Are you interested in building a life coach website? If so, this tutorial will show you all of the necessary steps to build one with WordPress.
No matter what business you operate, having an online presence is necessary in 2024. For many businesses, without the online component, they would fail to reach their maximum potential, or just fail outright.
An online presence gives a business the potential to reach more people and spread their messaging across multiple platforms. A life coach is one such business that benefits greatly from having a good website.
Today, I will explain what steps you need to take to build a successful one.
What Is a Life Coach?
A life coach is an individual who actively listens to their client and helps them find success by having the client expand on their life and come up with their own ideas and solutions to everyday problems from their career to their love life.
Over the years, life coaches have become incredibly common, with many stretching the existing definition of a life coach to the limit.
To put it simply, a life coach is going to listen to your problems and provide feedback to your thoughts, without giving you actual advice. The goal is to make the individual generate their own ideas and be led to figure out their own future.
Why Choose WordPress?
While there are dozens of CMS to choose from when it comes to building a website, none can really stack up against WordPress when it comes to customization and accessibility. For this reason, WordPress dominates the industry with over 42% of the market share.
One of the main reasons this is the case is that WordPress is easy for beginners to use. Unlike many other CMS, you won’t need to write a single line of code to build a successful website. Instead, all of the heavy lifting is done through the plugins and themes.
Plugins add functionality to your website. They are very similar to apps for your smartphone. If you were looking to create a photo gallery, you would simply install a photo gallery plugin that adds that functionality.
Themes are what dictate the appearance of your website. They are customizable and come in a variety of shapes and sizes. Many are even made for specific niches, and coaching is no exception.
And did I mention that WordPress is free to use? Well, it is, and so are many of the plugins and themes you can choose.
For this reason, this guide has chosen to use WordPress to build the website.
Note: There are two types of WordPress, and it is important not to confuse them. WordPress.com and WordPress.org are very different from one another. In this case, we are only looking at the self-hosted version of WordPress – WordPress.org.
How to Build a Life Coach Website
Building a website has become a very streamlined process. In most cases, the type of website you are building does not actually matter, as most websites will need to go through the same processes.
The type of website really only comes into play when you are choosing its appearance and creating content for it, which are really the final steps of creating one.
Step 0: Work Towards Coaching Credentials
Life coaching is a certified practice, and while many coaches do not get certified, doing so can help you stand out from the others. When it comes to web design, having a credential to show off is a great way to build up your credibility.
The truth is anyone can say they are this or that, but actually having the credentials to show off makes you more trustworthy.
Getting the certification is not a quick process. The International Coaching Federation (ICF) requires hours of training, having mentors listen in on your coaching session, and a 3-hour final exam. This can take several months to achieve.
As such, you will probably want your website up and running as you will need clients in order to get certified.
Going through this process helps make you seem more credible, an authority in your field, and most importantly, helps you stand out amongst the crowd. There is no disadvantage to doing this, so be sure to get started on this while building your site.
Step 1: Choose A Web Hosting Company
The first step you need to take when it comes to building a website is choosing a web hosting company to host it.
Every time a user connects to a website, their device is actually connecting to a server. That server is maintained by a web hosting company that rents it out to that site. Without a web host, you cannot have a website.
Naturally, web hosting has become an incredibly competitive field which has made it extremely affordable. In most cases, a month of service will cost you less than your morning cup of coffee.
The quality of your web host will have a massive influence on the performance of your site. If a server goes offline, so does your website. The good news is that most web hosting companies offer 99% uptime, so this is pretty rare.
There is also a direct correlation between the speed of your website and the server quality.
It’s also worth pointing out that hosting a server 24/7 is going to have an environmental impact. That’s why here at GreenGeeks, we make an effort to be part of the solution and not part of the problem.
We do this by calculating the amount of energy a server uses and purchasing three times that amount in clean wind energy.
Since WordPress is a self-hosted platform, you must purchase a web hosting service, so choose wisely.
Step 2: Pick A Domain Name
The domain name is what someone needs to type into their web browser to connect to your website. As such, it is a very big decision, and there are several rules you should consider before making a choice.
First and foremost, the domain name you choose needs to represent your business. It should either be the name of your business or clearly identify what your business is about. When it comes to a life coach, the industry standard is typically the coach’s name.
The good news is that it is very rare for your name to be taken. If it is, a good workaround would be to add “Coach” or “coaching” to the domain.
So, for example, if your name was John Doe. JohnDoe.com would be a good option. If it is taken, something like JohnDoeCoaching.com would be a good choice.
It is important to also keep the length of the domain in mind. If you have a very long name, you may need to get creative. Or if your name is hard to spell, that can cause issues.
Your domain should ideally be short and easy to enter. The longer and more complex it is, the harder it is for a user to type into the address bar.
This is actually why many major companies will spend millions buying up similar domain names to prevent users from going to the wrong site. Obviously, not everyone can do this, so keeping things simple is the best option.
