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Setting up your Professional Website


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Setting up your Professional Website

Lex
Lex
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Setting up your Professional Website

Lex
Lex
  • Updated

The Professional Website is designed to provide a simple and clean foundation for you to tell the story of your practice and better engage with your client base.

The fully integrated functionality offers ease of use by pulling information from your existing settings in your SimplePractice account. The modern, one-page design translates to a beautiful experience from web or mobile, and means that your website will not only be easy for you to manage but also for your clients to navigate.

In this guide, we’ll cover:

Tip: Already customized your Professional Website? Looking to set up a custom domain to use as your domain? See our guide on Setting a domain.

Enabling the Professional Website for your practice

To get started with customizing your Professional Website, the Account Owner or a Practice Manager will first need to enable it for the practice.

To do so, they'll go to Settings > Professional Website and toggle the switch On.

Once this feature is enabled, they can begin customizing your practice’s Professional Website. The site won’t go live until you click Publish Website. Publishing will be the last step to take once you're ready for your website to be seen by your clients and potential leads.

Note: Publishing your Professional Website will replace the landing page for the Client Portal. If you need to unpublish the site, the Account Owner or a Practice Manager can toggle the Professional Website back to the disabled state. Doing so will revert your Client Portal to its original landing page, and any customization to the Professional Website will be restored when you enable the feature again. Toggling the switch back on will not publish the website.

Customizing the Professional Website

Here, we’ll give an overview of each section available in your Professional Website. Some sections will be optional, giving you customization to include what’s most important for your practice.

When someone is viewing your published website, they’ll be able to jump ahead to any section using the tabs at the top of the page.

When customizing your Professional Website, you'll make adjustments using in-line editing, or for some of the integrated fields, you'll make updates directly to your account settings in SimplePractice.

In-line editing

With in-line editing, you can simply scroll down to the appropriate section that you’d like to update and click Edit. This will open the fields that are specific to that section for you to customize. Any changes you make will be reflected in your view of the Professional Website, but won’t go into effect until you click Save Changes.

Making adjustments to your account settings

The Professional Website uses smart defaults that pull from your existing account settings. This is designed to streamline the set up process and get your Professional Website looking polished in no time.

If you'd like to update the default for the following fields on your Professional Website, you'll want to do so by making the adjustments directly from your SimplePractice account settings before you create your Professional Website. For a step-by-step walkthrough of adjusting these settings, you can click on the section below to take you to the associated guide:

Important: When you enable these fields in your SimplePractice account settings, by default they'll carry over to your Professional Website. As soon as edits are made to a free text field from the Professional website editor, there will be a disconnect and changes made from your SimplePractice account will no longer carry over.

Sections of the Professional Website

  • Home
  • About
  • Services
  • Testimonials
  • Locations
  • Contact
  • Sign In

Home

The Home section of your Professional Website is where you’ll first capture your audience. This is where readers will land when they navigate to your website and, as the reader’s first impression, it should be used to set the tone and mission of your practice.

This includes a short Header of up to 75 characters, and a Subheader of up to 100 characters.  These fields are both required and should be kept as concise as possible to convey the value and specializations that your practice uniquely offers. When setting up the About section for your website, you’ll have a chance to expand further on this.

In the Home section, you can also customize the background image to one that resonates with the mission of your practice - choosing from over 60 preloaded professional images and sleek patterns.

Setting up the Home section:

  • Click Edit
  • Enter your customized Header and Subheader
  • Choose a Pattern or Image as your Background
  • Save Changes

Note: At this time, there aren’t any options for uploading your own images to set as the background of the Home section. See the About section below to learn how you can upload your own Profile Image.

About

The About section should tell the reader more about your practice - who you are and what you do.

Your Practice Highlights will be shown first - these are icons used to indicate some of the services you offer which might influence prospective clients landing on your Professional Website. These include icons to indicate if you offer Telehealth services, if you accept Online Payments, if you take insurance, and whether or not you’re taking on new clients.

Note: These settings communicate directly with your SimplePractice account. If you don’t use Online Payments or Telehealth by SimplePractice, but offer these services through an external provider, you won’t be able to enable these icons.

The About section also has text fields designed as a way for you to let any potential clients get to know more about you.

This includes a short Header of up to 75 characters, and an About the Practice section where you can expand in depth about the mission of your practice, the reasons behind why you do what you do, how you first got started, details about your staff members, and more.

