The Private Practice Success Podcast

34. 12 Website Must-Haves for Your Allied Health Business

• Gerda Muller • Episode 34

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In episode 34, Gerda shares her ultimate checklist for transforming your website into a powerful, client-attracting asset. 

Drawing on years of hands-on experience and real-life examples, Gerda explains why your website is so much more than a digital brochure. She’ll walk you through practical, actionable strategies to ensure your site is welcoming, trustworthy, and designed to convert visitors into clients. 

Plus, you’ll hear tips for keeping your site up-to-date and compliant, and how to make it easier for clients and referrers to connect with you.

In this Episode, you will learn (among others):

  • The 12 essential features every allied health website must have.
  • How to make your site fast, mobile-friendly, and easy to navigate.
  • The importance of a clear value proposition and visible contact details.
  • Why team bios with photos and up-to-date information build trust and drive bookings.
  • Simple ways to improve accessibility, SEO, privacy, and compliance.
  • How to use your website as a lead generation tool and keep it working for your business.

Special Bonus:

Download Gerda's Website Checklist HERE to make implementing these 12 Website Must-Haves even easier.

Who This Episode Is For:

  • Allied health practice owners wanting to attract more ideal clients online.
  • Anyone who wants to turn their website into a true asset for their practice.

Tune in now and discover how a few strategic tweaks can turn your website into a client-generating machine and help you build a practice you can’t stop smiling about :)

Want Gerda's Help with your Business?

Gerda helps allied health group practice owners go from overwhelmed, overworked, and underpaid to fully empowered and financially thriving. If this is you, then make today the day you reach out. Complete this super short Triage Form here bit.ly/triageformpps and Gerda will personally reach out to you. 

Here to help you build a practice you can't stop smiling about :)

Connect with Private Practice Success & Gerda here:

Well, hello there passionate private practice owner. My name is Gerda Muller, and you are listening to the Private Practice Success Podcast, and this is episode number 34. 

Today we're going to be diving into something that can make a massive difference to your practice's growth, its credibility, as well as the client experience, and that is - your website.

Now, whether you are a psychologist, an occupational therapist, speech pathologist, mental health social worker, physio, or any other allied health professional - your website is your digital front door. Just like your physical practice, it needs to be welcoming, inviting, and most importantly, it needs to be trustworthy and safe.

Today I'm going to share with you my top 12 website must-haves for any allied health private practice business in 2025. Honestly, we spend a lot of money and a lot of time and energy and thinking into creating our website, so I really want you to get the optimal return on investment from all that money, time, and energy investment that you put in, right?

A website is not a set-and-forget asset for your business, so I want to share with you practical and actionable strategies to implement. Honestly, these are non-negotiable if you want to stand out and ultimately serve your clients well.

Now, before we get stuck into the 12 websites must-haves, I thought, how can I make your life easier? So what I have done is collated all 12 into a downloadable document for you. If you go into the show notes on whatever platform you are listening to, you will be able to find a link to this download.

It is in a checklist format, which means that once you've listened to this - maybe in the car or on a walk somewhere or maybe whilst hanging up the washing (that's when I normally listen to my favourite podcasts) - you might not be able to write things down.

So this is your opportunity to then go back when you are at your desk, go into the show notes, download the list, and go through them one by one. Ask yourself,  which ones have I already have covered -  and go excellent, well done me!  Then those that you have not attended to as yet, highlight them and put those on your to-do list or send that to the person in charge of your website. 

Alrighty, so let's get started.

I'm pretty confident that you’re already going to have quite a number of them, but it could be just that one or two things that you've not attended to as yet that can make all the difference for you - and could result in a significant spike of new client enquiries coming into your practice.

Number 1: Your Website must be Fast

Picture this: there's a mum who knows that her child needs to see a speech pathologist. She's sitting in the car park at school pickup in the afternoon, maybe she's between errands, and she's Googling “speech pathologist in Brisbane.” Your website pops up. Maybe you've done great work - you're on Google's first page. She clicks on your website… but it takes forever to load. 

She's sitting there looking at that little thingy that goes around and around (the circle of doom), loading and loading. Like in today's day and age, we don't have the patience to wait for your site to load. She'll probably just click the little X, exit out of your website and go to the next person whose name has come up in the search results - because she's busy. And the fact that your website doesn't load? That doesn't look very professional. It doesn't look like you've got your tech all sorted out, right.

