Making Your Website Work for You

Do you have a website and if so does it generate clients for you? My website is now my main source of new clients. In fact next year I probably won’t do any other advertising except for my entry in professional registers, which is really more to ensure that I look professional than because I expect them to generate any new leads. So if you don’t have a website you are probably missing out.

The Basics

Here are some facts to think about.

Most people use google as their search engine.
Most people only look at the first page of search results.
Most people take only a few seconds to decide whether or not a website is what they are looking for. If your home page doesn’t immediately catch their attention you will probably loose them.
If your website takes more than a few seconds to download most people won’t wait
Google is not the only way people can find you. Links from other sites and including your website on business cards, leaflets etc. will all generate traffic.
Many people are more likely to approach a therapist who has a website than one who doesn’t. They like to be able to find out more information about you, perhaps see a photo, check out your experience etc. before approaching you.

Getting Started

Setting up your first website can be daunting, especially if you aren’t that computer literate. You have a number of options available.

Pay someone else to set up and maintain your website. This is the easiest and most expensive option. I’ve not taken this option myself, but from what I hear Webhealer is the most successful at getting you on the first page of Google. Don’t pay someone to set up and maintain your website unless they are pretty confident that they can get you on the first page, you could be wasting your money. Try doing a Google search for your therapy and your town and take a look at all the results on the first page. Who has set up these sites, are they managed by a company like webhealer? In my case three out of ten are Webhealer, two are my sites and the rest are directories of some kind.
Pay someone else to set the website up and host it, but then maintain it yourself. This is a cheaper option, but means that you will need to spend time maintaining your site yourself. If you want your site to appear on Google page one and stay there you need to do more than just set it up and hope for the best. Before you choose anyone to design your website make sure that you check out other websites they have built. Don’t be afraid to contact former customers and ask them for a reference.
Use an online website builder. These are websites that allow you to build your website using their software. They host the site for you so all you need to do is choose a format and add the content for your website. If you are reasonably computer literate then this may be the best option for you. It’s definitely cheaper, from as little as £2.99 a month. However, again you will be responsible for getting your site onto Google’s first page. Again, I haven’t used any of them myself, but Moonfruit is generally thought to be one of the best.
Do it all yourself using wysiwyg (what you see is what you get) software You can build your own website using software such as Dreamweaver or Microsoft Publisher. These are relatively simple to use if you are familiar with computers (e.g. if you already use Word, Publisher, Excel). This can look like the cheapest option and it gives you complete control, but there are a number of things you need to consider. You will need to pay for hosting and purchase a domain name. There is no one to turn to for support if you have problems, The code that these tools generate is rather messy and this could mean delays in your site downloading if you have lots of pictures.
Do it yourself using a text editor. You can of course write the whole website yourself using a text editor. This would mean learning HTML if you don’t already know it, plus potentially other computer languages such as css and php. This option is not for most people, but if you like computer programming and you want total control, then its worth considering. (This is what I do, but I was lucky enough to have a partner who worked in IT to teach me programming, help me get started and answer any questions).

Google Myths and Magic

So how does Google decide which websites to display and in what order? There is supposed to be a mathematical formula that determines the search results, but so much has been written about this subject that it now has the status of mythology rather than science. Many people claim that they know how it works, but only those who work at Google can really be sure. It is said that the formula is changed every month, so that they can stay one step ahead of all the Techies trying to crack their code. However, we can be reasonably certain that the results are based on two main criteria:

how many people link to your site and
how relevant Google think your site is to the search words.

Choosing Your Key Words

So step one is to make your site relevant to the searches. This means including the right key words. Pick the wrong key words and it doesn’t matter how many times you repeat them they aren’t going to help you get more traffic. What are people actually searching for if they want your services? In my case one of the most popular searches is ‘Wokingham counselling’, so these two words are included in my key words. This is much more effective than just including ‘counselling’. Sometimes people may search for a problem rather than a solution, so if you treat lots of people with a particular illness e.g. diabetes, then this may also be a useful key word.