Setting up the About section:

  • Click Edit
  • Enter your customized Header and add a personalized message to the About the Practice field
  • Using the upload tool, add an optional Profile Image
  • Review the Name and Title fields to make sure they reflect the right person’s credentials
  • Select which Practice Highlights you’d like to have on display on your website
  • Click Save Changes

Services

This is where you'll enter what your practice specializes in. Filling out this information will help make sure the right clients find your website. These fields include your Focus Areas, Approaches, Accepted Insurance, and Fees.

Setting up the Services section:

  • Click Edit
  • Click each section to manage the entries. Each section is optional. 
  • Click Save Changes

Testimonials

A testimonial from a client or colleague can be a valuable tool for prospective clients seeking a new therapist or wellness professional. A testimonial given by a client can be a helpful reflection of the relationship clients can expect when they join your practice. If the testimonial comes from a colleague, it can give credence to your expertise in the field while also supporting the growth of your professional network.

With the Professional Website, you can add testimonials directly. See our guide on adding Testimonials to make sure you're doing so compliantly.

Locations

If you want additional locations to appear on your Professional Website, you'll need to first add the locations to your SimplePractice account settings. You can refer to our guide on Adding practice locations to learn how. Once you have at least one physical office location listed in your account settings, you can return to the website editor to enable this section and select which locations you'd like displayed on your Professional Website.

If you want to hide your location altogether from appearing on your Professional Website, you can:

  • Click Edit
  • Toggle the switch to the off position for any office locations that you would like hidden from your Professional Website
  • Click Save Changes

Note: You can decide whether you want to hide or display your exact address from the general public here: Hiding or displaying your address publicly.

Contact

To manage the options for clients contacting you:

  • Scroll to the top of the website editor and click Edit Website
  • Under Contact Options select if you'd like the Client Portal button and the Request Appointment button to appear using the toggle switches
  • Click Save Changes

Note: If you haven't already enabled the Client Portal and online appointment requests for your practice, you'll need to set this up in your SimplePractice account settings before they'll be available for your Professional Website. For a step-by-step overview of this process, review the associated guides: Setting up the Client Portal and Enabling online appointment requests.

FAQs

General FAQs

Security and compliance

Domain

Online Discoverability and SEO

General FAQs

Are there any additional font or theme options available?

Currently there are 3 different themes that you can apply to your entire Professional Website. Choose to give your website a Casual, Playful, or Modern feel - each of these themes will have a different font associated with them. At this time, to keep the Professional Website simple, there aren’t any additional options for changing the font or theme of your website. Though, we may consider introducing more themes and customization options for fonts in the future. 

With the current functionality, you also have the option to choose between 16 different color options for the buttons primary and accent colors used throughout the website.

Can I add an introduction video to my Professional Website?

There isn’t a section on the Professional Website to include a multi-media video, however, this is something our team aims to offer in the future. We recommend reviewing and commenting on this post: Embed multimedia in Professional Website so we can track your feedback on our Ideas and Suggestions board.

In the meantime, if you’d like to add a link to your social media accounts such as YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, you can add those links to your Professional Website. To do this:

  • Navigate to Settings > Professional Website > Edit Website > Social Media

socialmedia.simplepractice.professionalwebsite.png

  • Add your social media URL to the corresponding field
  • Click Save Changes

Can I add my own banner to my Professional Website?

Not currently. There is only the option for adding a custom logo to your Professional Website, though you may use the free text fields to add additional information regarding your practice.

Can I create multiple websites for the different services we offer? Can I make my Professional Website available in multiple languages?

Only one website can be created per practice at this time.

Can I unpublish my website?

You can unpublish your website at any time. To do so, the Account Owner or a Practice Manager can toggle the Professional Website back to the disabled state. This will revert the Client Portal back to its original landing page, and any customization to the Professional Website will be restored if you choose to enable the feature again. Toggling the switch back on will not automatically publish the website. 

How can I customize my website for my Group Practice? Can different clinicians have their own website?

At this time, there’s only the option to have one profile image included on the Professional Website and only one version of the website is available per practice. This can be managed by the Account Owner or a Practice Manager.

If you’d like, you can have this image be of the founder or a key practice stakeholder, or you could upload a group shot. Please keep in mind that the dimensions of the photo will be round.

While we don’t have an ETA for when further customization options will be available for group practice accounts, this is something that our team is actively working toward. We’d love to hear how we can improve the website to suit your practice’s needs. You can share your feedback here: Feedback for the Professional Website.

How can I link my blog to the Professional Website?

At this time there isn’t a way to embed links in the Professional Website, though you can choose to include the full URL in the free text field of the About section. 

Simply navigate to the website editor, scroll down to the About section, introduce the link in the text, and click Save to keep your changes.

