You’d think that these days every personal trainer and fitness pro would have a website and many of them do but you’d be surprised how many don’t – and are therefore missing out on huge opportunities.
Of those that do have a website to advertise their personal training business, many of them are far from effective and often end up being an expensive waste of time and money.
To ensure your fitness website is as effective as possible for your clients and your business, make sure you read the following 7 tips…
#1 Avoid Flash
How often have you gone to a website and been so frustrated with the endless dancing graphics and animated intros that you have just closed the site down and moved on? It’s tempting to use Flash to give your website an ultra modern, slick feel, but remember why the prospective client is visiting your site in the first place – for more information about you or your services.
Statistics show that the average internet user will give a site 3-5 seconds of their attention, if they have to wait for flash graphics to load before they get to the nitty gritty – they will simply move on.
#2 Get The Size Right
With the rising sales of laptop computers, the screen size on which someone will be viewing your site has become smaller. This means that if the design of your site is particularly wide, users will have to scroll across to read the information or navigate through your site and quickly become frustrated.
Ensure your web design company do browser testing and design your fitness website so that it’s compatible with most major browsers on the market.
#3 Stay Above The Fold
“Above the fold” refers to everything you can see on your personal training website without having to scroll down. Make sure that all of the important information on your home page (branding, navigation, your prime marketing messages) are all clearly visible without your user having to scroll down to find them.
#4 Adhere To The 3 Click Rule
All of the web pages and content information on your website should be easily reached in no more than 3 clicks from one set of navigation. Avoid the temptation to have layers and layers of navigation and pages, or users will get lost within your site and quickly lose interest.
If a user can’t find what they’re looking for within a few seconds, they will give up and go elsewhere.
#5 Include Pricing
Be up front about the pricing of your coaching and training services and clearly display them on your website. If all of the information is on your site to enable a potential client to make the decision to work with you prior to making contact, you avoid wasting time fielding off those drawn out sales calls only to find that the client doesn’t have the budget to pay for your personal training and fitness services.
If you feel uncomfortable about stating your specific prices, at least provide a range of prices to give prospects an indication of whether they’re in the right ballpark.
#6 Don’t Forget A Personal Photograph
Personal fitness training and health coaching are “personal” services; prospects like to know who it is they’re buying from and who they will be working with.
People buy from people they know, like and trust. Providing a photograph of yourself is vital to start building this relationship with interested prospects.
#7 Content
Is your site content all about you and how great you are, or do you focus on your prospective clients and how you can help them? Rather than telling those prospects how fabulous you are, show through the information on your site, that you understand the reason clients are looking for you in the first place and reassure them that you can help.
Whether you are working with a web designer to build a site for your fitness business or re-vamping your existing site, put yourself in the shoes of your target market and use this checklist as a starting point to assess the usability of your site and ask yourself…would you hire/buy from you based on the information you’ve provided on your website?