Step 3: Plan Out Your Messaging
A life coach is a very personal business. You are directly working with your client, so you need to construct a messaging structure that resonates with your clientele, which is easier said than done.
Life coaching is a very broad topic, and in many cases, some of them try to streamline into specific areas of life. Career building, romance, health and fitness, and more are popular topics in the coaching space.
This all starts with a Positioning statement. This tells the visitor what your way is, why you do what you do, and who you are helping.
This is something the user should read immediately after entering your site. It needs to get them interested in what you are selling and convey that you are the right individual to coach them.
You should also have a section that tells your full story. Did you go from rags to riches? Whatever your story is, you need to share it with the world. It needs to be relatable and explain how your philosophy was able to turn your life around.
If you already have experience as a life coach, include testimonies from your clients that explain how your services were able to turn their lives around. Potential customers want to see results, so they know they are making the right choice.
Step 4: Check Out Successful Life Coach Sites
When it comes to web design for life coaches, there is no better advice than to look at what other life coaches are doing.
While many people might complain that a lot of websites look the same, the truth is, they are because that design works. Life coaching sites are no different. The majority of coaching sites offer similar designs and vibes.
Look at the top-rated life coaches that are targeting similar audiences to you. Identify design elements you like and consider ways you could implement them for your own use. Just make sure you are adding something unique to you and your practice.
While you want to use similar designs, you don’t want to copy them. Your goal is to improve upon them and make them your own.
Look at multiple sites and see what each one has in common. If every site does the same thing, it is not a coincidence.
Step 5: Pick A WordPress Theme
When it comes to the web design of your website, a lot of it boils down to the theme you choose. There are thousands of themes to choose from in WordPress, and each one adds a unique design to your website that is fully customizable.
Most themes are categorized for specific website niches like magazines, news, sports, and what happens are after coaching.
Now, just because a theme states it was intended for a specific niche, does not mean you can’t use it for another, thus, feel free to look at themes that are not for coaching sites. To find themes, there are several places to look.
If you are looking for free themes, then check the WordPress theme library. If you are looking for premium themes, well, there are a ton of options. Some of the more notable ones include CodeCanyon and ThemeForest as some of the more popular options.
The difference between a free and premium theme is the level of support you get and the number of features available. Beginners will be better off with a premium option because you can get dedicated support from the theme creators.
This can help you get the most out of your theme and troubleshoot problems quickly.
It’s also worth pointing out that most premium themes will provide website examples or demos that you can import and use as the base of your life coach website. As such, they can often save you hours of dev time.
While themes make up a lot of your life coach website design, there are more factors to consider. You should customize the font, change the color options, find royalty-free images, make your own images, and so on.
Step 6: Choose WordPress Plugins
Plugins add functionality to your website. While every website will need a plugin for security, caching, SEO, and so on, we are not here to discuss those. Instead, let’s focus on tools that can be useful for a life coach website.
Take a moment and think about the features you want to add.
For example, let’s say you want to add testimonials to your site. Testimonials allow you to show off what past customers are saying about your business. Well, you would want to install a testimonial plugin like the Testimonial Grid and Testimonial Slider plugin.
This allows you to create a rotating testimonial slider to show off multiple testimonials in a single location.
Perhaps you want to collect payments through your website. Well, while WooCommerce lacks subscription functionality out of the box, you can add it with the WooCommerce Subscription extension.
With this, you can sell monthly subscriptions and accept payments from a lot of payment gateways like PayPal, Stripe, and more.
It’s worth pointing out that similarly to themes, plugins come in the free and premium variety. Premium plugins often have more features and dedicated support teams that can help. What’s right for you depends entirely on your needs.
Step 7: Marketing
The final step of building any website is creating a marketing plan. The truth is your website will take months to gain any traffic organically. In fact, this is the period where most sites are abandoned, so go in with real expectations.
To help speed up the process, you need a marketing plan that can help get your site in view of your target audience.
As I am sure you have already guessed, social media will play a significant role when it comes to spreading the word. You should have a presence on several social platforms, and they should represent your own values as a coach.
For example, if one of your core values includes health and fitness, showing yourself working out and showing off a body can do wonders. It really depends on the values you’re trying to instill in your clients.
Once you do have customers, you need to encourage them to help spread the word. If you do have a positive impact on them, they should have no issue with helping you out in this regard.
When it comes to life coaching, nothing beats word of mouth.
Build Your Life Coach Website Today
Luckily, web development has become easy enough that anyone can build a site. Building a life coaching website is all about building a message and selling that to your clients, which is not easy to do, nowadays.
WordPress delivers an excellent building experience that experts and beginners can enjoy. Since many of the aspects of WordPress are automated, you don’t have to worry about extensive maintenance. As such, you have more time to focus on building your message.
I hope you found this tutorial helpful in learning how to build a life coach website with WordPress.
How do you market your life coach website? Which plugins did you install?
