10 Questions, One Verdict: Is Your Website an Asset or a Liability?(Episode 78)
Your website is never just sitting there. Whether you realize it or not, it's sending a message to every potential client who lands on it. In this episode, Anna walks you through the same 10-point website audit she and her team use when reviewing therapists' websites, helping you identify whether your site is building trust—or quietly working against you.
From your copy and positioning to your design choices, you'll learn how to spot the gaps that may be costing you inquiries and what to prioritize first. If you've been wondering whether your website is truly supporting your practice growth, this episode offers a practical framework for evaluating it with fresh eyes.
Here’s what you’ll learn in this episode:
1️⃣ The 10 questions Anna uses to evaluate whether a therapist's website is helping or hurting their marketing.
2️⃣ How to tell the difference between a website that's simply underperforming and one that's actively creating liability for your practice.
3️⃣ Why your copy has a greater impact on conversions than design—and how the two work together.
4️⃣ Which website updates should take priority so you can build more trust and attract more right-fit clients.
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Hey, hey. Welcome back to Marketing Therapy, episode 78. This episode is inspired by the fact that I am asked multiple times every single week to review clinicians' websites, and often I do. If you apply on our website, walkerstrategyco.com/apply, either myself or a member of my team will review your website and let you know if we think any of our programs or services might be helpful, or if you're gonna be better served by something else, 'cause sometimes that is, in fact, what needs to happen.
Now I, in this episode, am going to walk you through the exact criteria that we are considering, either myself or my team, when we are reviewing your website. This is a self-audit that you can do.
Now, a lot of times I see clinicians, or at least historically, they used to treat their website as neutral, and you might be finding that yourself. That might be why you're finally wanting to audit your own website, because up until now, it was just something that you had.
It was something that sat there, maybe it worked, maybe it didn't, build it and they will come sort of situation. That's not the case anymore, right? From my perspective, especially in the market we're in right now, there is no such thing as a neutral website. Your website is either doing something for you or it is working against you, truly.
It's always going to be sending a message to someone. The choice that's available to you is either you choose that message, what it is that it's saying to your potential clients, or that message is happening on accident. It's sending a message you didn't realize you were sending. That's what I wanna avoid, right?
The accidental message, by default, is almost some version of, "I'm interchangeable." I don't want your website telling people that. Do you want your website telling people that you are interchangeable? Absolutely not. That vague headline, that really generic stock photo. I just had a client kick off and reference one of the podcast episodes where I talked about someone holding their face in their hands in front of a rainy window.
You know, those terrible stock photos. Copy that you just spit out from ChatGPT and copied and pasted onto your website. Whatever it might be. If you aren't intentionally thinking about what it is that your website is saying about you, it's telling people that you're interchangeable, and you cannot afford to be that right now.
Okay? So that's the real stakes of our episode today. Not, is your website good or bad, but is your website saying what you mean to say, what you need to say? Or is it saying something by accident that could, in fact, be holding you back from getting the clients that you wanna get? So our format is a self-audit.
We're gonna walk through 10 questions, and by the end, you're gonna know exactly what your site is saying, whether on purpose or otherwise, and what to do about it. Now, like I said, I get people asking me to review their website multiple times a week, and it's one of my favorite things to do because I get such exposure to the state of websites right now.
Sometimes I land on a website and I'm like, "Girlfriend or boyfriend, this looks great. You're doing a really good job," and that's where we would direct you elsewhere. A lot of times I land on a website and it isn't checking a lot of the boxes we're gonna talk about in today's audit, and then I'm able to say, "Hey, here's where I think your greatest opportunity is for improving that message and therefore improving the results in your marketing
Today's audit is broken into two parts. The first is copy and positioning. If you've been around here for a while, you've heard me say copy is king. At the end of the day, the words on the page are still the number one determining factor behind whether or not someone
is going to decide to work with you or not. So we're thinking about copy and positioning. The second part is about design. We've said recently design is queen. So copy is king, design is queen. It matters, and it matters more now than it ever has. Because your words can be really, really great, but if they are not presented in a modern and compelling way, then we very well may lose that client as well.
