The Hidden Psychology of a Website That Works (Episode 35)
You know your website should “look good,” but have you ever wondered why that matters—or what your design is actually communicating to potential clients before they even read a word?
In this episode, I break down the psychology behind effective design and why pretty isn’t the same as strategic. Whether you’ve got a DIY site or you’re using one of our templates, you’ll walk away with powerful (and doable!) ways to help your website feel like you—and build trust from the very first glance.
We’ll cover six core principles of design psychology to help you create a site that feels calm, clear, and aligned with your energy. These principles aren’t just aesthetic—they’re deeply rooted in how your clients perceive safety, trust, and professionalism.
Here’s what you’ll learn in this episode:
1️⃣ Why “pretty” design isn’t enough—and how to tell if your site is actually effective
2️⃣ The six subconscious signals your design is sending (and how to make sure they match your clinical energy)
3️⃣ Small design tweaks that make a big impact on client trust and connection
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Hi everyone. Thanks for joining me for this next episode of Marketing Therapy. Last week we talked about the importance of copy and design together, how most people know that they matter, both of them separately, but how they work together. Today I wanna dive more deeply into design. Yeah, everyone says they like good design, right?
You're probably one of those therapists like the ones that I talk to often that say things like, I know what I like when I see it. That doesn't mean I know how to create it, but I know what I like when I see it, right? We all appreciate it. We all might have different tastes and aesthetics, but the fact is we like things that look good.
And when it comes to your marketing, you know, you should have a beautiful website, right? Like, you know, it should look good. You recognize that how the website looks, matters. But very few people understand why it actually matters, or what that design is saying to your potential clients. We're talking about before a single word is read.
Why does this matter? Now? Like I said, we all know design matters, but most people stop at, well, I just want it to look nice, but pretty and effective are not the same thing. Pretty might get a, like a double tap on Instagram, but effective gets you a client, okay? So that's the difference here, that just because something is pretty doesn't mean it's effective.
And if something's pretty, what makes it effective? That's what I wanna talk about here today. Now you know that in therapy communication is not just about what you say, it's how you say it. If you deliver an observation or a challenge to your client in one tone of voice. They could receive it completely differently than if you presented it in another.
That's really what your website's doing too. Here. Your website is constantly communicating tone and trust and safety and energy, and when it comes to design, that is happening without saying a single word, it's about forming a first impression and an environment where someone actually wants to know your niche statement.
They want to read your copy, the headline, you spent hours agonizing over. Actually lands with them. Studies show us that clients' first impressions are formed in less than five seconds. That's not enough time to understand your entire niche, right? Their brain is already making decisions about whether this feels safe and credible if they feel connected to it.
It's a lot like your nonverbal cues in session. It's the reason therapy over a phone is not the same as sitting in a room with someone or sitting on a virtual screen. The eye contact, the tone, the posture, just like you read your clients, they read yours. And so design is your website's body language. So I wanna today look at what's actually happening beneath the surface, because your website is so much more than just decoration.
It's so much more than just looking pretty. And if we can get this right, it really is psychology in action. So I think you'll find this one quite interesting. And shout out to Amanda. Amanda had a great question in this week's Confident copy call and I let her know, Hey, I actually have an episode coming out next week about this.
And she was asking about some of these very things. And so I know that this is relevant. I know that so many of you are being mindful about what your marketing needs to look like and what your niche is and how you're presenting it. We can't think about those things without also thinking about how those things are presented.
So there's six kind of facets to design psychology that I want to go through today to empower you to actually make some strategic decisions because again, just because something's pretty doesn't mean it's effective, and I want the latter for you. All right, so the first one is color psychology. Color sets the tone emotionally.
They're the first emotional cue that your visitors are going to register. So if you have warm, neutral. I'm talking reds and tans, oranges, soft yellows. The color psychology of those warm colors is calm and safe and grounded. If it's cooler, if it's light blues or teals greens. This is more reflective and contained soothing if you have some bright accents, which are absolutely okay.
This is about communicating energy and motivation and approachability. Friendliness. So the colors that you choose actually say something. And so it's important to ask yourself, what do you want people to feel when they land on your website? If your brand palette, the colors that you're using, feel scattered or anxious or chaotic, people are gonna feel that too, even if your words are perfect.
