How to create your own website for your practice

We receive lots of questions during our workshops and internships about marketing. For those who are just getting started and work for themselves or starting a small company, marketing tends to rest in the same hands as the person who handles clients, finances, operations, administration… in short, it rests in your hands.

We know you don’t have tons of time to spend on marketing, but we all know it’s necessary. You need people to know what you do, so they can find you when they need help.

To create a simple website you don’t need anything fancy.

Here are the main things you need no matter what website builder you decide to go with:

1. High resolution, high-quality pictures
   1. Make sure your photos look good. If you’re using your own photos, make sure the lighting is good and the images are clear.
   2. If you use stock images, make sure you either use them from royalty-free stock image sites or pay for them. It’s illegal to use photos without permission and you will get in trouble for it.
   3. Get yourself a nice headshot for the “About Me” page on your site. They don’t have to cost a lot of money, but if you can afford it, it’s nice to have a professional headshot. I’ve seen lots of advertisements for around $125. If you want to do it yourself, make sure to have a background that’s not too busy and the light should be behind the camera facing you so your eyes are lit and you don’t have heavy shadows on your face. Taking it by a window is nice. Practice with angles. A quick search on google will turn up tons of tutorials on getting a good shot.
2. Attention-grabbing copy.
   1. Be yourself, but be the best version of yourself. When people read it, they should get a feel for who they’ll be working with and that they’re in good hands.
   2. Keep it short and clear.
   3. Look at other companies that do what you do and take note of what you like and don’t like about what they’ve written on their website.
   4. Ask friends and colleagues for their notes before hitting publish.
3. Blogs!
   1. Google likes it when there is new content on your website, so blogging is a good way to let search engines know that you’re staying current and up to date. Plus it’s a great way to build a following and stay connected.

Recommended Website Builders for Beginners

The website builders that I’ve personally tried and recommend are:

1. Wix: Often rated as the easiest to use with good customer support and lots of good templates.
2. Weebly: Has a free option and easy to use.
3. Squarespace: They have a lot of great designs and flexibility. I use this company a lot when I’m building sites for people who want to have control of their website once I’ve finished building it. It was one of the first website builders I ever used.

Each of these websites has “how-to” videos for you to watch if you need help and of course, there’s always YouTube. The main thing is to not let yourself get overwhelmed. If you have little to no website knowledge, I would recommend picking a template you like and just replacing the images and words with your own. Don’t worry about making design changes.

Take your time with what you’re trying to say and speak from your heart and then edit, edit, edit. Think about how you can get across what you need to say in as few words as possible. Don’t dance around what you do, write it clearly on your site. Think about what people would be searching for in Google when they’re trying to look for what your company has to offer.

Which website builder is your favorite to use? Let us know in the comments.

Our next marketing post will cover the basics of social media marketing. Please feel free to leave a comment with other marketing topics you’d be interested in us covering. We love hearing from you!