Do you love that feeling of waking up in the morning and finding new bookings for your health and wellness business that came through your website? If that isn’t happening for you (yet!), then keep reading!

In the competitive landscape of local wellness businesses today, having the best health and wellness website in your region can be a game-changer. Your wellness website needs great design, strategic search engine optimization (SEO), and all the features that create a smooth experience for your site visitors so it is easy for them to become favorite clients.

Quickie guide to all the great tips you’ll find in this post…

• Why you need the best health and wellness website
• Show up in search
• Include a warm & friendly photo of yourself
• Global
• Easy Client Bookings
• Keep the focus on clients
• Use Testimonials to Your Advantage
• Use your wellness website blog and internal links
• Make it easy to find what site visitors are looking for!
• Site speed matters

Why you need the best health and wellness website in your area

The holistic health industry has grown considerably in recent years, and it’s not slowing down. Where there were once just a few practitioners, many communities now have a wealth of choices for care. Chiropractors, holistic nutritionists, energy healers, herbalists, therapists, naturopaths, acupuncturists, homepaths, the list goes on… In fact, the global alternative holistic medicine market is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 25.3% from 2024 to 2030.

While health and wellness businesses may have once done reasonably well with word of mouth and perhaps a basic website, today consumers are searching the web and comparing. Your health and wellness business website is often the first place potential clients go to learn more about who you are & what you do – and how you can help them. 

If your wellness website is amateur in design and lacking key features to make it stand out as one of the best in town, it doesn’t matter how skilled you are in your field. Site visitors will leave your website and go on to the next practitioner in search results.

To make a strong first impression and convert visitors into clients, your website needs to be more than just visually appealing—it must be highly functional, engaging, and have just the right balance of information without being overwhelming.  

You likely already KNOW what these features are – because you look for them yourself when you’re looking for a new therapist, or a plumber, or where to have a special dinner out.  Somehow we miss these important elements when it comes to our own websites.

I think sometimes we’re so focused on making sure people know WHAT we do that we forget to focus on user experience & what is needed to make sure people can:

1. Find you in search results (if they can’t find, you they can’t hire you!)
2. Know what makes your services different from the next health & wellness business owner (that difference is what will grow your business – use it!)
3. Feel a connection to you & excitement to learn more and work with you (they’re looking for YOU, not just your services. Don’t hide behind the details.)
4. Book with you (They shouldn’t have to hunt & peck to figure out how they can begin working with you.)

We want website visitors to not only learn about what you do, but also to be WAY more than just vaguely interested.

and…

We want fantastically WARM leads – so by the time you do that free discovery call, they are already humming with readiness to hire you. I’m talking Here’s our credit card, let us pay you NOW new clients like this happy young stock photo models couple…

8 ways to ensure your site is the BEST health and wellness website in your area.

1. The best websites have great SEO so you can show up well in search results

After all, your website won’t do a thing for you if you don’t show up in search results!  Your beautiful website can do a great job of converting all those word-of-mouth referrals, but the real magic happens when people start to discover you randomly in search results. 

There are well over 200 elements to how we rank in search results, and we only have control over a small # of them, but the best health and wellness websites have all the core SEO elements in place: relevant keywords placed correctly as heads and subheaders, page title, and within the content, fast site load times and mobile optimization, and a clean site infrastructure that google can easily scan to know what you do.

Want to use your blog to grow your presence in search? Check out my Blogging for SEO ebook!

2. Include a warm & friendly photo of yourself or your wellness team on the home page

First impressions matter, especially in the health and wellness industry where personal connection is everything. Including a warm and friendly photo of yourself on the home page can instantly make your site more welcoming and relatable. Ideally taken by a professional, and not with a stiff, posed “corporate” vibe.  It could even be a photo of you in “action” working with clients. Here are my top tips on planning your wellness website photoshoot.

This personal touch helps potential clients feel more comfortable and connected to you before they even read about your services – a simple way to warm them up even more and support conversion.

3. Make it REALLY EASY for new clients to book with you

Whether your first step is for them to book a free consult, or book their first PAID appointment, making it easy makes all the difference. The best health and wellness websites make sure that site visitors don’t have to hunt down the “BOOK NOW” button. It’s at the top, at the bottom, and featured at least once in between on the page content. 