A number of websites have now been set up that will provide you with information about particular keywords. For example www.wordtracker.com will tell you how many people have searched for a particular word and also how many results there already are for that word. The two pieces of information are particularly useful together because if there are already thousands of search results for a particular word then it’s going to be much harder for you to get onto the first page. This is one of the reasons why ‘wokingham counselling’, is much more effective than ‘counselling’. There are millions of results for ‘counselling’, but only thousands for wokingham counselling’. Wordtracker is worth checking out and you can use a limited version of it free of charge, however a word of caution, its results are not completely accurate. So use it as a guide only. Yahoo also have a site that will give you alternative search terms Overture. However, it does not provide the number of results. Another way to check that you have the right key words is to see what everyone else is doing. If another homeopath is on page one of Google and you are still languishing on page thirty then you can do the following to see which key words they are using. Launch their website and right click on their home page. Click on ’View Source’. You will now be able to see the HTML source code. Near the top you should see <meta name="keywords" content=" and then a list of words. These are the key words that this website is using. Check them against your own, are you missing some important words? Try adding them to your list and see what happens.

Also remember that not everyone can spell and many people use American spelling, so you may want to include alternative spelling in your keywords. For example, I use counselling and counseling.

Adding Your Key Words

Once you have picked your list of key words the next step is to optimise your website. This means first adding the key words to the ‘key word meta tag’. How you do this depends on how you access your website.

If you are using software to create your website, whether it’s MS Publisher, Dreamweaver, or your web hosting companies own version, there should be somewhere for you to enter your keywords. If you don’t know how to do this try searching for ‘key words’ in the help function. If you are still stuck contact your webhoster or whoever provided you with the software and ask them. This is vital information.
If someone is producing your website for you then just tell them the key words you want to use and they will add them for you. (If you are using a company such as Webhealer to do the whole thing for you I would still suggest that you ask them which key words they are using.)
If you are doing your own programming then look for ‘<meta name="keywords" content=’ ‘at the top of a web page in the html code itself. Add your keywords between the apostrophes.

Adding the key words to your meta tag is not enough. You now also need to include them in the text of your page. You need to include them as much as you can without making the content nonsensical. So don’t just list the same word again and again, this won’t impress your visitors and some say that Google don’t like it. You are aiming to produce good quality content that is rich in key words – i.e. rich text.

Getting Links

The second part of Google’s famous formula looks at how many websites are linking directly to your site and how many sites you link to. Each link is like a vote for the site it is linked to. When other sites link to yours you gain votes, when you link to other sites you lose votes. However, not all votes have the same value. If a site has a high PageRanking then its votes are worth more. Also on an individual site different pages will have different values. You can find out the PageRank of individual websites here. Note that you don’t have to have a high PageRank to appear on page one of Google (my counselling site has a ranking of only 2), this is because the key words are actually more important.

Generally speaking a link from a home page is worth more than a link from a ‘links page’. This can all get incredibly complicated and there are numerous articles on this topic alone. However, here are some general rules to follow:

It’s a good idea to get as many links to your site as possible.
Avoid links from your home page, try to link from a ‘links page’ only.
I think link swaps are a good idea, even though you are gaining and losing votes at the same time. Some people don’t like them as it is theoretically possible to lose votes overall, but I’ve not found this to be a problem. You may also hear that Google don’t like link swaps, but I think this is only the case when people set up sites just to swap links. I don’t think Google have a problem with link swaps on genuine websites.

Here is a list of some ways to get links to your site.

You can get free links on certain social networking sites such as facebook, myspace. Just set up a profile, it can be very short, but make sure you include your website address as a link. On some sites you need to type in html code to get the weblink. This is very simple, just copy and paste the following code and then substitute your website address for mine. <a href=”http://www.nancyhine.co.uk”>www.nancyhine.co.uk</a>
There are also some local directories that allow you to advertise free and include a link. Try a Google search for ‘my town directory’.
Generally look out for any site that allows you to add a weblink free, whether it’s an events listing, a reiki share listing, or something completely unrelated. (There are lots of opportunities to do this on the Inspirational Friends website).
You can pay to be included in therapist directories that include a weblink (make sure you get a proper hyperlink on any advertising you pay for, not just a text entry).
Swap links with other therapists.
Write articles for websites. A short article on your therapy or something related can usually include your contact details at the end, including a weblink. There are even sites where you can list your article for other people to use, check out Ezinearticles.com.

I can’t guarantee that doing all of the above will get you onto page one of Google, but is should certainly help. If you have any questions, or any useful tips to share then please email me.