What is Important in Fitness Website Design

Your website will often be the first time new, potential members see your business. So how do you make a good first impression online?  The key is to balance visual elements with function. Our Zen Planner web designers always keep this in mind when we are building websites for gyms and studios across the country. Here are a few guidelines you should keep in mind for general fitness website design.

Show your personality

Top: Stock, bottom: An actual studio. Which one gives you a better understanding of the class and space?

Have you ever given a tour of your business to a prospective member? What do you show them? Who do you introduce them to?

Your website should provide the same experience of that in person visit. This can be done by featuring high quality photos of your amenities, a wide-angle image of your space and friendly pictures of your staff. Also, having personal stories in your About Us section will give your business history authenticity and make your coaches relatable.

This genuine content will give a new visitor to your website an accurate impression of your business.

Keep it simple

Think of your website like your business card. Both should show people who you are, what you do, and provide contact information. By keeping this in mind, you’ll end up designing a lean, easy to maintain website.

This approach also considers how visitors “read” websites. Most site visitors look at pages for less than 15 seconds, only read 20% of the text and 80% of them won’t scroll below the fold. To provide visitors the experience and information they’re looking for, it’s best to spend your time on the top of page content and clear navigation.

This approach will also keep the #1 function for your website in focus, getting people to visit your business in-person.

Looking for more ways to improve your website? Check out our 10 Things Your Website Must Have Checklist!

Prompt Action

The ultimate goal of your website is to bring people to your physical business. Putting your contact information at the top of your website is a simple way to provide visitors a next step.

Another tried-and-true design strategy is using lead capture forms. These forms give visitors a way to sign up for a free trial, newsletter or consultation in return for their contact info. With a solid marketing plan in place, you can re-engage these visitors through email or follow-up phone calls.

Lastly, put your schedule online and enable people to register for a class through that schedule. Keeping this sign-up process within your website will make it easy for people to join your classes.

While there is much more that goes into a website, these concepts can act as guideposts to keep your website visitors in mind and the scale of your website design approachable.

While design elements are important, there’s more technical considerations that need to be made as well. Check our website checklist for these other important elements your website must have.