It is your job as the business owner to ensure that you have a fast loading website. Ideally, your website should load within two seconds. Now, that might sound really fast, but it's actually really long when you're sitting and waiting. I know that's such a first world problem, but that's just how it is.  So I really want to encourage you to do a speed test of your website. 

The tool that I use to do that for my own websites - both at the practice as well as for Private Practice Success - is called tools.pingdom.com. Even if you just search for “Pingdom”, you will find this tool.

You pop in your website, tell them where you're located (we fall in the Asia region),  and it will do an audit of your website. That's all you need to put in - literally the website address - and it will then give you a report card on how your website is doing. The great thing about this tool is that it gives you suggestions of things to work on in order to improve that loading speed.

So I definitely recommend you go and sort that out.

Number 2: A Mobile-First Design

It's all good and well looking at your website on your desktop. When your desktop gets designed, the designer's probably doing it on a desktop - because it's easier to do it on a desktop.  When you are looking at it and you are proofing it, you are probably looking at it on a computer, right. 

However, what we know - and what the research and the stats tell us-  is that most Google searches (and other search engine searches for that matter) happen on mobiles. This means that the majority of people will be accessing your website on the mobile phone.

So you need to make sure that when people are looking at your website on mobile, that it is user friendly - specifically for the size of a mobile phone. 

Things that you need to look at include:

  • How small is the text? Is it too small? 
  • What colour is it? 
  • Can you read it easily? 
  • What about the buttons? Can I press the button easily or do I need to use my fingers to make it bigger and enlarge the images? 
  • Can I actually see what's on there? 


Something I often find with websites is that I might land on the homepage, but I want to find out something else about them - maybe their fees or who's on their team - and now I need to search for… where the hell is the menu button?

Oh, it's hiding at the top, and I need to scroll up for it to actually appear - so it's not there automatically. It's like… too hard, right? Again, I know-  first world problems - but if you want to achieve the goal of giving people a good experience on your website, this is the type of stuff you need to look at.

So you want to make sure that you've got clear fonts, big buttons, and that the layout works on your mobile device.

Number 3: Clear Value Proposition

If someone has searched for you on Google, clicked on your website, and it has loaded in under two seconds -  they should instantly be able to tell who you help, what you offer, and why they should trust you. 

You need to make sure that you've got a really clear headline  - something like: Helping Brisbane families thrive - evidence-based speech and occupational therapy for children and teens.

That one sentence tells the reader:

  • Your business is Brisbane-based
  • You work with families, specifically children in teens
  • You provide speech and occupational therapy services 
  • You use Evidence-based approaches, meaning that this has shown to work, so this is a trustworthy intervention that we use.


All of that in one simple direct sentence, but it's also very client focused. 

That is an example of a Clear Value Proposition.

Number 4: Phone Number Displayed

This is one of my personal bugbears  when I go onto a website - and that is when there's no freaking phone number. 

I am old school, and I like to pick up the phone and call. I do not like to wait for an answer. I mean, this one is so super simple, right? But it is amazing to me how many times there's either no phone number or you need to go searching for it.

I feel like I need to hunt it down - usually by scrolling all the way to the bottom of the page to find it in little fonts. Or I need to go and search for the contact us tab somewhere, click on that to go and find a phone number, then generally, I still need to scroll to go and find it.

Don't make it this hard for people to phone you. Have the phone number easily available. Ideally, it should be right at the top where your menu bar is, and ideally it should be visible on each and every page - not only the homepage.

Because people might land on the homepage, then navigate to, let's say, your assessment services, read through it and they go, “Yes, I'm convinced I'm going to book in for an assessment with this practice.” They shouldn’t have to go, “Oh, where did I see that phone number again?” No - make it easy for me to reach out and contact you. 

So definitely have it at the top of every page, have it in the header and you can double up and have it in the footer as well. I say the more the merrier when it comes to being able to allow clients to contact you.  And better still - make it a click to call number for mobile users. In other words, if I'm on my phone and I click on the phone number, it will ask, “Do you want to call this place?” I go, yes - and it's done. I don't have to punch in the numbers or switch between screens in order to make sure I call the right number.