So that's what we're looking at here. Ten questions, two parts. You ready? Part one, we're talking about copy and positioning. This is where your site is doing the actual convincing and converting. That's why copy is king. Design might get someone to stay a couple extra seconds, but copy is what's going to get them to reach out or to click away and to move on to the other therapist whose tab they have open. This is also where liability lives, and I'm gonna talk a little bit more about liability as we get going, but this is where your website either is or is not working. This is where we get a little bit more of that kind of good or bad pass, fail criteria, okay?
So take these questions seriously. Remember, these are the questions we are asking ourselves as we look at your websites. When you're sending them to us in an application, this is what myself and my team are thinking about. Number one, within five seconds, can someone tell what you specialize in? Can someone identify your niche within five seconds?
That's a pretty serious test. I'm not talking about what kind of therapy you offer. I'm talking about what population, what struggle, what life stage. Is there some level of specificity? Here's the test I like to think about. If a stranger, someone who has literally never met you before, looked at your homepage for five seconds and then looked away, could they tell a friend who you're for?
So someone who's never met you lands on your website. They're there for five seconds. They click out. Could they tell someone, "Oh, this is what Anna does. This is what Cherie does," whatever. This is the difference between licensed therapists providing individual and couples counseling, and I help high-achieving women navigate the identity shift after becoming a mom.
Okay? Could someone tell who you're for within five seconds? Now, a lot of times clinicians think they're being clear because they know who they mean. They know who they do their best work with, but it is nowhere on the page and therefore isn't serving them. So that first question, within five seconds, can someone tell what your niche is, who or what you specialize in?
Number two, is your location clear? This is such low-hanging fruit. If the answer is no, go fix this right now. But number two, is your location clear? I see this missed all the time. I'll land on a website, and it talks all about their niche or all about them, but I have no idea where they're licensed or if I'm here in Tennessee, if they could even help me.
That's a huge issue and like I said, very low-hanging fruit to fix. This is especially common to miss if you're a multi-state or a telehealth practice because you aren't based in a particular physical area. But we know and we talked recently a few episodes back about how people search locally even when telehealth is an option.
So if your location is unclear, they're bouncing, not to mention Google and AI looking for these signals as well. So is your location clear? Could someone tell your city and state within the first loading of the page? They shouldn't even have to scroll.
So that's that second question. Is your location clear?
Question three, this one might sting a little bit. Does your site sound like you or could it be anyone's? I talked was it our last episode or two episodes ago, about the idea of pink pants in our most recent alumni check-in. The fact that not everyone is going to love your pants, love your website, love you as a clinician, and that is the whole point.
So for this question, could someone take another therapist name and drop it into your website and it apply to them? Could someone else's name go at the top of your About page and nothing would feel off?
We have a problem. Okay? That's the accidental interchangeable message that you are putting out there if that is the truth. Of course, you're interchangeable because you literally could interchange that copy with someone else's, and I would have no idea what your unique point of view is or what it is that makes you different or who it is that you serve that makes it distinct.
I wanna be clear, this is never about just being quirky or weird or zany for its own sake, right? Unless you are, in fact, those things. But it is about specificity and a clear point of view and a voice, a human voice coming through that makes you memorable. At the end of the day, that's what this is about.
It's about being memorable. So that third question, does this site sound like you, or could it be anyone's? And like I said, that one might sting a little bit. Number four, another really low-hanging fruit item. Are there clear calls to action? Are there clear calls to action? Can I take the next step? Do I know what that next step is from any page of your website?
Do I know what's gonna happen when I reach out to you? Is there a consult? Are we going straight to appointment? Are you making that clear? Because if we create any friction in that process, someone deciding they wanna work with you and then reaching out to you, if there's friction in that process, guess what?
