A colleague tells someone, "You should call Catherine." That person goes straight to Google. If nothing is there, most of them never call. This is the leak I see most often in private practices that rely on referrals and directories. A therapist I worked with this year had been in practice for 35 years. Her Psychology Today referrals had slowed, long term clients had finished their work, and her caseload dropped. She had no website. Every warm referral she received was passing through a gap where confirmation should have been. For a decision this personal, an empty search result reads as a risk. So her website was not built to convince strangers first. It was built to close that leak - Catch the people who are already halfway to calling, and give them a reason to finish.

Over time, get found by people searching "EMDR therapist Vancouver WA" who have never heard her name. If your practice runs on referrals, your website is not a nice extra. It is the place every referral goes to check you out. Want a quick free check? Get it here: https://www.berniceebenezer.com/resources/practitioner-website-checklist

A prospective client gives your therapist website about five seconds before deciding whether to stay.

In those five seconds, the top of your homepage needs to answer three questions:

~ Who do you help? ~What do you help them with? ~Where, or how, do you see people?

"Individual and couples therapy in Vancouver, WA, in person and online" does more work than "Welcome to my practice."

Try it today. Show your homepage to a friend for five seconds, then ask what you do. If they cannot say, your headline needs work.

The three questions are a good test, and the first one is where most sites fail. A visitor who cannot tell in five seconds who the site is for will not stay to read the rest. I find the where, or how, line does more than people expect, because it answers the practical worry at...