the Free Hypnosis Social Network
Hypnotherapy Website Critique for Chad (Are you making the same mistakes?)
In a previous post, Chad Schultz requested feedback on his website, infinitme.com. I've started a new thread because I want to be sure that other members of HypnoThoughts who are developing do-it-yourself websites can benefit from the advice I'm about to give Chad. Some of this has been mentioned by others.
Hi Chad!
We're not friends, so I can't inform you of this privately, but you've just received my first HypnoThoughts birthday present. HappyHypnoBirthday to you!
And I hope you don't mind, but I'm going to give you your gift publicly so everyone can benefit from it. Because I suspect that most home-grown hypnotherapy websites are making the exact same mistakes that you've made.
I hope your shoulders feel broad and your ego feels strong, because I'm not going to pull any punches, Chad! :) This may be tough to hear, but this advice is potentially worth thousands of dollars, and I'd certainly charge you several hundred for this if you were a client.
Problem: The site is entirely you-centered.
Chad, I'm sure you're a lovely person, but as a visitor to your website, I don't give a rip about you or why you decided to put up a website. It's like explaining to me why you have a front door. "I decided it was important to have a front door, because without a door in the front of my business, it's more of a challenge for customers to get inside from the outside. Therefore, I have cut a hole in the wall, and framed it out, and..."
AAArrgh! Tell me how to hire you to help me STOP SMOKING! (or whatever it is that I've come to your site to do.) I've come to your website to accomplish a specific goal. Do not make it hard for me to accomplish my goal, or I'll go elsewhere.
And remember: you have TWO SECONDS to tell me (the visitor) that I have 1) come to the right place and 2) you can solve my problem. If I can't see that immediately, I'm gone.
Problem: The site is not optimized for search engines.
Most of the people you could help with hypnosis don't know they can be helped with hypnosis. They aren't looking for a hypnotherapist. They're searching Google for phrases like "stop smoking Des Moines" or "Seattle weight loss." Your ideal clients (depending on your specialty) want to get over a phobia, or do better on tests, or improve a relationship, etc., and they're looking to do it where they live. Yet on your home page I see not a single word about what hypnosis could do for me, or why I should care, or where you're located.
Your page titles and descriptions are not SEO friendly, nor is your page content (except for the FAQ.)
Problem: The URL is meaningless and SEO-hostile.
The URL is not geographically specific, nor is it related to any of the pains that your ideal clients will have. And, it looks like a mistake. Cutesy misspellings aren't recognized by Google as keywords. People don't search on Google using cutesy misspellings. There's no reason to choose a name like that except to massage your own ego, and generally, other people aren't going to pay you to massage your own ego (believe me, I've tried to get people to pay me for this, to no avail!) This is also why naming your business after yourself isn't a good idea unless you're already famous. Your friends and family already know your name--your ideal clients don't.
It may seem boring and un-sexy, but a URL like www.stop-smoking-cleveland.com would be a lot more meaningful, for both Google and your ideal clients (assuming they're smokers in Cleveland who want to stop smoking.)
And what if you offer a bunch of different services? Easy. Buy a URL specific to each of your top search terms and redirect those URLs to landing pages on your main site.
There is literally no point in having a website if it can't be found on Google by your ideal clients.
Problem: The site isn't targeted to your ideal clients.
Who is your ideal client? What pain are they in? What keeps them up at night? What other things have they tried to get over their problems? How much money do they have to spend? At what point are they in the sales process? How much does their problem cost them in time or money or heartache? I literally have no idea who your ideal client is after reading your site. And believe me, your ideal client will NEVER spend as much time reading your site as I have.
Problem: Confusing and weird fee structure.
I don't want to buy "challenges." I especially don't want to buy "advanced challenges!" I want SOLUTIONS to my PROBLEMS like smoking or weight loss or whatever it is you specialize in. Please rename your fee structure! And unless you never want to work for money again, remove the copy about hardship cases. If you want to work with hardship cases, go do some work at your local domestic violence shelter. The point of your website is to attract paying clients.
