Creating a Therapy Practice Website: Your Top 3 Options

Even if you know very little about marketing, you probably already know that creating a therapy practice website is going to prove essential to your long-term success.

Sure, there’s a wealth of directories and social media platforms out there to help you promote your work, and sure, it’s a smart idea to have a presence on at least a couple of them, but here’s the thing: 

When you rely solely on third-party platforms, you put yourself at the mercy of ever-changing policies and updates to the way those platforms operate, some of which may not tally with the way you do business.

When you own your own website, you have complete control over how you promote yourself, what you share, and how. 

Owning your own website gives you the freedom to talk about your services in detail, offer downloads and other resources, and reach those people who may not be active on your preferred social platforms.

The only question, of course, is how do you actually create that website?

Below, I’ll weigh up the pros and cons of the top three best options for building a therapy practice website. 

Top 3 Options for Creating a Therapy Practice Website

1. WordPress

WordPress is free, open-source software that powers 455 million of all the 1.4 billion websites worldwide.

There are three reasons why this powerful platform is so popular.

1. It’s easy to use 

I’ve been using WordPress for well over a decade now, and in that time, I’ve seen it get easier and easier to use.

Although it’s easy to get overwhelmed by the seemingly infinite number of things you can do with it, WordPress-friendly visual website elements such as Elementor, Divi, and Visual Composer make it a breeze to put together beautiful, functional websites, even if you have little-to-know technical expertise.

And if you’ve looked into it and you’re still a little intimidated?

Don’t worry, on this website I’ll be posting a whole host of tutorials and guides to help you make the most of WordPress. If you don’t want to miss them, be sure to follow Therapist Marketing Tips on Facebook or Twitter.

2. It’s Incredibly Versatile 

No matter what you want to do with your new website, there’s a way to make it happen with WordPress. Whether it’s selling products, offering free resources, or allowing clients to schedule appointments and pay you directly, you can do it with this incredibly versatile and flexible platform.

Again, I’ll be sharing all kinds of guides here on Therapist Marketing Tips to help you optimize your WordPress site for success. 

3. It can be more affordable

WordPress itself may be free, but you’ll still have to pay for a domain name and some web hosting.

The good news is that this doesn’t have to be expensive. You can get quality website hosting for between 5-10 per month, and a domain name for between 10 – 20 per year. 

That will usually work out cheaper than hiring a professional web designer to make your site for you (especially as you’ll usually still need to pay hosting and domain fees on top of their service fee), and it can even work out cheaper than registering with a drag-and-drop website platform.

PS: Did you know that I offer WordPress consultation sessions for therapists?

2. Drag-and-Drop Website Builders

Many new therapists I talk to choose a drag-and-drop website builder like Wix to create their site.

Wix and other tools like it are called “drag-and-drop” because you literally drag different website elements from a menu and drop them into place on the page you’re creating. You can then click on these elements and customize every last little detail about them.

If you always thought building a website was a super technical and complicated process, drag-and-drop builders will prove otherwise.

What’s more, even though I’m a huge fan of WordPress, even I have to admit that using Wix is a much more beginner-friendly way to create a website than WordPress ever could be. 

The range of professionally-designed templates you can use to create your site on one of these platforms is impressive. Add in lots of different features such as forms, the ability to take payments and more, and you’ll have everything you need to create a website that represents your therapy practice in the most attractive and professional way possible. 

The only downside I find is that they can sometimes be more expensive than running a WordPress platform and you also have limited options for moving your site to another platform.

In other words, say you launch your site with Wix but then find a drag-and-drop website builder that’s less expensive. You could certainly sign-up with that platform, but in most cases, you’d have to build your site from scratch as there’s no way to migrate your site from one platform to another in the same way that you could migrate your WordPress site from one web host to another.

3. Hire a Professional 

Last but not least, your third option is to ignore all of the above and get somebody to do all the work for you.

There are some really useful benefits to doing this: 

1. It’s the easiest option

I could tell you a million times how easy it is to build your own website, but I get that if you don’t consider yourself to be “technical,” then the very thought of it can still be intimidating. 

Hiring a professional web designer for your therapy practice means you don’t have to worry about a thing. As long as you can have an open discussion with your web designer about what you want, all you need to do is sit back, relax, and let them do everything.

2. It saves time 

Using Wix, WordPress, or a similar platform to create a therapy practice website may be easy, but it’s still time-consuming, especially if you’re creating all the content yourself. 

When a professional does the work for you, that frees up your valuable time to work on growing your practice and delivering value for your clients.

There is, of course, one major downside to hiring a professional web designer for your therapy practice website:

3. It’s Expensive 

Look: 

I offer web design services for a living, and I’m happy to work with you, but I charge at least £400 to build your site and more if you want me to do all of your updates and maintenance for you.

You could build your own WordPress website and do everything yourself for at least half that amount.

Of course, that’s assuming you hire me.

I try and keep my costs low because, as a therapist myself, I’m aware of how expensive it can be to get your practice off the ground. If you go elsewhere (and I’m fine with that, I can only handle so much work at once), you may be charged anywhere from £500 – £1,000 depending on who you hire.

What is the Best Option for Creating Your Therapy Practice Website?

Ultimately, there’s no single best option for creating your therapy practice website, only the one option that’s right for you.

If you lack the time, skill, or even the desire to build your own website and you have the money to spend, hiring a professional is absolutely the best way to go.

If you’d rather save some money and want the easiest option even though there may be some limitations, sign-up with a drag-and-drop website builder platform like Wix or Weebly.

If you want to save the most money while still having unrivaled flexibility when it comes to the design and functionality of your website, and you don’t mind a slightly steeper learning curve (again, I’ll be posting lots of help on this blog), then I recommend going with my personal favorite option: 

WordPress.

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