Doulas: Why NOT to use Wix or Weebly to Create your Doula Website
When you’re just starting out as a doula, it’s SO tempting to choose a free service to create your doula website.
Yes, of course you want to save money, but here’s why Wix and Weebly are not a good choice for creating your awesome doula website that will help potential clients find you:
SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
Without getting too technical, the magical Google “bots” can’t crawl around on Wix and Weebly websites. Therefore, your Wix or Weebly doula website WILL NOT SHOW UP in Google searches.
And if your website doesn’t show up in a local pregnant person’s Google search, it’s almost like you don’t exist.
If your website doesn’t show up when someone Googles “doula near me”
It’s going to be harder to find work as a doula.
In order for a website to appear in search results, Google has to “index” it. They do this by sending a bot to crawl all the websites in the whole world. These bots basically read the content and categorize it. The Googlebots have a hard time crawling all the pages on Wix and Weekly websites. A page that isn’t indexed for Google is basically invisible to users who are searching for a doula.
So many doulas get frustrated after they’ve finished their doula training and doula certification and created a website using one of these services because they aren’t getting enough clients to work full-time as a doula.
Ranking high in local searches makes it SO MUCH EASIER for potential clients to contact and eventually hire you.
What to use instead?
I recommend starting with Bluehost for buying a domain (URL) and hosting your website.* Bluehost is easy to use, has a great help section and best of all, when you call with a problem an actual human being answers the phone!
From there, Bluehost makes it pretty easy to create a WordPress or Squarespace website (both of which are set up to maximize your SEO and help you rank higher in Google searches).
It can be overwhelming to create your own website, so start simple. Just a homepage with your basic info, contact info, etc. is all you need to start. But taking the time to create a website that is able to be indexed by Google will have a massive impact on how many potential clients can find you and therefore on how many families you can help.
Need help? Check out the doula website templates.
Hiring someone to help you build your doula website is awesome, but usually a big expense that most doulas who are just starting out can’t swing.
My web design team has created these doula website templates that are beautiful, affordable and will show up in Google searches.
The Doula Darcy helps doulas with the marketing side of being a doula.
Follow her on Instagram for more doula marketing tips. Join her Facebook Group The Doula Marketing Group to connect with other doulas who are working on growing their businesses and supporting more families.
Need a mentor to help you get more doula clients and a community of other doulas cheering you on? Check out My Doula Village.
*I earn a small affiliate commission for recommending Bluehost, but it’s because I really like them and have been using Bluehost for more than 10 years for many websites that I manage.