shop. Websites for physical therapists are tools to increase searchability and differentiation.
