Are you looking for practical ways to design your coaching website so it converts visitors into clients? Do you want a website that sings a siren call?
We’ve got you!
With so many people looking for a coach online, having a website that embodies you and your program can help you stand out from your competitors.
Creating an attractive web design on your own that also makes you stand out from the competition can feel like a daunting task, especially considering there’s an entire category of professionals who dedicate their lives to this.
However, we’re sure that you can do this, and we can help!
In this article, we’ve included ten easy yet effective tips for your coaching website design. We have also included several great websites that you can use for inspiration.
Are you ready? Let’s jump in.
- Why Is It Important to Get Your Coaching Website Right?
- 1. Keep It Simple
- 2. Place the Essentials Above the Fold
- 3. Create Visual Impact
- 4. Make Your Calls-To-Action Prominent
- 5. Build Credibility
- 6. Create a Services Page
- 7. Provide Resources in Exchange for Leads
- 8. Optimize Your Website for Search Engines
- 9. Ensure Mobile Responsiveness
- 10. Choose the Right Coaching Website Builder
- Conclusion
- Frequently Asked Questions
Why Is It Important to Get Your Coaching Website Right?
People tend to judge the effectiveness of a website based on measures like traffic, bounce rate, time on site, and conversions. These measures require thoughtful consideration because more typical “good” and “bad” measures might not apply to coaching websites.
Let’s look at the gold-standard website measures and reframe them with coaches in mind.
- Instead of Traffic, consider measuring the number of right-fit clients. Track the number of people who happily remain on your email list after opting into your lead magnet. If they like your website and your ongoing content, it’s a match!
- Instead of Bounce Rate, consider your site’s ability to deter non-ideal clients. Your bounce rate acts like a bouncer at a club, ensuring that the wrong people don’t get in. You’ll know this works when you have fewer calls with non-aligned clients.
- Instead of Time on Site, consider time to commit. As a coach, you’re often helping clients make quicker and higher-quality decisions. Start by offering a compelling message that gets the right people opting in sooner.
Regardless of your coaching niche, your website’s effectiveness can be measured by its capacity to attract potential clients and meetings or exceed their expectations.
With this out of the way, let’s take a look at the ten tips that are going to help you make a winning impression.
1. Keep It Simple
You may be tempted to put everything in as you build your website. However, excessive content and multiple calls to action can heighten uncertainty and encourage indecision.
Consider your ideal clients’ state of mind as they seek a coach. So many are already dealing with overwhelm, so a simple and direct website design will ease the decision-making process.
- Remove content, messaging, or images that distract from your website’s primary purpose; make your assets work for you.
- Consider fewer calls to action, one action for one program, and more options for several offerings.
Keltie Maguire’s website is an excellent example. She uses a simple layout, with just a smattering of text and two buttons. All the buttons on her home page lead to her Work With Me page and to a single call to action, which is to book a complimentary call.
2. Place the Essentials Above the Fold
The top half part of a newspaper is prime real estate, because that’s the part that sells! Because people fold papers in half, that top part is known as “above the fold.”
In websites, the term refers to the user’s view before scrolling. This first view makes a lasting impression.
Three essential elements need to appear above the fold on your website. There are several brilliant examples, and we’ve decided to highlight Amy Latta’s website. Amy’s site nailed these three elements and doesn’t include many distractions.
- Graphic Image: For most coaches, this means a picture of them in a setting that appeals to your ideal client. Often this means something approachable and aspirational.
- Call To Action: Place the buttons for your call to action above the fold to assist fast action-takers. Amy’s site includes two buttons, both leading to a free downloadable.
- Headline: Powerful headlines make bold promises of the results your clients will get by working with you. In this case, it’s about being a confidence coach for coaches.
Take a look at how Amy uses the graphic image, her call-to-action buttons, and the headline in her above-the-fold view.
Most websites also include a navigation menu above the fold. This placement is necessary because it’s where we expect to find it; however, it’s not a selling point. You can keep it from being a distraction by making it easy to read and direct.
