When you work in the private health care industry, a professional website is essential for attracting new clients. However, finding the time and expertise to create a standout website design catered to therapy or health can be challenging.

Fortunately, all you need to know are what key factors to consider and which elements to include. Once you have a solid plan in mind, you can start off on the right foot by defining a clear niche, establishing strong branding, and developing effective Calls to Action (CTAs).

In this post, we’ll discuss how dedicated websites can benefit therapists and health care professionals. Then we’ll go over the unique design features they should include. Finally, we’ll offer five essential tips for creating a strong therapist website design. Let’s jump right in!

Why Therapists and Health Care Professionals Should Have a Website

Trying to navigate today’s digital-driven world can feel overwhelming, especially when it comes to your business. However, there are many benefits to establishing an online presence, and more specifically, a website for your health care or therapy practice. 

When searching for a product or service, most people today turn to the internet. Having a website can help potential clients find your services and encourage them to contact you:

The right therapist website design can be a powerful marketing tool. It can help you find new jobs and clients with ease. That’s because a digital footprint can demonstrate both credibility and authority. 

Additionally, a website can be an ideal portfolio and promotional tool for showcasing your qualifications, speaking engagements, and even awards. It provides an excellent way to tell visitors what your practice is about, what services you offer, and what makes you uniquely equipped to treat them. 

Finally, your website can include a targeted Call To Action (CTA). This lets existing and potential clients get in contact with you, book appointments, make payments, and more. If you offer telehealth services, you can also use your site to offer online sessions.

Essential Elements of a Health Care or Therapist Website Design

The specific features and content you include on your website will vary depending on your practice and services. However, there are a handful of elements that any professional health care website should offer. 

Key Information to Include in Your Health Care Website Design

As with any type of website, it’s important to include a few foundational pages. An ‘About’ page is essential for explaining who you are and what you offer. In the health care industry, this is also crucial for communicating your expertise, qualifications, and background. 

It’s common for therapists to include their licensing and certification on this page, as this is an essential signal of credibility. You’ll want to offer this information front and center. Furthermore, your About page is a good place to list your alma mater and share some basic information, such as your hometown or personal interests.

A Contact page or form is also critical, as it indicates to clients that they can easily get in touch with you. There you can include your phone number, email, and office hours. 

Key Characteristics of a Health Care Website Design

In addition to the specifics we just covered, there are some overarching design characteristics and elements to consider. For instance, as a therapist or health care professional, it’s crucial to take the overall look and feel of your design into account.

You’ll want to portray professionalism and trustworthiness. Everything from fonts to colors to images can help paint you in a certain light. Consider using calming tones, such as blues, which can evoke feelings of trust among visitors.

Also, keep in mind that a neat, clean layout and high-quality images can make a strong first impression:

Another important aspect of any successful website design is making sure your pages are fast and easy to navigate. Slow loading times can increase your bounce rate, or the percentage of people who leave your site after only viewing one page. It’s also vital to build a user-friendly navigation menu that makes browsing your site quick and simple. 

Achieving this requires choosing a theme with a distinct, modern layout. This can help you organize your content in a practical and sensible manner. That way, you can highlight key elements, such as your CTAs.

If you need assistance selecting your theme, we can help. At Built By WordPress.com, we offer professional web design services that can take your site to the next level.

5 Tips to Get Started With Your Health Care Website Design

Now that you understand the key elements of a quality therapist website design, let’s take a look at how to go about creating one. Below are five tips you can follow to get started.

1. Decide Your Site’s Primary Purpose

As we’ve discussed, there are a variety of ways you can use a professional website. Deciding its primary purpose helps ensure that your design assists you in achieving your goals.

For example, a primary aim could be to sell therapy sessions online or streamline your booking process. Alternatively, perhaps you’d like a website so it’s easier for patients and potential clients to get in touch with you.

Once you figure out the end goal for your health care website, it will be easier to prioritize and organize the essential elements to make that happen. This might include detailed contact forms, CTAs, and online booking systems. 

2. Define Your Niche

Health care is an expansive field. Narrowing your niche can help you better target your ideal clients and make it easier for them to come across your website.

The more specific you are with your design and content, the easier it will be to optimize your site for better visibility in Google searches. This can also help focus your content. That way, instead of casting a wide net, you can establish yourself as an authority in your specific field.

For example, in the following screenshot, the instructor makes visitors immediate aware that they specialize in practices using Ayurveda and Primordial Sound Meditation:

One way you can establish your niche is by outlining your specific areas of specialization and the services that go along with them. For example, consider what unique offerings you provide that help distinguish you from others in your field.