Again, we are making it as easy as possible for people to reach out to you.

Number 5: Email Address or Contact Us Form

Please make sure that you have an email address, or alternatively, a contact us form available.

Again, this is about making it easy for people to reach out. Now, even though I might be somebody that loves to pick up the phone and call, not everybody wants to do that, right? Some people feel anxious about making a phone call, especially when they want to get help from an allied health provider. Or maybe they want to reach out after hours when there's going to be nobody there to answer the phone.

So for those clients, you want to give them a choice. You want to provide them with a clear email. Like me personally, I prefer having an actual email address than doing a contact form. Again, I hate to say this, I'm really getting old, I think, because, I don't know, maybe you feel the same, but when I do a “contact us” form, I feel like it is going into the abyss. And you know why I feel like that? Because people that have those forms rarely have an automatic reply set up. 

So if you want to go with the contact us form, then make sure that when somebody puts in their details, immediately there's a popup to say:  Hey, thank you so much for submitting this form. We endeavour to get back to you within 24 hours. You know, something like that.  There should be a confirmation that my query has been received. I feel like when I don't get that, I don't trust that it has gone to the right place. Maybe I'm just distrustful of technology. I don't know.

Either way - either an email for people to go, yes, I can put this into my emails where I can see it in my sent folder. When it's gone, for me personally, I can even put a reminder on if I haven't heard back. You know, I like to be organised, that's why I prefer email, that type of thing. But if you don't want to give an actual email, give them a contact form that has an actual confirmation, and something that sets those expectations around when they can expect a reply from you. 

That allows that person to go, cool bananas. I know I've now taken the step, the query is off, and I can expect to hear back from them at this time.

Number 6: Address & Location Details

I highly recommend that if you have a brick-and-mortar practice, that you actually provide your address. I can't tell you how many times I go onto allied health practice websites, and I cannot for the life of me figure out where they're located. 

Each and every time somebody reaches out to me and completes my triage form - which is normally the first step to work with me or join my PPS Academy or my Founders club - one of the questions I ask on that triage form is: What's your website? And I will go and look at people's websites. 

Before I get back to somebody to say how I think I can help best based on their responses, I go that step further and go, what does their website look like? How many team members do they have? What type of additional services there may be? Because sometimes people don't give me that much information in those forms, so I actually go and do the work and do a bit of extra research based on their website, so that when I go back to them, I can really give them an informed recommendation of the best way that I can help them - and if I can't help them, I'll point them in another direction. 

As part of this process, I like to know -  Are these people in Melbourne? Brisbane? Where are they located? Are they rural, regional, in metropolitan areas? Because I keep all of those things in mind, right? And I can't tell you how often I just can't figure it out. It's definitely not on the landing page, and I normally need to go and look for a contact us page. Then there's the form that I need to do and, sometimes I keep looking and looking… It's just too hard. 

Especially when you have that brick-and-mortar in person location, this is going to be really important. Especially if you've got a child adolscent practice and you need to pop a child in the car and drive somewhere - I want to know, where's this place located? How long is it going to take me as a parent to drive there?  As a busy professional, how long is it going to take me to drive there?

And yes, I know that telehealth is amazing. I've got an entire telehealth team at my practice. If you are a telehealth-only practice, I would also stipulate that on there. Because otherwise, unfortunately - especially for psychology practices - people just assume you're going to be an in-person business, because that's just how it's always been. It actually highlights on that first page already that we are a fully online practice, and these are the benefits of that, right? But address is really, really important - full address. 

What would be even more amazing: embedding a Google map, maybe mentioning some nearby landmarks and parking options. This makes it really easy for your clients to find you, and if you're using those Google Maps, it helps you to show up more on local searches. 

Definitely this one is a big must.

Number 7: Photo with your Team Bios

If you are a solo practice owner or if you have a team of clinicians, I strongly encourage you to make sure that there is a photo that goes with every team member bio. I know that that can feel uncomfortable, but honestly, it is so super important. 

The thing is this: people connect with people - they don't connect with logos. 

By including a professional, friendly photo with your bio will go a long way at helping a potential client connect with you. I'm not saying pose in all different types of positions. A simple headshot - which means head and shoulders - is perfect.  

