Choosing somebody to build your website can feel oddly exposing. You may be presented with lots of confusing terms before you have had a chance to say what you actually want your practice to feel like.

You know those really helpful breathing exercises you know… remember them as you go through this article – you can do it!

You do not need to become a web designer in order to choose one well. The important thing is to be clear about what you need, what you do not want to manage, and what should remain in your control.

A good developer will help you think through these questions without making you feel behind, foolish or pressured into a large project.

Start with the purpose, not the platform

Before comparing ask yourself “What you want the website to do?” (Don’t start with your choice of WordPress, Squarespace or anything else. That’s like choosing your medium before knowing what type of art you are going to create!)

For some therapists, a small, calm web presence is enough: a home page, an about page, practical details, fees and a way to get in touch (with GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) and cookie information). For others, the site needs room to grow: articles, groups, workshops, resources, a newsletter or online bookings.

Neither answer is more serious or professional. The useful question is:

Do I want a simple site that stays broadly the same, or a site I can gradually add to?

A developer should be able to build either. What matters is that the platform and the ongoing support match the answer. Thinking about this at this stage may save you money later on.

Nine questions to answer before you choose

You do not need every answer fixed in advance. But if you can begin a conversation with these questions, you are much more likely to find a developer who fits. If you are really stuck, you can send these questions to the developer and see how they respond.

1. What am I hoping the website will achieve?

Write down the main job of the site in one or two sentences. It might be:

• “I need people to be able to find out who I am and contact me.”
• “I want a small private-practice website now, with the option to publish articles later.”
• “I run groups and training, so I need clear information about events and a way for people to join a mailing list.”

This gives the developer something real to design around. It also makes it easier to resist features you do not need.

2. Do I expect email enquiries?

Most therapy websites include a contact form, an email address, or both. Decide what you would prefer a potential client to do.

You may want a straightforward form that asks only for a name, contact detail and a brief message. Or you may prefer a visible email address so that people can choose how much to say. If you use a form, ask where the messages go, who can access them, how spam is handled, and whether you can change the wording later.

Keep the first contact route simple. A website should not invite people to share a detailed personal history into a box that you may not be able to monitor immediately.

Bear in mind that free email accounts are often not suitable for use in a clinical environment, due to the way they are processed by their providers.

3. Do I want to edit the site myself?

There is no correct answer. Some people want to be able to correct a fee, add a group date or publish an article without asking anyone. Others would rather send an email to a trusted person and know it will be dealt with.

The important thing is to say which you are choosing.

Ask a potential developer:

• Can you show me how to make ordinary edits?
• Will I receive a short written guide or a recorded walkthrough?
• What happens if I want help with changes later?
• Is there a monthly support fee, and what does it include?

If you want to write regularly, make sure you are shown how to add and edit articles. WordPress, for example, has a built-in post editor for writing, saving drafts, previewing and publishing posts.[2]

4. Do I want people to find the site through Google?

Most therapists do. It is reasonable to ask how the site will be made easy for search engines to understand.

One useful word is sitemap. A sitemap is a file that helps search engines discover the important pages on a site. It is helpful, but it is not a promise of a particular Google ranking or even of every page being indexed.[1]

Ask your developer:

• Will the site have a sitemap?
• Will each page have a clear title and description?
• Will you set up Google Search Console, or show me how to do it?
• Will the site work well on a phone as well as a computer?
• Will I be able to add articles in a way that search engines can find?

A reassuring developer will explain this in ordinary language. Be cautious of anyone who guarantees that you will be “number one on Google”. You won’t. Really, you won’t. You are competing against the huge budgets of major corporations.

5. Do I want to build an email list?

Perhaps you offer training, groups, workshops or occasional writing that people may want to hear about. If so, an email list may be useful. If not, do not add one simply because somebody says you should – if the answer is ‘no’ skip this question!

Ask whether the website can connect to a mailing-list service and what the ongoing cost will be. Squarespace, for example, offers built-in email-campaign tools; its guidance makes clear that these involve a mailing list, sender details, an email draft and plan-based sending limits.[4]

What matters is that people choose to subscribe, that you know how to use the system, and that you do not create another obligation you do not actually want.