So it, it really begins just with those decisions about color. If you've been through our therapist, DIY brand kit, you know that this is where we start. We start with thinking about how do I want people to feel when they interact with your brand and with your website. It's one of the fundamental questions to begin asking in order to create design that's actually effective.
I mean, think about your office space, especially if you're an in-person clinician, but even your personal office at home. If you're online only, you probably chose the wall color, the art, the furniture, the decorations. Because you want your clients, or at least you to feel a certain way. Your website is the same thing, just digital, and it really starts with color.
People have actually studied color psychology. It's something you could absolutely go down the rabbit hole and learn all about, but this is about setting the tone for your website.
Next up is what we call Hicks Law, and that essentially is that simplicity to your clients equals safety. What this means is that the more choices someone has, the longer it takes them to decide what to do. And so one of the first things that I see when therapists are working on their website, and it comes to this, is their menu.
So when you load up your website and you see those items across the top of your website home about specialties, if you have too many of those, or if throughout your website you have too many buttons leading to too many places, if you even have too many service or specialty options. We are inviting overwhelm unintentionally, but it's there because we know that when people have fewer choices, they actually make decisions more confidently and more quickly.
So for your ideal clients, many of whom are already navigating anxiety or decision fatigue, they might have been through a bunch of therapist websites already. This can be the difference between clicking contact or closing the tab. I want your website to feel like an exhale, like a breath of fresh air, not another to-do list for your clients.
Okay? So how could you incorporate more simplicity and therefore safety into your design? Limit your top navigation to no more than six items. We actually just talked about this in confident copy as well. When you look at that top menu of your website, limit that to six. Now there might be dropdowns, you might have pages underneath that.
It's not a bad thing to have a lot of pages, but we need to make that journey clear and easy and simple. Similarly, I recommend every single page of your website have one clear next step. Okay. Now, that's not to say that you can't link from your trauma page to your EMDR page or if it makes sense to link to your about page, but the primary call to action should be singular.
Again, we don't wanna overwhelm these folks. We wanna make the next step clear and simple and easy. Alright, the next element of design psychology is what we call visual hierarchy. And this is one I see a lot of therapists get mixed up on. Hierarchy is what guides our eye through design. So sometimes I will load up a therapist website and at the top of the website they might have a headline talking about, you know, what they help their clients do.
And then there might be another headline that states who they are and where they're at. And there might be a button and I load it up. And all of that is the same exact size. Well, we were just talking about overwhelm. I'm immediately overwhelmed. My eye has no idea where to go first. Hierarchy tells us, look here first.
Look here next. Look here after that. So, creating hierarchy is about leading people toward what's most important to them. It's because our brains are wired to look for order. We scan from big to small, from bold to light, from color to neutral.
When this is missing on your website, you unintentionally lose people simply because they're not sure where to go. Their eye doesn't know where to go, and knowing that no one is gonna read every single word of your website, we have to make their scanning and their scrolling simple. And when there is no hierarchy, it can be very, very difficult to get to what's actually relevant to me.
So the easiest thing you can do, load up your homepage, load up each page of your website. Look at each section. Is there a place for my eye to go first and then second, and then third? Or are you expecting them to get all of it in one glance? Create more hierarchy, and you will guide people through the design in a way that actually reaches them.
All right, next up is a Gestalt principle, and that's all about creating cohesion in your design. Now, you probably know that our brains group similar elements together automatically. It's how we ultimately find meaning in things. And so when things about design feel inconsistent spacing, fonts, colors, the site feels scattered.
Now again, so much of what we're talking about here is subconscious. Your clients don't necessarily know this, but it's lacking that cohesion and that ability to find meaning. When there is consistency and balance in your website, then you are communicating a sense of reliability. When that design feels cohesive, is subconsciously says this practice is organized and trustworthy.
Isn't it funny that just thinking about spacing or consistency in your fonts can do that, but these are the underlying elements that are driving good design. Again, not just about looking pretty, but about actually guiding people toward realizing you're the therapist for them and making that journey easy.