They just won't do it, and we know that from studying user experience. There needs to be one clear and primary next step repeated and reinforced throughout your website, every single page, including your About page. I should be able to take action from anywhere once I realize, "Oh my goodness, this is the therapist I wanna work with."
Okay? So that's number four. Are there clear calls to action on your website? Number five, are you speaking in specific language to your client's actual experience? So this is where you do that empathizing, and if you're a Confident Copy student, you know we have empathizing all over our websites. This is where you are giving that sticky copy.
You are showing, you are displaying your level of understanding of your clients because you are reflecting back to them where it is that they find themselves. We recently just wrote copy, and I actually shared it in today's copy review session, so it's fresh in my mind, with a clinician who specializes in working with special operators so military at the very top of the top of the ranks.
And in that copy, woven throughout that copy, was all of the deep understanding and expertise she has in not just military life, but operator life. These people who have literally been on the front lines making decisions and doing things that we can't even imagine, she knows. She understands, and she's displaying that level of understanding because she is reflecting that empathy back to them.
Are you doing that in your copy? Are you using sticky and specific language that displays your understanding of what has brought your clients here? Because they need to first and foremost feel seen and understood by you in order to trust you and to reach out to you. So are you speaking in specific felt language to your client's actual experience?
Could your ideal client read this and think, "That's me. Are you in my head? How did you know?" We need to be creating those experiences with your copy in order to deeply resonate with folks, especially as they're wading through the sea of sameness we've been talking about so much recently. So that's number five.
Number six, do you have... Oh man, this one matters. Do you have distinct specialty or method pages on your website? There needs to be a distinct and dedicated page for every single one of your presenting issues, populations, methods. Whatever the key focus areas are in your practice, there needs to be distinct pages for each.
A single page listing the sixteen things that you can help with, grief and loss, life transitions, anxiety, depression, trauma, relationships, that's not gonna work right now. Okay? We need dedicated pages for each one of these. I'm gonna be honest with you. If I land on a website and it's lacking these, you could be yeses on all the other items here, and I still am going to see a massive gap in your website's ability to perform for you. This is critical, especially in the age of AI that we're in right now. Now, in Confident Copy, we have distinct specialty and method page frameworks.
We show you not just how to decide on which topics to do, but how to write those, how to structure them, how a method page is gonna be a little bit different than a specialty page, but we have to have these present on your website. Okay? This is where you get to enjoy the variety, right?
You get to enjoy the work you like with couples and the work you like with men and the work you enjoy in trauma. That's where you get to be super, super specific about these. But like I said, there needs to be a dedicated page for each one. Okay, so these six questions, that was part one of your audit. Can you answer yes to these questions?
If you are saying no to even just one of them, we are getting into liability territory, and I'm gonna get more into that as we get to the end of the audit. But hold that in your mind, and let's move on to part two, and then we'll wrap back around to the final assessment. Now, now we're looking at design.
So copy is what's going to help someone decide if you're the right therapist for them, right? But design is what's getting them to trust you enough to stay long enough to read it. Okay? This is about those first impressions. This is about those subconscious judgments people are making about how legitimate you are, how professional, how premium you are.
Absolutely critical right now, especially as client standards are higher than they have ever been in this regard. Okay, so our remaining four questions here. Question seven of our audit: Is there a professional headshot here? I am not talking about a selfie.
I'm not talking about one from 15 years ago that your friend took with their old iPhone. Do we have a high quality professional headshot? Now, you don't necessarily need an in-depth brand photo shoot, although we love when clinicians come to us with one of those. But we need something that gives that signal of this is a real credible clinician and practice.
If you don't have one of those, the good news is iPhones have gotten better, right? You probably have the newest iPhone or know someone who does. You probably know someone that has a high quality DSLR camera. Go get a good headshot. I can't tell you how much this can elevate the credibility of your practice, even if it's just one.
