Your personal trainer website is an integral cog in the marketing machinery you have set in place for your business. With a good fitness website, you can attract a prospects attention, while encouraging call-backs and referrals. But most trainers don't know how to incorporate god user experience in to their website to maximize leads and reduce bounce rates.
What is User Experience?
person's perceptions and responses resulting from the use and/or the anticipated use of a product, system or service".
User Experience (UX) includes your website visitor's emotions, beliefs, preferences and behaviour while browsing your pages. UX of your readers can be affected by many aspects including your brand vision, the website's functionality, visual elements, ease of use and whether your personal trainer website meets the visitors' expectations.
Design Your Fitness Website with Purpose
An aesthetically pleasing and well-designed website, with the right elements, increases the chances of conversion and contact, provided the users get what they came for.
Creating a pretty website may be the first step, but creating it with the visitors next logical step in mind will take your website's performance further.
According to HubSpot's survey data an astonishing 76% of responders said that finding the information they are looking for is the most important factor in a website.
Creating a pretty website may be the first step, but creating it with the visitors next logical step in mind will take your website's performance further.
According to HubSpot's survey data an astonishing 76% of responders said that finding the information they are looking for is the most important factor in a website.
This is something I emphasize almost daily to our Managed Website clients and helping them identify the needs of their ideal clients during the planning process ensures our website designed are beautiful and useful.
Here are 8 key tips to create an outstanding user experience to your website visitors.
1. SEO Optimized Headers
Did you know? 60% of all website clicks go to the first three websites which appear in search engine results. But how does a website achieve the top ranks? Through quality Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
The right SEO can substantially increase website rank and visibility. This is why it's beneficial to incorporate powerful and relevant keywords in your web content. Since your page headings are the very first thing a visitor reads on your web page, it’s important to include powerful words that visitors actually look for.
Words like ‘gym near/in [location]’, ‘personal trainer’, ‘fitness class’ are all popular and good for headings. Chris Wong is an Oakville based in-home trainer which is highlighted at several key locations on his personal trainer website, including the header and sub header of its Home page.
When a new website visitor looking for an in home personal trainer in Oakville lands on this page, they're going to know they're in the right place.
The right SEO can substantially increase website rank and visibility. This is why it's beneficial to incorporate powerful and relevant keywords in your web content. Since your page headings are the very first thing a visitor reads on your web page, it’s important to include powerful words that visitors actually look for.
Words like ‘gym near/in [location]’, ‘personal trainer’, ‘fitness class’ are all popular and good for headings. Chris Wong is an Oakville based in-home trainer which is highlighted at several key locations on his personal trainer website, including the header and sub header of its Home page.
When a new website visitor looking for an in home personal trainer in Oakville lands on this page, they're going to know they're in the right place.
2. Simple and Obvious CTAs
In other words the buttons that tell your readers on each page what to do next need to be understandable and align with the next logical step.
For example, someone who lands on your Home page from Google are likely in the Consideration phase of their buyer's journey because they searched for your services.
After understanding that you are a trainer that can help them, their next logical step would be to check your services, get in touch and/or sign-up for a trial offer.
Adding newsletter sign-up CTAs or anything else to your home page would defeat the purpose of the page, distract your reader from what they came for and potentially make them leave your website.
However, the majority of your blog readers will still be in the Awareness phase, trying to solve their problem themselves. Encouraging them to sign-up for regular updates will allow you to keep them engaged, establish rapport and trust so when the day comes and they are ready to hire a trainer, you will be the first they will turn to.
Remember to keep you CTAs and all info updated. There is nothing worse than clicking on an offer only to find out it's not available anymore.
For example, someone who lands on your Home page from Google are likely in the Consideration phase of their buyer's journey because they searched for your services.
After understanding that you are a trainer that can help them, their next logical step would be to check your services, get in touch and/or sign-up for a trial offer.
Adding newsletter sign-up CTAs or anything else to your home page would defeat the purpose of the page, distract your reader from what they came for and potentially make them leave your website.
However, the majority of your blog readers will still be in the Awareness phase, trying to solve their problem themselves. Encouraging them to sign-up for regular updates will allow you to keep them engaged, establish rapport and trust so when the day comes and they are ready to hire a trainer, you will be the first they will turn to.
Remember to keep you CTAs and all info updated. There is nothing worse than clicking on an offer only to find out it's not available anymore.
3. Identifiable Hyperlinks
Visitors rarely visit a website for promotional content. They visit your site for value-add information that can benefit them in some way.
For a fitness website, the chances of having visitors browse through your pages, especially your blog for information on improving their exercise form or tips on eating healthy are greater, than having visitors who enter your site looking for information on a gym membership.