3. Establish Your Branding

Another significant part of designing a website is establishing your branding. This consists of everything from your business name and logo to your voice and messaging:

You’ll want to keep your branding consistent across all platforms so you can create a cohesive, professional presence that is easy to recognize. Aside from designing a logo and building a color scheme or palette for your website, it’s also smart to create a brand message that defines your personal “why.”

For example, what motivates you, and why should clients entrust their care to you? You can use this as your mission statement to clearly communicate your position, vision, and values.

4. Develop Your CTAs

This tip relies on clearly understanding what you want your health care website to do for you. Once you’ve answered that question, you can work on developing your CTAs to encourage visitors to take specific actions:

Your CTA is arguably the most important element of your website, as it’s your best chance for encouraging visitors to convert. Therefore, it’s essential to spend time considering the wording and design of this feature.

It’s important to make sure that your CTAs are aesthetically pleasing and stand out on the page. You can do this by using high-contrast colors and concise yet actionable wording. 

5. Work With a Website Professional to Build Your Site

Since you are a health care professional, website design is probably outside your scope of expertise — and that’s okay. Your professional development hours will likely be better spent on health-related education or enrichment.

However, there’s no need to worry. There are plenty of online services and solutions that can assist you in creating the website of your dreams.

At Built By WordPress.com, we offer professional design services dedicated to helping people who want to create a website, but don’t know where to start:

We can assist with everything from initial design and development to redesigns and migrations. To get started, you can fill out a form detailing what you’re looking for in a website. After that, one of our agents will get in contact with you so they can better understand your design concept. Then they’ll get to work building and launching your site. 

Start Designing Your Health Care Site Today

In our digital age, selling your private health care services can be tough. You may be struggling to market yourself online so you can expand your business. Fortunately, creating a high-quality and professional therapist website design can go a long way toward helping you establish credibility and authority. It can also attract more clients. 

Let’s recap our five tips for getting started with your health care website design:

1. Decide on your site’s primary purpose.
2. Define your niche.
3. Establish your branding.
4. Develop your CTAs.
5. Work with a website design professional to bring your idea to life. 

Are you ready to get the ball rolling with your therapist website design? You can sign up for Built by WordPress.com!

If you are a professional trying to find work, you may find it hard to stand out from the sea of talent in today’s labor market. An online portfolio showcasing your skills can be the best way to attract new business, but how do you even begin?

Fortunately, WordPress.com can provide the platform you need to create a professional portfolio online. You can promote your best work in a highly visual way, either for prospective employers or potential clients. Better yet, if you don’t know where to start, our Built By WordPress.com service can help you create a professionally designed portfolio website quickly.

In this guide, we’ll discuss what an online portfolio is and why you might need one. Then we’ll outline five steps you can follow to get yours up and running. Let’s get to work!

An Introduction to Online Portfolios

An online portfolio is a digital collection of your previous work. It visually demonstrates your skills and qualifications, and can be a way of establishing yourself as a brand on the web:

Portfolio websites are useful for (but not limited to) those in creative industries who want to showcase what they have to offer. This can include professionals like the Play Nice design studio (shown above), as well as artists, writers, photographers, and speakers.

Why It’s Beneficial to Have an Online Portfolio

Creating a professional portfolio online offers many benefits, including:

• It is easily searchable. All of your professional accomplishments are collated, rather than scattered across various platforms. This can boost your online presence, and makes it easier for interested parties to find you through Google searches (and even share your work with others).
• It tells a story. With all of your projects in one space, you can clearly demonstrate how your work has developed over time. It is also easy to update this virtual space with new projects, and you can remove old work quickly. 
• It highlights your best work and achievements. Rather than trying to display everything you’ve ever done, you can focus on your outstanding accomplishments. Along with work samples, you might also include positive feedback from people or brands you have worked with.
• It can attract inbound leads. By demonstrating what you can offer, you improve your chances of securing new work. Providing a clear call to action and contact information encourages visitors to follow up.
• It looks professional. You can present yourself as a brand exactly how you want, showcasing your personality through the work examples and the theme you choose. Putting effort into crafting a portfolio not only shows creativity, but also demonstrates consistency, dedication, and communication skills.

Other than the time and effort required, there’s little downside to creating your own portfolio. The good news is that this task may be simpler and quicker than you expect.

How to Create Your Professional Portfolio Online in 5 Steps

If you’re ready to get started, here are the five key steps for building your professional portfolio online.