And I know we all are really, really critical of how we show up in pictures. So swallow that a little bit, get some good pictures, and get them up on the website and it can truly be a game changer. Number eight: Do you have a clean and up-to-date design? Does your website look like it was built five years ago or 10 years ago?
I just had a discovery call with someone who was interested in our done for you services this week, and she said, "I know my website is outdated. I can tell it feels old." Do you feel that way when you look at your website? If so, we're getting into the liability territory. A dated site signals a stalled practice, even if that's not true.
But again, it's these subconscious judgments that we are making and we know that we're making, because studies show us that we make decisions about this and that our first impression with a brand colors the entire interaction with it. We can't afford that right now. Even if you have grown a lot since that dated website was created, if the dated website continues to stay that way, no one's gonna know. Okay, so do you have a clean and up-to-date design? Number nine, this is more specific when it comes to design, but is there adequate white space? And by white space, I mean blank space in your design. It's one of the biggest signals of a DIY site or of something particularly outdated.
Because cluttered pages, they just create more of the low grade anxiety that your client already is coming to therapy with, right? It's like a chaotic waiting room or something like that. We cannot afford to have that. When in doubt, just add more white space. It'll probably improve your design. But that's a key thing that we're looking for on the design side of things about whether or not this is going to feel modern, up-to-date, credible, premium.
You can have a really beautiful, interesting website. It still needs that breathing room to create these resting places for the eye and to really elevate that experience on your website. All right, final question. Final question in our 10-question audit. Are there thoughtful color and font choices on your website?
Are you using color and fonts thoughtfully and strategically? I don't just mean something default. I don't mean the default that came with your Squarespace template way back in the day. I don't even know what that font is called. I'm trying to think of it, but if you just go and create a Squarespace website right now, it defaults to their, their heading font, and I hate landing on a clinician website that still has that 'cause I'm like, "You could have just chosen anything else, right?"
We're looking here at the way that you're communicating personality with your design. So not just defaulting, but also not going completely crazy. Sometimes you land on a website, and there's like 16 different colors that don't make sense and don't go together, and that also can feel chaotic and unprofessional.
This isn't about being elaborate or loud necessarily, but it's about being intentional, not just an afterthought here. So thoughtful use of color and font is what we're looking for on the design side of things.
All right. Those are your 10 questions. I'm gonna run through them again, and then we're gonna get into how to assess this. So question one, within five seconds, can someone tell who you specialize in and what your niche is? Two, is your location clear? Three, does your site sound like you, or could it be anyone's?
Four, are there clear calls to action? Five, are you speaking in specific felt language to your client's actual experience? Six, do you have distinct specialty and method pages? Getting into the design side of things, seven, is there at least one professional headshot? Eight, is there clean, up-to-date design?
Nine, is there adequate use of white space? And 10, are there thoughtful color and font choices? All right. So all I want you to do now is just count your nos. Which of these do you say no to? Now, I wanna be clear that there is a difference between a site underperforming and one that is an active liability to your practice.
Underperforming is passive. It's not doing as much as it could be, but it's not actively pushing people away. Liability is active. Liability is sending an incorrect signal that's actively turning away right fit people, or worse, attracting wrong ones. Okay? So there is a little bit of a distinction to be made here between underperforming and liability.
Now, part one is mostly where the liability is. So if your website is actively working against you, it's probably because you have noes in those copy questions. 'Cause if we're not clear on the copy, remember copy is king. If you don't have that stuff clear, then yeah, your website very well may be calling in wrong fit folks, or at least not attracting the right fit ones. It's in those places that you're sending that I'm interchangeable message that we do not wanna be sending.
Now, in part two, in the design side of things, that's where there's a little bit more of that underperformance. You could have an incredibly effective and compelling website with poor design, and where it maybe isn't helping you, but it's not hurting you especially. So that, again, is where that copy is king, design is queen thing does come in.