Quick word of warning: Do not use your ordinary email service for sending out to lots of people regularly, even with BCC. This is monitored by spam detection/reputation management systems on the internet. At some point you will find that even your ordinary 1:1 emails are not getting through and you will not receive an error or notice of non-delivery. You will send emails and they will silently not arrive. I used to work for small (but rich) businesses who would suddenly find that their email system ‘wasn’t working’. Their emails were not getting through. The internet was silently deleting them before they reached their destination. If you need to regularly send to groups of ten or more, then you do need a mass mailing system (e.g. Klaviyo, Mailchimp). If you get banned in this way then it is a lot of time and expense to get unbanned.

6. How will cookies, privacy and GDPR be handled?

This needs to be part of the first conversation, not a last-minute banner added when the site is ready to launch. It may be boring and technical, but you can end up in hot water if you don’t attend to it, even as a small business.

Cookies are only the visible part of a wider question: what information passes through the website, where it goes, who can access it, and how long it remains there.

For a UK website, cookies and similar technologies are covered by PECR (Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations) alongside the wider UK GDPR (UK General Data Protection Regulation) picture. The ICO (Information Commissioner’s Office) says that, unless a cookie is strictly necessary, visitors need clear information about what it does and why, and must actively consent before it is set.[5]

For psychotherapists, the wider discussion matters especially. A first enquiry may contain very personal material and may reveal information about someone’s mental health, which the UK GDPR treats as health data and therefore special category data when it reveals a person’s health status.[8] That does not mean a therapy website cannot use a normal contact form. It means that the form, the mailbox it sends to, any booking system, mailing-list service, analytics, backups and third-party integrations all need to be considered rather than treated as invisible technical details.

The ICO’s principle of data protection by design is that privacy is considered at the planning stage and throughout the life of a service, with personal information limited to what is necessary for its purpose.[7] In practical terms, ask the developer to draw the whole route of an enquiry: from the visitor’s browser, through the website and any form provider, to the email inbox or practice system where it is read and stored.

This is why I use the booking form provided directly by my clinical note-keeping system, rather than trusting a booking form built into my website. The clinical system is the place designed to hold and manage practice information; my website points people towards it rather than becoming another place where sensitive information may be collected or retained or exposed.

Ask the developer to explain, in plain language:

• What information will the website ask for, and can the initial contact route be kept to the minimum needed?
• Where do contact-form messages go, how are they protected, who can access them, and are copies retained in the website or its backups?
• Which outside services process visitor information — for example analytics, spam protection, embedded video, maps, appointment systems, social feeds or mailing-list tools — and where are their terms and data-processing arrangements documented?
• What cookies or other visitor tracking will the site use, and how will visitors be able to accept, reject or later change non-essential cookie choices?
• What privacy information will I need to provide, and who is responsible for reviewing it when the site or its services change?

A capable developer may be excellent at building websites without understanding the particular confidentiality and data-protection context of psychotherapy. They should be able to explain the technical setup clearly and identify the services involved. For decisions about legal responsibilities, lawful bases, retention and contracts, it is sensible to seek specialist data-protection advice rather than relying on a cookie banner or a developer’s reassurance alone.

There is a lot of technical information in this section – so try to find a developer who can help you with this and, possibly, a solicitor.

7. Am I happy with my branding?

A new website does not always require a new logo, colour scheme and professional photo shoot. Sometimes a thoughtful site using what you already have is exactly right.

But a rebuild can also be an opportunity to ask whether the way your practice looks matches the way you work. Do you want something quiet and simple? Warm and personal? More established and formal? More obviously welcoming to LGBTQ+, neurodivergent people or whatever your niche is?

A designer can help you make these choices. A developer may also be a designer, but do not assume that the two roles are the same. Ask to see examples of their work and notice whether you can imagine yourself in the sites they have made.

On this section, do not ask your mate ‘Dave’ down the pub. They are unlikely to be aware of what modern websites are capable of and you may find yourself spending a lot of money getting your developer to create a website that looks five years out of date. Believe me, I had website clients do this.

8. Do I want an email address that matches my website?

An address such as hello@yourname.co.uk can look clear and established, but it is not essential on day one. If you want one, ask who sets it up, what it costs each year, where it will be accessed and what happens if you change developer or hosting company.

For this I will make the only recommendation of the article. For privacy-based email Proton Mail excels. Here is my affiliate link Proton Mail – affiliate. Alternatively, here is the non-affiliate link Proton Mail – non-affiliate.