Using hyperlinks within your blog posts linking to other relevant blogs, free downloads (<-- see what I did there) and relevant statistics or research from knowledgeable sources will do two things for your fitness business:
For a fitness website, the chances of having visitors browse through your pages, especially your blog for information on improving their exercise form or tips on eating healthy are greater, than having visitors who enter your site looking for information on a gym membership.
Using hyperlinks within your blog posts linking to other relevant blogs, free downloads (<-- see what I did there) and relevant statistics or research from knowledgeable sources will do two things for your fitness business:
- establish you as the resident expert in your area who's not afraid of showing proof for their claims
- work a treat for your SEO ranking.
4. Relevant Images and Videos
Research by Word Stream shows that the conversion rates for websites that use images and videos are 4.8% higher than the websites that don’t incorporate graphics of any kind.
Using images of your own fitness business makes the website more relatable and reliable. Get your clients to agree to a one-off photoshoot so you can show your website visitors how you help your clients in real life. Same with videos.
People relate to people and for someone who is trying to get help with their weight loss goals, there is no better proof than seeing you caring for people like them and helping the getting results.
Using images of your own fitness business makes the website more relatable and reliable. Get your clients to agree to a one-off photoshoot so you can show your website visitors how you help your clients in real life. Same with videos.
People relate to people and for someone who is trying to get help with their weight loss goals, there is no better proof than seeing you caring for people like them and helping the getting results.
5. Interactive Navigation Interface
Imagine you’re a customer looking through a website. You wish to search for information, but don’t have the time to read through the entire site. You look for a search box, but notice there isn’t one on the website. How likely are you going to continue browsing this site that doesn’t even have a navigation option?
The answer is – highly unlikely. Incorporating a navigation interface is essential to make the user experience more comfortable. This way you can make sure your website readers can find exactly what they are looking for.
The answer is – highly unlikely. Incorporating a navigation interface is essential to make the user experience more comfortable. This way you can make sure your website readers can find exactly what they are looking for.
A search bar, archives any topic categories on your blog and can increase the chances your website visitor will find the answer for their question. Check out Aidan D'Arcy's fitness blog for a good example.
6. Whitespace
Whitespace is that part of your web page that’s been left untouched and unmarked by wording, images, graphics etc. For a designer, whitespace is the key to designing an aesthetically beautiful website.
While you shouldn’t leave your web pages blank, we urge you to incorporate a good amount of whitespace in your website. Here’s why:
While you shouldn’t leave your web pages blank, we urge you to incorporate a good amount of whitespace in your website. Here’s why:
- Whitespace makes your content appear legible, concise and aesthetically pleasing
- Whitespace helps draw user’s attention to specific areas of the website, such as contact forms, social media sharing links, CTAs and more
- Whitespace makes your website look classy and elegant by balancing the colors and graphics used
- Whitespace helps sectionalize your website, helping lead the visitors from one section to the other
- Whitespace is a great way to spruce up a poorly designed and cluttered website
Susan Flintoff's Exercise for Mums website has plenty of white space, not only in the header but across the pages.
7. Shorter Page Load Speeds
Research by Soasta showed that websites that loaded in 2.4 seconds experienced the highest conversion rates, and only 1 second could mean a significant drop.
Figures like these show us how important shorter page load times are to the success of a website. There are many ways to ensure your website loads faster:
- minimizing the size of the pictures you use on your website and in your blog posts, I use tinypng.com
- instead of uploading your videos to your website, embed videos hosted on a platform that was specifically designed to make video streaming faster, like YouTube or Vimeo.
- keep your plugins to the minimum and only use them for a specific purpose
Keeping your website load to the minimum will also enhance mobile visitor's experience where internet speed can hugely depend on the IPS.
8. Rectified 404’s
Over the course of your search engine usage, you may have come across the ‘404 error’ or ‘404 not found’ messages a few times. The 404 error is an HTTP response code which indicates that although your computer was able to contact the server, the server was unable to find the information you were looking for.
This happens when you change the URL of one of your website pages or delete them completely but the original URL is still circulating in some promotional materials or even sits deep in the Google archive and someone finds it.
This happens when you change the URL of one of your website pages or delete them completely but the original URL is still circulating in some promotional materials or even sits deep in the Google archive and someone finds it.
A website visitor who encounters one-too-many 404 errors may get extremely annoyed and may become dissatisfied with the quality of your site. Depending on your website host you can prepare for such instances by re-routing the URL to a custom 404 page, apologising and directing the visitor to other live pages of your website.
That's It!
Use these 8 user experience tips to make visiting your website feel like a walk in the park. Remember, your website is often the first impression you give to potential new clients so it muse be a good one. For more personal trainer website design tips, subscribe below or join our free Facebook community.