So if most of your no's or any of your no's were in part one, I want you to hear me clearly, your website probably isn't just underperforming, it might actively be working against you right now. It could be telling people that you're interchangeable, that you are not worth your fee, that you are not the expert that you are, even though you know that's not the case. Now, if most of your no's or any of your no's were in part two, then I think that's more in underperforming territory. You're leaving some trust and some polish and some premium experience on the table, but the core message is likely intact, and that's good news.
Either way, actively working against you, simply underperforming, there's no shame here, right? That's why we're doing this self-audit. It's why it's just me and you hanging out in your ears right now. But the point here is I want you to be able to see clearly what maybe hasn't been visible to you so far.
Where are the opportunities? Where are the gaps that we need to be closing in order for your website to truly perform in the market we're in right now? Now, if your no's were clustered in that part one, like I said, if you don't have those distinct specialty pages, you're not using client language, you don't have a distinct point of view that sets you apart, I want you to think seriously about Confident Copy, because chances are very good that Confident Copy could be an, a fantastic next step for you, and our wait list just opened if you're interested in the live experience that's gonna kick off in August.
You can also jump into the self-study at any time. If your no's were clustered in part two, in design, then maybe one of our design tools could be really helpful for you. The DIY Brand Kit is incredibly helpful, and as you walk through that process, you're gonna develop a custom color palette and font pairing that you can put into action on your website.
Not to mention our Squarespace templates. That's gonna help you with that clean and modern design with the white space, even with the colors and fonts, since we do hand-select those for each of the designs. It's a more direct fix for you there. If your no's were scattered, I want to help you prioritize as well.
Remember, copy is king, design is queen. I'm going to encourage you to get clear on those copy and positioning things. Start working in that direction first, and then follow up with any of the design related elements. We want to address the liability and then get to that underperformance as you can.
Remember, there is no neutral website, not right now, not in this market where this is truly the core of your marketing, the client conversion engine that we talk about all the time. Is your engine running? Is your website sending the message that we need it to? Or could it be sending one that is completely unintentional and potentially working against you?
I don't wanna see that happen. It's always gonna be saying something. Do you like what it says? That's really the final question to sit with today. Now, like I said, if you are realizing the copy and the positioning needs to be improved, the Confident Copy Live waitlist did just open.
You can hop right onto that list, walkerstrategyco.com/waitlist, and qualify for a private discount we're not offering publicly. There's no obligation if you choose to jump in. Of course, you can decide, "You know what? Confident Copy isn't the right next step for me." Fabulous. At least you'll know, at least you'll have that potential discount under your belt.
If it's more on the design side of things that you need some support, please do check out our templates, walkerstrategyco.com/templates, or the DIY Brand Kit, walkerstrategyco.com/dbk. We'll link all of those in the show notes. If you're sitting here and you're like, "I'm no's across the board," and you know that you wanna hand it off to someone, we are booking very, very quickly into the fall, if you can believe it or not, for our done-for-you services.
We have copy, we have design, we have branding. I encourage you to reach out there. If that is a better fit for you, walkerstrategyco.com/services. Whatever it is that you do next, I hope that this episode started to expose to you where you should actually be focusing your time and your effort in order to make an impact, not just spinning on things that don't matter in your marketing. Change these things and you can create movement and momentum toward the type of practice that you ultimately want to be building. I'm cheering you on.
I'll see you in our next episode. Bye.
Resources & Links Mentioned:
Confident Copy: https://walkerstrategyco.com/cc
Confident Copy Live waitlist: https://walkerstrategyco.com/waitlist
DIY Brand Kit: https://walkerstrategyco.com/dbk
Squarespace Templates: https://walkerstrategyco.com/templates
Done-for-you services: https://walkerstrategyco.com/services
Website application/review: https://walkerstrategyco.com/apply
The Walker Strategy Co website: https://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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