Have you ever wondered, what makes a good website? Why do you stay on some websites for hours and leave others as soon as you get there?
There is no great secret behind this. Some websites are created for the owners, others are created for their visitors. You may be the best private practice with the best services and best results for your patients, but how you present yourself online is important – especially to a new visitor. Whenever you create a piece of online content, you must think from your visitors’ perspective. They only care for one thing: what’s in it for them. What can you offer that other businesses can’t? Why should they choose your services? How will it benefit them?
Think deep, talk less
Many websites are over-packed with irrelevant, confusing, complex information. Keep your content short and precise. Avoid using words to look smart or professional; it doesn’t add credibility. Each sentence has to grab attention, give value and be easy to understand. Mark Twain said “I didn’t have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a longer one instead”.
Headlines matter
This is an important part of your content. People tend to scroll through pages very quickly. Even with great content, you need to grab their attention in the first place to encourage them to read. Headlines and subheadings are great for this. Check out how newspapers do this. Say something unusual, fun or exciting, something that can’t be found elsewhere.
Make visitors feel special
Visitor respond to personal connections. They want to feel that they are important. Adding a personal touch to your content will help build trust and engage your readers, especially as a health business in private practice. Remember the saying “people do business with people”. They want to feel that there is a real person on the other end. A bit of humour is always a good idea.
Check your writing
Make sure you double-check for mistakes and typos. Your content might be great, but every small mistake creates an impression of carelessness and sloppy work.
It’s all in the looks
The language of your website is crucial, but how it looks is equally important. Visitors need only 2-3 seconds to decide whether they like a website or not. Nobody reads anything during these seconds. Everything needs to be neat, organised, simple and understandable. Stuffing unnecessary visuals and colour or using inconsistent formatting doesn’t help. It confuses your visitors and tells them to hit the “back” button.
Your website does the talking for you when you’re not there in person. It’s like an extension to you and your business. What your website says should represent you; so take care and craft your messages.