2019-03-13
Design Elements That Will Make Your Physical Therapy Blog Stand Out

Different blog design elements

A good website design is essential for attracting and keeping visitors. That is why it is really important to review the design elements of your physical therapy blog to make it stand out. Your goal is to attract visitors that will find your content relevant and keep coming back to read your blog post and engage with your business. Make your website user friendly and interactive to really showcase your services and your brand. All with the aim to bring more customers to your clinic and improve and promote the image of your brand. Here are some great tips to design and include in your blog and website to really make it stand out.

Keep it looking professional

If your blog is too overloaded with fonts and colours it can look unprofessional and spammy. In order to keep your blog looking professional you should use no more than three fonts or colours. This makes it easy to read and cleaner to look at. Choose a colour scheme that is pleasing to the eye and that reflects the brand image you are trying to portray. You should also make sure there is plenty of while space so that your pages don’t look too messy. Adding extra white space to parts of your blog that you want particular attention paid to makes that piece stand out.

Create a unique logo for your brand

To continue the professional theme and make your Physical therapy blog stand out from the crowd you should create a unique logo just for your brand. You can employ a professional to create a logo to your own specifications for you in many different formats. Not only can you use your logo for your website but on your other marketing materials too. Including things like business cards and letter headers to social media profiles and other online presence. This will make your business more professional and memorable for clients. Recognition increases trust and in turn increases customers returning to your clinic.

Feature your top posts with a slider

Greeting your visitors with an attention-grabbing slider including a relevant image can immediately pull your readers in. Visitors can see your best and newest content and easy click into these elements to read the post. Using the right widget tool for your slider can include the post title which will show your readers exactly what the post is about and when it was published giving them the immediate clickable access.

Patient education and information

Although your main marketing aim may be to drive customers to book appointments you also need to show you are about your clients. Let your customers know what you can do for them, the range of services you offer and common complaints you deal with. By including this element on your blog, you will show your business is professional and passionate about the services you offer. It is also a great place to display your patient aftercare, so even after visiting your clinic they can look back and confirm the advice you have given them.

About the author excerpt

With each blog post it is a good idea to include a short bio, or about the author excerpt where it shows who the post is by. With your physical therapy this gives authentication that the post has been written by someone who is an expert on the subject. It gives you a little insight into the person too and if you include a bio photo this gives the post even more credibility. It may even inspire readers to continue reading other blog posts by that particular author.

Include regular blog posts

Posting regular articles will keep your blog fresh so you need to keep an element of your website for regular posts. Blog readers are more likely to follow your posts if you publish an article on the same regular basis and that it is good quality content. Set the best time for you and make sure that you can stick to it. Be that weekly, monthly or on particular dates throughout the year. Consistency is the key and regular blog posts will promote trust and confidence in your brand.

Good website navigation

Readers should immediately be able to see what your website is about and what they can expect when they reach your page. By having a clearly visible and attractive website navigation, visitors can get straight to the content they are looking for and move on to the next article with ease. This will reduce your bounce rate and increase the time spent on your site. All contributing factors to your SEO meaning it will work towards improving your search engine rankings

Easily found search bar

Firstly, you must make sure you have a search bar on your blog so your readers can search for what they are looking for. Readers may leave your website if they cannot easily find or search for the content they need. Also, the search bar should be prominent and east to find such as at the top of the page or at the top the widget section of your page. You don’t want it to draw attention away from the rest of the page but be noticeable if it is needed by the reader.

Ensure you use a footer

At the bottom of your post you should include your important information and details that don’t fit anywhere else in your blog. The small wordy bits such as your copyright messages, privacy policy link and links to other pages. Contact details are also useful to put in the footer as it is where most people will look to find this. You would be surprised the number of visitors who will interrogate your footer for your information. Being on every page it limits customers needing to search too much on your blog to find what they are looking for.

Enable post sharing

This may seem obvious but using a plugin that enables post sharing is definitely something you should do for your blog. This enables you to reach a wider audience and gives your readers the opportunity to share your content with their friends. You can also opt for a share counter which will show readers how many times the post has been shared on social media. This is great for posts that get a lot of attention because if it is shared a lot it improves your credibility.

Use multimedia

Using other elements in your blog design rather than just text will keep your readers interested and engaged. Break up text with relevant images, infographics and other interesting multimedia content. Multimedia can improve your branding by increasing recognition of your business. With people being more visually focussed you need to keep visitor’s attention and prevent them from leaving before they have read your content. It can also improve your SEO as images and videos on pages increase your ranking factor if they are relevant to the content. 

Consider online webinars

Showcasing your knowledge by running a webinar is a great design element to add to your Physical therapy blog. Giving a talk about the services you offer and doing pieces on particular injuries or treatments will really engage your subscribers. Showing you are confident enough to share your knowledge in this way will give people trust in your services and your business and you are more likely to convert your followers to actual customers and clients. Build your audience and a trusted following that will continue to support your business by visiting your blog regularly and in turn improving your websites credibility.

Use your sidebar effectively

Think about what widgets you want on your page and how you want them to be displayed. Think about social media, tag clouds, advertisements and popular or recent posts. Perhaps the search bar? Widgets are important for your website or blog, but they must be scaled down and specific to what you need for your business. Remember being too cluttered can make your page look messy, even if it is just the sidebar. If you are finding it difficult, take a look at your competitors and compare how their blog sites look to how you want yours to come across to your readers.

Create a forum

Being able to interact with your patients and answer common questions is a great way to improve relations and engage with your customers. It is a create place for answers to frequently asked questions and a place where potential customers can learn more about how you work with your current clients. When customers come to you with more personal and individual questions you can invite them to book an appointment for a detailed consultation.   

Include calls to action

Throughout your blog and website, you should include calls to action. This can be at the end of each blog post with anchors such as click here to book or more subtle calls for action such as to find out more or for prices etc. The reason you market your website is essentially to convert your readers to customers so you must include as many calls for action as you can that don’t interfere with the integrity of the content.

How will you use design elements to improve your physical therapy blog?                                                       

There are so many different design elements to consider when it comes to making your blog stand out and you need to look at wat works best for you. Design your blog to fit well within your business in a way that flows with your brand. By making some small changes and streamlining your design and content you can improve your product and attract more customers. What will you be doing to improve your physical therapy blog by using design elements?

Do you need some help with your physical therapy website and marketing? Download our Free Evergreen Marketing Blueprint for Physical Therapists and start creating long-term assets that generate new patient bookings for years to come.