So check your website. Are your font sizes consistent? Do photos feel like they belong together or are they completely mismatched? And irrelevant to the content.
I am someone who loves symmetry in design, and I will often load up a therapist's site and intentionally or otherwise, there will often be sections where one side is off balance from the other. And if we could just even some of those things out, if we could create that feeling of balance, we would automatically create a more soothing environment.
Alright, number five is called anchoring bias. I also refer to this often as the halo effect. Like it or not, the first thing someone sees sets the tone for everything that follows. If you caught last week's episode, you heard me paint the picture of that boutique that you walk into and the candle's burning, and someone walks up to you and offers you a glass of champagne.
If your homepage of your website feels premium and professional like that boutique, guess what? Your therapy work is perceived the same way. If it feels outdated or chaotic, then your expertise gets discounted before anyone even reads a word. That's the difficult thing here is that you can be incredibly talented and able to serve your clients, but if your design says otherwise, you are fighting an uphill battle against that initial judgment.
Your design is what's anchoring your perceived value in the eyes of your clients. Now, that's not to say you can't have an effective website that doesn't meet every single one of these principles and book premium fee clients. No way. But it does say that when these smaller things, these subconscious things are at play, you are more likely to be viewed as valuable and safe and trustworthy by your clients.
And this is all happening within seconds, entirely subconsciously. It's wild. I mean, imagine a trauma therapist with a site that uses these harsh black backgrounds and neon text and jagged imagery and these weird, sharp lines.
Now, that design might be unique and really interesting, but it also might feel tense and unsafe to the person reading it. The therapy there could be excellent. But clients might not even get that far because of that initial impression.
Alright, my last principle for you is called priming and it's all about the comfort of familiar. We love things that are familiar and intuitive. It's the reason I love to re-watch the Office and Grey's Anatomy over and over and over again. Right. So when it comes to design, a good website doesn't necessarily have to surprise.
You don't have to reinvent the wheel or be some unicorn. Ultimately, it needs to orient people. They need to get what they expect, a logo in the top of the site that when they click on it, it goes to the homepage. A navigation with a handful of items. They can click on a clear headline when they land on each page.
The basics. That's what creates that sense of familiarity and intuition where I'm like, oh, I, I know. I know where I'm at. This feels safe. This feels comfortable. When therapists attempt to push the envelope a little bit with their design and things begin feeling off or out of order, it can create some subconscious friction.
So there is a line here between being unique and not looking like every other therapist website, but also staying within the confines of what is familiar and intuitive to your clients. Because familiarity is safety. Familiarity builds trust. So good design, unique design doesn't necessarily mean reinventing the wheel.
It means doing everything we're talking about here. Maybe in a little bit of a different way, but not foregoing or forsaking any of these in the name of pushing the envelope, or trying something new. It means using familiar structure, then adding your own personality through things like color and imagery and words.
It's one of the reasons we love our Squarespace templates because they're designed with the basics in place, with that familiar structure, with some unique flare as well, and then you get to make it your own. But keep the basics there.
All right, so I've run through all of these design principles and ultimately, hopefully what you see here is that every choice on your website is a form of communication. Whether your clients realize it or not, whether you realize it or not, there is something that you are sharing. What do you wanna share?
Your personality. Are you calm and reflective? Are you direct and bold and to the point, your niche, a couple's therapist site should probably feel different than an A DHD specialist. Right? I love hearing from neurodivergent clinicians, especially when we get to design their sites for them because they're so mindful of who's reading that site and how they're gonna be interacting with it.
What we need to be keeping in mind for that person. That's gonna be a lot different than a couple in their fifties going through betrayal. What about your energy in session? Are you about being grounded and centered and soothing? Are you creative and playful? These things can come through visually as well.
And of course there is a level of professionalism that you can be subconsciously communicating, and that translates to competence in the eyes of your clients.
Professionalism doesn't mean that you have to be buttoned up. It means you can have pink hair and swear in session if you want, but there is an experience you offer your clients that can be brought forth in your website so that they view you as the premium level expert that you are.
Can you see here how your website is really part of your kind of clinical identity? It's about creating congruence. It's about feeling like you, ' cause here's the other thing I want you to remember. If your design and you're in person or onscreen energy don't match, clients experience a disconnect.