Clients and leads won’t be able to click on the link directly but they’ll be able to copy and paste the URL into their web browser:

Bloglinkexample.simplepractice.aboutsection.png

How much does the Professional Website cost?

The Professional Website is available at no additional cost on the Essential and Plus Plans. You can choose whether to host your site using the default domain provided by SimplePractice (e.g., https://yourpracticename-clientsecure.me) or to use your own custom domain.

If you’re on the Starter Plan, you’ll be able to enable the Professional Website from your settings and make and preview edits to the website. However, you won't be able to publish your website until you upgrade your plan.

Note: See Which subscription plan is right for me? for more information about the features included in each of the plans we offer.

My existing website has content organized between various tabs. Is there any way to add tabs for additional content? How can I break down my content into a digestible way?

The Professional Website is one page to offer a better experience for existing clients and potential leads. If you want to break down the copy that you include on your website, the free text field of the About section allows you to elaborate on the story of your practice. You can choose to break this section up into separate paragraphs that go into different sectors of your practice.

Why is the Professional Website only one page? Can I add additional tabs?

The simplicity of a vertically-designed website prevents visitors from getting lost in a maze of pages that don’t include a clear action for them to take. A recent study discovered that this type of website led to 38% more signups than a multi-page site.

This type of website also makes it easy to update your content as needed because it’s all on one, easy-to-navigate web page. Whether you’re updating your bio or adding more speciality services, you need to be able to easily add, remove, edit, or update content at any time.

Did you know that website visitors only wait an average of four seconds for a web page to load? The fewer barriers there are for potential clients, the more likely they are to engage with you. It’s one of those things that most people wouldn’t stop to think about, but it makes a big difference in your visitors’ experience. 

Roughly 49% of website visitors come from mobile devices, which means people need to be able to easily navigate your website content from their phone. Your website should be able to adjust seamlessly to devices large and small, so users can read directly from their mobile device. While some website builders allow you to adjust for mobile separately, consider a platform that automatically accounts for mobile adjustments. That way, you have one less thing to worry about.

The truth is more than half of all visitors spend less than 15 seconds reading through a website before losing interest and leaving. The minimalism of a single-page site naturally encourages you to add only what’s necessary. This format also gives visitors a comfortable, linear experience that leads them toward the action you want them to take, such as contacting you.

Security and compliance

Does SimplePractice offer pre-written content that I can include on my website?

The Professional Website offers some thoughtful, pre-written headers as inspiration; however, we encourage you to write your own story. Although you’re an expert in your field, your clients are not and you don't need industry-specific terminology on your website. This type of language can come across as impersonal or even cold. We recommend that you take some time to use inviting, plain language, so potential clients can easily understand what you do and why you do it. You don’t have to use complex language to make a lasting impression on potential clients.

Your specialty should be clear to your audience from the very first line. Focus your writing so it speaks to the needs and wants of the clients you serve. Then think about the next step you want them to take. Book a consultation? Send an email? Fill out a contact form? Let them know. People want to be led and guided. Make the next step as easy as possible for your potential clients by having a call-to-action, such as “Get in Touch” or “Schedule an Appointment.”

Is there a way to display the No Surprises Act on my Professional Website?

You can choose to include a footer informing clients of their right to receive a Good Faith Estimate on your Professional Website. To do this: 

  • Navigate to Settings > Professional Website > Edit your website 
  • Click Edit Website and select Practice Details
  • Under the Legal section, turn the Display No Surprises Act in footer toggle on

nosurprisesact.simplepractice.professionalwebsite.png

  • Click Save Changes and Publish 

This will be included in the footer of your Professional Website. See Making sure your Professional Website is compliant for more information. 

Will the Professional Website be HIPAA compliant and will it include a BAA for my clients?

The platform that we offer is completely secure and HIPAA compliant. To make sure you're also adhering to these regulations with the custom content that you add, see Making sure your Professional Website is compliant.

Domain

Can I use the default domain initially and connect a custom domain later after my website is already published?

If you start out using the default domain that SimplePractice provides when you first publish your Professional Website and want to purchase and connect a custom domain at a later date, you're welcome to do so. Once the connection is successful, the new domain will go live. Plus, any clients accessing the default domain included in your SimplePractice account would automatically be redirected to reach your custom domain. 

See our guide on Setting a domain for more information on how to set up a custom domain.

I need help transferring my domain from my previous website, can SimplePractice help with this?

