Musculoskeletal practices have a search advantage most businesses would envy. People type their problem straight into Google: “sore shoulder physio Lennox Head”, “lower back pain Ballina”, “osteo for headaches”. The practice that has a clear page for that problem gets the booking.
The catch is that physios, osteopaths and chiropractors are all AHPRA registered, so the same pages that win searches are also where advertising breaches tend to sit. The structure below handles both: a page per main condition and service, honest practitioner profiles, fees and funding laid out plainly, and wording that stays inside AHPRA’s rules.
The pages you need
For a typical one to five practitioner clinic, this is the site we’d plan:
- Home: who you see, where you are, a booking button, and links to your main areas of care
- Conditions or areas of care: one page per main area (back, neck, shoulder, knee, headaches, sports injuries, pregnancy, workplace injuries)
- Services: one page per distinct service (dry needling, clinical Pilates, hydrotherapy, pre and post surgery rehab, return to work)
- Practitioners: an overview page and one profile per practitioner
- Fees and funding: fees, health funds, Medicare, DVA, WorkCover, CTP, NDIS
- Your first visit: what to bring, what to wear, what happens
- Contact and location: directions, parking, access
- Book: or a booking button that goes straight to your booking system
What we leave out by default: a blog that won’t be updated, a news page, a “gallery” of the treatment room, and anything that duplicates content on Google Business Profile.
Condition pages: specific, useful, not overclaiming
A good condition page answers the questions a patient has before they book: can this practice help with my problem, what will the first appointment involve, and how long might it take.
A structure that works:
- A plain description of the problem in patients’ words, including common causes
- What you assess and how
- What treatment may involve (hands-on treatment, exercise, education, load management)
- What a patient can expect over the first few sessions
- When they should see a GP or go to hospital instead
- A booking button and the practitioners with a particular interest in this area
The fifth point is underrated. Saying “If your back pain comes with numbness in the groin area or changes to bladder or bowel control, go to the emergency department” is good clinical communication and builds trust. Patients notice a practice that knows its limits.
What to avoid: long lists of conditions you “treat” with no explanation of how, outcome promises (“get rid of back pain for good”), and comparisons with other professions or medication. AHPRA’s examples for all professions include a manual therapy case showing what an acceptable condition list looks like, and it’s worth reading before you write.
Our article on writing service pages for health practitioners goes through the copy section by section.
One page per area, not one page for everything
From an SEO point of view, a single “What we treat” page with 25 bullet points rarely ranks for any of them. A dedicated page for “headaches” or “pregnancy-related pain” with a few hundred useful words has a real chance, especially in a regional town where competition is thin.
Don’t go overboard, though. Twelve thin pages that say the same thing with a different body part swapped in will do worse than six solid ones. Start with the conditions you see most and want more of, and add pages as you have something real to say.
Practitioner profiles
Each profile should have:
- A real, recent photo with a natural expression (a professional headshot session keeps the whole team consistent)
- Profession and qualifications, written correctly (see below)
- Areas of particular interest, described honestly
- Further training relevant to patients (for example, a course in women’s health or vestibular rehab), described factually
- Days worked and whether they’re taking new patients
- A direct booking link for that practitioner, if your system supports it
Titles are where profiles slip. “Dr” used by an osteopath or chiropractor needs the profession stated, as in “Dr Sam Lee (chiropractor)”. “Specialist” is risky: there’s no specialist registration in physiotherapy, osteopathy or chiropractic. AHPRA’s examples do accept a physiotherapy specialist title where the awarding college and year are named, so if you hold that title, quote it in full. Otherwise use “has a particular interest in”.
Booking, fees and funding
Physio and osteo patients are often practical buyers. They want to know the price, whether their health fund covers it, whether you have HICAPS or similar on-the-spot claiming, and when they can get in. Put a booking button in the header and a sticky one on mobile.
Funding pathways are a big deal for musculoskeletal practices. Give WorkCover, CTP, DVA, NDIS and Medicare chronic condition referrals a line each on your fees page, saying what the patient needs to bring or arrange. Patients injured at work or in a car accident are often confused and stressed about paperwork. Clear instructions make you the obvious choice.
Exercise programs and video
Many clinics want to add exercise videos to their site. Our view: patient exercise programs usually belong in your exercise prescription software, where they can be tailored. Public videos on the website work best as general content (for example, “three desk stretches”) and need the same care with claims as everything else. Add a line saying they’re general and not a substitute for an assessment.
Chiros and osteos: a note on claims
Chiropractic advertising in particular has had regulatory attention over the years, especially around claims for conditions outside the musculoskeletal system and the treatment of children. If you’re a chiro or an osteo, check your National Board’s current guidance before writing about anything beyond musculoskeletal care, and keep claims tied to what the evidence supports.
The same discipline applies to wellness practitioners who aren’t registered at all, under consumer law, which we cover in websites for naturopaths and wellness practitioners.
Where to start
If you have an existing site, pick your three most common presentations and check whether each has its own page that a patient would find useful. If not, write those first. They’re the pages most likely to bring in new patients, and they’re where local SEO work pays off most.
For a practice planning a new site, the page list above is a sound starting brief. You can see one of our practice builds in the Ballina Lifestyle Osteopathy portfolio, and this list is where any health practice website we build begins.