Robyn Rivera
Every fitness business needs a website where people can learn about your services, sign up for classes, meet your instructors and more. However, not all fitness websites are made equal.
There’s simply too much competition out there to leave your fate up to a subpar website. Keep reading to learn what an effective fitness website looks like.
There are a lot of gyms, yoga studios, fitness centers, personal trainers and other fitness options for people to choose from these days. And, in order for a fitness business to stand out from the heavy competition, it needs to be able to bring something new to the table.
Maybe you combine personal training with nutritional coaching to help your clients maximize their results. Or, maybe your outdoor yoga classes give students the ability to stretch and breathe with the help of adorable baby goats crawling all over them.
What makes you different, the benefit you offer your customers and how you solve their needs is your unique value proposition (UVP). Whatever your UVP is, you need to make sure it’s front and center on your website, and throughout every marketing campaign.
People aren’t going to choose your fitness business without a reason. Give them one by making it clear what you bring to the table that they won’t find anywhere else.
Did you know that people will decide within just a few seconds whether they want to stick around and check out your website or move on to the next fitness business on Google search?
A few seconds isn’t really enough time to read about your business or watch your intro video, but it is enough time to catch a glimpse of your website design and images. That’s why it’s critical to get these key pieces of your website right.
When it comes to fitness website design, the name of the game is simplicity. By using plenty of white space in your design, you can focus your visitors’ attention on the most important elements. It also makes your website look more modern and professional.
As for the images you choose, it’s always a good idea to use your own professional images whenever possible. You can, of course, use stock photography when you need to, but using your own high-quality images will help you stand out even more.
Too often, we see business websites that were built only with desktop users in mind, leaving mobile visitors with a poor user experience. This is especially concerning when you realize that most web traffic these days comes from smartphones and tablets.
Whether your visitors are taking a virtual tour of your facility, learning about your fitness classes or signing up for a personal training session, chances are, they’re doing so on their smartphone. That’s why it’s critically important that your website is designed with mobile users in mind.
At the very least, you want your fitness website to be responsive. When a site is responsive, its design will automatically reconfigure based on the device it’s being viewed on. That might mean a slight change in orientation, but it ensures optimal functionality and aesthetic on any device. Plus, it eliminates the need to have a separate mobile website.
In addition to having a responsive website, it’s important that you format your website correctly for an optimal mobile experience. For one, you’ll want to break up your text into smaller chunks to avoid overwhelming mobile readers with a wall of text.
You’ll also want to ensure that you leave plenty of space around buttons and other clickable elements, as a fingertip is less precise than a mouse.
Every fitness business needs an efficient way to capture its members’ data, and a way to keep all its member data organized.
On your website, there’s no better way to gather the information you need than with custom forms that can be directly embedded. And, when those forms integrate with your CRM, it makes keeping track of member data easy.
The two forms every fitness center absolutely needs are a contact form and a prospect form.
A basic contact form typically asks for a name, phone number and email address, and includes a message box where they can inquire about wherever they need. With a prospect form, interested visitors can provide their contact information in exchange for more information, or to take advantage of an offer.
Depending on the type of fitness business you have, there may be several other forms that you could include on your website:
Any forms you create on your website should feed directly into your CRM. This will streamline the process of organizing member data, and it will ensure that you always know where to find it and how to access it when you need it.
Do you offer group fitness classes? If so, your members should be able to find information about the classes you offer and see your class schedule right from your website.
Include a detailed calendar on your website, where your members can see what classes are coming up and what classes fit in their schedule.
Make sure that your calendar is clickable so that members can learn more about classes, and that it integrates with your scheduling tool to make it easy for members to sign up for classes they’re interested in.
In addition to the ability to sign up for classes, give your members the opportunity to schedule sessions with your personal trainers and/or nutritionists.
Not only should your scheduling tool allow members to request an appointment or select a time, but it should also allow them to select the trainer or nutritionist of their choice.
Are you planning to move your gym’s pro shop online? Are you selling online classes or access to other exclusive content? Whether members are buying workout gear or purchasing fitness videos, your website needs to give them an easy, secure way to check out.
The more information you require of customers when they’re checking out, and the more complicated you make the process, the less likely they’ll be to follow through to the end. The best way to handle your shopping cart is to keep your check-out process short and sweet.
If you’re going to accept payments on your website (and every modern fitness website should), you’re going to need a reliable payment processor on your side.
Most fitness centers need to be able to accept recurring payments in addition to one-time payments. Any payments solution you choose should allow you to accept payments weekly, monthly or however often you require.
When someone comes to your website and decides that they want to take advantage of what you have to offer, what do they do next? Should they call you? Should they fill out a contact form? Should they schedule an appointment with a membership representative?
There’s no wrong answer. Whatever it is that people need to do to take a class, work out at your gym or start working with a personal trainer, make sure that you make it absolutely obvious to them what that is.
When you tell your users which steps to take, you’re calling them to action, so to speak.
CTAs (calls to action) are incredibly important because they tell visitors what to do next and motivate them to take that next step. And, yours should be front and center on your website.
These days, people are so inundated with promises about weight loss, muscle gain and other transformations from everyone from fitness equipment sellers to diet pill manufacturers. They don’t need any more promises.
People don’t want to hear about what your services could do for them; they want to hear about what your services have actually done for real people.
Member testimonials — particularly when they’re accompanied by before and after photos that show a real transformation — are incredibly powerful motivators.
Now more than ever, a fitness business’s website is critical to its success. With fewer people actually working out in person or attending in-person fitness classes, gyms and fitness trainers need a way to connect with and serve their members.
Thanks to the pandemic, that now has to happen, in large part, online.
If you don’t currently have a website for your fitness business, or if your website doesn’t meet the needs of the modern world, consider building your own with Websites 360®.
Websites 360 offers a library of professional fitness website design templates to choose from that can be customized with an intuitive, easy-to-use drag-and-drop editor.