A website is a necessity these days, no matter what kind of business you run. A personal trainer can benefit greatly from having his or her own website. There are many things to consider when building not only your website but your entire online presence. With a new year ahead and plenty of people make fitness resolutions, make sure your website is in good shape, too. Here’s how to build one of the best personal trainer websites using WordPress.
Branding is extremely important to all businesses. You want to set yourself apart from all of the other physical trainers out there. First impressions are necessary to draw in customers. Even though you’re a single-person operation, you’re still a business and you need a logo to properly represent your enterprise.
Expertise in Design Matters
A graphic designer can help a great deal in this department. Someone with an eye for visuals can assist with the layout of your website. No matter how great of a physical trainer you are, if your website is weak you won’t get the business that you deserve. A graphic designer sets you apart from the others while creating a professional website.
WordPress Pro
Graphic designers, developers, and marketers can also be also skilled in WordPress website design. They determine which themes and plugins will be most appealing for your personal training website.
You want to pick a domain name that will get noticed and show what you do. You should pick something that is relevant to physical training and what focus you have. Don’t use numbers or hyphens. Use the name of your business in the URL, if possible. Since you run a physical training business, try searching for your name and then add on “fitness” or something similar to it to differentiate it from others.
Register the Domain Name
GoDaddy is a popular service to search for your domain name and register it. It’s a good place to start. You can purchase your domain name for one year or multiple years. You can usually get a better deal by committing to more years upfront. A dedicated marketing service can also take care of this detail for you.
Select a CMS
Although WordPress.com is free, you should be using WordPress.org instead. WordPress.org will allow you complete control of your website. This also means that you may need some help with the design work and as noted above, want to hire a professional. In order to use this, you will download the program so you can access it directly from your computer. Make sure that you have plugins that allow for backups or that you manually back up your site. You don’t want all the hard work you’re going to put in to go to waste.
Find the Perfect Theme for Your Site
The design of your website is very important to your success. It needs to be appealing and user-friendly. Do not use the default theme. This could make people think that you’re lazy. You need something unique to you and your business.Take the time to check out the websites of other physical trainers and fitness professionals. While you don’t want to copy them, this can help give you an idea of where to start with your own theme. There are many free themes within WordPress, but there are also premium themes for which you have to pay. You may wonder why you should pay for one while so many are free. You have more freedom and more ways to customize the premium themes, which further sets you apart from other websites. There will also be theme designers that you ask for support. With the free themes, you don’t have this privilege.
Imagery and familiar language are two of the most common ways to define your brand and make it more memorable.
Create Your Company Logo
Along with your theme, you need to have a unique company logo. Something that will draw attention is a good idea. The research that you did for themes will come in handy here as well. Working with a graphic designer narrows down the right logo for your company.
Use Professional Photos
It’s important to use high-quality photos on your website. This will raise it a level and show great professionalism. Spring for a professional photo shoot as this will set you apart from others. Don’t use stock photos as they don’t really show anything about you or your services.
Build Brand Identity
Since you’re a personal trainer, you should include your story of why you went down this path. Maybe there are pictures of yourself you can include. By telling your own story, you build credibility, rapport with customers and a brand identity.
Plugins are important for your website, but you don’t want to overdo it. If you use too many, your website will be very cluttered and hard for people to navigate through.
Boost SEO
An SEO plugin puts your website in better shape with search engines. This will increase the possibility of being found from Google searches and increase your sales. It’s important to target the right demographic to have the highest chance of success in this area. A plugin to analyze your traffic lets you narrow your marketing pushes.
Process Payments
A plugin for payment processing brings in more business by opening up the ways people can pay you for your services. You don’t want to restrict how someone can pay. This may turn people away.
Build an Email Marketing List
An email capture plugin builds a list of people you know are interested in you or your services. You can let them know about new services and offers, which brings in more potential customers as part of your marketing campaign.
Get Social
Social sharing plugins are also very important. You don’t want to miss out on this great opportunity to reach more people and potential customers. A plugin makes it easy for people to share your website with their friends through social media. Provide share buttons on every page.
There are a variety of ways to make your website user-friendly and encourage visitors to stay longer and come back again.
Make Sure Your Site is Mobile-friendly
Many people look at your site when on their smartphones. It’s important that your website be mobile-friendly. If it isn’t, most people won’t take the time to look up the website later on when they have access to a computer.
Add Pertinent Pages to Showcase Your Business
Now that you’ve gotten people to visit your website, you need to keep them interested through the content that you create. Think about what and how you want to communicate with your potential customers. Write the content that you want for each page, including the home page, a page about you, a page about your services and your contact me page. Have a second set of eyes look at your writing. It always helps to have someone else read your work as they may find other issues or have additional suggestions for you.
Include Compelling Testimonials
Gather and include any testimonials from clients that you have as well as your credentials. This inspires readers and show them why they should use you as a physical trainer. The more you can build your credibility, the more successful you will become.
Update Your Blog
Having a blog that you contribute to regularly will inspire people to keep coming back to your website. Plan blogs a couple posts in advance so you don’t fall behind. You want to add something to your readers’ experiences. You could include fitness tips or videos that show the proper form for certain exercises. Your blog is all about contributing something of value and inspiring others to be more healthy.
Add an Irresistible Call to Action
Make sure to include a call to action on your website. You can also include one in each blog post that you write. Being a physical trainer, this should be about inspiring others to want to be the best they can be. You could issue challenges for them to complete while building their confidence. You could talk about how you tailor a workout program specifically to them and prompt them to contact you to learn more. There are many ways you can do this.
Remember To Be Sociable
As mentioned, social media is a great marketing tool and it’s really one that you should be using on a daily basis. Make sure to link to your blog posts on social media whenever you post one. You also need to consistently interact with your followers. If someone posts a question or comment, make sure to answer them.
By showing them that you care, even if you’re not getting an immediate sale, it will inspire visitors’ confidence in you. This can ultimately generate more leads and additional sales. You have to show them that your input into their health and workout routines is valuable. Then they will want to work with you. Focus on the fitness of your personal training website and soon you’ll be helping many customers to focus on their fitness!
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