Why 93 Percent of Coaching Websites Fail – A Visual Tip and 7 Quickies

Did I get Your Attention with This Blog Post’s Title?

Good, because that’s one reason many coaching websites fail – they are unable to get attention. It’s probably THE NUMBER ONE reason they fail.

A quick note: I’m updating The Coaching Website Guide to version 3. The release will be in January 2018.

A little pre-release treat for you.

On to some tips …

In this post: (1) A visual design tip and (2) 7 reasons for website failure.

First the design tip …

When considering visuals for your website, the basic rule is to make sure your visuals, photos, images SUPPORT the content.

Don’t just add images (especially cheesy stocky, typical, overused ones) to try to bolster your website content.

Instead, think “communicate”

How can you use visuals, photos, graphics, images or anything to help deliver your written content?

I often see coaches stuff a sliding carousel of images onto their home page in an attempt to make it “interesting”. While they often use very nice stock photography, the visuals don’t communicate much more. They often don’t relate to the wording either.

Not good.

In short, the content should engage, teach, and inspire while the visuals multiply that message. Just like the pie chart graphic at the top of this post, supporting the message that most coaching websites fail – which we’ll get into in the next section.

Visuals are awesome for coaching websites because they help you teach things, they engage people, and they can raise awareness. And clients are drawn to coaches who position at educators.

So use them wisely.

Secondly, Here are the 7 Reasons that Coaching Websites Fail

What do I mean by fail?

For most coaches, simply securing paying clients, 1-on-1 personal clients, is the main goal. And these coaches want their websites to help generate the leads.

So by failure, I mean, their websites don’t bring those new contacts.

Here are the reasons …

1. Like I said above, the website doesn’t hold attention.

This often means that the home page, or blog pages or whatever page someone lands on (called landing page) is unable to get that person excited to explore your website.

If people don’t dig into your content, they won’t see how great a coach you are and they won’t contact you.

To resolve this, try asking yourself, What is my website visitor most interested in? How can I make my pages speak to that?

2. The contact form doesn’t work.

You may be surprised to find that your website’s contact form isn’t working for some reason or other – often a technical hiccup.

It happens often enough.

Be sure to test out your form and make sure you do so at least on a monthly basis.

3. Your invitation is weak.

If you want people to contact you for coaching, your invitation for a free consultation must juicy.

Indicate some value (like a digital gift or specific outcomes to be gained) for actually taking you up on that phone call because

• it can be scary to contact you, a complete stranger who is likely to try to sell them on a coaching package, and
• it also requires time to show up to the call – and time is money.

Free consultations are good when they are seen as valuable.

Here are 5 ways to get more of these free session requests.

4. Your free session invitation must be highly visible on your website.

Your free consultation request can’t be buried at the bottom of your About Me Page. It needs to be prominent.

If you’re a new coach with a new website, I suggest you include your free offer on the main menu as well as in body copy throughout your website.

Make sure people know you’re offering these consultations otherwise, they might not realize you actually work with clients.

5. Your website is slow.

You should test your website on mobile devices and on various browsers to make sure it opens quickly.

Have your friend test it out too because your browser may already have some of the big files downloaded, and first-time visitors (most of your traffic) will have to download more things to see your pages.

Also, this is vital on slower connections, like mobile devices as well as people overseas who may be a bit further away.

Try using pingdom.com for regular testing too. They offer a free test you can set up to automatically run.

6. The content is boring.

In order to generate leads with your website, the content needs to be exciting.

Some things that help with it include:

• Discussing the pains your clients face
• Talking about bright, beautiful futures that are possible
• Sharing stories of success
• Showcasing your methods that work (in simple terms please)
• Offering handy, educational articles

Here’s more to help you avoid being boring on your website.

7. You’ve got no visitors.

This problem is common and coaches don’t realize it’s an issue until they dig into their website statistics.

Sadly, putting up a website is not like an ad in the paper which comes with a readership. Nor is like a shop in the mall which has foot traffic.

Your website is more like a cabin in the woods – no one knows it’s there until you clear a path to it.

And there’s a lot you can do to build traffic.

I like search engines, blogging, and social media because with a little strategy, some basic wordsmithing, you can quickly create content that makes you look like a seasoned pro and brings you traffic for a long time into the future.

Lately, I see a lot about Facebook Ads, which can be great because of the ability to target folks.

Regardless, you’ll need to make an effort to bring people to your website.

So, how will you avoid having a website in the 93% that fail?

If you’re about to build your website or have one that isn’t working, how will you avoid falling into the 93% of websites that don’t work? I’d love to hear your ideas. Just post below.

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