Lots of people have been working from home lately and what better way to get back in shape than going to the gym? This is why fitness websites have grown in popularity in the past year. Many people check the working hours of local gyms, or look for personal and/or online training courses in areas where gyms are not always available due to different circumstances. If you own a gym or you would like to offer online fitness courses, you need a website, and we will show you some of the things you should have on it. If you already have a website, the tips below can help you to improve it.
You will also find out how you can add different sections to the site if you use our Website Builder. If you use WordPress, we recommend that you use the Elementor site builder plugin with the Astra theme. The latter comes with a large number of free and paid sample websites, including personal trainer, online health coach and yoga studio sites that you can customize for your own gym/trainer site. All WordPress screenshots below are from such sample websites.
1. Location/Contacts
It is important for people to be able to find your gym easily or to be able to contact you if they have any questions. This is why you can add the address on the home page and you can create a contact page where you can add a map, a phone number and an email address @your-gym-website.com. You can add a contact form as well. This way, people who are interested in going to the gym, can find it, while people who have any question about the training process or anything else, can contact you and get the information they need. You can add a live chat option as well, if you have time to respond.
Our Website Builder creates a Contact page by default. It includes an address, a phone number and a contact form, so you won’t have to create anything manually. The page includes a map as well. If needed, you can add a map to any other page if you go to the Apps section. Adding a live chat is as easy as adding a chat module and pasting the code that you will receive from the chat platform you have selected.
The fitness-oriented websites that come with the Astra theme include a Contact page as well. Depending on the site you select, the page may have a map and a contact form, or it may have only the gym address and phone number. The one-page sites come with a Contact section that includes by default only a phone number and a contact form. If you want to add a live chat to a WordPress site, you should usually add some code to the theme header – either by editing your-site/wp-content/themes/astra/header.php (the path will depend on the theme you use), or by using the Insert Headers and Footers plugin if you prefer not to edit files directly.
2. Before/After success stories
Nothing can be more compelling than seeing success stories. Whether you want to lose weight, to build muscle mass or simply to stay in shape, your workout will be easier if you see that other people have succeeded. You can ask a few regular customers if they would agree to appear on your site, and you can add before/after photos, a motivational quote from them and, with their permission, how much they have gained or lost depending on why they were going to your gym. It may be tempting to use fake stories and pictures, but it is easy to see if you use stock images, so it is always better to use real ones.
You can use the Testimonials module of our Website Builder to add success stories to the site. You can choose between different layouts, but for a fitness site the most suitable one will be a large full-width layout. Alternatively, instead of adding a few success stories on a separate page, you can add an image slider from the Apps section and add a few ready slides with a short text and before/after images.
The Astra sample websites come with a Testimonials section as well, so you can easily add your own text and images in the predefined placeholders. You won’t have to create anything from scratch.
3. A gallery
Do you have new gym equipment? Have you opened a new sports hall recently? If people wonder whether they should visit your gym or another one in the area, seeing what you offer may help them make that decision. Adding pictures is a good idea for any business and gyms are not an exception. You can add pictures of the equipment, the changing room, the showers, etc. If you offer group classes, you can upload a few pictures of the group exercising as well. Show people why they should visit your gym. You can hire a professional photographer, but you can also use your own smartphone or camera as most devices these days take high quality photos.
You can easily add a gallery or an image slider on any page if you use our Website Builder. Go to Content -> Apps, and you will see the two modules. You can use images you have uploaded previously, or you can add new ones.
If you use WordPress, you can easily add an image gallery or an image carousel using Elementor. As with other elements, the Astra pre-made websites come with either a gallery, or a slider, so you can simply replace the dummy pictures with your own.
4. A good banner with a CTA button
If you offer personal training courses or some online content (more about the latter below), you have to engage your customers. You need a good Call-to-action button that will tempt people to sign up or at least to check out what you offer. Make sure the button stands out – use a large font and contrasting, but matching colors. Think of a catchy phrase that will make people click - “Get a free month”, “Yes, take me there” or "Get a free demo session" sound more appealing than “Sign up” or “Click here”, for example. The CTA button should fit with the banner behind it. The picture or colors you use should be appealing to customers. Do not use too much text on the banner and make sure the picture matches the overall layout of your site.
Our Website Builder comes with ten different CTA layouts that you can choose from. For any of them, you can select the size, shape, shadow and colors so that you create a unique button. You can also set a background of your choice.
In WordPress, you can use Elementor to add a button, although the CTA-specific option is not available with the free version. Alternatively, you will find lots of free plugins that will help you to create a CTA button or highlight regular text and make it stand out as a button.
5. Workout videos
A good idea to keep customers engaged is to show them how they can work out. This way, they will have a reason to come back to your site. You can add a video section on your site and offer videos showing your clients working out, or you can add video tutorials for people who work out on their own, without a personal trainer. Depending on the type of website you would like to have and the services you want to offer on it, you can even add free and paid videos. The latter will be available only to members, which allows you to offer different membership packages with a free trial option that gives people access only to limited free content.
To add a video in our Website Builder, go to Content -> Objects -> Video. You can add the video URL there, or embed a YouTube video. Using the latter option is often better as you won’t have to worry about video players, device compatibility, the connectivity between visitors and the site, etc. If you want to offer paid videos, go to Apps -> Shop -> Add a new product, and when you scroll down, you will see an option to offer an electronic downloadable product. When you are done, go to Content -> Shopping Cart, to add it to the site.
