If you are a personal trainer, you should have your own website. It helps make you look more professional and gives customers another avenue to find your services. However, building a website can seem like an overwhelming task at first, but I’m here to fix that.
Regardless of what website you are building, there are some general steps everyone must take, and it doesn’t have to be a nightmare. In fact, making better choices early on can help save time in the long run.
Today, I will demonstrate how to build an amazing website to personal trainer website using WordPress.
What Should a Personal Trainer Website Include?
Before you begin building a website, it is a really good idea to create a plan by figuring out what features or information you want to incorporate.
The more obvious information includes contact information like your phone, email, and the area in which you are located. However, that’s really just scratching the surface.
You might want to include contact forms so customers can sign up directly from the website.
Another consideration is gathering quality before and after images from successful clients. Anyone in the fitness world can attest to how successful showing a before and after image is to showcase the results someone could gain following your regimen.
These are things you should think of before moving forward. I always recommend forming a strong mental image of your site before beginning the building process.
How to Build A Personal Trainer Website With WordPress
Step 1: Find A Web Hosting Company
So, the first step in building any website is to find a web hosting company.
For those who are unaware, a web hosting company will rent you a web server to store your website. It is also responsible for maintaining that website to ensure your website is accessible 24/7.
And as I’m sure you can imagine, the host plays a critical role in determining your website’s performance. Thus, you need to pick the best one.
Now the good news is that there are a ton of options available, so the price of web hosting is incredibly cheap. Typically, you may spend more on a cup of coffee in the morning than a month of web hosting services.
The bad news is that there are a ton of options available. Not all web hosting companies were created equally, and the quality of the service they provide can differ wildly between hosts.
That’s why at GreenGeeks we strive to deliver the best possible experience conceivable to our customers. And our efforts have been paying off as we were rated one of the top web hosting companies for WordPress.
And most importantly, we did it without negatively impacting the environment.
Step 2: Choose A Domain NAme
You will now need to choose a domain name for your online personal training website.
This is essentially the URL address of your website, and it is very important as your customers need to type this into their web browsers. The general rule of thumb is to pick a domain name that is short, easy to remember, and reflects what your website is all about.
That applies to a personal trainer website as much as any other. In this case, your name should probably include terms like strength, endurance, or training. The only issue is that the fitness niche is a crowded space and there’s a good chance your desired domain name is taken.
So, you may need to get creative, but every business needs a name. Some experts will go so far as to use their own names for the domain.
Step 3: Choose A Platform to Build With (WordPress)
Alright, we’re almost to the actual website building part, but we do still have one decision to make: what platform to use to make the site.
Now, there are a ton of options out there, and we would be here all day if I tried to go through each one. Instead, let’s just focus on WordPress.
WordPress is an open-source CMS that dominates the industry. It has a market share that exceeds 40%. Or in other words, 40% of the internet is built with WordPress.
It has become so dominant for a few key factors. The first is that it is completely free to use. Seriously, the only cost associated with starting a WordPress website is web hosting. Thus, it’s a great choice for anyone trying to save money.
However, free isn’t good enough. It has to be versatile and robust to fit the needs of all of the websites it creates. WordPress checks this box several times over. It can create any kind of website, and most importantly, it makes it easy to do so.
Yes, this includes a fitness coach website. If you like the sound of this, install WordPress now, as it only takes one click.
Step 4: Choose A Theme and Install Plugins
A big part of WordPress’s success is its huge selection of themes and plugins.
A theme is a collection of stylesheets and templates that dictates your website’s appearance. Every post and page will be uniform in design than to the theme you choose and virtually every element is customizable.
With over 4,000 free themes and thousands of premium themes to choose from, there is something for everyone.
In this case, search for fitness in the WordPress theme directory and you will find a huge number of themes to use. After all, fitness is a very popular topic. Once you install a theme, it’s time to start adding some plugins.
A plugin is a small software package that adds a feature or set of features to your website. If this sounds familiar, it’s because they’re essentially the same as apps for your smartphone. Thanks to the popularity of WordPress, there are tens of thousands to choose from.
So for example, you might want to show off before and after images on your website. You can install a plugin like Twenty20 Image Before-After to create a gallery of pictures for client successes.
You may also want to install a contact form so people can get in touch with you. It works exceptionally well and denotes a sense of professionalism.
There’s really a plugin for just about everything, so you just need o know what you want and search for one that can add that feature.
Thanks to plugins and themes, you won’t have to write any code yourself, which is why WordPress is one of the easiest CMS to build with.
Step 5: Market Your Website
At this point, all that’s left is to create content for your trainer website. Add contact info, images, and whatnot.
Once that’s done, you may be done building your online presence, but that’s not the end of running a website. You now need to work on marketing your website to customers because without them, what was the point in building a website?
As a personal trainer, you need to really focus on your local area. This means building a good relationship with gyms in the area to let you display your posters, brochures, or business cards. This might sound basic, but it is hands down the best way to reach your target audience.
That said, you should also take the time to build a social media presence.
Remember that you are a “personal” trainer, so you need to make sure that customers feel like they can connect with you. Social media is a great way to show how you stay fit yourself and that you’re passionate about it.
Many trainers have found a great deal of success using YouTube for classes and information. In fact, fitness is a huge niche on YouTube with many showing off workouts, nutritional information, and more.
Expand Your Personal Trainer Business With A Website
While building a personal trainer website may seem overwhelming at first, using a tool like WordPress can help make it easier. If done right, it can really help you grow your client base.
The good news is that it shouldn’t cost much to build the website outside of web hosting fees, and you can see a ridiculous return on your investment.
What kind of elements did you add to your personal trainer website? Has creating one helped business?