If you own a fitness business or you are a fitness entrepreneur, such as a personal trainer, you will need to have a well-designed fitness website. A professional looking fitness website can be an effective tool for attracting leads to your fitness business. This is true for websites in any health related niche, such as yoga. Also, it can help to boost your fitness brand’s online visibility.
But with thousands of other fitness websites out there, having a basic website is not enough. You will need an effective gym website, which can help you to stand out from the competition and motivate potential fitness clients to sign up for your gym membership.
In this article, we will take a closer look at the importance of building a fitness website as well as the key features that your fitness website should have. We will also give you some powerful fitness website design tips you need to come up with a great gym website.
1. Why Build a Fitness Website
As a gym owner, there’s a high chance you already have a presence on various social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook or Twitter. And you may be probably thinking you don’t need a gym website.
After all, you can still use those social media platforms to reach out to potential fitness clients and grow your gym’s membership right? While this is partly true, it will be highly advisable to have an incredible fitness website. Here are some reasons why your fitness business needs a website.
1.1 Build a Strong Online Presence
If you want to compete effectively with other gym owners, you will need to have a powerful online presence.
While you may already have a large following on your fitness Instagram account or other social media platforms, that following may not be enough to give you a competitive edge. And this is where a fitness website comes in.
When combined with your social media following, a well-optimized fitness website will make it easier for potential fitness clients to find you. And the easier you are to find, the faster it will be for you to grow your fitness brand.
So, if you are only relying on your social media presence to grow your fitness business, then you are missing out on hundreds of potential leads.
1.2 Build Credibility
A properly designed and well-optimized fitness website makes you look trustworthy and credible. It shows your target audience that you are a qualified fitness professional.
And when it comes to issues related to health and fitness, most consumers will only choose trustworthy and credible service providers.
Simply put, a fitness website with a good website outline will help you to display your expertise in the industry. Consequently, it will help to establish your authority
1.3 Win in Local Search Results
A well-optimized fitness website will help your fitness brand to rank for several fitness-related keywords and phrases on Google.
For instance, someone may be looking for a gym in Houston, Texas. And there’s a high chance they will start their search on Google.
Assuming your gym is located in that area and you already have a well-optimized website, chances are high your gym website will show up in the search results.
And if your gym is on the first page, it will help you to capture leads, which you may then nurture into long-term clients.
But without a gym website, you will find it extremely hard to compete with other gyms in your neighborhood.
2. Fitness Website Key Features
Without a doubt, a gym website is a powerful tool for marketing your fitness business. But, for your gym website to become a lead generation tool and convert leads into customers, it will need to have certain features. Here are some of the key features that the best fitness website should have:
2.1 Location Information and Contact Details
A common feature among the best gym websites is that they all have location information and contact details.
Whether you only have a single fitness facility or you have several gyms spread across multiple locations, you should ensure your website features all those details.
Whenever a visitor lands on your gym website, there’s a high chance they already want to try out your services. And if they can’t get in touch with you or find your location, then they will give up and move on to the next fitness business in the area.
So, ensure you include your location information and contact details on your fitness website. Also, make sure these details are easy to find. Visitors shouldn’t have to dig through pages on your website trying to find the contact information and location details.
2.2 Testimonials and Reviews
According to a 2021 report published by Qualtrics, approximately 93% of consumers read online reviews first, before purchasing a product. A 2020 Bright Local consumer survey further shows that 87% of customers check online reviews for local businesses.
As you can see, these numbers are quite high and hard to ignore. Therefore, if a potential fitness client is going through your website and thinking of signing up for your fitness services, they want to be confident they are making the right choice.
And if your website features reviews and testimonials from other fitness clients, it will help to inspire confidence that your gym or fitness center is the right choice for them.
So, whether you are designing your gym website from scratch or you are re-designing it, make sure you have a section that features testimonials and reviews.
2.3 Client Management Portal
The modern consumer values convenience, efficiency and flexibility. And adding a member management portal to your fitness website can help you achieve that.
With a client management portal, your gym members will find it easier and more convenient to manage their memberships, check their bookings, or even update their payment details. Hence, it will make their lives easier considerably.
A client management portal will also add convenience on your side while saving you time. Simply put, it will be a win-win scenario for both parties. So, when it’s time to design or re-design your fitness website, you should ensure you include a client management portal.
2.4 Clear Call to Action
The best gym websites also feature a clear, call to action. A call to action will provide clear instructions to your visitors while guiding them through the sales funnel.
For instance, you can request them to provide their contact details in exchange for a free fitness e-book or video.
You can then use the contact details you have gathered in the above steps to send emails and newsletters, encouraging them to sign up for your personal training sessions.
3. Fitness Website Design Best Practices
Your fitness website forms the first impression between potential clients and your fitness brand. If it’s well designed, it will encourage potential fitness clients to sign up for your gym’s membership.
On the other hand, if it’s poorly designed, it will lower your credibility and push away potential customers. Here are some tips on creating an effective, powerful and successful fitness website.
3.1 Create Relevant, Timeless and Informative Content
Your fitness website should aim to attract visitors and keep them coming back. And to achieve this, you simply need to create relevant, informative and timeless content.
Aim to create content that answers your potential client’s most pressing questions. At the same time, stay away from using salesy language.
Consumers are highly likely to engage fitness brands that focus on creating relationships with their followers and sharing helpful information as opposed to those that try to push their products and services every time.
3.2 Ensure Your Fitness Website is Mobile Friendly
According to Statista, mobile users account for approximately 55% of global web traffic. And if you check the best fitness website designs today, you will notice they are mobile responsive.
Therefore, when designing your gym website, you need to ensure that your site can comfortably accommodate users on different devices.
Ensuring your gym website is mobile responsive will improve the overall user experience, making your visitors want to come back.
Furthermore, Google tends to favor responsive fitness websites, as opposed to non-responsive ones.
3.3 Leverage Engaging and Strong Visuals
You have approximately seven seconds to grab the attention of your website visitors. Therefore, you have an extremely narrow window to create the right first impression and encourage them to stay.
So, how can you achieve that? Well, you can start by ensuring your website features strong and engaging visuals.
Instead of filling your website with text, you should break it down with visually-appealing images and videos.
If possible, you should hire a professional photographer, who will create professional-looking photos and videos, which will represent your products, services and brand effectively.
While the initial investment for such imagery may appear steep, the returns will be worth the resources.
3.4 Keep Your Fitness Website Design Modern and Clean
Regardless of whether your fitness website is a yoga-based site, a Pilates studio site, a bodybuilding website or any other fitness-related website, it needs to have a clean, modern design.
A clean modern design will make it easy for your visitors to navigate your website, resulting in a great user experience.
And as noted earlier, visitors will only come back to your fitness website if they enjoy a great user experience.
4. Wrapping It Up
Every fitness brand needs a great website, to compete effectively in today’s fitness industry. But, just because you’ve launched your gym website doesn’t mean you should sit back and expect it to do the heavy lifting. Instead, you need to keep working on your site and improving it. Your gym website should be dynamic. It needs to evolve constantly while keeping up with changing user needs. So, be ready to experiment with new ideas and techniques, listen to feedback and keep looking for ways of keeping your target audience informed and happy, with your fitness website content.