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How Do You Know If Your Homepage Attracts Patients?

You had it all mapped out.

You were going to create a site that would make the most famous of writers jealous. Your homepage would attract hordes of visitors who would turn into the most loyal, loving patients ever. They would rave about you to their friends, family, and strangers on the street. You’d ride off into the sunset, leaving generations to marvel at your success.

It was stunning, except… it never happened.

You may still be writing a homepage or maybe it’s already live. All you know is it’s not where you want it to be, and it’s not drawing in your ideal patient. Or maybe your website is getting plenty of traffic – but why then, is your phone not ringing for appointments?

Good news – you don’t need to spend thousands on a fancy-schmancy website or hire an expensive online marketing know-it-all to get the job done.

Our website designers know how to create compelling websites that help your potential customers feel confident that you are the right practitioner to help them. 

And we’re about to break it all down for you.

The Role of a Homepage

If you owned a storefront, the real moment of truth is when your shopper sees your product sitting on the shelf and decides to make the purchase. For practitioners, it’s a little different. Because you offer a service, your potential patients don’t have anything tangible they can pick up and hold. Instead, they need to be able to hold onto something digitally – which is your website.

Your homepage is where your visitor gets the first impression of your practice. While it may not seal the deal and guarantee they’ll book an appointment, a poor homepage can make sure they never do.

So, what do patients want from your homepage? Here are five of the top things they’re looking for:

  1. Can you help them with their specific problem or condition?
  2. What qualifies you to help them?
  3. Are you on their side? Do you show empathy and understanding?
  4. What are other patients saying about you and your results?
  5. What will their experience in your office be like?

Clearly hitting on each of these key points will get you one step closer to that powerful, polished, high-converting homepage. It all starts with honing in on your core message.

What’s Your Core Message?

Alright, it’s time to get reflective for a minute. Grab your notebook, maybe turn on some meditation music and get comfy for a sec. We need to get crystal clear about the core message of your practice so you can articulate it well on your website.

We’ll share in a moment a quick test to know if you’ve hit bulls-eye with your message. For now, have confidence that you already have all that you need to write a moving homepage. It just takes going inside for a few moments and getting really clear on these three areas:

  1. Who’s your perfect patient really? Honing in on who you love working with – and who you don’t – is vital to crafting a compelling homepage. Remember if you’re talking to everyone, you’re talking to no one. #truth
  2. What’s your visitor’s awareness level? Your potential patient (website visitor) is searching for hope and clarity – hope that you can help them get better and clarity about whether you’re the practitioner to help them get there. They might know a ton about you or nothing at all. You never know. So, when writing your homepage, avoid the temptation of assuming anything, and write as though you’re introducing yourself to a total stranger.
  3. What’s your primary call-to-action (CTA)? Whether it’s to book an online appointment or call your office for an schedule, your homepage CTA will tell your visitor exactly where they need to go next. And please don’t forget this next part: Your homepage needs ONE primary CTA. And it needs to be clear, obvious, and easy to find.

Once you hone in on your core messaging, you can tweak the copy on your homepage or any other internal pages as needed. Now, you’ve got one more step to take before you hit “publish.”

Test Your Practice’s Core Message

Before you go live with your new homepage, you’ll want to test out your message. We recommend doing the 9-second test.

Why 9 seconds, you might ask? Because studies show that you have less than 15 seconds to grab your visitor’s attention. Attention spans are short – and keep getting shorter – so you don’t have much time to convince a visitor to stay on your site.

The goal here is to find out what other people think you do (more on that below). By enlisting a little bit of help, you’ll be able to get super valuable intel that will help you see if your core message is coming through loud and clear. 

Alright, let’s get to it. Here’s how the 9-second test works:

  1. Find some volunteers. These could be friends or family members – any living, breathing person who will help you. Bonus points if they fit your perfect patient profile.
  2. Tell them about the type of patients you serve. This will help them get into the shoes of your ideal patient. Don’t tell them what problem you’re solving, just who you’re helping. (Example: Don’t tell them you help your patients reduce hot flashes and stabilize mood swings. Just tell them you’re helping menopausal women.)
  3. Have them look over your homepage for 9 seconds. Have some of your volunteers look at it on their desktop and others on their mobile device. After the 9 seconds is up, it’s time for feedback.
  4. Ask these three questions. Don’t forget to write down what they say – or even better, try and record it. This feedback is GOLD.
    1. What do I do?
    2. What problems am I solving for my patients?
    3. What next step do I want you to take?
  5. Put their feedback in action. Look through all the responses you collected and find the patterns…  Could people easily figure out your next step but weren’t clear on the problems you solve? Then focus on clearing that up. Or could your volunteers easily recognize that you’re a health coach who helps women with GI problems, but they weren’t sure if you were offering a course, individual coaching, or group coaching? Then make sure what you do offer is super clear on your homepage.

This 9-second test will give you amazing clarity on where you’re copy may be going wrong and how to make it better – before an actual future patient sees it. 

Pro Tip: Don’t forget to consider the impact your images have. Pictures are worth a thousand words so be sure to use them to your benefit!

Write a Homepage That Attracts Patients

A knock-out homepage isn’t made overnight. Know that this is a journey – one you don’t have to get perfect from the get-go. Using the 9-second test is a powerful way to leapfrog over those grave mistakes so you can have the high-converting homepage of your dreams.


If you find that your homepage still isn’t quite hitting the mark, we’d love to take a look. We’ve helped hundreds of practitioners nail their messaging and write a homepage that attracts patients –  and not just any patients, their perfect patients. We want to help you create a message that speaks right into their hearts, so they can benefit from your life-changing guidance. Sign up for a free website evaluation, and we’ll take a look at how well your website is doing and give you a few recommendations on how to make it better!

Ronda Nelson

Hi, I’m Ronda Nelson and I help wellness practitioners grow thriving, profitable practices that allow them to work with ease, live a life they love and make an income they can be proud of.
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