Transforming your website into a member-acquiring machine that converts customers is a process. A strong online presence is a must-have for any fitness business. The best gym websites serve the business in multiple ways. Your website attracts new members, helps you manage class bookings, and nurtures a sense of fitness community. Here are 12 elements your gym website needs in 2021.
1. Location and Contact Information
Your website needs to include all of your business information. Whether you’re an online-only digital fitness platform or have multiple gym locations throughout the country, you need to include all your information. Often, when visitors are looking for your website, they are seeking important information. Make it as easy as possible to find your location and contact you. Essential business information includes:
Location
Contact information: phone number and email address
Hours of operation
Business description
FAQ’s
2. Reviews and Testimonials
Statistics show that 91% of 18-34 years olds trust reviews as much as a personal recommendation. On top of this, 93% of consumers say that an online review influences their purchase decision. Those numbers are staggeringly high. When a potential member is thinking of signing up to your gym or online services, they want to know if it will be the right fit. Maybe they want to find out what your gym community is like or how effective your body workout classes are. Make sure you include reviews and testimonials on your website as they provide social proof to potential customers.
3. Mobile-Friendly and Intuitive User Experience
Poor web experience will deter visitors. After one bad experience, they are unlikely to come back again. A good website has an intuitive UX. This means that the user should understand how to use the website design without consciously thinking about it. A responsive design is part of the user experience. This means that your website should be mobile-friendly and automatically adjust to the user’s device. Features to consider include:
Social media integration
Easy to use navigation
Search bar
One button payments
4. Member Management Portal
Flexibility, efficiency, and convenience are key to member satisfaction in the digital age. A member management portal adds another level of functionality to your gym website. A member portal allows your members to manage their own membership, update payment details, view their bookings, and make their lives easier. This helps to streamline your administration processes and gives your members complete control over their membership. A member portal also helps to reduce no-shows as members can cancel bookings online and are sent automated class reminders to stay on track.
5. Fitness Class Schedule and Bookings
Your gym website is where members will view your fitness class schedule, make a booking, and find out what services you offer. A great fitness website example is F45 Training. It has a clean and minimalist design with compelling messaging. When you land on the site, you can click ‘New to F45?’, ‘Workouts,’ and ‘Why F45 Works’. At first glance, the site sorts users into existing members and new visitors and gauges fitness levels and abilities. You can then easily find an F45 studio near you and make a booking. The training class descriptions tell visitors exactly what to expect, and the site navigation is easy to use. We’ll take a look at F45’s website more closely later in this article.
6. Live Streaming and On-Demand Classes
A clever site design will incorporate your digital fitness platform and live streaming schedule. You can lead visitors with a ‘Start trial’ button and immediately showcase your digital platform. If your in-person gym is currently closed, you will likely direct most traffic straight to your digital platform. For example, when you land on the Les Mills website, you see a video banner linking to the brand’s On-Demand fitness platform. You can start a free trial from the website and start streaming more than 1000 workouts almost immediately.
7. High-Quality Visuals and Fresh Content
Your website content is as important as the design and feel of your site. You need high-quality visuals and fresh content to stay relevant. Good visuals that are genuine and relevant will help you rank higher. Content will always be king. A fitness business blog is a good way to generate fresh content for your website and showcase your brand voice and personality. Other types of content to consider include:
Video
Podcast
Professional-quality images
Graphics
Animations
8. E-commerce
If you sell branded merchandise and products, it’s a good idea to include an e-commerce platform on your website. Make it as easy as possible for visitors to find and pay for products. For example, if you are a yoga studio, you may stock yoga mats, branded water bottles, and yoga leggings. Visitors should be able to navigate easily and pay for any products. Selling branded merchandise helps to create an additional stream of income for your business.
9. SEO-Optimized Pages
All the pages on your website should be fully search-engine optimized. SEO not only helps you to rank higher on search engines, but it also helps to improve the overall user experience. Adding genuine and relevant content improves your SEO, as does optimizing for mobile and increasing your website’s speed. One of the most significant benefits of SEO is that it helps you to target quality traffic. When your website shows to someone who is actively searching for the service your health club offers or a piece of content on your blog, it builds trust and brings you a high-quality lead. This person is already interested in the type of content and services you offer.
10. Eye-Catching and Professional Web Design
An eye-catching and professional web design can have a massive impact on the quality of your website. A beautiful site design shows visitors who you are, makes them stick around and ultimately converts them into paying members. Never underestimate the power of a great website. When you’re making a first impression, your website’s feel can attract or deter potential customers. Staying up to date on website design trends and tools is crucial to a great-looking website. Some of the leading website design trends in 2021 include:
Dark mode
Contrasting color combinations
3D elements
Asymmetric design
Ultra-fast loading time
Bold colors and fonts
11. Good Security, Hosting, and Privacy Features
To convert visitors into paying customers, your website needs to ensure the safety of your users. Privacy and security are hot topics, and you need to make sure you look after your customer data. If you have a booking function and member portal on the site, you will likely be storing payment details and other sensitive data. In the world of online payments, e-commerce fraud is becoming increasingly common. You will need to have a secure website that protects all customer data and payment details.
12. Clear Calls to Action
Now that you’ve covered some of your fitness center website’s most important elements don’t forget to include clear calls to action. This includes small call to action buttons located throughout your website. You want to present potential members with clear instructions to guide them through your sales funnel. Maybe that starts with a free trial of your fitness platform and training programs before encouraging them to contact your gym for a personal trainer session. Both the website design and copy play a role in creating compelling calls to action that enable users to take action on each page.