As a psychologist, I know that it takes an incredible amount of courage for somebody to pick up the phone or send in that enquiry. In other words, to take that first step to reaching out, to making an appointment with a psychologist - whether that psychologist is going to see them in person or online -  it takes a lot of courage. 

Just by knowing who that person is, by being able to put a face to the name, is going to help so much at just making that client feel more in control. In terms of, at the very least, I know when I click that little join button for the zoom call, when I'm doing telehealth, I know who I'm going to see on the other side. It's not unexpected. Or when I walk into the practice and after I've checked in with reception, I'm sitting down - I will know who my person is when they come out, because there might be other psychologists coming in and out.

It's like, oh, is, is this my person? Oh no, I need to wait. Oh, is that my person? No, I need to wait. It's all about easing the client from that emotional perspective, allowing us to therefore decrease the barrier to access.  Because when they're feeling anxious or out of control about taking that first step, they might not show up. 

So it's such a simple little thing that we can do. It's like taking a photo - it takes two seconds. You can take a photo on your mobile phone and pop it onto your website. Honestly, yes, some photos are better than others. I actually do like a white-ish background because I don't want it to be too busy. I want the focus just to be on the person. But I've seen some amazing photos that people have on their website.

At the very least, you need to have a headshot there. It's a tiny little thing that you can do to help clients build that relationship and that trust with the clinician - increasing the chances of them actually showing up to session number one.

Number 8: Lead Generation Tool

This is where I want to really encourage you, as a practice owner, to use your website as a lead generation tool. 

Again, you put all this effort into your website - into making it amazing. Clients might search and land on your website, but not everybody is going to be ready to take that first step. People are going to look at your website, and they're going to be at different stages of the process of change. 

Some of them are going to be ready to press that, call now button, or to press on that phone number, or to complete and submit the contact us form. Others aren't going to be ready for that, but they might be ready to download a free handout.

Something as simple as 10 Tips for Supporting Your Child's Emotion Regulation at Home. If that is a problem their child is struggling with, as a parent they might go, “Oh yeah, I want to read that”. That is a great opportunity for you to show know-how, to add value, and for that client to gain additional trust - Ah, that was actually helpful, I think maybe now I'm ready to take that next step, because the resource that I was able to download from this practice was helpful. 

Now, obviously when somebody downloads a resource from your website, you need to make sure that you've got a means - a way and means - to capture their name, surname, and their email address. That's basically what they “pay” for this free thing, right? So they give that to you, and then they are able to get an email from you with this download. 

Then you want to make sure that you've got a bit of a nurture sequence set up. You're not going to spam them. You might email them again in a week to say:

Hey, checking back in with you. I know you've downloaded this resource on 10 Tips for Supporting Your Child's Emotional Regulation at Home. I thought I would check in to see - how did you go? Was it of help?  Do you have any questions since reading that? Reach out and let us know. 

Something to start engaging that person - because maybe that's the prompt that they need to go, Oh, actually I downloaded it, and like many people, I never read it. Let me go and read it now. You want people to look at your resource and read it. Or maybe they have read it, or maybe they even haven't - but they've gone - This is really great that they've actually followed up. Maybe I'm going to reply and say, Hey, I was actually wondering, how long is the wait to get in to see you guys, and what are your fees? 

And that starts that conversation. That's obviously where reception then takes over to convert them - ideally - into a booking. 

I would recommend not having too much stuff. Really look at what are the 1, 2, 3 things that will be helpful to your potential clients - that people can download from your website.

Number 9: SEO Optimisation

You absolutely must have SEO optimization happening on your website. 

Now, the topic of optimization is like a half day workshop, right? All I want to do for the purpose of today is to say: are you doing SEO optimization? Because the thing is, people are Googling their questions - and you want to be the one who answers them.

For example, you can write a blog post entitled How To Tell If My Child Needs Occupational Therapy. Because guess what? There are probably parents out there Googling, How do I tell if my child needs occupational therapy? So if somebody's asking Google that question, and you've written a blog on it, and you've put in the appropriate keywords within your blog, and you've used the exact same title -  almost as their question - guess what Google's going to do? 

Google is going to go, Hey, here's the answer. This practice answered this for you. It's like the perfect match to your question. So you really want to be using phrases that your ideal clients are searching for, and then you want to answer that through your content. And generally the easiest way to consistently create content on a website is through blog posts. 