3. Create Visual Impact
Visual design is a business tool that can help improve conversion rates, which is the percentage of visitors who opt-in on your freebies or join your programs.
Just as it is important to choose a memorable name for your coaching business, it’s imperative to consider the visual impact of your website. However, the goal isn’t to make the website visually pleasing; instead, the goal is to capture the attention of the right audience.
Studies show that most of our brain’s processing is dedicated to visual stimuli, which means that visuals—like captivating images and powerful videos—cannot be ignored.
When choosing visuals for your website, you’ll want to see it through the eyes of your clients.
- Meet or Exceed Expectations: Have images they expect to see or knock their socks off with something that will delight them.
- Emotional Impact: Consider how the visuals make them feel—for example, an aspirational picture depicting what life can be transfers empowerment.
- Background: Consider the picture’s location and whether it contributes to your point.
- Videos: Consider what questions your ideal clients might have when they visit your website and how videos can answer their questions. It could be questions like, “what is Consciousness Coaching? or “what is Marie like to work with?”
Take a look at Marie Mbouni’s site and consider what impression her visuals make. Her captivating photo of an ancient spiritual practice will likely attract the right clients and set expectations.
4. Make Your Calls-To-Action Prominent
A well-designed website lets ideal clients window shop, since they get to check out your program and your personality. But the magic of websites only happens when they click a button for your freebie or to schedule a call.
The call-to-action has two pieces: the invitation and the button.
- Invitation: Explain why they need to take action and what happens when they do.
- Button: Make this stand out and use engaging words.
Amber Haider’s coaching website does an excellent job with this, placing it all above the fold. She uses her headline to grab attention; the copy explains why potential clients need her guide, and two fabulous buttons have been placed in ideal locations.
The top-right button leads to a landing page for her free guide, while the bottom-left one is an immediate opt-in. Plus, her buttons don’t use boring words like “Learn More.” Instead, they say “Start Here” and “Send it to me.”
5. Build Credibility
With a coaching website, you’re more likely to be found by people who don’t know you, so building credibility is crucial.
Here are a few ways to build credibility with a right-fit client who may have found you.
- Testimonials: Effective testimonials prove that your program helps clients get results. For example, a clarity coach would want testimonials about the clarity clients achieved and how coaching allowed them to work through ambiguity or indecision.
- Recognition: Include achievements related to your coaching topics. This might include books, speaking engagements, or interviews.
- Experience and Education: If your experience or education is relevant or adds to your credibility, include it so people know about your background.
- Up-To-Date: Keep your site updated by linking to recent content and eliminating registrations for past events.
- Relevant: When you make statements on behalf of your clients—like where they’re at today or what they want to achieve—make sure that these statements resonate. Otherwise, it can feel like you don’t know them.
- Lead Magnet: Your lead magnet delivers outstanding value, causing ideal clients to look forward to your nurture emails.
The website for Re-Origin builds credibility in a few ways. Because their coaching model uses team coaching, it foregoes the typical image of a coach and uses a shot of many clients. This massive view of clients contributes to that feeling of social proof and includes a vast number of testimonials.
Re-Orgin also leverages the education and experience of their team, all with backgrounds in neuroscience, psychology, and health.
6. Create a Services Page
Coaching websites need to have a dedicated page for your services, and many coaches use a tab called “Work With Me.”
This page lets users explore their options and find the one that suits their needs. Typically, these pages do one of two things:
- Get on a call: Often, you’ll want to talk with a potential client before choosing to coach them. This is almost always the case for one-on-one services.
- Commit to a smaller offer: In some cases, coaches will offer something less daunting—like a mini-course or a group program—as an alternative to a one-on-one offer only. These options let a potential client get to know the coach and decide whether one-on-one coaching might fit.
If you offer several solutions, the best option is nearly always a discovery call. However, a smaller offer can be ideal for those of you whose ideal clients are new to coaching or may need more time to sign up.
