Creating a Website for your Massage Practice
May 14th, 2008 by Julie OnofrioOne of the things I am quite passionate about is sharing my knowledge and experience in using websites to start and build a massage practice. It is one of the most easy and direct ways to promote your business. When someone searches for the words ‘massage, your city’ the first thing that should come up is your website. Well or so we would all like. To create a website that achieves that status involves a little bit of learning about Search Engine Optimization. The first step is using the keywords in your title, heading and metatags. Your main keyword will most likely be just what I said before ‘massage, your city’. It also helps if your domain name uses those main keywords. You domain name does not necessarily need to be the same as your business name. There is a little bit more to creating pages that I have outlined on my site www.thebodyworker.com
If you don’t know what it all means just know that if you are hiring a webdesigner or purchasing a premade website find out if the pages will be optimized for search engines.
The next part of the website is the content. You can get your website to the top of the search results for your keywords with search engine optimization. You can get them to click on your listing and read your content when you create a site that is about them- not about you. A good website needs lots of content. A basic 8 page website is a good place to start but it is just more of an online business card. What we need to do is start really educating clients about massage, what it does, how it works, what to expect, why they should be getting an hour and a half massage 2x a week (yes that much! I have two clients who have been doing that for over 15 year each. With regular clients like that you won’t have to keep marketing.)
Back to content… The standard list of the benefits of massage needs to have one page for every benefit or even a few pages. If that amount of content intimidates you just stop to think - you are probably already telling people this all day long. The thing about writing content is to remember that you are just putting down what you would usually want to say to people. Having quality content allows the reader to start trusting you before then even call for the appointment. It allows you to share your values and purpose and helps you find clients that share those too making for a better match. Working with people who are not your ideal client can end up being draining resulting in burnout, stress and even resentment. A successful practice will be full of your ideal clients.
So just start writing about things that you learned in massage school. Most people have little understanding of what massage is or can do. When I started telling people more about it, I attracted regular weekly clients. One of the things I always ask too is would you like an appointment for next week to continue working on that so and so.
The way to create your pages is to also be sure that you are focusing on your readers needs - not yours. A site that is focused on your needs goes on and on about your credentials, I did this, I did that etc. Content that is focused on the reader should feature “you”… You will experience, You will receive… You don’t have to live in pain. What will your service do for me ( the reader)? How will it make my life better? How will it make me feel about myself? People want to know what is in it for them. Put yourself in their shoes. Actually do this for yourself- go online and look for a massage therapist in your area. Who would you go to? The person with a few pages of flashy graphics or someone who will tell you more about themselves?
Keeping it simple and just teaching readers and potential clients how massage can make a difference in their lives is what having a website that works is all about.
You can read more about websites www.thebodyworker.com in the Creating a Website that works section.
Julie Onofrio
Founder www.thebodyworker.com
Tags: massage website