So have a think about what you need to do in order to commence SEO optimization.

Number 10: Accessibility

It is really important in today's day and age to make sure that as many people as possible can access the website, and therefore the content and information that is on there. And this is where Alt text comes into play. For example, whenever you upload an image onto your website, you want to make sure that you include Alt text for those images.

Alt text is the short description that you add to every image on your website. And I know, because I've been there often - you look at that and you go, I don't know what that is, and you just leave it blank. That is really missing out on creating accessibility for people who are visually impaired.

So when somebody that is visually impaired goes onto your website, they will generally be using what's called screen readers, and they use that to browse the web. The screen reader will read out the description - which is that Alt text that you've popped in when you uploaded the image - and that way they know what the image is that's being shown.

For example, if you have a photo of a child doing occupational therapy within your Brisbane clinic, the Alt text might say: Child in occupational therapy session in Brisbane. This way everybody can understand the content, even if they can't see the image because they are visually impaired.

If you've not been doing this, I would highly recommend assigning this task to somebody in your team - where they go page for page on your website, clicking on all the images and making sure that there is an Alt text uploaded for each and every image.

Number 11: Privacy, Security & Compliance

We know that trusting business - and even more so within the business of allied health - is incredibly important. So your website must be secure. Look for that little padlock and the H-T-T-P-S in your web address. A lot of websites still only say HTTP, so you need to make sure that it has the S included, because that is enhanced security. 

You also want to have a clear privacy policy on your website and a cookie consent banner. I also recommend, especially for us in allied health, to have a disclaimer. It can be really general - don't go overboard and make it three paragraphs - something as simple as: This website provides general information only and does not replace professional advice. 

This is about protecting your clients as much as it is about protecting your business.

Number 12: Up-to-Date Information

In terms of the look and feel, I have gone to, as I said earlier on, a lot of websites, and some websites are still stuck in the 1900s. I say that with all the love in the world, and I realise updating a website can be such an overwhelming project. But you know what? In today's day and age, you shouldn't be the one doing it. You can actually outsource something like that for half the price than we were able to do back in the 1900s. So it's actually easier than what you think. 

You definitely want to look at the look and feel, and is it a modern outline? It doesn't have to be over the top fancy. Because I actually don't like fancy. I love user friendly. I love plain and simple. But, it is 2025 at the time of recording, so we also need to make sure that we are using templates and outlines that are relevant to this day and age. 

Then of course, very importantly, you need to be mindful of any outdated information because that is confusing and it erodes trust. So make sure that if there's changes in your team, for example, that you update the team page. If you are reviewing your services, make sure that you fix that up on your website. If you are changing your fees and you've got your fees listed on the website, make sure that you go in and update it. 

It's really important to make sure that what is on your website is going to be what's going to be discussed when somebody speaks to reception or speaks to a clinician, because if there's misalignment, it will erode trust. So very, very important to make sure that there's clear and current information on the website, because that just makes life easier for everybody.

The Recap

So to recap, the 12 websites must-haves for any allied health business:

Number 1: It needs to be fast - referring to that loading speed. 

Number 2: It should have a MobileFirst design.

Number 3: There needs to be a clear value proposition. 

Number 4: It should be a clear phone number, available. 

Number 5: Offer an email address or have a contact us form. 

Number 6: If you are a brick and mortar practice, make sure that your address and location details are easily findable. 

Number 7: Make sure that every team bio has a headshot attached to it.

Number 8: Utilize your website as a lead generation tool by having something that your clients or potential clients can download. 

Number 9: Make sure that you are utilizing SEO optimization in order to reach more people by being higher up in the search results.

Number 10: Ensure that your website is accessible to people with disabilities by including Alt text with all of your images. 

Number 11: Look at your privacy, security, and compliance and ensure that all those things are covered. 

Number 12: Make sure that you have a website that provides up-to-date team and service information, and that has a modern look and feel to it.

Remember what I said in the start: your website is your digital front door. By getting just these 12 essentials right, you will not only attract more clients, but you'll serve them better from the very first click.

Thank you so very much for listening. I do appreciate this amazing opportunity to be in your ears and in your head, and share with you my thoughts around the business of Allied Health. 

As always, remember that I am here to help you build a practice you can't stop smiling about. 😊

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Gerda Muller

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