Do I Really Need a Website?

It's surprising how often I still get this question. I started building websites in 1993, and believe me - they were tough to sell back then. In those days, people still used phone books and used them alot. There was so little competition on the web, designers used to be able to make extravagant promises and actually follow through with them. Well, things have changed. Very few people use phone books anymore. Competition on the web is fierce. And yes - if you want to do business, you really do need a website.

A website is like a business card these days. I check out everyone and everything beforehand with some quick google searching. If you don't have a website, I'll never even know you exist. Seriously. If you do have a website and it's awful, that's worse than not having a site at all - I won't take you seriously, and you've blown your chance to make a good first impression. Massage therapists compete in a local pool for clients, and when they look for you, you need to make sure you've adequately separated yourself from the crowd with strong marketing material.

I meet a lot of experienced bodyworkers who already have a loyal client base and are not seeking new clients. Websites for this group aren't about marketing tools so much as information stores. The therapist can refer his or her clients to the website for massage related articles, descriptions of techniques, etc. A website for this group is just a place where their clients book appointments, read more about the techniques they're receiving and perhaps pay for massage.

If you're a new therapist just starting out, you can't afford not to have a website. There are still relatively few therapists with quality sites and it's the easiest way for you to position yourself competitively.

Expanded Design Services

We've recently begun offering common marketing materials to our clients at deeply discounted rates. In the spirit of Bodysite Builder's founding premise, to offer high-quality websites to bodyworkers at entry-level prices, you can now choose to add business cards with handy appointment reminders on the back, postcards, logo design and car door magnets to your account at very, very low prices.

Business cards are so important because they go home with your customers. If you put their next appointment on the back, they can even end up on their fridge for all their friends to see. A strong, elegantly designed card can go a long way promoting your business for under $30.

Postcards are the old standby for marketers. They provide a fairly large space in which to communicate to your existing and potential customers, and are a great way to keep yourself in the front of people's brains!

Basic Search Engine Optimization

Most new site owners come to realize pretty quickly that no matter how gorgeous their craftsmanship, their potential customers can't find their sites with a Geiger counter. Depending on how many therapists are practicing in your city and the size of your city, getting your site to show up in the search engines can be a bit arduous.

If you live in a small town with a minimum of competition on the web, you probably won't need to pay a dedicated search engine optimization (SEO) company. By using keyword-laden page titles, good meta tags and a simple site map, you should be reachable. On the other hand, if you are in a saturated market and want your site to be on the first page of Google, you'll need to bring in an expert to employ more aggressive techniques like press release submission, posting articles to relevant informational sites, and maximizing the reach of your blog.

The basics are easy, don't take too much time, and will produce some decent results. Let's take a look at what you can do yourself.

Keywords
The first step is to identify your top 5-10 keywords. Since most bodyworkers have a limited area where they do business, you'll want to use this to your advantage. Use your town's name in your keywords and you won't be competing with every therapist in the country - just the ones in your town.

For example, a massage therapist in Sarasota might use these keywords:
Sarasota massage therapist, Sarasota massage therapy, Sarasota massage, Sarasota swedish massage, etc.

Copy
Go through all the copy you've written for your site and work your keywords into the text. You don't need to repeat them often, but it's a good idea to have them all appear at least once somewhere on your site.

Images
In your control panel, right-click one of your images and choose "Insert/Edit Image". Enter one of your keywords or keyword phrases in the field labeled "Description" on the "General" tab. This gives what's called an "alt tag" to your image. Repeat this for all the images on all your pages. It's a good idea to have the keywords you choose for your images also appear in the supporting copy on the same page - the search engines look for relevance.

This should get you started. Once you've filled your copy with keywords and given descriptions to all your images, it'll take a couple weeks for the search engine spiders to "crawl" your site and add you to their indexes. If you like, you can submit your site manually. Here are a few of the major ones:

Google: Add your URL here
Yahoo: Add your URL here
AOL: Add your URL here