And please don't intermingle the fine print within your fee structure. You come across as wimpy and unprofessional. Put all that stuff on a Terms of Service page.
Problems: Other picky details.
I hope you find my perspective useful, and I hope my gift to you will also help other folks who are struggling to market themselves online and capture their share of search engine traffic.
Happy Birthday,
Kathleen
Hi Chad!
We're not friends, so I can't inform you of this privately, but you've just received my first HypnoThoughts birthday present. HappyHypnoBirthday to you!
And I hope you don't mind, but I'm going to give you your gift publicly so everyone can benefit from it. Because I suspect that most home-grown hypnotherapy websites are making the exact same mistakes that you've made.
I hope your shoulders feel broad and your ego feels strong, because I'm not going to pull any punches, Chad! :) This may be tough to hear, but this advice is potentially worth thousands of dollars, and I'd certainly charge you several hundred for this if you were a client.
Problem: The site is entirely you-centered.
Chad, I'm sure you're a lovely person, but as a visitor to your website, I don't give a rip about you or why you decided to put up a website. It's like explaining to me why you have a front door. "I decided it was important to have a front door, because without a door in the front of my business, it's more of a challenge for customers to get inside from the outside. Therefore, I have cut a hole in the wall, and framed it out, and..."
AAArrgh! Tell me how to hire you to help me STOP SMOKING! (or whatever it is that I've come to your site to do.) I've come to your website to accomplish a specific goal. Do not make it hard for me to accomplish my goal, or I'll go elsewhere.
And remember: you have TWO SECONDS to tell me (the visitor) that I have 1) come to the right place and 2) you can solve my problem. If I can't see that immediately, I'm gone.
Problem: The site is not optimized for search engines.
Most of the people you could help with hypnosis don't know they can be helped with hypnosis. They aren't looking for a hypnotherapist. They're searching Google for phrases like "stop smoking Des Moines" or "Seattle weight loss." Your ideal clients (depending on your specialty) want to get over a phobia, or do better on tests, or improve a relationship, etc., and they're looking to do it where they live. Yet on your home page I see not a single word about what hypnosis could do for me, or why I should care, or where you're located.
Your page titles and descriptions are not SEO friendly, nor is your page content (except for the FAQ.)
Problem: The URL is meaningless and SEO-hostile.
The URL is not geographically specific, nor is it related to any of the pains that your ideal clients will have. And, it looks like a mistake. Cutesy misspellings aren't recognized by Google as keywords. People don't search on Google using cutesy misspellings. There's no reason to choose a name like that except to massage your own ego, and generally, other people aren't going to pay you to massage your own ego (believe me, I've tried to get people to pay me for this, to no avail!) This is also why naming your business after yourself isn't a good idea unless you're already famous. Your friends and family already know your name--your ideal clients don't.
It may seem boring and un-sexy, but a URL like www.stop-smoking-cleveland.com would be a lot more meaningful, for both Google and your ideal clients (assuming they're smokers in Cleveland who want to stop smoking.)
And what if you offer a bunch of different services? Easy. Buy a URL specific to each of your top search terms and redirect those URLs to landing pages on your main site.
There is literally no point in having a website if it can't be found on Google by your ideal clients.
Problem: The site isn't targeted to your ideal clients.
Who is your ideal client? What pain are they in? What keeps them up at night? What other things have they tried to get over their problems? How much money do they have to spend? At what point are they in the sales process? How much does their problem cost them in time or money or heartache? I literally have no idea who your ideal client is after reading your site. And believe me, your ideal client will NEVER spend as much time reading your site as I have.
Problem: Confusing and weird fee structure.
I don't want to buy "challenges." I especially don't want to buy "advanced challenges!" I want SOLUTIONS to my PROBLEMS like smoking or weight loss or whatever it is you specialize in. Please rename your fee structure! And unless you never want to work for money again, remove the copy about hardship cases. If you want to work with hardship cases, go do some work at your local domestic violence shelter. The point of your website is to attract paying clients.
