I’m gonna be real with you: An agency or digital marketer might suggest you spend thousands of dollars on ads to get more bookings… But what if you didn’t have to?
No, you don’t need to pour thousands into ads to attract more patients—sometimes, your website likely holds the answers! If it’s confusing, potential patients might be leaving before they even book.
In this episode, we’ll walk through simple website fixes that can help you get more bookings without extra ad spend. I’ll also share a free Website Health Checklist to help you spot what’s working (and what’s not) so you can start seeing results fast.
🎧 Tune in now and grab your free checklist here: https://loukoz.com/website-checklist-for-allied-health/
Watch this episode on: YouTube.
Listen on: Spotify, Apple Podcasts.
Transcript:
Hey, do you ever feel like your calendar should be a bit fuller than it is? Maybe you’re sending people to your website, but you’re not really sure if they’re actually booking. Maybe it takes a little coaxing… And you’re wondering if, in order to get that calendar to fill up, you’ll have to spend thousands of dollars on Google Ads or Facebook Ads.
Quite frankly, if you’ve never done it before, how are you supposed to know if it’s going to work?
Well, I’ve got some good news for you—you don’t actually have to spend thousands of dollars on ads. I’m going to share some simple strategies to get more people to book. If you’d like to start implementing these strategies yourself, I’ve got a free website optimisation checklist you can grab. Take a look at it and check whether you have these optimisations in place.
So, let’s get into it.
Navigating your website causes friction
Let’s talk about some reasons why people may not be booking with you. One possibility is that your website looks great, but there’s a blockage between people landing on the site and making their way to your booking button or calendar. Generally speaking, if it takes people more than three touches or clicks to get to your booking calendar, they’ll get frustrated. They might start wondering, “If my experience on the website has this much friction, will I face the same issue at the clinic or shop?”
To avoid this, you need to make your booking button stand out and make it really obvious that booking is the next step. If you take appointments over the phone, your phone number should be clear, obvious, and clickable. These small changes can significantly increase the number of patients or clients who book after visiting your website.
Trust indicators can get you more bookings
Next, let’s talk about trust.
Look, I’m going to be honest—if there’s no indication that real humans are behind your business or organisation, that puts people off. People want to be serviced by people. If they can’t feel that connection with you or if they’re unsure about who they’re going to meet before they walk in, that may actually stop them from signing up or making an appointment.
Another issue could be that you’re not following up with potential clients. Having a system in place, such as an email newsletter, can remind people to come back. This is especially helpful if they’ve only had a one-off appointment or service with you. If you want them to keep coming back, an email newsletter is a really cost-effective way to stay top of mind.
Should you do SEO?
Now, what about this SEO thing you’ve heard so much about? I know you probably don’t really care about the details—you just want it done. But I want to throw in a bit of caution here. I suspect other business owners are catching on to this as well: just because you don’t know exactly what SEO is or how it’s supposed to work doesn’t mean you should go for the cheapest option.
I would actually advocate for finding someone who takes the time to understand your business and its needs—someone who isn’t just the cheapest option. Bonus points if they have actual experience with businesses like yours and real results they can share.
I wanted to bring up SEO because it’s something I get asked about a lot. It’s a popular service that many business owners are interested in for their business and website.
SEO isn’t the same for everyone
If there’s only one thing I can impart to you, it’s that what actually gets done in the process of “doing” SEO will vary from business to business.
Generally speaking, if you’re trying to sell services like plumbing or electrical work and your SEO agency includes blogs as part of their SEO strategy, that’s honestly not going to help you. You’re probably better off with something like Google Ads, formerly known as Google AdWords.
If you have an e-commerce shop, SEO blogs might not help you much either. They will take an exceedingly long time to generate ROI. If you’re in the health industry, SEO works similarly to how it does for tradies—you need to understand the intent behind search queries and why people are coming to your website.
If you approach an agency for SEO and find out they’re just writing blogs for you, understand that blogs are in a highly competitive space. And if your goal is to get people to book appointments with you, the best thing you can do is ensure you show up in local searches. You do this by having what’s called a Google Business Profile.
Getting on the map
You may already have one, but the key is to make sure all the data—your labels, descriptions, and other details—are as complete as possible. Every once in a while, Google rolls out new fields of information you can add, so it’s a good idea to check and make sure you’re taking full advantage of them. This helps customers make an informed decision about working with you.
Another important factor is reviews. I know that many health industries and providers don’t allow testimonials, but if you’re permitted to have reviews and your patients can voluntarily post them, I highly encourage it. People will look there.
Backlinks—or rather, how reputation follows you online!
Finally, another thing SEO agencies do is acquire backlinks—getting other websites to link back to you.
This can be a bit of a gray area. Some agencies may just get you links from anywhere they can, rather than ones that actually boost your reputation. When it comes to getting other websites and publications to mention you, I believe it’s more about reputation than volume.
Everything that gets said about you online—whether it includes a link or not—affects your reputation. Even if you’re mentioned in a newspaper, on a podcast, or in a radio interview, that influences how you show up in searches. So, if you’re getting other websites and publications to link to you, make sure they’re relevant and actually contribute to your credibility.
In my checklist, I talk about things like making sure your content is optimised for the keywords you want to rank for. That’s really important for showing up on Google. You also want to make sure you’re meeting your customers’ needs—not just by being in the right location, but by offering exactly the service they’re searching for. And if you don’t want to attract a certain type of customer, don’t use that keyword.
I could go on about this all day, but I hope you found this useful!
Next steps
There are many things you can do yourself, and even making just a couple of these tweaks can make a big difference in how many people take action and book through your website.
This has been Lou, and I look forward to seeing you in my next episode!
Hey, if you’re in an allied health practice and want to try some of these strategies yourself, I’ve got a free checklist with key optimisations to help your website. Specifically, it’ll boost the number of appointments you get from your website. You can get more bookings without spending thousands on Google Ads or Facebook Ads. It’s available for free in the description of this episode!
💡 Get instant access now and make sure your website is working for you, not against you! 📥 [Download the Free Checklist]
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