I often will put a “BOOK NOW” button to the top right of your site’s menu so it’s easy to find on every page of your website. This ensures that no matter where they are on your website, potential clients can easily schedule a consultation or appointment with just one click. Be sure to also check out my tips on how to create an effective contact page on your wellness website, and my top booking tools for wellness business owners, including Book Like a Boss, Calendly & Acuity.

4. The best health & wellness websites focus on their clients – not their services.

While it’s important to showcase your health & wellness services, your website should primarily focus on your clients and their needs. When sharing information on our services, often we make the mistake of jumping right into the details of all the things we do and how we do them. It ends up feeling like a whole lot of blah…blah…blah text instead of messaging that converts. Instead, begin with what potential clients are seeking. 

Instead of getting lost in the details of your qualifications and services, speak directly to the concerns and goals of your potential clients. What are they hoping for? How can you help them experience the change they are seeking?  Make them feel seen and heard by addressing their pain points and demonstrating how you can help them achieve better health and well-being.

5. Use Testimonials to Your Advantage

 The best health and wellness websites feature powerful testimonials that make site visitors feel encouraged & inspired. Testimonials are your best tool for building trust and credibility with potential clients – without ever even speaking to them. By featuring positive feedback and success stories from past clients, you provide social proof that your services deliver results.

Strategically placing testimonials throughout your website, including your home page, can reassure visitors over and over again that they’re making the right choice by choosing your health and wellness services. Check out more tips on how to integrate client reviews on your wellness website.

6. Use your wellness website blog and internal links to encourage site visitors to stay a long time…

A simple way to help show Google that your health and wellness services are the best ones to show people in your area is to keep site visitors ON YOUR SITE. 

You know how sometimes you get lost in the rabbit hole of a new site and find yourself just clicking on link after link? THAT’S OUR GOAL!

The average time people spend on websites is 52 seconds, which is a pretty short turn-around time for getting them to take action. Our goal is to keep them on your site longer. That means more chances to learn about your services & click “BOOK NOW”. 

Even better, simply by including helpful links to other pages and featured blog posts within our site, we can increase their average time to a minute or more. If site visitors spend more time on your site than on your local health & wellness competitors, Google will take notice. Time spent on your pages is a strong signal that you offer great value to site visitors.

For example, here are 3 posts on my site that you might enjoy learning from!

• 
  What to do with old blog posts
• 
  10 Ways to Improve Your Blog Traffic
• 
  Rock your health and wellness blog & social media with ChatGPT (with these tips to make it better!)

7. Make it easy to find what site visitors are looking for!

Your website menu (navigation) is one of the most important elements shaping the experience visitors have on your website. When someone is searching for health and wellness services, they may be experiencing stress, overwhelm, or pain, and it’s even more important that our site be easy to manage. We don’t want them to have to hunt for the information they need.

Make sure key pages are linked from the menu, not buried behind a bunch of other pages & links. Ensure your menu labels are short & clear, and that you don’t have big long submenus that are more confusing than helpful.

8. Don’t make them wait to see your website – site speed matters.

Did you know that site loading speed is #1 factor that could make you lose a potential within the first 3 seconds of their discovering you? If your site takes 5, 6, 9 seconds to load, I can guarantee you are losing people. Plus, Google is paying attention to your loading times. It prioritizes sites that load quickly (under 3 seconds) because Google knows that people are happiest (and spend more money!) when their search results meet their needs.

Do you want your website to be one of the best health & wellness sites in your region?

It takes time and effort, but simple changes to your website can go a long way to making potential clients and Google notice you. Not sure how to measure how well your site matches these criteria? Reach out to a friend who matches your ideal client profile and have them give you feedback on your site!

For most holistic practitioner websites, there are many, many more features we could explore to improve your site into one of the best health and wellness websites in your area, from clean design and easy navigation to a free giveaway and email marketing. 

The six website tips featured above, however, are at the top of my list of priorities when designing and building a new client website. I’m here to help your business grow with beautiful AND strategic heath and wellness web design and storybrand messaging packages.

How can I help you? Reach out today to explore working together.