What is the first thing you do when you learn about a new business or service?
Most likely, you Google it, and end up on a landing page.
To put this into perspective, almost 90% of consumers look at online reviews before visiting a business. Not just reviews, potential consumers visit a website and check out social media channels.Having a good online presence can be the backbone of your identity and credibility as a fitness business.
Whether you operate mainly online or offline, you need to have a strong first impression to give people a reason to buy your products or services.After all, the fitness industry is worth more than $96.2 billion, which means you have to do everything in your power to stand out amongst your competitors to create conversions.
One major thing you can do to achieve this, is by having a good website design. In this article, we will look at what fitness website design is, why it’s important to have a good website design and some factors to consider when designing a website,
Skip ahead to:
- What is a fitness website design?
- Why is it vital to have a fitness website?
- Typical website platforms you can use
- 11 factors to consider when designing a fitness website
What is a fitness website design?
Website design is basically how your fitness website looks from the moment a visitor lands on it. Generally, in web design, there’s a focus on three main things: your appearance, layout, and content. All of these three combined, if done well, give the users on your website a good experience, leading them to want to learn more about your services and business.
But, for a good gym website design, you can’t just pick any design though; instead, a good fitness website has to complement your company’s goals, mission, and target audience. If done well, this will allow your business to generate more leads and potential clients.
Why is it vital to have a fitness website?
Having an online fitness website can increase your website visitors by a large amount and can help you benefit from the following:
Increases your credibility
Word of mouth and print advertising are not the main methods to survive today, even if you, your club, or staff have years of experience in the industry.
People are looking for more reasons to trust a brand, and having a business website can instil confidence in visitors, providing them with more reasons to trust you. Showing your fitness clubs information online will help you be more transparent. Plus, having your contact details easily stated, like your mobile number, address, and email, will increase the likelihood of new leads.
Attracts new people
Websites allow you to target a larger demographic than you would in standard print advertising. Suppose your website is optimized according to a variety of search engines (SEO). In that case, it will allow more people to learn about your fitness business, as you are more likely to appear in the search results on the first few pages.
On the contrary, if your website is not designed well, your company could appear all the way back to page 5 or further, making it difficult for new visitors. When scrolling online, people have less time and availability to visit websites after the 1st and 2nd webpage on search engines.
Saves you time
No doubt, as a fitness entrepreneur, you or your team have dealt with many calls from prospective or existing customers filled with questions about your business. Similarly, there’s probably been times when you’ve been too busy to answer such calls, leaving your customers unsatisfied.
Calls like these can also delay essential work and distract your team members. Having a good fitness website will allow all members to access the valuable information they need at any time and anywhere. Therefore allowing you to allocate time on the important stuff in your business.
Greater customer service
If you design your website well, you will be able to have more satisfied customers. This is because customers will easily be able to access important updates and announcements without having to wait in long queues on the telephone to ask such queries.
Helps with digital marketing
To survive a fitness business, you must advertise your services online. To market them on social media and other platforms effectively, you have to have a good website design. If your website design isn’t consistent with your social media ad design, it can cause quick drop-off rates preventing people from learning more about your services.
Typical website platforms you can use
If you are not hiring a professional, you should use fitness dedicated website templates or a website builder.
WordPress
One great platform to consider is WordPress, which houses about 34% of the internet’s websites. Not only is WordPress popular, but it also has premade themes you can download for free or buy at a lower price than you would hire a web designer.
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Discover more There are themes specifically meant for fitness businesses and allow you to easily upload your content. Similarly, paid themes are easy to customize, and they can also help with the security of your website as they have additional built in features.
Wix
If you have time on your hands, you can use a website builder like Wix to contribute to your website design. Wix is great as it lets you create and design your own website for free. Plus, it allows you to drag and drop features on your websites like menus, images, and more to make it customizable to your liking. However, unlike WordPress, there are some limitations to designing with Wix; you don’t get full freedom.
11 factors to consider when designing a fitness website
There are many factors to consider when designing a website, including design, content, navigation and many more. Let’s go through all these factors and explain why they are necessary for the creation of a successful website.
1. Find fitness designs you like
Take your time to have a look at other leaders in the fitness industry and their websites. Similarly, look at your competitors too and note down areas of their website you might like.
Often when doing this, it’s a good idea to take screenshots of certain websites and place them in a document to use, review and present to your designer concepts for your website. In particular, you should look for unique elements like menus, layout, colors, branding, content, goals, and specific functions.
2. Content
Pelton’s website features lots of videos and text showcasing their services in different sizes, fonts, and backdrops on their website. Take your time to browse other websites to see how they place their images, videos, and text on the website. Then shortlist the ones you find the most appealing to look at on your mobile and computer.
3. Menus
Depending on the number of services or products you have, you will want an easy to navigate menu for your website. Nike has a good example of this; they have a drop down menu that has a minimalistic look, allowing you to find everything on the website quickly and easily.
4. Color scheme
Ideally, for a good website design, you will want to look at how the colors on a website complement one another. For instance, New Balance only uses website colors in line with their brand on their buttons, making their brand color palette stay in your mind throughout their website.
5. Simplicity
Nowadays, the best fitness websites are the ones that are most simple to use and look at. To have a good fitness website design, you will want to have simple colors, typography, and images that are easy to view on any device.
6. Color
Regarding the color, you will want it to be effective and also one that fits in with your brand. If possible, try to stick to 5 colors or less. If you don’t decide to use brand colors, try to opt for complementary colors, so they’re easy to look at.
7. Text
Don’t use a range of different fonts on your website; it can look unnatural and make it an uncomfortable experience for your user. Try to stick to a maximum of three fonts on your fitness website and make sure they’re consistent across your menu, text, and other buttons.
8. Images
Any images, videos, or graphics you choose to use on your website should be relevant to your fitness business. Don’t always opt for stock photos, as they’re commonly used and your less likely to look unique in the industry. Try to use images that reflect your brand, personality, and company. It’s essential that high-quality images are used to showcase professionalism and make your fitness company look more credible.
9. Navigation
Depending on how many pages you have and the services you offer, you will want an easy to navigate website on any device. Good navigation will allow prospective members to stay on your website longer and learn about your company with ease. If your website navigation is not good, then you could have quick drop-off rates and lose out on valuable business.
10. Mobile friendly
In 2021, around 49% of most global website visits are made on mobiles. Therefore, a good fitness website design optimised for mobiles, desktops, and tablets is essential. Make sure you should have a design that can adjust easily to each user’s device.
11. Consider the pages
Before having your website designed, you should think about the layout. Many fitness businesses have a homepage, about page, and a contact section to begin with. Then depending on your business, you may wish to include an inventory, member login area, class timetable, or anything else to suit your business. Knowing what pages to have will help with your how you present the content on your fitness website.
In summary
Overall, a good fitness website shouldn’t be rushed; as an owner, you should take your time to design and know what you like. If you have the money, it’s best to hire a designer as they have certain advantages that premade themes or website builders can’t provide.
For instance, they can help you have a distinct website layout within your niche and create a strong impression for your clients. On the contrary, you can pay less for fitness-related WordPress themes, which you can customise yourself. However you’re more likely to run into a fitness business online with the same theme as your own.
Ultimately, whatever design strategy you choose, a strong website design is important as it will stand out amongst your competitors and generate more leads. Before you start designing, though, you should take your time to assess your goals and look at websites that you like, to give you an idea of how you want to present your company.