And please don't intermingle the fine print within your fee structure. You come across as wimpy and unprofessional. Put all that stuff on a Terms of Service page.
Problems: Other picky details.
- Don't mention IMDHA without first spelling out the full title that you've abbreviated.
- Make sure your logo is high-res (it reads as pixelated to me).
- If you specialize in medical or dental hypnotherapy, use the "medical" color, blue, for your website.
- If you specialize in medical or dental hypnotherapy, your website should resemble that of a doctor's office. You may even want to incorporate the cross icon that symbolizes medical stuff.
- Get a professional head shot. It should make you look like a physician (highly educated and very competent).
- If you specialize in medical or dental hypnotherapy, you may want to add a page for medical professionals and ask for referrals.
- Get a glowing testimonial for each area of practice you specialize in. Get a head shot of the person giving the testimonial, and their full name, if they'll let you use them.
- Create a separate page for every area you specialize in (stop smoking, pain control, whatever) and optimize that page for search engines.
- Include more calls to action. The point of your website is to get people to hire you. You must tell them to hire you. Not contact you, hire you or schedule an appointment or schedule a 15-minute consultation or whatever you do to get people in the door.
I hope you find my perspective useful, and I hope my gift to you will also help other folks who are struggling to market themselves online and capture their share of search engine traffic.
Happy Birthday,
Kathleen
Tags: Hanover, HypnoThoughts, Kathleen, birthday, chad, critique, marketing, schultz, website
Replies to This Discussion
-
Permalink Reply by Kevin Cole-NLPTrainingQuest.com on -
You're absolutely right, Joe... Kathleen definitely knows her stuff... I'm just having a bit of fun with her (we are friends) and at the same time pointing out that sometimes it can seem a bit embarrassing to some to be called out on a public forum. It probably would have embarrassed me a bit to have a review like that... That said, when implemented, what she said will improve conversion rates immensely...
By the way, I did look at your site, Joe... Might consider taking some of your $500 advice... ;-)
Joe Homs said:Guys, take it from me. Kathleen just gave you all a HUGE gift. I have charged at least $500 to clients for the critique she just gave Chad. That's just to start. Helping them implement each of those suggestions (more like rules) with specifics gets charged at $150/hour.
Kathleen, you are welcome at my birthday party (or any party) any time. People like you are extremely rare. Thank you very much.
-
Permalink Reply by Chad Schultz on -
Thank you very much for your enthusiasm and all the time you spent examining my site and writing me that feedback! I can tell I'm going to have a busy weekend doing my homework and revamping the site... but I appreciate hearing this in time to make changes before I have lot of people looking at it.
I'm not sure how comfortable I am serving as an object lesson to the site, but I guess that just means I need to work more on an attitude of open-minded humbleness. :) I love having HypnoThoughts as a resource, as I know there's a community of active, experienced hypnotists I can always turn to when I'm in need of encouragement or expert guidance!
So thank you again for all the detailed feedback. I can clearly see many areas I should have put more time and effort into. After all, "if you keep cutting corners, you'll lose your edge." Thanks again, I'll get cracking on it!
-
Permalink Reply by Joe Homs on -
Yep, just setting it up today. That's why it's unfinished :)
Kevin Cole-NLPTrainingQuest.com said:You're absolutely right, Joe... Kathleen definitely knows her stuff... I'm just having a bit of fun with her (we are friends) and at the same time pointing out that sometimes it can seem a bit embarrassing to some to be called out on a public forum. It probably would have embarrassed me a bit to have a review like that... That said, when implemented, what she said will improve conversion rates immensely...
By the way, I did look at your site, Joe... Might consider taking some of your $500 advice... ;-)
Joe Homs said:Guys, take it from me. Kathleen just gave you all a HUGE gift. I have charged at least $500 to clients for the critique she just gave Chad. That's just to start. Helping them implement each of those suggestions (more like rules) with specifics gets charged at $150/hour.
Kathleen, you are welcome at my birthday party (or any party) any time. People like you are extremely rare. Thank you very much.
-
Permalink Reply by Jason Keen on -
Awesome attitude Chad!