Dave Moreno offers both one-on-one coaching and group coaching. Each button on this Work With Me page leads to separate web pages detailing each option.
7. Provide Resources in Exchange for Leads
A lead magnet is an excellent way to exchange your expertise for the email addresses of your ideal clients. Once they’re on your email list, you can keep nurturing them and demonstrating your value.
Ideally, you want your lead magnet to do two things: impress your potential client and point to a paid coaching offer. You don’t need to create something flashy or big to impress them. Often it’s something small that addresses a need they have.
Here are some common types of lead magnets coaches offer:
- Template
- Checklist
- Planner
- E-book
- Mini-course
- Quiz
- Cheatsheet
- Audit
- Coaching call
When someone opts into your lead magnet, you can put them into a nurturing email sequence. This lets you build value on the item they received and remind them of its use.
For example, suppose that your lead magnet was a budgeting spreadsheet. In that case, you could offer stories and testimonials about how it’s made a difference for others.
Jody Moore is an example of a coach who offers lead magnets. She has three, each corresponding to one of her three services.
8. Optimize Your Website for Search Engines
One of the best ways to get new clients is to have search engines like Google, or Microsoft Edge send people to your website. Configuring your website to appear on internet search results is called SEO (search engine optimization), and it’s a promising strategy to create long-term growth.
You’ll want to start by selecting significant keywords. Search engines use keywords to match a person’s search request to sites that provide quality answers. If you can provide quality content on your keywords, you can become a match for them.
Limit your keywords to your brand and your coaching program’s name and a few important phrases that sum up your coaching expertise. Anything beyond that requires an elaborate strategy and more skills.
SEO is worth pursuing for your select keywords because of its long-term potential. Don’t let the volume of content on this topic interfere with your coaching business. Instead, take reasonable steps to optimize for your keywords and then let it do its work. It takes a while to see the results.
This video by Neil Patel is a great place to start if you want to learn more.
9. Ensure Mobile Responsiveness
Checking your site’s mobile responsiveness is vital. As you build it, remember that what looks fantastic on a full-size screen might not look great on a mobile device.
Most website builders ensure that your website will automatically reconfigure for mobile devices. Even so, there are times when you’ll want to take a block of content and manually adjust it for mobile devices.
Ideally, you want the mobile version of your website to function like the desktop version. You’ll see that Kate Hutson’s Shattered Glass mobile website is an outstanding example of this. It contains the same three essential above-the-fold elements as the desktop version.
While it can make sense to save your mobile configuration for last, it should be treated as a critical part of building your website because an enormous percentage of people browse with their mobile phones.
10. Choose the Right Coaching Website Builder
So, what coaching website builder do you use? There are several to choose from, including these:
- Squarespace
- Kajabi
- WordPress
- Wix
Most of these platforms are simple to use. WordPress arguably has the most flexibility, but it can be the trickiest. Squarespace is an excellent solution for those needing only a website, as they’re easy to use. You can read all details about Squarespace for courses in our review.
For anyone seeking an all-in-one platform, we recommend Kajabi. In addition to its easy-to-use website builder, it also includes an online coaching platform along with features for sales and marketing.
Getting a Quick Start Using Templates
As you review the examples in this article, consider that many of them were built by website experts using professionally edited photos and expert copywriters. They serve as inspiration for the type of website you can create on your own.
If you don’t yet have the budget for a website builder, photographer, and copywriter, look for free or low-cost templates custom-made for your website builder. For example, you can search on Etsy or Creative Market for a “Kajabi website template.”
Templates can be an inexpensive entry into creating an effective website for your business while saving you a ton of time!
Conclusion
There you have it! Ten actionable tips for making sure your website works for your coaching business. So, are you ready to get started?
There’s no doubt that you have a unique style and a coaching offer that is perfect for the right people, but your website can automate the process of connecting you to them.
Need more inspiration? Check out these coaching website examples to see what they do right and what we liked about them.
