5 Things That Need To Go On Your Yoga or Pilates Website

I spend a lot of time looking at wellbeing websites, as a customer (I book a lot of classes) and as a consultant, as well as pondering my own site a lot!

When I speak to wellbeing businesses, I hear many of the same worries and concerns. 

"I'm not getting many enquiries through."

"I didn't really know what to put on that page."

And one of the most common things I see is businesses not writing enough content on their site.

So here are some tips for what you do need on your yoga or pilates site.

If you are running in person classes you need to tell customers where you are based.

I've talked about this a lot on the blog. This is the fix I do first for most websites. You need location keyword phrases on your website if you want to be discovered by customers.

The first thing to do, make a list of phrases you think customers would search for, where you are a good match. Next you need to check these in a website like Google Ad Planner and see what the search volume is. Remember it's not about driving traffic if it's not a service you offer, eg if you are a yin teacher, you wouldn't want people hitting your site who have searched for ashtanga as this will result in a high bounce rate. 

Be specific about where you're based. For example, "Yoga Classes in Hogsmead."

Your H1 page title needs to contain this phrase "Join our Yoga Classes in Hogsmead."

It's simple and straightforward for customers, and Google immediately understands what you offer and where you offer it. Make sure your meta description has this keyword phrase too. Your H1 title is the most important one so use it for your top phrase. 

Think about your pages menu, is it super simple?

If I was building a website for a new yoga teacher, I would start with these pages:

Homepage 

About you 

What you offer 

Book a class 

Contact you 

A five page site is ideal as you begin your journey, plus T&C and Privacy (but these don’t need to be in your menu). If you offer very different services or services with different audiences eg Pregnancy Yoga, Sound Baths etc, it's important under what you offer to have a different page for each services. This is to insure you can include your keyword phrases eg Pregnancy Yoga in Hogsmead. 

If you're further along your journey as a studio or freelance teacher, a blog is an excellent way to add thoughtful and helpful content onto your site. Pick relevant topics for your audience and showcase your expertise. 

You need to show your personality and unique tone of voice 

Writing well optimised content absolutely doesn't mean you have to remove who you are and sound robotic. 

Having a strong and memorable writing style is so important. Think about who you are and how you want to reflect that, what would people feel when they view your site, what adjectives would come to mind?

Anyone can Google the benefits of yoga, we want to hear what it means to you, and what you hope your students feel when they practice with you. 

I chatted to a digital manager friend Sue about this topic and her advice was:

“My tips for those website would be show some personality. The market is crowded so think about why people would want to come to you. What’s your passion, your approach and what makes you smile.”

(For me about Sue, you can visit her website here )

Make booking straightforward.

I can't stress this enough. Keep your pricing structure simple, and your booking straightforward. Don't make customers jump through hoops to find out how much it costs and book a place. If your booking software has too many steps choose a different one. 

Pricing wise, I would always recommend you meet these three criteria:

> you have an incentive for new customers such as a discounted class or a trial period.

> you have packages for existing customers to develop loyalty, such as unlimited classes or bundles for a discount.

> and finally, you have options for those that want flexibility ie a drop in class cost. I see zero benefit to forcing customers to be a member and not offering a pay as you go option, there are many reasons a customer would need this. 

On your booking page, anticipate the questions customers would ask and make the answers clear :

How much are classes?

Do you need to be experienced/ what happens if you're new?

Can you cancel?

What do you need to bring?

Understand the information your customers need. This will also reduce email queries. 

Have an email opt in.

Building your marketable customer base is important for any business. Email is a more direct channel, it enables customers to click through instantly to book, doesn't rely on algorithms.... I could go on. In short, many benefits 

You will want to set up an automated welcome email in your mail provider. Mailerlite is always my preferred option. This link will give you $20 off your first month. In terms of the content, try to aim for ageless content if you don't want to be updating it all the time. It's a highly engaged channel with a high open rate so maximise the space to encourage customers to book. 

If you want to really incentivise sign up, you could offer a discount for booking or an asset such as a meditation recording or an ebook.

Crucially with your website, keep monitoring it, keep analysing and being playful, let it evolve.

Let me know how you get on!