Step 1: Make a Clear Plan

First, you need to decide what platform you would like to use. WordPress.com is one of the most popular Content Management Systems (CMSes) that allows you to create your own site to host your work. This platform is free, flexible, and beginner-friendly.

What’s more, you don’t need to do it all yourself – our Built By WordPress.com service can help you create a website for your professional portfolio quickly. Simply fill out the form provided, and our team will work closely with you to professionally design your new site.

Once you’ve chosen the tool you’ll use, you need to decide on a domain name that reflects your brand. This will allow you to be easily searchable.

Finally, you should decide what industry you’re targeting. You can also consider what pain points your product or service will solve for potential clients. This will help you decide what samples you should showcase in your portfolio, and keep it focused on the industry you’re looking to work in.

Step 2: Collate Samples of Your Work

When you begin selecting samples, you should choose examples that are relevant to your target audience and reflect the kind of work you want to do. You’ll also want to focus on the projects you’re most passionate about, most proud of, or have received the best feedback on.

You can still create a portfolio if you don’t have real-world examples of work yet. For instance, if you’ve just graduated, you probably don’t have much experience in a professional workplace. Instead, you might create hypothetical projects for imaginary clients, focused on the industry you are trying to break into. This might even be the extra factor you need to stand out in the job application process.

It’s also a good idea to try and tell a story with your samples. For example, creative post-production company Workprint features a running background reel of work on its landing page, which immediately tells the visitor what the business does:

Not only is this visually eye-catching, but it presents the work in a clear, scrollable format that encourages you to read on.

If your industry is not traditionally visual, you can include any other examples of work that best demonstrate what you do. This can include case studies, research, reports, presentations, or certificates. 

For instance, data scientist David Venturi uses his portfolio to show off online courses he’s created and to drive traffic to them: 

Most people think of portfolios as resources that only designers and other visual professionals can use. However, with the right approach, almost any profession can benefit from a portfolio since it can make you stand out to recruiters or help you attract clients.

Step 3: Add Your Key Information

Next, it’s important to include more than just work samples in your online portfolio. You should consider creating an “About Me” page to explain the work you do, and give the reader some background about your story and career. 

You could also include a professional photo and feature your traditional resume. Here’s an example from wedding photographer Larisa Shorina:

After all your hard work in compiling your portfolio website, you’ll also want to list your contact details so potential clients or employers can get in touch. These include a phone number, an address and a map (if you have a physical business location), and, of course, an email address. A great contact page will include all of that information and a contact form so that users don’t have to copy and paste your details.

If you have them, you could also include positive testimonials from happy customers or clients, or highlight any high-profile companies you have worked with. Freelance UX/UI Designer Stef Ivanov includes a separate testimonial page with his online portfolio:

Social proof can be a persuasive marketing tool. Therefore, endorsements are an effective way to advertise yourself as a brand and provide further evidence of your good work.

Step 4: Organize Your Portfolio

Now that you’ve gathered all the content you will include in your online portfolio, you should make sure it is visually appealing and easy to navigate. You’ll want to ensure that readers don’t have to go through a long journey to find your work.

Artist Holly Wong provides clickable categories visitors can use to sort her projects by type, while also including a page where you can scroll through all of her work:

You can make use of WordPress.com categories and tags to easily organize your own work based on broad groupings or specific topics.

Step 5: Share Your Portfolio

Once your portfolio has been created, you can continue to add your most recent projects as your skills and experience grow. It’s vital to keep it frequently updated. 

You’ll also want to get your portfolio out there to attract the work you’re looking for. You can share it on any social media site you are active on, including LinkedIn. The link to your website could also be incorporated as a permanent detail in your Twitter and Instagram bios.

To make your work easily shareable, you can also use a tool like Social Media Share Buttons & Social Sharing Icons:

Finally, it’s smart to add a link to your online portfolio in your email signature, and include a bonus link on your resume if you are actively seeking employment.

Build Your Own Professional Portfolio Today

By crafting a professional portfolio website, you can demonstrate the skills and abilities you have that make you stand out from the crowd. Fortunately, WordPress.com can provide the platform you need to get started, along with customizable design options and support from our Built By WordPress.com service.

To create your portfolio website, all you need to do is:

1. Make a clear plan.
2. Collate samples of your work.
3. Add your key information.
4. Organize your portfolio.
5. Share your portfolio.

Do you have any questions about building your professional portfolio online? Just reach out and we will get back to you soon.