If you’re a personal trainer, these days you absolutely need a website.
Gone are the days where you could get by entirely on referrals, and perhaps a business card. Even when you meet a prospective client in person, one of the first things that they’ll do is search for you in Google – and if your website doesn’t come up, this is a huge red flag for someone that otherwise might be interested in working with you.
What’s more, having a website for your personal training business broadens your exposure significantly, allowing potential clients to find you online and then contact you through your site, without actually having met you in person yet.
But you know all of this already, right?
Chances are, you already have a website for your personal training business; however, is that website actually serving you well?
And by this I mean, does your website give the right impression to potential clients, so that they’ll be inclined to work with you?
It simply isn’t good enough to just have a website. WordPress web development is much more than just that. You need a website that is enticing, easy to navigate, and designed to maximize your client conversions (bring you more business).
So, in this article, I’ll be going over some of the most important design features that every personal training website should have, helping you to significantly boost your online reputation.
1) Your Headline
You might not think that this sounds all that important, but your headline is the first thing someone will see when they visit your website.
If the headline isn’t clear and enticing, then many potential clients will simply leave without exploring further. People have increasingly limited attention spans, so you have to capture their interest immediately, within the very first few seconds.
So, what makes a good headline?
Well, you ideally want it to be benefit-oriented, which means that it clearly conveys what benefits a potential client can expect from working with you.
For instance, you might decide to go with the headline ‘Let Me Show You How To Shed Fat & Build Muscle For Free’
This headline has a clear benefit (that you’ll show them how to shed fat and build muscle), and there is also the added bonus of using the word ‘free’. If you offer a free initial training session, as many trainers do, this also helps to convey the nature of your actual offer, before they even get further into your website.
If you need further help coming up with a compelling headline for your website, I would highly recommend the book Cashvertising, which will walk you through exactly how to craft compelling headlines and ad copy.
2) Your Picture
Personal training is inherently personal, which means that you want to give potential clients a clear (and favorable) impression of who they’ll be working with.
Your picture should ideally be ‘above the fold’, which means towards the very top of your website – either next to your headline or directly below it.
Also, your picture should look friendly, making you seem approachable, and fun to work with.
This is an area where it doesn’t pay to be cheap. If you don’t already have professional photos of yourself, I’d recommend potentially working with a good fitness photographer to help you craft the appropriate image.
3) Services That You Offer
After these first 2 things are taken care of, you want your website to clearly show potential clients exactly what type of services you provide.
You may offer a variety of personal training services – everything from 1-on-1 personal training, to group fitness classes, to outdoor boot camps – or even potentially online personal training.
It is important to clearly highlight each of these services on the main page of your website, along with a short description of each one, and preferably an accompanying picture.
If each service requires more explanation, then you can link them to a separate ‘Services’ page on your website, or even an individual page for each training service that you offer.
4) Client Testimonials
For most businesses, customer testimonials provide important social proof, and personal training is no different.
You should reach out to some of your best clients, and ask them if they’d be willing to write a short testimonial for you, in their own words, which you can use on your website.
Even better if you can get some before and after photos for some of your clients, since this will help to convey visually that you know what you’re doing and can actually get results.
Fitness is a very visual business, so some great before/after photos can significantly boost your website’s conversion rate, leading to more new customers.
5) Your Call To Action
You may not be familiar with this term, but a call to action is simply what you want a potential client to do once they’ve finished exploring your website.
Essentially, how they should go about taking the next step.
This might be giving you a call, sending you an email, or filling out a consultation form on your website.
Whatever it is, you need to make it very clear that this is the action that they should take.
Also, avoid giving them too many options here. This only leads to confusion, so you want to define one clear call to action on the main page of your website, and direct people’s attention to that.
This should be placed at the bottom of your main website page, but depending on the length you also might want to place it in the middle of the page as well, along with towards the top of the page, directly under the headline area.
Bringing Your Personal Training Website Up To Speed
In this article, we’ve only scratched the surface in terms of what you should include on your personal training website.
There are many other things that you can include as well – such as links to external review sites, an efficient WordPress website design, trust icons, and even a video of yourself demonstrating exercises or working with clients.
However, before you get into any of that, you should ensure that these 5 important design features are all in place.
Simply by doing that, you’ll significantly improve your personal training website, which will result in potential clients having a much more favorable impression of both you and your business.