Thanks for "taking one for the team" lol... I know I'd be a little (well, very - to be honest!) self conscious about it too. But just be assured that 90% of the members here probably needed to hear/read Kathleen's excellent critique just as much as you did.
It would be cool to see your site when you feel like you've had a chance to make the adjustments you now have in mind.
Again, it's great to see yet another person here who has such a healthy attitude.
Keep on keepin' on!
Jason
Chad Schultz said:Thank you very much for your enthusiasm and all the time you spent examining my site and writing me that feedback! I can tell I'm going to have a busy weekend doing my homework and revamping the site... but I appreciate hearing this in time to make changes before I have lot of people looking at it.
I'm not sure how comfortable I am serving as an object lesson to the site, but I guess that just means I need to work more on an attitude of open-minded humbleness. :) I love having HypnoThoughts as a resource, as I know there's a community of active, experienced hypnotists I can always turn to when I'm in need of encouragement or expert guidance!
So thank you again for all the detailed feedback. I can clearly see many areas I should have put more time and effort into. After all, "if you keep cutting corners, you'll lose your edge." Thanks again, I'll get cracking on it!
-
Permalink Reply by Kathleen Hanover on
-
Thanks for being a trouper, Chad. :) I really hope my suggestions are useful!
I figured you had pretty broad shoulders, or you wouldn't have asked for feedback in the first place. With your attitude, you'll go far. ;)
Kathleen
Marketing and PR Opinionist
Chad Schultz said:Thank you very much for your enthusiasm and all the time you spent examining my site and writing me that feedback! I can tell I'm going to have a busy weekend doing my homework and revamping the site... but I appreciate hearing this in time to make changes before I have lot of people looking at it.
I'm not sure how comfortable I am serving as an object lesson to the site, but I guess that just means I need to work more on an attitude of open-minded humbleness. :) I love having HypnoThoughts as a resource, as I know there's a community of active, experienced hypnotists I can always turn to when I'm in need of encouragement or expert guidance!
So thank you again for all the detailed feedback. I can clearly see many areas I should have put more time and effort into. After all, "if you keep cutting corners, you'll lose your edge." Thanks again, I'll get cracking on it!
-
Permalink Reply by hYpnoTiki on -
Hello Kathleen,
All of us reading this discussion and interested in having an efficient website are getting very valuable advices from this review.
It is so nice when birthday cakes are shared this way. We all got a slice, I thank you for that.
And in the spirit of this gift, I was wondering if you could post one or a few URL of those hypno-sites that just work, from your marketing/client point of view, so as to get a good inspiration of how it could look like, when all the good elements you have mentioned are in place. Ideally, it would be some websites of HT members that you have come across to like.
Thank you for your help.
-
Permalink Reply by AJ on -
Is there a ratio that is ideal?
These are the Customer Focus Calculator results:
For the copy you submitted:
Your Customer Focus Rate: 78.48% (62 customer-focused words)
Your Self Focus Rate: 21.52% (9 self-focused words, and 8 mentions of the Company Name)
You speak about your customers about 4 times as often as you speak about yourself. Excellent!
Amount of Content submitted: 10.0k
Persuasive Copy to be analyzed: 9.7k
Free WeWe Analysis performed on: 1,495 words
-
Permalink Reply by TA Smiley on -
I stumbled across this discussion and am glad I did - What a great list of tips/points! I appreciate the direct to-the-point nature of it. You've given me great ideas!
-
Permalink Reply by Roger Moore on -
Chad - first, thank you for the great belly laugh - that link is too good! And, thank you for starting this discussion. I think we are all learning so much. I am rebuilding 2 of my sites at the moment and Kathleen's feedback is so valuable to me.
Roger
Chad Schultz said:Thank you very much for your enthusiasm and all the time you spent examining my site and writing me that feedback! I can tell I'm going to have a busy weekend doing my homework and revamping the site... but I appreciate hearing this in time to make changes before I have lot of people looking at it.