If who I meet on the website is totally different than who I meet in my intake session, there's gonna be some rub there. So a somatic therapist whose site feels rigid or corporate might not attract the right clients. A high achieving professional therapist who works with the go-getters and and the C-level executives, she probably won't have a site that feels overly soft 'cause they might come across as too casual.
So this is all about being congruent with who you are, how you show up in session, and what your clients are ultimately seeking. This is why design is so stink and fun. Because you get to decide how to marry all of those things together. Now, I want you to know that you don't have to become a designer to apply this psychology.
I've given you some great tips here. Think about the site menu. Think about font hierarchy. Think about the spacing and the balance of things. This doesn't require a degree, and especially with today's website platforms, it's easy to do. But start by asking yourself, what do I want people to feel when they land here?
Knowing that, does the layout and color and tone match that intention? The small fixes you make can go a long way. Simplifying the menu, using a handful of standard colors with maybe one accent, making sure spacing and alignment are consistent, keeping one primary call to action. Nothing crazy, nothing groundbreaking, incredibly effective.
The goal is a site that feels calm and clear and aligned with your energy. It's one of the reasons we have so many different Squarespace templates to start with. If this was all about just one standard approach for absolutely everyone, you'd only need one of 'em. But we have this wide range of styles so that someone can choose, this feels like me.
This feels like what would resonate with my clients, and then you get to turn it into to yours. Now they all of course, follow these basic, fundamental subconscious principles, but then you get the design flexibility and the creative license to make it your own. It's about being both pretty and strategic at the same time.
I mentioned last week that our Black Friday sale is coming next month, the biggest sale of the year, and. Primarily the biggest template sale of our entire year. You can get all of the details on the entire five days of deals@walkerstrategycode.com slash BF 25, but we're gonna offer 30% off of every single template in our library, every single add-on our blog page, our intensivess page, our group therapy pages.
This is the deepest discount available all year long and. Don't tell my designer Erica, but we are very much hoping to have a brand new design released before the Black Friday holiday as well, so that if you are interested in this new vibe we are putting out there, you can snag that as well at a super deep discount.
If you're wondering what the heck I'm talking about and you've never seen our templates before, go take a look, even if it's just to see some of the principles I've talked about in action. Sometimes you don't need one of our templates. That's okay. I love pointing our students and clients there to at least get an understanding of some basics to maybe grab some inspiration because I don't want you to feel like you have to go hire a professional designer if you don't want to create a site because you are capable of engaging in these principles and creating something that's incredibly beautiful and incredibly effective.
So you can check out our templates, walker strategy code.com/templates. If you want to go browse around and see what I'm talking about. But I hope you've understood here that design isn't just fluff. It's not just about looking pretty. There is deep psychology happening there. It's the nonverbal language of your business and of your marketing, and when your website looks and feels aligned with who you are as a therapist and what you bring to the table and what working with you is like, then it becomes an extension of the therapeutic experience itself.
People get a preview of working with you before they pick up the phone. That is what makes design powerful. It helps people feel what it's like to work with you before they've even met you.
When your website matches what you do and who you are, that is when your design really starts working. I hope this one has gotten your gears turning. You've gotten some good takeaways on ways you can be improving your current website. If you're like, Anna, I don't have a website yet, I don't know where to start, we would love to support you in that.
Go check out our templates. Like I said, if you're interested in saving some big money, black Friday's coming next month. Walker strategy code.com/bf 25. I'm cheering for you guys. I'll see you in the next episode.
Resources & Links Mentioned:
Squarespace Templates: walkerstrategyco.com/templates
Black Friday Sale (starts next month!): walkerstrategyco.com/bf25
DIY Brand Kit: walkerstrategyco.com/dbk
The Walker Strategy Co website:walkerstrategyco.com
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About Marketing Therapy
Marketing Therapy is the podcast where therapists learn how to market their private practices without burnout, self-doubt, or sleazy tactics. Hosted by Anna Walker—marketing coach, strategist, and founder of Walker Strategy Co—each episode brings you clear, grounded advice to help you attract the right-fit, full-fee clients and grow a practice you feel proud of.
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