Launching a new website for your physiotherapy business can seem quite daunting, especially if you haven’t been through it before. There will be so many unknowns to navigate and decisions to be made that it is common to feel like you are flying blind. For this reason, most physiotherapy business websites never quite take off and reach potential.
There are only a few key pieces to the puzzle:
Domain name
Your domain name (e.g. yourbusiness.com.au) should be registered to your business. There are a few things to keep in mind when selecting a good domain name, besides eligibility and availability. Expect to pay up to $60 (renewable every 2 years) for a domain name with a “.com.au” extension. It is yours, as long as you keep renewing it.
Once you have your domain name, it can be pointed to various online services, such as your website and email accounts. Your web developer will handle all the technical stuff and guide you through eligibility and availability issues.
Hosting
This is the ongoing service that makes your website (pages, images and more) available to viewers when your domain name is entered into the browser. It also provisions for email accounts attached to your domain name. Your web developer will advise you of any hosting requirements.
Design
Design not only refers to how good your website looks and represents your business, but how easy it is to use. There is an art to making something function well and look good at the same time. An experienced web designer would take care of this, ensuring your needs (as well as those of your visitors) are met.
Development
This refers to the actual construction of your website. It involves programming, integrating various parts together, testing and launching your website – all while ensuring your needs are met.
Content
This is what visitors come to your website for. Without great fresh content, there is little reason for anyone to stop by any website.
So, launching a website shouldn’t be so hard after all – especially if you have experienced, resourceful and patient web professionals willing to listen to you, present useful options and deliver on budget.
Where things can go wrong (as with anything else) is when the people you hire don’t have the expertise, won’t listen or help you understand things. You will also find that it takes forever to launch a website when your options are not clearly pointed out or your content has not been prepared.
Another area where you can get caught out is, what happens after your website has gone live? Will it just sit there? Who will keep it working, functional and optimal? How easily will you be able to update it or implement new marketing initiatives? After all, you don’t just want a website for the sake of it, you want it to drive patients through your doors.
A good physiotherapy business website is well worth the effort; but remember that it doesn’t have to be YOUR effort. See how we help market physiotherapy businesses online, and take care of everthing for you, from domain names, design, content, launch and email accounts, to hosting and maintenance. Do yourself a favour, talk to recognised experts.