I'm not sure how comfortable I am serving as an object lesson to the site, but I guess that just means I need to work more on an attitude of open-minded humbleness. :) I love having HypnoThoughts as a resource, as I know there's a community of active, experienced hypnotists I can always turn to when I'm in need of encouragement or expert guidance!
So thank you again for all the detailed feedback. I can clearly see many areas I should have put more time and effort into. After all, "if you keep cutting corners, you'll lose your edge." Thanks again, I'll get cracking on it!
-
Permalink Reply by Melissa J. Roth on
-
I'm cleaning up my site as well and was grateful I stumbled onto this discussion. I think Kathleen's comments are right on target and I'm going to implement as many as I can as soon as I can.
-
-
Hi hYpnoTiki,
I appreciate the thinking behind your request, but I'm really hesitant to critique other HypnoThoughts members' websites without being invited to (or, ahem, paid) to do so. :) And with nearly 7,000 members on here, it could literally take me years to just look at all the sites, much less critique them.
Kathleen
Marketing and PR Opinionist
hYpnoTiki said:Hello Kathleen,
All of us reading this discussion and interested in having an efficient website are getting very valuable advices from this review. It is so nice when birthday cakes are shared this way. We all got a slice, I thank you for that.
And in the spirit of this gift, I was wondering if you could post one or a few URL of those hypno-sites that just work, from your marketing/client point of view, so as to get a good inspiration of how it could look like, when all the good elements you have mentioned are in place. Ideally, it would be some websites of HT members that you have come across to like.
Thank you for your help.
-
-
The Customer Focus Calculator will tell you how you rate. I think the higher your customer focus, the more likely you are to build rapport.
For example, you expect people to talk about themselves in their LinkedIn profile. But the first half of my summary is targeted directly at my ideal clients. Here's what that looks like:
• Are you fed up with greenhorn copywriters who just don't "get" direct response...or B2B...or public relations 2.0?
• Are you tired of watching your budget evaporate on marketing and PR that goes nowhere?
• Do you struggle to tell your own story in a way that drives prospects to take action?
• Are you afraid you're too close to your marketing or PR project to see any potential campaign-killing landmines?
• Are you bewildered by the ever-changing social media landscape...and afraid to jump in?
There's not a single word in here about who I am or what I do. But when my LinkedIn profile generates a phone call from a prospect, they will invariably start the call by saying, "I just HAD to call you. It's like you were inside my head and knew exactly what I was going through."
Talking about your customers 4 times as often as you talk about yourself is a great ratio, I think. :)
Doc Regal said:Is there a ratio that is ideal?
These are the Customer Focus Calculator results:
For the copy you submitted:
Your Customer Focus Rate: 78.48% (62 customer-focused words)
Your Self Focus Rate: 21.52% (9 self-focused words, and 8 mentions of the Company Name)
You speak about your customers about 4 times as often as you speak about yourself. Excellent!
Amount of Content submitted: 10.0k
Persuasive Copy to be analyzed: 9.7k
Free WeWe Analysis performed on: 1,495 words
- ‹ Previous
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- Next ›
Featured Advertising
Latest Activity
Don replied to Lorrie Hale-Ozbey's discussion 'NLP and Human Performance Technology'
Seth-Deborah Roth replied to Steve G. Jones's discussion 'Hypnotherapy Regulation'
Roy Hunter replied to Richard Nongard - NLPBoard.com's discussion 'Informed Consent'
Dennis Atkinson replied to Steve G. Jones's discussion 'Hypnotherapy Regulation'
Roy Hunter replied to Steve G. Jones's discussion 'Hypnotherapy Regulation'
Leshem Yosef commented on Leshem Yosef's group 'Hypno Photo's'
Leshem Yosef commented on Leshem Yosef's group 'Hypno Photo's'
Leshem Yosef commented on Leshem Yosef's group 'Hypno Photo's'
Leshem Yosef commented on Leshem Yosef's group 'Hypno Photo's'
Leshem Yosef commented on Leshem Yosef's group 'Hypno Photo's'
© 2012 Created by Scott Sandland.
About Us
Contact Us
Subscribe To RSS