OK I am a bit of a geek which is unusual for a massage therapists.  I have a system that I use and recommend but it is fairly time intensive yet anyone can do it. So the other day I started researching various website design systems for massage therapists and was wondering what people are using and what is effective.
An effective website to me is one that gets 3-5 clients a week AND also makes you an additional stream of income from promoting affiliate products. (Affiliate marketing is promoting things that are related to massage – like I promote a stretching program, Traumeel, Biofreeze and books on health that I have read)
The reason that I feel a website is so important is that it is more than just a calling card for your business. It is also an opportunity to be more professional and educated doctors and the general public about what massage really can do and how it is used.  You know the drill – it’s good for stress, injuries, wellness but most people are clueless really about their bodies.
A website is one of the easiest ways to get clients I think because people are already looking for a massage therapist. They aren’t looking for you when they start out – but they are just looking for someone to help them with whatever issue they are having – stress or pain in some combination usually.  People want to know that you have experience working with the kinds of things that they are dealing with. They want to make sure they are spending their time wisely. What do they think when they find a site that doesn’t have any more info than just a few pages on how much the massage therapists charges?
One of the best exercises you can do is to go online and try to find a good massage therapist. Go through all of the process of searching online. Actually go and do it and follow through and go and get the massage.  See what you find out there!
The components of an effective website are many. It has to do with keywords and a little simple search engine optimization and also just writing all of the things down that you really just talk to people about – how muscles work, how massage works, what happens with stress and injuries. Writing this all down will also improve the way you communicate with clients in person.
While all of the technical details might seem too overwhelming they are worth learning about to create an effective website. I have it all laid on on my website at www.thebodyworker.com
If you would like some help with your current website just leave the address and I will give you some pointers on how to get your site to the top of the first page of Google (which is really the goal of every website. )
Happy Halloween!
Julie
November 6th, 2009 at 10:35 pm
Wondering how to get my website to come up on Google or similar search engines, other than on page 45 for instance.
November 6th, 2009 at 11:19 pm
I have it all laid out on my website in the link in the post. It is about using the keywords in metatags and in the pages effectively and about writing high quality content.
You don’t have any keywords in your domain, file name or in the headline of your pages. Your main keyword should be the name of your city and the word massage.
Julie
November 17th, 2009 at 7:33 pm
Would love any feedback you have on the website I’ve recently built.
Thanks!
Maria Cornwell, LMT
November 19th, 2009 at 2:28 am
First off, it looks very nice and relaxing.
I would take the music off though. I hate music on websites. If I want to hear music I will play it.
The name of your site isn’t very search engine friendly. What people are searching for is usually ‘massage, your city’. That should be the domain name. People don’t search for ‘take life slowly’ or any of those words.
Your metatags also need to reflect the main keyword of ‘massage, your city’
Here is what yours currently says (you can find it by going to ‘view’ then ‘page source’ in most browsers.
It should be something like this:
You also need to use the keyword phrase ” Massage your city’ on the title of the home page and in a few of the file names. You also create metatags for each page as outlined above.
I have it all explained on my website at http://www.thebodyworker.com
June 5th, 2010 at 9:46 pm
please provide feedback on my website.
thanks,
Jean
June 5th, 2010 at 11:23 pm
I don’t quite get the name… no one will search for massage 321. They will search for ‘massage, your city’. Those are the words you want to have in your domain name to help it get found. Your site looks nice but won’t do any good if it doesn’t get found. You don’t have any metatags from what I can see so you won’t get picked up by the search engines.
I would also recommend writing about 30 pages of content . It helps with getting found by the search engines and also helps to educate potential clients. Write about the different kinds of massage you do and what massage does for starters.
You can read more at http://www.massagepracticebuilder.com my new site which will teach you about websites.
Julie