You can upload or embed a video to a WordPress site as well – either through the Elementor builder, or using a Video block if you do not use Elementor. To offer videos as paid downloads, you can use a number of plugins, including WooCommerce – the most popular e-commerce plugin out there.
6. Event Schedule
If you host different events or offer different classes (zumba, pilates, etc.), adding an event schedule to your website is a must. Most people like to plan their day or week in advance, so no matter if they want to visit your gym for a specific class or to attend an online training session, they will appreciate it if they find a schedule on the site.
The Event schedule module in our Website Builder allows you to add entries with a few clicks. You can choose if an event will be one-time, daily, weekly or monthly, so you can add both regular classes/training sessions and exclusive ones with ease.
For WordPress, you have different options. If you use Elementor, you can integrate a Google Calendar into your website. You will find the HTML embed code for it in the Calendar settings and you can copy it to an Elementor HTML widget. Alternatively, you will find various event/schedule plugins in the WordPress plugin repository, so you can check them out and choose the one you like the most.
7. A good About Us page
Website owners often ignore the About us page, although it is an important element of any website. This is the place where you can tell your own success story. Share when you founded the gym and what made you found it, or why you decided to become a personal trainer in case that you offer online classes. Tell people why your gym/class is better than the other ones in the area. Tell them more about yourself and your team, and add a few photos. This is the place where you can share your values as people will definitely appreciate your honesty and openness.
What you should skip is the generic text that many website owners use. Your page should be personal, showing your human face. Show that you know your audience – mention how you started training, what goals you had and how you achieved them. This way, your personal example will motivate your clients.
8. Blog
Writing a blog takes some time and requires some efforts as you should post new content regularly. This is one of the best options to improve the search engine ranking of your website, so the time you invest will pay off in the long run. Search engines favor websites that get regular updates and if you check some of the best/most popular fitness websites, you will see that almost all of them have a blog.
You can write about various topics – product and equipment reviews, workout techniques, interesting news from the industry or anything else that you believe will be interesting for the site visitors. This way, you can keep clients engaged, especially if you offer a newsletter signup option so that they can receive blog updates directly in their Inbox.
To add a blog to a site created with our Website Builder, go to Apps -> Blog. You can start adding new posts directly from that module, using a rich-text editor and selecting a header image with a click. You can enable or disable the comments under each post, choose the number of posts per page and select whether the publishing date will appear on the site. The advantage of using the built-in Blog option is that you will not need additional blog software as you will with most other site builder tools.
Of course, if you use WordPress, you will not need additional software either, as the platform itself is the best blogging software out there. If you build a site using WordPress and the Astra theme, it will have a Blog page by default and you can add posts from the Dashboard -> Posts -> Add new. If you use a different theme, make sure that you set a Posts page from the Dashboard -> Appearance -> Customize.
9. Clear pricing / membership benefits
People usually go online to find the information they need. If something they expect to find on your site is not there, they may not bother to contact you, and they will simply go to a competitor’s website. If you offer different membership plans, for example, you should have detailed information about them on the site. The number of training sessions and their duration, access to additional online content, progress reviews and supplementation/nutrition plan are a few of the things that people expect to find if they are looking for something more than a simple one-time workout. You should add the price of each plan as well. Of course, you can also offer a custom training plan as well, and ask clients to contact you for more information or pricing.
Our Website Builder comes with a Pricing module where you can add your training plans, various features and prices with a few clicks. You can choose between several different layouts, selecting the color, size, font and shape of the text and the buttons.
For WordPress, you can use the pricing table that comes with the Astra theme sample fitness websites. You can edit the plan features and the prices depending on your needs. Adding a feature will expand the feature box automatically, so you won’t need any advanced skills to list everything you want to include in your training plans. Alternatively, you can add a pricing table plugin from the WordPress plugin repository.
10. Program/Strategy plan
A strategy plan will tell your customers what steps they will have to take to achieve their goal. Whether they want to lose weight or build muscle mass, they will have to go through different exercises and different diets over some period of time. If you show them how you plan to change their nutrition and training habits, and how to measure their progress, they may be more likely to sign up for your gym/online training sessions. They will see that you know how to make them achieve their goal, not only what the goal is.
The training strategy plan should be placed near the success stories on your site, or should have a link to them. This will be a proof for people that the training plans you offer are effective and can really help them.
You can use the Features module of our Website Builder to add a strategy plan to your site. With tens of different layouts that you can customize, you can create a detailed strategy plan with bullet points or with multiple images, depending on your personal preference.
You can create a similar block with WordPress as well, but if the theme/sample website you use does not include one, you will have to create it from scratch, adding textboxes, images or bullets, etc.
Bonus: Newsletter
This is not something you should have for a fitness website in particular, so we have listed it separately. You should use every way to keep your customers engaged as long as you have their consent and you do it in a non-intrusive way. Gym goers may temporarily suspend their subscriptions and forget about renewing it. Your newsletter may give them the reason to go back to their fitness program. You can send a regular newsletter with information about new membership perks, new equipment, or workout tips, for example. This way, even if people cannot visit your gym or cannot attend an online training session for a while, they will not forget about your gym.
You can find out more about setting up a newsletter here:
Wrap Up
Whether you own a gym or you offer online training classes, you will benefit if you invest some time and effort into developing your website. Many people look for information online, so not having a site, or having one that barely has any useful information is not really an option if you want your business to be successful. A good gym/fitness site that has everything people need, like an event schedule, workout tips and success stories, will help you to find new customers.