Do bear in mind that many free email accounts are not even suitable for business, let alone potentially handling sensitive data. This is due to the way the providers harvest the content of the emails for advertising – they have to pay for the free accounts somehow!

9. Do I already own the domain name I want?

A domain is the web address, such as johndray.com. If you already own one, tell the developer. If you do not, ask them to help you choose and register it — but make sure it is registered in your name and with an email address you can access. (Hint: your website does not have to begin with www. these days, but some people still type that in and your developer should be able to handle that for you.)

Also ask when it renews, what it costs, and how you would move it if you ever needed to. It is much easier to make this clear at the beginning than to untangle later.

WordPress, Squarespace or something else?

You do not need to choose the technology alone. You do need a broad sense of the trade-off. WordPress and Squarespace are two familiar examples, not the only credible choices. There are many other website builders, content-management systems and specialist practice-site services; a good developer may recommend something else where it genuinely suits your aims.

Squarespace can suit someone who wants an all-in-one, relatively contained system. It includes templates and tools for pages, blog posts and basic search-engine settings. Its own guidance includes checks for page titles, descriptions, social-sharing images and other discoverability details.[3] It can be a good fit where you want fewer moving parts and are happy with its way of doing things.

WordPress needs one further question: which WordPress? The same underlying software is used in two rather different arrangements.[6]

• WordPress.com is a hosted, managed service. It takes care of much of the technical work, including hosting and routine updates. This can feel simpler, but the available features and customisation depend on the plan you choose.
• Self-hosted WordPress — commonly referred to as WordPress.org — is installed with a hosting company of your choice. It can offer more freedom to choose themes, plugins and specialist functions, but somebody needs to take responsibility for hosting, updates, backups, security and support.

This distinction can be costly if it is missed at the beginning. Do not agree to “a WordPress site” without asking which version is being proposed, where it will be hosted, what you will be able to add later, and what it would cost to change course. A good developer will help you decide whether the easier managed route or the more flexible self-hosted route fits your plans and appetite for ongoing technical involvement.

Neither is automatically better. A useful question is:

Which option will leave me with a website I can live with, afford to maintain and understand well enough not to fear?

Avoid being sold a complicated system because it sounds impressive. Equally, avoid a platform that is so limiting that you have to rebuild the site just as you begin to use it confidently.

Questions to ask every developer

Alongside the questions above, ask these practical things before agreeing to the work:

• What is included in the quoted price, and what is not?
• What will the yearly or monthly costs be after the site is launched?
• Who owns the domain, website files, images and written content?
• Will I have administrator access to the site and key accounts? (There may be really good reasons why the developer retains these.)
• Will you make the site accessible and easy to use on phones? (Most website views are on phones these days)
• What is your process for revisions before the site goes live?
• What happens if something breaks after launch?
• What will be backed up, how often, and who restores it if needed? (Will the backup include personally identifiable data/clinical data?)
• Can I take the site to another developer in future? (Some will, some won’t and some will charge a fee)

Ask for the answers in writing. This is not distrustful; it is simply good practice. After all, as psychotherapists, we are well immersed in the importance of contracting 😉

Choosing the person, not just the package

Technical skill matters, but so does the quality of the conversation. You are looking for somebody who can translate without patronising you, listen to the way you want your practice to come across, and be honest about what is possible within your budget.

A good first meeting should leave you clearer, not more confused. You should come away knowing roughly what will be built, what you need to provide, what it will cost, and what support will be available afterwards.

You do not have to know the right answer to every technical question. If you can describe what you want the site to do, and find somebody willing to help you think through the rest, you are already well on the way to choosing the right developer.

While I believe the information in this article is accurate at the time of publishing, please do not assume that any of it constitutes legal advice. For that, consult an appropriately informed solicitor. Additionally, information about websites is likely to go out of date.

Sources

[1] — Google Search Central: Learn about sitemaps

[2] — WordPress.com Support: Create a post

[3] — Squarespace Help: SEO checklist

[4] — Squarespace Help: Sending email campaigns

[5] — Information Commissioner’s Office: Cookies and similar technologies

[6] — WordPress.com Support: WordPress.com vs. WordPress.org

[7] — Information Commissioner’s Office: Data protection by design and by default

[8] — Information Commissioner’s Office: What is special category data?