  • It's important to distinguish between what it means to transfer a domain and what it means to connect a custom domain.
  • Transferring a custom domain indicates that the host of the domain is changing. An example of this would be transferring your domain provider from Domains.com to Google Domains. If this is something that you need to do, you will need to work with the representatives from the old domain provider and the new domain provider who will be able to assist with this process.
  • On the other hand, you can now connect a custom domain that's hosted by a third party domain provider to use as the domain for your Professional Website. Please note that SimplePractice is not a domain provider itself.
  • If you need to move your existing custom domain which currently points to your website hosted by a different website provider, so that it points to your Professional Website by SimplePractice, you will first want to work with the support team from your domain provider to disconnect the custom domain from your old website. Then, once the custom domain becomes available, you can set up the connection to your new Professional Website by SimplePractice.
  • While we can't assist with adjusting the settings of your third party accounts outside of SimplePractice, you can refer to our guide on Setting a domain for more information on how to connect the custom domain. Or, you can reach out to your support representative from your domain provider directly for additional assistance with this process.

Can I set up domain forwarding for my Professional Website?

While we can't assist with the setting of your third party accounts outside of SimplePractice, you can refer to our guide on Setting a domain for more information on how to connect a custom domain. Or, you can reach out to your support representative from your domain provider directly for additional assistance with this process.

Can SimplePractice help disconnect my custom domain from my existing website for me?

While we can't assist with the settings of your third party accounts outside of SimplePractice, you can refer to our guide on Setting a domain for more information on how to set up a custom domain. Or, you can reach out to your support representative from your domain provider directly for additional assistance with this process.

Online Discoverability and SEO

Can I update how my Professional Website displays in search engine results and shared link previews?

It’s easy to update the title of your Professional Website and modify how it displays in search engine results and shared link previews. To do this:

  • Navigate to Settings > Professional Website
  • Click Try for Free > Edit Website > Online Discoverability (SEO) 
  • Adjust the Page Title

pagetitle.simplepractice.SEO.png

  • Click Save Changes > Publish

Note: Please allow a couple of business days for search engine results and shared link previews to refresh their information.

Is there any loss of ranking in SEO if I switch from my existing website and start using the Professional Website?

There are a lot of variables involved with SEO rankings, and we can’t definitively say how the needle will move when you migrate from an existing website to the new SimplePractice Professional Website. We do, however, create an optimized default page based on your SimplePractice settings, so you already have a head start on improved SEO.

That being said, you can edit the Online Discoverability (SEO) of your website to change how it can be found in a search engine to optimize the page titles and meta descriptions for what a client would search for. You can modify this by following these steps:

  • Navigate to Settings > Professional Website > Customize your Websitecustomizewebsite.simplepractice.professionalwebsite.png
  • Click Edit Website > Online Discoverability (SEO)
  • Modify your Page Title and Page Descriptiononlinediscoverability.simplepractice.professionalwebsite.png
  • When you're finished, click Save

The foundation of the Professional Website is designed to help optimize SEO. We'll continue to add enhancements that will help optimize their site's performance and online discoverability.

Are there any website management services that will help me customize and improve my "online discoverability" or SEO? I'm hoping for assistance on ongoing website management.

The foundation of the Professional Website is designed to help optimize SEO, and we'll continue to add enhancements that will help optimize their site's performance and online discoverability.

Troubleshooting common issues

Why can't I access my website editor?

Why am I seeing the message, "This is a preview of your website. To edit, increase the size of your window or rotate your device?" 

The website editor for the SimplePractice Professional Website is unique in that it gives you the flexibility to make edits to your website directly from the browser window of your desktop computer, laptop, tablet, or iPad, whereas other website editors require that you download an application or access a computer screen to make any changes. 

You can choose which device works best for your workflow, but in order for the website editor to function properly, there's a minimum size requirement for the browser window. If the browser is zoomed in too far, or if the window is too small, the full website editor options will not appear and only a preview of the website will be shown.

What are the requirements for accessing the website editor?

The minimum viewport size is 768px wide by 500px tall. If you're seeing the message that states: "This is a preview of your website. To edit, increase the size of your window or rotate your device," here are a few tips you can try to access the website editor:

  • If accessing from a computer:
    • Zoom out of your browser window to increase the browser resolution.
      • To do so, click View from the top of your screen and select Zoom out from the dropdown menu.
    • Hide your toolbars.
      • To do so, click View from the top of your screen and select the options to hide your: toolbar, bookmarks bar, favorites bar, and/or tabs bar. Please note, these options will vary depending on which browser you're using.
    • Hide the downloaded files bar at the bottom of the window if present
    • Enter Full Screen view
      • To do so, click View from the top of your screen and select Enter Full Screen
  • If accessing the Website Editor from a tablet or iPad:
    • Rotate the device. If you're still seeing this message, your device may not meet the minimum width for the viewport size. The minimum width is 768px.

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