When you’re a business that lives and breathes by recurring revenue, a great member experience is crucial. It’s what drives retention and new member sales – your bottom line. And if your member experience begins and ends with the front door of your facility, you’re missing out on major opportunities.

Your website is an essential touchpoint in your member journey. 75% of consumers judge a company’s credibility based on its website design. For health and fitness clubs, your conversion rate relies on having a well-designed website that inspires trust.

Let’s look at what your website should look like if you want to convert more members.

Why Your Website Matters

Your club’s website serves many purposes: it’s a marketing tool, a sales tool, a brand awareness tool, and a line of communication between you and your members. With so much depending on it, it’s important to create an experience your members will enjoy.

If your online experience is frustrating, unintuitive, or nonexistent, your members will find another club to join. Studies show that 38% of people will stop engaging with a website if the content or layout is unattractive, and 88% of online consumers are less likely to return to a site after a bad experience.

So, how can you create an enjoyable online experience?

Cover the Basics

If your website is missing crucial information, your viewers won’t stick around for long. All health club websites should have these basics somewhere on their site:

1. Amenities
2. Testimonials
3. Class updates
4. Class schedules
5. Contact information
6. Photos of the facility
7. “About Us” information
8. Membership options
9. Staff and personal trainer profiles

Try to make your website as intuitive to navigate as possible. If you’re not sure how easy your site is to navigate, try comparing it to other health club websites. What about their layout makes it easier or harder to find the information you need? Use that insight to perfect your website’s flow.

A good online experience often translates to a positive experience within your facility, so make yours count!

Build Trust Through Consistency

Creating a website that’s both visually appealing and strategic relies on your club’s branding.

Think about the brands you trust in your own life, the ones whose quality and service you never doubt. What is it about their online presence that inspires that confidence?

Many businesses are able to build trust by maintaining consistent messaging and visual design. Consistent messaging sets expectations for your members and captivating visual design brings the club experience to life. Your branding, colors, fonts, and visuals should be consistent with each of your other digital touchpoints.

Your website copy should clearly explain your offerings and accurately portray your member experience. Help new leads imagine what it’ll feel like to be a member of your club and use your design to support that experience. Including videos and images are a great way to showcase your community and connect with leads.

Be Highly Searchable and Mobile-Friendly

Your website is only useful if leads can find it. Use search engine optimization (SEO) best practices to make it easier for leads to find your club online.

Claiming and optimizing your Google My Business listing is an easy win to show up early in browser searches. Further optimize your SEO by choosing the right keywords to include on all pages, blogs, and ads that are connected to your website.

Make your website even more search-friendly by:

1. Making your link text descriptive
2. Adding alt text to every image and link
3. Ensuring your sitemap is in your robots.txt
4. Removing jargon from your meta descriptions
5. Avoiding STOP words and underscores in your URLs
6. Removing symbols from your headers and menu titles
7. Use title tags and meta descriptions for page content

Research shows consumers don’t have a lot of patience for hard-to-access websites. Roughly 8 in 10 customers will stop engaging with content that doesn’t display well on their device. If you want to capture mobile searches, your website should be easy to view and navigate on a variety of mobile devices.

Engaging websites should also be responsive – they should automatically adjust their display based on the user’s device. Building a responsive website means your site will look good and perform well for all users.

Make Sign-Up a Breeze

Since generating new memberships will always be a top priority, your website should make it easy for leads to convert into members. Include plenty of calls-to-action (CTAs) to direct users through your site and walk them through your sales funnel.

Display a “Sign Up Now” button prominently on your homepage. To capture more clicks, place your CTA button before the “fold” so users can click it without having to scroll down. Since you never know which page a lead will convert on, include CTA buttons throughout your website.

Lead capture forms are also effective CTAs. They’re even more effective when you integrate them with your club’s management software.

78% of customers buy from the company that responds to their inquiry first. That means your sales team needs to be the first to respond if your lead capture form is going to successfully convert leads. Connect your online lead capture forms with your management software so your sales team is notified immediately once someone completes a form.

You can connect with more leads and convert more members when you make your sales team more efficient.

Article originally published October 2021 and updated February 2023.

Want to Learn More?

Building a winning website is only part of a successful conversion strategy. Learn how to build an end-to-end experience that converts from the Club Automation team.

Check out this webinar to learn how to:

• Upgrade your club’s online presence
• Cover more ground when connecting with leads
• Engage more members with a club app
• Create unique member experiences
• Make your club management more efficient