The Contact Page on Your Therapist Website; How the Right Fit Clients Find You
Your contact page is another page on your website that feels like it is only about your business. Yes, it is about your business and the details of your business but like all your other pages at it’s core your contact page is really about your ideal client.
You are trying to provide the information your ideal will need to find and contact you.
Think back to your most recent consult calls or emails from possible new clients. These calls and emails are gold mines for the information you want to put on your Contact Page.
This is where you find the information that they are searching for so your ideal clients can find you and decide to work with you.
Let’s dig in.
What is a contact page?
Whenever you start to write a new page type the first thing you need to understand is what it is. The contact page is the place on your website where a person can opt out of reading through the rest of your website and learn about how to just directly reach out to you, the owner of the business.
It is there so that any time the reader needs (whether they are just browsing or even if they already work with you) they can just reach out to you.
This page is different from your other pages because it is designed to be the last step in the process towards signing up to work with you. If the client hasn’t clicked on a previous Call to Action this is where the website reader goes last. It’s their last stop on the way to deciding to click the x button or fill out a form and take the next step.
Your contact page gives them the information they need to begin feeling comfortable and safe enough to actually take that last step. It also helps them find you if you are in person.
You can also use this page to help them feel less overwhelmed by the idea of coming to therapy by explaining to them what therapy with you looks like.
Basically your contact page is the final page on your website where the client decides whether or not they are going to work with you. If they have decided to work with you it is where they contact you and get all the information they need to meet with you.
Why Do I Need a Contact Page on My Therapist Website?
So now that we know what a contact page I think it’s probably become pretty clear why we want one on our website. We want a place where your clients can reach out to you once they have decided to work with you.
There are also some other reasons why a contact page can be helpful.
Your contact page shows your prospective clients that you are an actual business with a location or a coverage area.
It helps them find you both online when they are looking for a therapist but also when they are trying to get to their appointment for the first time. For example, they don’t have to find the email you sent them with your office location and land marks they can just pull up your contact page.
A contact page that has multiple contact options including a super easy contact form can make it easier for people to take that next step. Those multiple options allows them to pick what they are most comfortable with. It also makes your practice more accessible. All of this makes it more likely that your ideal clients will reach out.
Multiple contact options doesn’t just make things easier it makes it a quicker and more fluid process. You both know what is going to happen once the reach out so there are fewer hic ups and on the road to their first appointment.
Your contact page also sets expectations for next steps and things like response times. This makes reaching out to you more comfortable because they know when and how they will hear from you.
Having a good contact page also continues to help you attract the clients that are meant to work with you and repel the clients that are not a good fit. If you do most of your preconsult communication on email and they don’t check their email this probably isn’t someone who is a good fit for your practice.
Your contact page also impacts your SEO let’s find out how.
How Your Contact Page Helps SEO
Having a contact page that has been done right can also make a difference with your SEO. Local SEO allows google to find wher you business is located which is super helpful if you have an in person practice.
But even if you are onlin local SEO can help people in your state find you. By having a contact page with google my business integration (the imbedded map on your contact page) serves the purpose of your clients being able to find you much easier.
It also helps google know where you are so you are more likely to rank in those “near me” searches. The cherry on top is that it also tells google you are a legit business.
You can also use your contact page to make sure that you rank for location based keywords in your area.
What Should I Include On My Contact Page?
So now we know what your contact page is and how it can help your client’s, which in turn helps your business. The next question is what should you include on your contact page? What are the must-haves to make this page effective?
First, we’re going to cover the must-haves for all private practices and then we’ll talk about the specifics for online and in-office practices.
All Therapy Practices
All therapist contact pages should include these things;
Multiple ways to contact you- You want your ideal clients to have multiple options so that they can reach out in the way that feels most comfortable to them. So you might want to start with a contact form and then have your email and/or phone number some where else on your contact page.
Choose one of those options to guide them to but still have the other options available.
Directions- So whether you are in person or online you want to have detailed information about how they get to where they are going to work with you.
For example, you will click a link and arrive in the waiting room for your appointment or you want to turn right at the Arco and left right behind the office building.
Expectations for returning calls- Remember that your website is the beginning of your relationship with your clients. So you want to model setting boundaries and expectations with your clients from the very beginning.
This includes telling your clients how much time it will take you to get back to them and then following through with that expectation. So if you say it will take 24-48 hours to get back to them make sure that you respond before those 48 hours are up.
Hours of availability- You can also help save everyone time if you keep your contact page up to date and your client knows what hours you see clients. That way if you only work during business hours and they have a very inflexible work schedule they know that you are not the right therapist for them.
Possible emergency resources (emergency declaration)- On your contact page you also want to have a caveat that reading your webpage or filling out a contact form does not equal a therapeutic relationship and that you are not a crisis service.
You also may want to provide some emergency resources in case the person is in crisis when they land on your website.
Insurance info- Remembering that your website isn’t just about attracting the right fit clients but also repelling those people that aren’t the right fit. So it’s important to share the information about what insurance you take.
You can also use this as a place to share about why you might not take insurance and what the out of network process might look like. That way you can screen people out who only want to take your insurance.
Intake process- When we think about building trust by setting up expectations you can help make your prospective client feel more comfortable by walking them through the intake process.
This helps them know what to expect in therapy with you. It also means that if they don’t like the process they won’t decide to contact you.
Prescreening info- You also want to add who you work with and who you don’t work with. If you want to be extra helpful you can add referrals of people who work with specific populations that you are not interested in working with so that you don’t wast everyones time on a call when they are not someone you would work with.
Online therapists
There are sections of your contact page that you must include if you are an online therapist.
The first section is the area that your practice covers. In this day and age as an online therapist it’s hard for clients to know if they are in your service area.
Take the guesswork out of the equation by being very clear about that information on your website. This allows you to make sure the consults you get are within the area you serve.
As an online therapist, it’s also important to cover what kind of devices are required for your telehealth system to work. It is also helpful that you tell prospective clients about the system you use and how it works.
You also want your prospective clients to understand their payment options and how those work.
You might want to provide pictures of what your telehealth system looks like. This can help them feel more comfortable moving forward if they haven’t used telehealth before.
In Person Therapists
For in-person therapists, there are also certain things that you need to share on your contact page.
Remembering that your contact page should be a place where your clients not only can figure out how to work with you but where they can also look at the last minute to find your office location. as well as other details about your office.
Here are things that need to be added to your contact page if you work with clients in person.
Address with map- By having a Google My Business integrated map on your contact page your clients can easily get directions and see where in your area you are located.
Location specifics/quirks- You also want to add the specifics of your location. For example this might include nearby landmarks. It can also include the quirks of your location.
Is there a certain door that people need to go into to access your office? Do they need to turn into a certain driveway?
Waiting room information- Your clients might want to know whether or not you have a waiting room and if so if it is shared with other therapists. If you don’t have a waiting room it’s important to share with them how and where you will come and get them.
Photos- For clients that are anxious about accessing therapy it’s important to provide photos. This will allow them to know where they are going and feel more comfortable.
Accessibility info- It’s important to share this information with prospective clients.
Creating a contact page that turns visitors into clients
By providing all of this information to your prospective clients you are giving them all the information they need to decide to work with you and get a hold of you when they are ready.
Remember your contact page is the final step in the process of reaching out to you. Many of our clients are also quite vulnerable emotionally when they are ready to seek therapy so it’s important that taking this step is as easy as possible.
You want your full website to say “I see you, I understand you, and I can help you”. So making your contact page the final step on this path is important.
If you need help writing your contact page or any other page on your website so that it helps your ideal clients feel understood and seen I would love to help.
Schedule a free consultation today