Choosing a Website Designer for a Health or Wellness Business

The right website designer for a health or wellness business can show you health websites they've built that now bring in enquiries, writes your copy for you, builds local search in from day one, and leaves you owning everything. If they can't tick all four, keep looking. Making it pretty is the easy part.

Here's the thing I see over and over. A practitioner pays for a lovely new website, friends say it looks amazing, and then nothing changes. The phone doesn't ring any more than before. Referrals still do all the heavy lifting. The site looked good, but nobody built it to help the right person choose you.

I'm Hayley, a brand and website strategist based in Cairns, working with health and wellness businesses Australia-wide: a private midwife, an EMDR therapist, a colon hydrotherapy studio, a dietitian. These are the questions I'd ask if I were hiring someone to build mine.

Can they show you health websites that actually bring in enquiries?

Not websites that look nice. Websites that work. Ask every designer for the result, then check it yourself: type their client's service and town into Google and see who comes up.

A good answer sounds specific. Unfurl EMDR started with no brand, no website and no referrals, and within two months was getting two enquiries and one GP referral a week. Glow Colonics now sits on page one of Google for colon hydrotherapy in Cairns, with no ad spend behind it. You're looking for that kind of answer: a named client, a real change, something you can check.

If all you get is a portfolio of screenshots, that tells you they can design. It doesn't tell you they can get a nervous new client to book.

Who writes the words on your website?

This is the question most people forget, and it's the one that matters most. Design gets attention. Words get bookings. If the designer expects you to supply the copy, you're doing the hardest part of the job yourself, usually at 10pm after a full day of clients.

Ask who writes it, how they'll learn what makes you different, and whether it will sound like you. Beneath the Palms Midwifery already had a website. It just made the practice sound like every other midwife. Once the words sounded like the real person behind it, the practice was booked out for the year within three months and added two new services. I've written more about website copy that actually converts if you want to see what good copy does differently.

Do they understand that referrers read your website too?

In health, your clients aren't the only people reading your site. GPs, paediatricians, psychologists and other practitioners refer too, and they decide whether to trust you in about thirty seconds. They want to know exactly what you treat, who you're right for and how to refer. A good designer asks who sends you work and builds pages for those people as well.

That's exactly how a Cairns EMDR therapist started getting GP referrals from Google: the site made it easy for a busy GP to say yes.

If you're a registered practitioner, ask one more thing: have they worked within Ahpra's advertising rules? Those rules limit testimonials and claims about treatment, so a designer who doesn't know them can put you in an awkward spot.

How will people find you on Google?

Ask exactly what they do for local search, and listen for specifics. You want to hear about:

• A separate page for each main service, written around the words people actually type, like "EMDR therapy near me"
• Your Google Business Profile set up properly, with a plan for getting reviews
• Clear page titles, headings and descriptions on every page
• A site that loads fast on a phone, because that's where most people find you
• Somewhere to answer the questions clients ask before they book

If the answer is "we install an SEO plugin", that's not an answer. And walk away from anyone who guarantees page one. Nobody can honestly promise that. My guide to local SEO for Australian service businesses covers what good looks like.

Will AI tools be able to understand and quote your website?

More people now ask ChatGPT, Claude or Google's AI "who should I see for..." before they search. Those tools quote websites that answer questions clearly, explain who you help in plain words and have FAQs they can lift straight from the page. Ask your designer how they set your site up so AI can understand it. If they look blank, that's your answer. Here's more on how to show up in AI search results.

Who owns the website and the domain?

You should. Get it in writing before you sign. Some designers keep the domain in their name or lock the site into their own hosting, and moving away later turns into a headache.

While you're asking, find out what the site costs to run each year, what's included, and whether you can make small changes yourself without paying for every edit. My post on what a service business website costs in Australia breaks down what you're actually paying for.

Does a website designer for a health business need to be local?

No. A local website designer is handy if you like meeting face to face, but knowing how your clients choose matters far more than sharing a postcode. A designer who understands health businesses and local search will usually beat a local generalist. Ask what they know about your clients, not where their office is.

What to ask before you sign anything

If you only remember one part of this, make it these four questions:

1. Can you show me health or wellness websites you've built that bring in enquiries?
2. Who writes the words, and how will you make them sound like me?
3. What exactly will you do so people find me on Google and in AI answers?
4. Will I own the website, the domain and the content?

The right person will be happy to answer all of it, in plain words. And if you want to see how I approach it, here's how True Bearings works: strategy and words first, then the website.